Vietnam with Realgap

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franpgb

Ok..I'm thinking of missing out Malaysia (too postcardy..) and Japan (as I'm to spend a year there in a few years). So that leaves me with China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. What do you think? Honest..

I don't know how I'd travel from each country though..thinking of starting in Thailand, then Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and China. Not sure..fly to Thailand obviously but I'm worried about getting to other countries and all this visa business AND (ha another and) the transportation the countries..how will I understand the buses and trains etc to get to places in the country, and from country to country. Hmm..

Buy the Lonely Planet Mekong Delta book, tells you all about the border crossings and how best to do them. It might make you feel a bit more secure having it with you. It also names some companies to go with.

Reply 21

Ewan

ladydeborah

NZ is middle of winter, lots of snow (or rain). We're going skiing there for a week, so need some sort of cold gear, but I can't carrying too much. Think we will book flights soon, thanks for the advice. :smile:

Where are you off to next?

Deborah, NZ is at the end of your trip right? Instead of carting winter gear around with you the entire time, why don't you buy stuff when you get there (unless you've already got it). I'm not sure how expensive the stuff is there, but probably the same or cheaper than UK. Even if it isn't, buy it in Bangkok, its DEFINATELY cheaper there! You can get whatever you can in the UK in Bangkok, be it real or fake, take your pick (trust me there are some mega rich people, and ofcourse mega poor people in Bangkok).

franpgb

Visa: Thailand, not required, 30 days on entry; Laos, required, visa on entry; Cambodia, required, visa on entry; Vietnam, required, visa in Cambodia (Phnom Penh is best), travel agency does it for 33 dollars; China, required, visa in Hanoi, takes 3 to 5 days depending on type of visa, between 30/40 and 70 US dollars, travel agent can do for you. When you get visa on entry, simply fill out an application form at the border and take a passport photograph (or a few) with you.

Transportation: Thailand, train tickets are written in english, buses aren't usually but the people at the station speak english & you shouldn't need to use the bus much; Cambodia: Buses have where their heading on the front along with the company, its easy; Vietnam, trains are in english; China, train stations on the whole are in english, though you aren't guaranteed booking office people can speak english. If you are stuck, theres always someone who can speak english, if they can't understand you they will find someone that can.

Lots of routes you could use, how long you going for again? I'd buy a Thailand guidebook, then while your in Thailand buy one for Laos & plan your Laos journey. Take it one country at a time, basically just know which countries you want to go to. Things will all change when you leave england.

franpgb

Ooo thanks..well I'm sure you'll go back one day!

What did you think of Cambodia and Vietnam then? Ok, you've kind of already said..

Vietnam - do you know what Hue is like? Sapa? Dalat? Nha Trang?
Some people say don't go to both cities - go to one. Hanoi vs Ho Chi Minh City. Or would you miss them out completely? Wait, isn't Ho Chi.. formerly Saigon?
Some people say that Halong Bay there's a good journey thingy?

Ok sound like a stupid question but with hostels etc, what do you do? Like say you want to visit somewhere but you kind of get there late and can't get back to the hostel in time..do you get me? How do you know how long it takes to get to places?

Thanks btw :biggrin:

edit: ladydeborah - thanks for that. I'll look that up.

Go to Ho Chi Minh (yes formally Saigon, the locals still call it that), and spend a day in Hanoi getting your Visa. Leave your passport in Hanoi while you go to Sapa & Ha Long Bay (it takes 3-5 days as i said for visa).

Hue is absolutely brilliant, the old imperial palace is well worth a visit. Sapa was my favourate destination in Vietnam, so I guess that says it all really. Worth going, I hope the weathers better for you (it was foggy 3/4 days for me :frown:

). Halong bay, do a tour of the bay & spend a night in Cat Ba island. Not worth spending two nights there unless you want to go hiking, I didn't, up to you.

What do you mean, trains have set leaving and arrival times, and on the whole they are on time in Vietnam. Buses are the same. In Laos I heard delays are horrendous, and they can be in Thailand as well (lots of breaking down lol). Remember to work with Thai time, it works cause everything is late, sure your taxi sets off when your bus is suppose to leave - no problem, since your bus is also 40 minutes late :smile:

Guidebooks give time guides to destinations.

Your over analysing the situation. You can't organise everything in your mind before you get there, you eventually just have to leave, and you'l find its SO MUCH EASIER than you thought! Damn posting on this ****ting laptop is hard, I'll reread this post later, its probably a load of crap lol!

Reply 22

Joe_JBB

Cambodia and Vietnam - both amazing. Cambodia is a lot more relaxed (maybe cos of all the weed lol), I found Cambodia really exciting, but probably because I was only there for 2 weeks, and 6 months in Vietnam - so I got a strange attachment to Vietnam, hmmm I dunno I couldn't choose between them lol, go to both :biggrin:

. You'll have to ask more specific q's about the culture and that cos I don't know where to begin really :P.

HUE: Was only there for two nights, go if you like old buildings ad citadels and that (I don't), otherwise not much point unless you want a tour of the DMZ, which was quite fun, but took a long time (12 hours).

SAPA: Absolutely amazing, I'm not big fan of walks and views of hills and stuff but in Sa Pa it was absolutely phenomenal - make sure you go on a trek as well to some ethnic minority villages. Also, the minorities are even poorer than the Vietnamese (having been sidelined and forced to live on land which isn't vey good for agriculture and stuff), so although haggle with them a bit, don't be too harsh!

DA LAT: I went for a weekend, was fun, waterfalls and that. One of my Aussie mates (who was teaching in Saigon - I went with a group called GAP so we all knew each other) went after his teacihng placement finished, and did one of the easy rider tours, which sounds amazing. But I wanted to save money lol.

NHA TRANG - A riot, absolutely loved it, but it's completely westernised, just a party city with a beach - cheap booze, got wasted every day/night - if you're only in nam for a bit then maybe give it a miss, but for me it was a fantastic break after being immersed in vietnamese culture for so long.

Nah, make sure you go to Saigon AND Hanoi (yeah, Ho Chi Minh is formerly Saigon, but EVERYONE except the government still calls it Saigon, and the central area (district 1) is still officially called Saigon), they're very different. The government still wields a lot of control over Hanoi, not so much Saigon, which is a bit more modern (probs due to American influence), and more brash and business-orientated. For me, I prefer Saigon by a mile, but probably because I consider it home (went there every weekend when I was teaching).

Ha Long Bay - if you've got time, go on a tour around the rocks etc. - I just went ad hoc with a mate to Cat Ba for a night because we had nothing better to do - it was a laugh, nice beach and that, very touristy though.

If you get to the hostel late, bash on the shutters until someone comes to open it :P. Rough length of journey via bus:

Saigon - Mui Ne or Da Lat 4 hours. Then - Nha Trang 6 hours. Nha Trang to Hoi An 10 hours. Hoi An to Hue 4 hours. Hue to Hanoi 12 hours. Then Hanoi to Lao Cai (how to get to Sa Pa) by train is 10 hours.

Then, the monster journey I did because I had to fly home from Saigon. Hanoi - Saigon by bus is 36 hours.

Joe

Reply 23

Ewan

Not without researching, so go looking, cause that is important.

Its best not to plan mate really, just turn up in a town, walk to the hostel/hotel and get a room. Things are less exciting when you plan them to death, and it just puts you off going in some ways.

Don't buy all your guidebooks in UK, buy maximum of your first 2 countries. You can buy out there easilly (no cheaper though, unless you get second hand). I would spend more time in Thailand & less in Cambodia, there isn't as much to do in Cambodia. My Cambodian guidebook was 3 times smaller than my Thai one :-) I had enough of Cambodia after 10 days actually, got my wallet stolen on the last night too. Its just too poor, and theres no eminities or infrastructure, its much harder travelling there. Its up to you ofcourse, this is just how I felt. Don't worry though, if you do/dont like it you can always spent more/less time there, thats the great thing about not planning too much. It wouldn't surprise me if you spend much longer than you mean to in Thailand, it happens to most travellers to be honest, especially with it being your first location. The people are just so nice, and everything is set up for travellers there its easy. Transport, acommodation is a breeze and there are 7-11 all over the place to buy drinks & food. Thailands the kind of place where you get somewhere and plan to spend a few nights, but end up spending a few weeks on a beach.

2 month in China is ample time, you could do a hell of alot in that time. Look on the map, do some net reading, have an idea of where you want to go, then leave it at that, and wait till your in Vietnam. Then buy a guidebook & start planning.

BUY A GUIDEBOOK!! Most of the stuff I & others have said is written very clearly in there.

Reply 24

Zebrastripes

Ewan

I didn't even think of this! Completely stupid! Where would you suggest to go in Northern Thailand. We're getting the train up to Chiang Mai, but where to go from there i don't know. I would quite like to do a cookery course for a day, and some elephant riding.. but not so much trekking, wet season and i don't want to add trekking boots to my baggage (I can do trek sandels though as i have those already). Haven't really planned time.. we have about 3-4 weeks in Thailand total, so i suppose one week north, two south.. maybe. :p:

Reply 25

Joe_JBB

Ewan

Its just too poor, and theres no eminities or infrastructure

I disagree. I found Cambodia a lot more friendly to tourists than Vietnam, and just as well adapted. I think it's amazing what they've managed to do just in the 28 years since the Khmer Rouge - Vietnam's only had peace for 30 odd years, but Cambodia has only had ANYTHING for that long.

I was in nam for so long because I had a voluntary teaching placement there, so was teaching from January-the end of May, and then had 5 weeks travelling around the place. It was good in a way because I got to learn a bit of the language and really got involved, but I kind of regret not just saving more in Britain and travelling for four or five months.

Some tips on haggling in nam:

Avoid Ben Thanh market (near the tourist area in Saigon) - it's designed for tourists so really expensive (by they're standards) - if, for example, they'd double the price of something in a normal market after seeing you're white, in Ben Thanh they put it up four of five times. Although it's fun to try and walk from one end to another without getting grabbed/pulled at/annoyed/getting into a debate.

Smile :biggrin:

. One person I knew through the teaching placement used to really really shout at them. She'd get whatever it was for a really low price but she and the seller would be pissed off. I, however, paid a bit more, but haggling was all a game and you and whoever sold it to you came off feeling good.

Don't be too harsh. Remember how much richer you are compared to them, so £1 more isn't much to you but is A LOT to market sellers. For example, my 'voluntary wage' which I didn't ask for but they insisted on giving me was 2 million dong a month. The normal teachers got 1.8 million. Having said that, don't get completely ripped off.

Be confident and brash.

Couple of useful phrases (I can't remember how to spell it in Vietnamese, so I'll do it phonetically:

Oi choy oi! - The equivalent of 'Oh My God!', do this really loud and OTT when they tell you the first price :P

Mack wa! - Too expensive. Say this after oi choy oi :P. They'll probably reply with 'com mack' - not expensive. You say 'mack' (expensive) firmly :P.

Joe

PS. Ooo thanks for the rep by the way :smile: