Vietnam and siem reap

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Trustmeimadoctor

Original Poster:

12,525 posts

154 months

Sunday 18th August 2019
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Hi looking at booking back end of april next year
Never been before only been to asia once 12 years ago

Rough outline

Flying info ho chi minh for 3 nights
Then fly to siem reap 4 nights
Fly to dan nang
Stay hoi an 4
drive to hue for 2 nights
Fly to hanoi 3 nights
2 Nights cruise halong bay
Fly back

any obvious issues or things we are missing?

eein

1,331 posts

264 months

Sunday 18th August 2019
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Couple of details I enjoyed when done something similar:

- I used the overnight train between some of the main locations in Vietnam. Fun and met other interesting people on it.
- Siem Reap and Angkor Wat is massively touristy these days, we cycled between the temples on a private guided and supported cycle ride. Was nice going along back roads (bumpy tracks) and seeing real local people. Was a bit of a slog, but totally worth it. I think they also have self hire electric bikes these days although you'd need to stick to the main tarmac tourist roads.


Trustmeimadoctor

Original Poster:

12,525 posts

154 months

Sunday 18th August 2019
quotequote all
Mrs said no to the train its not much more to fly and its 10x faster

eein

1,331 posts

264 months

Monday 19th August 2019
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Indeed the train is much slower - it is only really an option as an experience in itself and not as a practical way to travel. We did overnight on the train so did save a night in a hotel, although the quality of sleep was not great - hence sitting chatting to locals most of it.

Another thing I remembered was getting custom clothes made in Hoi An / Hue (can't remember which one it was - it's in all the tourist books). They are good at making anything, not just the usual shirts and suits, so worth visiting them on the first day there so they have a chance to make it, and worth thinking in advance of items you'd like. You can even take pictures of brand goods, or an item you already own to copy. My partner got a fuzzy duffel coat made - not the first thing you'd think of when there sweating away in the heat! But she enjoyed getting to choose the fit and cut as well as all the external and lining materials and even the type of toggle buttons. Was £40 and done in 24 hours.

Yetski

597 posts

162 months

Monday 19th August 2019
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You'll probably pass us at some point, 6 of us are going next April for 3 weeks, and doing pretty similar things, hoping we've timed it right as I'm guessing the Baku F1 will be put back to it's original date which was June and the April date will be Hanoi, so keep an eye out for that if it does happen, as it will probably impact on hotel/flight prices once officially announced, so book early.

SimonTheSailor

12,543 posts

227 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
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4 days in Hoi An is a bit much really, it's a small place so you can experience it all in a couple of days.

A train journey is indeed an experience in itself. You meet the locals who are super friendly who normally board with bags of their local food which they are happy to share.

The real Vietnam is the countryside away from the large towns/cities.

Sapa is truly wonderful, escape the heat and craziness of Hanoi, overnight train journey up to Sapa, 1/2/3 day trek around the untouched countryside, cool fresh air........

Trustmeimadoctor

Original Poster:

12,525 posts

154 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
quotequote all
hoi an is the relaxing part of the trip so time just relaxing by the pool and spa treatments so we were after a bit more time there.

We looked at sapa and its a possibility we just need to make sure we can get the best 1st class carriage we can.

I must admit im not one for hiking.


SimonTheSailor

12,543 posts

227 months

Monday 26th August 2019
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Well if your not one for hiking then maybe not worth the effort. Really have to get out of the town to see the best of it.

HotJambalaya

2,023 posts

179 months

Monday 26th August 2019
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Everyone seems to start in Ho Chi Minh, and I can’t understand why geographically.

Fly into hanoi, then work your way down, da nang, hoi an, Ho Chi Minh, war tunnels etc, then into Siem reap

5harp3y

1,942 posts

198 months

Tuesday 27th August 2019
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HotJambalaya said:
Everyone seems to start in Ho Chi Minh, and I can’t understand why geographically.

Fly into hanoi, then work your way down, da nang, hoi an, Ho Chi Minh, war tunnels etc, then into Siem reap
when we booked our flights Ho Chi Minh flights were cheaper and more plentiful.

Fluffsri

3,161 posts

195 months

Tuesday 27th August 2019
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Trustmeimadoctor said:
Mrs said no to the train its not much more to fly and its 10x faster
Same here, we are flying to the different points, were out in last 2 weeks of March.

Trustmeimadoctor

Original Poster:

12,525 posts

154 months

Tuesday 27th August 2019
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5harp3y said:
HotJambalaya said:
Everyone seems to start in Ho Chi Minh, and I can’t understand why geographically.

Fly into hanoi, then work your way down, da nang, hoi an, Ho Chi Minh, war tunnels etc, then into Siem reap
when we booked our flights Ho Chi Minh flights were cheaper and more plentiful.
Same here just worked out better for us

Flights are all now booked so now just nailing down the hotels except hanoi thats just the hilton as i have points i need to use

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Tuesday 27th August 14:43

survivalist

5,614 posts

189 months

Tuesday 27th August 2019
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Trustmeimadoctor said:
5harp3y said:
HotJambalaya said:
Everyone seems to start in Ho Chi Minh, and I can’t understand why geographically.

Fly into hanoi, then work your way down, da nang, hoi an, Ho Chi Minh, war tunnels etc, then into Siem reap
when we booked our flights Ho Chi Minh flights were cheaper and more plentiful.
Same here just worked out better for us

Flights are all now booked so now just nailing down the hotels except hanoi thats just the hilton as i have points i need to use

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Tuesday 27th August 14:43
We did the north to south trail a few years ago, amazing experience (not the I’m saying that that’s anything wrong with going south to north).

If you’re still deciding on hotels and after a spa/relaxing experience then I’d heartily recommend the Fusion Maia Resort. Great spa, and private beach, about 20 mins south of Hoi An. At that time of year Hoi An gets a lot of internal tourism so expect many places with no AC (as the locals don’t think of it as warm). We also got chatting to a couple of local
Tour guides who were surprised that we only wanted to see one or two temples - they seemed to think we’d want a detailed tour of the top 20 :-)

Hanoi is awesome and regardless of where you’re staying I’d suggest having a beer at the Metropole Hotel, loads of history and the beach bar in the courtyard is awesome - if only because its calm and quiet atmosphere is at odds with the city. Unlike the B52 that’s still poking out of a lake surrounded by apartment blocks ;-)

Trustmeimadoctor

Original Poster:

12,525 posts

154 months

Tuesday 27th August 2019
quotequote all
thank you for the tips!

havoc

29,925 posts

234 months

Tuesday 27th August 2019
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survivalist said:
... if only because its calm and quiet atmosphere is at odds with the city.
We didn't enjoy Hanoi...the locals there felt aloof to the point of being almost hostile (esp. the one that groped Becs while I was 20-30 yards away photographing something), in complete contrast to Saigon and Hoi An.

Vietnamese temples aren't close to the Ankgor ones, so probably pass on any temple tours out of Hoi An. Siem Reap is just a tourist town, but the temples are mind-blowing. Hire a car + guide if you can - a good one can plan a route to avoid most of the Chinese bus tours.

Halong Bay is a must...visually awesome, and sleeping on a junk is cool.

alistair1234

1,129 posts

145 months

Wednesday 28th August 2019
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We did a similar trip in may this year, but we did the below

HCMC for 3 nights
An Bang Beach (10 mins from Hoi An) 5 nights
Ha Long Bay 2 nights
Hanoi 3 nights

I would 100% recommend the boat we stayed on in Ha Long Bay, Stellar of the Seas. It was one of the more expensive at around £220 a night but the boat itself was new, the rooms were amazing, great food and good trips (included in price).

In ha long bay there are around 520 boats now, most of them are the old wooden style junk boats but the problem with these are that they go all the way in to the port to collect and drop off guests which you do every day as some passengers do 1 night and others do 2.

The bigger boats like stellar of the seas have 2 day boats in tow so that the actual big boat stays out in the bay and one day boat takes guests to port and back and the other day boat takes people to one of the bays or on one of the excursions.

The other good thing about our boat is it's one of only around 20 boats that can go to a separate part of the bay that isn’t filled full of the smaller boats so we got quite a lot of privacy.

Other hotels below, I’d recommend them all.

HCMC - Alagon Zen Hotel & Spa - great location
An Bang Beach - Dai An Phu Villa - beach resort 10 mins cycle away from Hoi An
Hanoi - O’gallery Majestic Hotel & Spa - great location, very close to the famous Hanoi Street train track

Things we did:

HCMC - Chu chi tunnels (we did the boat trip version rather than being stuck on a coach)
Binh Tay Market
War remnants museum

Hoi An - My Son Cultural Heritage site
Lots of cycling around the city and local areas

Ha Long Bay - Take your own alcohol on board as it’s 10 times the price of local restaurants
Kayaking (our boat carried them)
Excursion to an island and cycled to a local village for rice/snake wine
Squid fishing

Hanoi - we went and saw all of the war attractions, b52 bomber etc. We found Hanoi the strangest part of the trip by far, it almost felt like being in a different country, it’s effectively a mini China. Very communist, hotel manager seemed to appear out of nowhere and just wanted us to visit the war stuff, massive blackouts at night for hours on end. Also saw the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

Edited by alistair1234 on Wednesday 28th August 09:29

Yetski

597 posts

162 months

Thursday 29th August 2019
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Loads more to do than F1, but now penciled in for the 5th April