Vietnam, have you been?

Author
Discussion

daqinggegg

Original Poster:

1,394 posts

128 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
quotequote all
Going to Vietnam next week, (Da nang and Hoi an). Done loads of research on Trip advisor so I’ve got accommodation and dinning sorted. Just asking if anyone has been and what was your experience, anything to watch out for and any must do’s. Will be done on a tight budget GBP 80 per day excluding hotels, two people, 14 days.

jamoor

14,506 posts

214 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
quotequote all
Hai van pass fron hoi an to hue on scooter.

schmalex

13,616 posts

205 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
quotequote all
£80 a day is a fortune in Vietnam. You will live like a king

I'm currently going there every 3 or 4 weeks for business and I struggle to spend more than £50 a day; that's with eating at the best restaurants in Hanoi and taking clients out for lunch.

Go for local foods such as croissants for breakfast / Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) for lunch or dinner and local beers and you will be staggered how little spend.

Hoi an is stunning. Don't get carried away with all the local tailors. You have to really pick and choose if you want decent quality. A good suit will still be $250 / $300+ (make sure you have time to go back for multiple fittings etc)

IIRC, Da nang is all about the marble and statues. Clearly, these are bloody heavy! There are great views from the top of the fortifications there

If you can, shoot up to Hue for a day and a real must is the Cu chi tunnels near HCMC.

Hanoi has changed a lot since I first went there in 1999, but the old quarter is still a fascinating bustle of mopeds, bikes, street food and bars.

The big one to learn is how to cross the road, otherwise you will be stuck for hours. The traffic in both Hanoi and HCMC is incredible - about 6 lanes of mopeds in both directions, with random cars, mopeds and lorries going at right angles to the flow. To cross on foot, just step off the pavement, walk at a constant pace and try to make eye contact with the next driver you're about to be run over by. If you get it right, the whole lot parts around you..!

Oh. And haggle like you've never haggled before!! "Choi Oi!!" means "too much"

USD is accepted by pretty much everybody. VND is a pain in the ass. Currently, I think 1m VND = £35ish

Edited by schmalex on Saturday 2nd July 15:31

carreauchompeur

17,830 posts

203 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
quotequote all
Vietnam's fricking ace. I've been there twice, once on my recent world tour. Might pitch up in HCMC for teaching work next spring.

I did a motorbike tour and it was amazing...

www.loquitohermoso.com

Check back to Oct 2015 for some tips and pictures...

Jer_1974

1,497 posts

192 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
quotequote all
I have been Here for the last week.Flew into Sigon for a few days then upto Hanoi then Dalat. Leaving tomorrow to spend a week in Phan Thiet then back to Sigon for a few days. I chose Phan Thiet because Nah Trang is right in the middle of this...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/0...


Didn't fancy eating seafood or swimming in it. We also did a Signature cruse in Halong Bay which was fantastic which i would totally recommend.

mikal83

5,340 posts

251 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
quotequote all
Spent a month from Hanoi slowly busing to Phu Quoc. Never booked ahead just did a little research a few days ahead on a cpla booking websites. Fantastic place, bike hire is $5-7 a day....wear a helmet...accom was $10-15 a night, some "hotels" were fab, some really basic, go by reviews.
Food OK, wife liked pho, I didn't. breakfast was a baguette n omellette most days. BiaHoi was OK.
Missed Da nang went str8 from Hue...rain rain rain, to Hoi Ann, nice. Dong Hoi was nice , hired a bike to the caves.

HotJambalaya

2,023 posts

179 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
quotequote all
might be going myself in november. Currently trying to decide on best way in from thailand, and whether to start at the top and work my way down, or just fly in and around. Lots more research to do!

mikal83

5,340 posts

251 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
quotequote all
HotJambalaya said:
might be going myself in november. Currently trying to decide on best way in from thailand, and whether to start at the top and work my way down, or just fly in and around. Lots more research to do!
As per ,my previous, we were there last year. Flew in/out BKK then up to Hanoi and 30 days later motorbiked from Ha Tien to Kep. (Then a month in Cambodia, month in Laos, 2 weeks Thailand), but that's another story.

Oldest backpackers in town!

If we can help, holler.

Philplop

341 posts

173 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
quotequote all
Plan for Hoi An?

Wander about.
Get a boat ride off a 100 year old woman.
Drink beer.
Drink beer on a boat.
Eat Banh Mi sandwiches.

Great place. Could easily spend a long time there not doing much at all.

Condi

17,089 posts

170 months

Sunday 3rd July 2016
quotequote all
Just getting my popcorn out for this one.


Going in October for a week or 2.

daqinggegg

Original Poster:

1,394 posts

128 months

Sunday 3rd July 2016
quotequote all
A big thank you to everyone who has contributed esp. schmalex. It appears my budget will cover me well. Going to make this a cuisine orientated holiday. I will raise a glass to you all, again thank you.

towser44

3,472 posts

114 months

Sunday 3rd July 2016
quotequote all
My sister went last year, travelled a fair bit, but I must admit I can't remember her itinerary except that they flew with Emirates via Dubai. I'll ask her when I speak to her if she has anything to add that helps with your post.

brickwall

5,192 posts

209 months

Sunday 3rd July 2016
quotequote all
Its absolutely mad, and great fun. £80 a day will be LOADS - especially if you stay away from the chain western hotels. You can eat an OK sit-down lunch for £2.50!

5potTurbo

12,482 posts

167 months

Monday 4th July 2016
quotequote all
£80/day is LOADS if you're excluding hotels!

Hoi-An is an amazing place. Try to get a guide to take you around the town. They're inexpensive, but the guide explanations are really interesting.
Eating out and getting around is cheap, cheap, cheap.

DON'T get carried away with tailor made shoes, shirts or suits. They don't turn out great!


Da Nang: I didn't think much of it, to be honest. It's a city seemingly without a centre - or not one that we could find! It's not far from the beach though.
One day, my brother and I ended up in a side street resto-bar, full of locals, and in a torrential rainstorm which flooded Da Nang knee deep. Since we couldn't get anywhere, we stayed in this resto-bar all afternoon - from lunch til 7pm.
2 meals EACH, and loads of bottled beers - $9 for both of us. And I suspect we were ripped off by local standards. At that price, it's not a problem!

Funniest thing were the local kids in the street by this bar, laughing and poitning and the strange white guys in their local area. smile

(Fortunately we were wearing shorts and flip-flops, so we didn't ruin shoes/trousers in that flood!)



phumy

5,671 posts

236 months

Monday 11th July 2016
quotequote all
schmalex said:
£80 a day is a fortune in Vietnam. You will live like a king

I'm currently going there every 3 or 4 weeks for business and I struggle to spend more than £50 a day; that's with eating at the best restaurants in Hanoi and taking clients out for lunch.

Go for local foods such as croissants for breakfast / Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) for lunch or dinner and local beers and you will be staggered how little spend.

Hoi an is stunning. Don't get carried away with all the local tailors. You have to really pick and choose if you want decent quality. A good suit will still be $250 / $300+ (make sure you have time to go back for multiple fittings etc)

IIRC, Da nang is all about the marble and statues. Clearly, these are bloody heavy! There are great views from the top of the fortifications there

If you can, shoot up to Hue for a day and a real must is the Cu chi tunnels near HCMC.

Hanoi has changed a lot since I first went there in 1999, but the old quarter is still a fascinating bustle of mopeds, bikes, street food and bars.

The big one to learn is how to cross the road, otherwise you will be stuck for hours. The traffic in both Hanoi and HCMC is incredible - about 6 lanes of mopeds in both directions, with random cars, mopeds and lorries going at right angles to the flow. To cross on foot, just step off the pavement, walk at a constant pace and try to make eye contact with the next driver you're about to be run over by. If you get it right, the whole lot parts around you..!

Oh. And haggle like you've never haggled before!! "Choi Oi!!" means "too much"

USD is accepted by pretty much everybody. VND is a pain in the ass. Currently, I think 1m VND = £35ish

Edited by schmalex on Saturday 2nd July 15:31
Hahaha, good try, "Choi oi" doesnt mean "too much", it means "Oh my God". If you want to say that someting is too expensive then try "Mac qua", pronounced "macwa"...

To haggle out there you need to cut their first asking price by two thrirds to a half of what theyre asking then dont go too much above half, remeber once you start to haggle youre normally expected to buy, so if you dont want it then dont haggle.

wong

1,276 posts

215 months

Wednesday 13th July 2016
quotequote all
Ban Mi sandwiches - crusty loaves with about 10 ingredients. Anthony Bourdain recommended.

Vietnamese filter coffee - strong, chocolaty, with condensed milk. Good souvenir - bag of coffee and cheap tin filter set.

Haggling - start at 20-30 % off first price. Vietnamese husbands don't go to the market because even they may get ripped off. Only the women go.

Philplop

341 posts

173 months

Wednesday 13th July 2016
quotequote all
But don't go to the Banh Mi stall that Anthony Bourdain went to. It's rubbish. Guess they just rely on their reputation and the posters saying that he went there and said it was great. Unless I was just unlucky

carreauchompeur

17,830 posts

203 months

Thursday 14th July 2016
quotequote all
Banh Mi is delicious but a complete mystery to me... A Vietnamese friend ordered me an amazing one but then I tried to get a second and it just wasn't the same,,, need to crack the code of the specific blend of components and ask for it!

jmsgld

1,010 posts

175 months

Saturday 16th July 2016
quotequote all
I spent 6 months there in 1999, mostly in the north but I did ride my trusty Minsk down south for a month or so, awesome country, amazing food, herbier and less spicy than proper Thai. In the north the Bia Hoi's are the place to eat but not sure they stretch that far south.

My rememberings of the haggling banter was "Oi zoi oi, dat qua" which roughly translated as "oh my god, too much", useful phrase as they instantly start jabbering in vietnamese thinking that you at least have some idea of the language and dropped the price by at least 50%. Worth learning some basics before you go and practice pronounciation / tone with your inn keeper.
Tricky language to learn though as it's tonal, so depending on which one of the 5 or 6 tones you use the word has a completely different meaning. I once said "hello my penis" to a Vietnamese entomologist I was to be working with rather than "Good evening or good morning".

The Top Gear road is amazing on a bike. There's a town that's famous for it's fresh (uncooked) spring rolls somewhere around there, amazing flavours, worth seeking out if you're a foodie. The best food places tend to be busy with entirely locals and tiny plastic kindergarten chairs often just on the street, I can't remember the phrase but basically just ask for food and see what turns up. The very old will speak French which can be helpful in a jam.

Enjoy, awesome country.

lemmingjames

7,433 posts

203 months

Tuesday 26th July 2016
quotequote all
Hi people, just doing abit of back searching on Nam and wondered if anyone else could suggest alternatives to this itinery? I had planned to dive quite abit but have heard that its all small fish and im a big fish kinda guy so will scrap the diving idea.

Ideally id fly to Hue on the Friday but the connecting flight is 4 hours later than the landing flight and im not sure if that would allow enough time to make the connection?

Thursday 11th Flight Out
Friday 12th Land Saigon/Hue
Saturday 13th Hue travel
Sunday 14th Hue itself + citadel
Monday 15th DMZ Tour
Tuesday 16th Bach Ma National Park
Wednesday 17th Hue-Hoi An Motorbike trip (Top Gear)
Thursday 18th Hoi An Beach
Friday 19th Travel to Nha Trang
Saturday 20th Nha Trang Rapids
Sunday 21st Dive Nha Trang
Monday 22nd Dive Nha Trang
Tuesday 23rd Fly Pho Quoc
Wednesday 24th Dive somewhere
Thursday 25th Beach
Friday 26th Travel to Saigon
Saturday 27th Chu Chi Tunnels
Sunday 28th Fly Back

So ill probably sack off a day in NT and extend HA by 1 day and see the lake