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Vietnam
vntraveler.com provides updated travel warnings and safety for tourists to Vietnam plus destination guide, travel tips and answers on travel topics in Vietnam.
Nationals from some countries can enter Vietnam without a visa for certain period of time ranging from 15-90 days, such as Nordic and South East Asia. However, many travelers may wish to change their travel plan and stay in Vietnam longer than their given time. In this case, tourists need to apply for a visa while they are still in the country, and the fee they have to pay will be much higher than the normal one, around 50-70$ US.
So, keep in mind this problem when you plan your itinerary to Vietnam. It will save you a lot of money.
Happy travel.
My Vietnam Visa is a blog offering up-to-date visa information for travelers to Vietnam including visa exemptions, visa types, visa extensions and how to apply for a tourist visa.
www.myvietnamvisa.com/
www.myvietnamvisa.com/visa-guide/vietnam-visa-exemption/
A collection of war machinery that you wander among on the way to a three-sided building filled with photos of the Vietnam War taken by war correspondents from all over the world during the conflict.
The instruments of war are chilling and the results of the carnage they inflict ovewhelming. Not to be missed.
Central Ho Chi Minh City
Great rooftop drinks and fantastic views of historic HCMC centre from this 20th floor bar and terrace, and one of the pluses is that because you're in it, this modern edifice isn't spoiling your view as it towers over the Opera House, Post Office, Rex Hotel and Notre Dame Cathedral. Hang on to your money in the breeze for the sake of the waiters. A couple of notes we were leaving for a tip blew through the balustrade, and the waiter leapt over onto a narrow 20th floor ledge to rescue them before we could offer replacements. Good service or madness?
On Dong Khoi, the French and Americans famous Rue Catinat, at Lam Son Square
www.fivestaralliance.com/luxury_hotel/ho_chi_minh_city/caravelle_hotel
Founded in 1994, Buffalo Tours pioneered adventure travel in Vietnam as well as Laos and Cambodia. This operator is great for day trips, kayaking, and trekking tours nationwide. You will find a wealth of touring options to whet your appetite.
94 Ma May Street
Hoan Kiem, Hanoi, Vietnam
Websites:
www.buffalotours.com/
www.buffalotours.com/Tours/Adventure
Hundreds of small boats overflowing with fresh fruit and veg bobbing and weaving in the murky Mekong waters, outboard motors revving or old women under conical hats standing paddling for customers. Bigger boats with the whole family living on the stern, children playing, washing drying, cooking a meal. Boats of pineapples, cabbages, potatoes, melons. An energetic market and a community gathering. Usefully the boats advertise their wares by tying a few veg to a tall bamboo mast.
Cai Rang, on the Mekong River near Can tho, a couple of hours from Saigon
This wiki-style page provides a comprehensive Vietnam visa and passport information plus visa tips, list of Vietnam embassies abroad, and up-to-date news on visas to Vietnam.
Website with a good up-to-date list of local restaurants, bars, hotels, accommodation, and all matters of other types of businesses.
This site is geared towards the expat living in Saigon for the most part and focuses on the District 1.
The discussion forum doesn't seem to have much traffic.
Colonial Hotel in centre of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), which means you can walk to all the shops and sights from the hotel.
It was the hotel that Michael Caine was filmed in during the The Quiet American. Great American coffee (most coffee in Vietnam is Vietnamese, and rather bitter) available in the veranda style lounge room overlooking one of the shopping streets.
Opposite the Opera House in centre of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)
The Cao Dai religion's colourful kitsch-like architecture mixes influences from different world religions.
Join a daily mass at noon with a congregation mostly dressed in all white. See the Divine Eye watch over a hall supported by 28 dragon-encrusted columns.
Cao Dai is a syncretist religion founded in Vietnam in the 1920s. Statues of different religious leaders including Jesus, Buddha, Confucius and Lao Tze share the altar stage.
The temple also has statues of the religion's saints including China's first president Sun Yat-sen and the French writer Victor Hugo!
Cao Dai Holy See is in the town of Tay Ninh, about 100km from Ho Chi Minh City. Easiest way to get there is to take a day tour that also includes a visit to the famous wartime Cu Chi tunnels. Visit any tour agency in Ho Chi Minh City.
Mekong is the 12th longest river in the world and one of the most important rivers in south-east Asia.
Take a two-three day tour from Ho Chi Minh City, drive along the rivers by boat and see how the locals live in the countryside.
The tours include visits to local food producers and a memorable early morning boat ride to the famous floating market.
All the tour agencies in Ho Chi Minh City can arrange the tours. Accommodation and foods are included.
For the best and cheapest massage ever, head to the Vietnamese Traditional Massage Institute where all the masseurs are blind.
It costs about £2 for an hour.
85 Cong Quynh, Dist. 1.
Tel: 839 6697
Food is cheap, delicious and fresh and you get to eat with the locals. Thousands of shops and stalls selling everything you can imagine.
Crossroads of Le Loi, Ham Nghi, Tran Hung Dao, and Le Lai streets
It is cheap, clean, central, smart and has A/C.
70-72-74 Pho Duc Chinh St., Dist 1, Ho Chi Minh City
Tel : 84.8 8213576 - 8212329 - 8251555
Vietnam Travel Watch is a non-profit weblog offering travel warnings and safety notices for travelers to Vietnam.
Updated weekly.
Probably both the cheapest and the most authentic pizza I've had in Vietnam. Proper oven, proper ingredients, proper training, no messing around!
And the prices are sure to please. Located within walking distance of the backpacker district. Note the shop is very small, only a few small tables available facing the noisy traffic.
76 Nguyen Trai, District 1
Tel: 9 181 688
The Vietnamese are not backward in coming forward, especially when it comes to asking for donations and their pièce de resistance is the sob story.
Probably the day after travellers first started trickling into the Prince Hotel just after Doi Moi, the local hustlers worked out that these young naive things would fall for anything involving "Communists" or "re-education camp".
Possibly back then there were a couple of ex-lawyers driving cyclos. Back in 1990 that would have made them ... how old? Let's see, 30 years old in 1975 ... so that would be 45. Plausible.
Seventeen years later ... they'd have to be 62 - at the absolute youngest. When your interlocutor is giving you his "doctor" story then weigh up ... is he at least 62? If he is then you'd be advised to take a taxi! (Well you'd be *always* advised to take a taxi, but that's a subject for another tip.)
Why not check out the blogs of people living in Vietnam. They often have posts and pictures of news and events of the country before any else. An interesting way to learn more about a country!
Some examples:
www.layered.typepad.com
www.chrisfharvey.typepad.com
www.saigonnezumi.com
www.itsthefinalword.blogspot.com
An offshoot from Le PUB Hanoi, this bar located in the backpacker area of HCMC is a refreshing change to the regular places in the area. Fantastic music, free wifi, well-priced excellent food and a huge selection of drinks, coffee and smoothies makes it a great spot for people watching.
175/22 Pham Ngu Lao. Dist 1, HCMC
08 837 7679
le.pub.saigon@gmail.com
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