Sunday 6 February 2011
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Vietnam Travel Notes
Our journey was:
Arrive Han oi 18th Jan
Staying at Han oi Lake side hotel, very good.
Travel Ha long Bay 21st Jan with OceanTours
Travel to Hue 24th Jan
Staying at Hue Backpacker hostel, nice and friendly
Travel to Hoi An 26th Jan
Staying at the Phuoc An Hotel, clean and close to town.
Travel to Nah trang 28th
Staying at Ruby Hotel, very nice and quite.
Travel to Saigon 1st Feb
Staying at the Saigon Mini Hotel 5, and then 2 nights at Vy Khanh Hostel, very nice and friendly.
All bus travel was with Sinh Cafe (now sinh Tourist), cost about £18 for all journeys, hop on hop off ticket.
Food
Hanoi – places we eat and drank which was good.
Moca Cafe
Garden Hanoi – 36 Hang Manh
La Place – lovely upstairs cafe near a french church.
69 Cafe Restaurant – Kate had cock roach in her vermicelli, (Vermincelli)
Kate really enjoyed the Thang Long water puppet theatre, I didn't. Temple of Literature was good.
Hue
Mandirin Cafe was OK
Hoi An
Mermaid Cafe – Good food
Cafe Des Amis – Good 5 course meal
Hai Cafe has a nice court yard at the back
Plenty of good cafe's with nice views
Nah Trang (If you do scuba diving then us Rainbow divers, very good)
Cyclo Cafe (130 Nguyen Thien Thuat) – Fried fish in butter and lemon was good. Beef in Lot leaves very good (you cook it on a charcoal stove). The cafe is in the corner on the bend of Nguyen Thien Thuat and Tran Quang Khai.
Truc Linh 2 – Shrimp Clay pot very good.
Shorties near the Sinh Cafe office was good for comfort food.
Saigon
Sozo Cafe, 176 Bui Vien – great choc chip cookie, coffee choc and vanilla ice cream milkshakes, helps homeless kids get jobs.
Pho 24 – Chain restaurant, very good, branches in Hoian.
Taj Ma hall – Curry, on a back street near Vy Khanh Hostel.
Hoi An tailors
A lot of hotels or hostels will recommend their own tailors, we found Bamboo Green (38 Tran Phu) very useful, friendly, quick and cheap. My 3 piece suit and 5 shirts cost about £160.
Ha Long Bay - OceanTours Han oi
I wrote this for something else, but its a good description.
Having read so many reports about how bogus firms setup business with the same name as reputable firms we were concerned about if we had booked the real OceanTours trip too Ha Long Bay. Chances are, if you don't get the right one, you will have a good time anyway, they will still offer you a service of some kind and on the rare occasion it maybe substandard.
We believe we booked with the right one, and we can recommend the following trip.
We booked the Mystic Ocean Style 3 Day Ha Long Bay trip. The costs was $?.
The staff in the office were friendly and helpful, there was tea and fruit on offer as you discuss the deal and there was no pressure on us to upgrade. That said, we were on probably one of there most expensive tours so there was little room to do so.
Day of departure
We arrived in the office and awaited our departure, we were given a large bottle of mineral water and warn to always check the prices of the drinks on the trip as they were always slightly more than you would pay in Han oi, and none of them were included (only the free bottle of water at the beginning. Fruit and tea was on offer whilst we waited to depart.
Our trip was during low season and therefore there was only 4 people total on our particular trip. We were also joined by 2 others attending another similar trip which was connected only for the first day. We don't believe at any point the 2 on the other trip were pressured to join our trip to save the company money.
Our guide was called Wyn, he spoke very good english, was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. He was an excellent guide throughout our trip and certainly earnt his wage.
We were driven in a comfortable mini coach to the first boat. Journey time was about 3-4 hours and included a short toilet stop. We passed all the large groups of tourists waiting for the cheaper day or 2 day trips at the dock and got straight onboard our first boat. It was a large boat, comfortable with dinning tables for lunch. Lunch was a very tasty range of local dishes, mostly fish based with provision for the vegetarian in the group.
Our first stop was kayaking, we transferred to a smaller boat which was to be our base for the kayaking. There was very little instruction on the use of the boats and paddles. If you have never been in a kayak before or are not confident about water then I would revise your plan. The was very little safety equipment for the kayak trip, only 2 man kayak (which are stable), paddles and life jackets were provided. How the guide would act in an emergency would be a guess but he was competent enough that I'm sure he would have been able to be some use. None of this was an issue for 4 of use as we were used to kayaking, One couple had not done it before but were fine and had a good trip. They had also been given a water proof bag for their camera by the company. The kayaking on this trip is beautiful and well worth doing.
Arrive Han oi 18th Jan
Staying at Han oi Lake side hotel, very good.
Travel Ha long Bay 21st Jan with OceanTours
Travel to Hue 24th Jan
Staying at Hue Backpacker hostel, nice and friendly
Travel to Hoi An 26th Jan
Staying at the Phuoc An Hotel, clean and close to town.
Travel to Nah trang 28th
Staying at Ruby Hotel, very nice and quite.
Travel to Saigon 1st Feb
Staying at the Saigon Mini Hotel 5, and then 2 nights at Vy Khanh Hostel, very nice and friendly.
All bus travel was with Sinh Cafe (now sinh Tourist), cost about £18 for all journeys, hop on hop off ticket.
Food
Hanoi – places we eat and drank which was good.
Moca Cafe
Garden Hanoi – 36 Hang Manh
La Place – lovely upstairs cafe near a french church.
69 Cafe Restaurant – Kate had cock roach in her vermicelli, (Vermincelli)
Kate really enjoyed the Thang Long water puppet theatre, I didn't. Temple of Literature was good.
Hue
Mandirin Cafe was OK
Hoi An
Mermaid Cafe – Good food
Cafe Des Amis – Good 5 course meal
Hai Cafe has a nice court yard at the back
Plenty of good cafe's with nice views
Nah Trang (If you do scuba diving then us Rainbow divers, very good)
Cyclo Cafe (130 Nguyen Thien Thuat) – Fried fish in butter and lemon was good. Beef in Lot leaves very good (you cook it on a charcoal stove). The cafe is in the corner on the bend of Nguyen Thien Thuat and Tran Quang Khai.
Truc Linh 2 – Shrimp Clay pot very good.
Shorties near the Sinh Cafe office was good for comfort food.
Saigon
Sozo Cafe, 176 Bui Vien – great choc chip cookie, coffee choc and vanilla ice cream milkshakes, helps homeless kids get jobs.
Pho 24 – Chain restaurant, very good, branches in Hoian.
Taj Ma hall – Curry, on a back street near Vy Khanh Hostel.
Hoi An tailors
A lot of hotels or hostels will recommend their own tailors, we found Bamboo Green (38 Tran Phu) very useful, friendly, quick and cheap. My 3 piece suit and 5 shirts cost about £160.
Ha Long Bay - OceanTours Han oi
I wrote this for something else, but its a good description.
Having read so many reports about how bogus firms setup business with the same name as reputable firms we were concerned about if we had booked the real OceanTours trip too Ha Long Bay. Chances are, if you don't get the right one, you will have a good time anyway, they will still offer you a service of some kind and on the rare occasion it maybe substandard.
We believe we booked with the right one, and we can recommend the following trip.
We booked the Mystic Ocean Style 3 Day Ha Long Bay trip. The costs was $?.
The staff in the office were friendly and helpful, there was tea and fruit on offer as you discuss the deal and there was no pressure on us to upgrade. That said, we were on probably one of there most expensive tours so there was little room to do so.
Day of departure
We arrived in the office and awaited our departure, we were given a large bottle of mineral water and warn to always check the prices of the drinks on the trip as they were always slightly more than you would pay in Han oi, and none of them were included (only the free bottle of water at the beginning. Fruit and tea was on offer whilst we waited to depart.
Our trip was during low season and therefore there was only 4 people total on our particular trip. We were also joined by 2 others attending another similar trip which was connected only for the first day. We don't believe at any point the 2 on the other trip were pressured to join our trip to save the company money.
Our guide was called Wyn, he spoke very good english, was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. He was an excellent guide throughout our trip and certainly earnt his wage.
We were driven in a comfortable mini coach to the first boat. Journey time was about 3-4 hours and included a short toilet stop. We passed all the large groups of tourists waiting for the cheaper day or 2 day trips at the dock and got straight onboard our first boat. It was a large boat, comfortable with dinning tables for lunch. Lunch was a very tasty range of local dishes, mostly fish based with provision for the vegetarian in the group.
Our first stop was kayaking, we transferred to a smaller boat which was to be our base for the kayaking. There was very little instruction on the use of the boats and paddles. If you have never been in a kayak before or are not confident about water then I would revise your plan. The was very little safety equipment for the kayak trip, only 2 man kayak (which are stable), paddles and life jackets were provided. How the guide would act in an emergency would be a guess but he was competent enough that I'm sure he would have been able to be some use. None of this was an issue for 4 of use as we were used to kayaking, One couple had not done it before but were fine and had a good trip. They had also been given a water proof bag for their camera by the company. The kayaking on this trip is beautiful and well worth doing.
Travelling Finances
Supplemental to our kit list, I thought I'd mention banking.
We had no travellers cheques, and just some additional dollars that on leaving the UK (about $100).
We both had our own bank accounts at 2 separate banks and then an account at a 3rd joint account.
Person 1 Bank A Visa Debit and Master Card
Person 2 Bank B Visa Debit and Master Card
Then a joint MasterCard credit card with the Post Office and a Visa Debit with Nationwide.
The only cards we used on a regular basis were the Nationwide card for withdrawing cash and the Post Office Master card for the majority of payments. We would then check our balances online and electronically transfer money in to Post Office and Nationwide. The reason we used these was because of the low charge for international withdraws for Nationwide, and the commission free for Post Office Master cards. You can take cash from the cash machine with the credit card, so long as you have a pin, but there is a charge.
We would keep the Post Office card handy for normal payments and then any cash we had, and the other cards were either left at the accommodation in a safe or kept in our money belts.
This all seems like over kill, but having this redundancy meant that if one of us were to lose our cards there would be a chance that we would still have others back at the hotel.
In addition to all this, I kept a separate credit card well hidden in my rucksack.
Countries travelled and experience had:
America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand: No issues, occasionally our card wouldn't work in some ATMs, but there was always another that did around the corner.
China (Shanghai, Beijing, Xian, Chengdu and Guilin), the hostel staff would always point you in the direction of a cash machine, not issues here; occasionally we had to use our Credit Card for cash.
Vietnam (Han Hoi, Hue, Nha Trang, Saigon or Hoc Chi Minh City): No issues, Visa Debit was fine.
Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Battanbang and Siem Reap), No issues, although you only seem to be able to withdraw Dollars, local currency is for anything under a dollar. Keep them in good condition as they won't take a dollar with a kink.
Thailand, (Bangkok, Koh Lantra) No issues.
We had no travellers cheques, and just some additional dollars that on leaving the UK (about $100).
We both had our own bank accounts at 2 separate banks and then an account at a 3rd joint account.
Person 1 Bank A Visa Debit and Master Card
Person 2 Bank B Visa Debit and Master Card
Then a joint MasterCard credit card with the Post Office and a Visa Debit with Nationwide.
The only cards we used on a regular basis were the Nationwide card for withdrawing cash and the Post Office Master card for the majority of payments. We would then check our balances online and electronically transfer money in to Post Office and Nationwide. The reason we used these was because of the low charge for international withdraws for Nationwide, and the commission free for Post Office Master cards. You can take cash from the cash machine with the credit card, so long as you have a pin, but there is a charge.
We would keep the Post Office card handy for normal payments and then any cash we had, and the other cards were either left at the accommodation in a safe or kept in our money belts.
This all seems like over kill, but having this redundancy meant that if one of us were to lose our cards there would be a chance that we would still have others back at the hotel.
In addition to all this, I kept a separate credit card well hidden in my rucksack.
Countries travelled and experience had:
America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand: No issues, occasionally our card wouldn't work in some ATMs, but there was always another that did around the corner.
China (Shanghai, Beijing, Xian, Chengdu and Guilin), the hostel staff would always point you in the direction of a cash machine, not issues here; occasionally we had to use our Credit Card for cash.
Vietnam (Han Hoi, Hue, Nha Trang, Saigon or Hoc Chi Minh City): No issues, Visa Debit was fine.
Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Battanbang and Siem Reap), No issues, although you only seem to be able to withdraw Dollars, local currency is for anything under a dollar. Keep them in good condition as they won't take a dollar with a kink.
Thailand, (Bangkok, Koh Lantra) No issues.
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