Visiting Vietnam

[buksida]

Any updates on the situ with visa on arrival in Nam? Thinking of taking a little trip ...

[Pagey]

I did the same as Pitsch recommended at the beginning of this thread in May, no problems, easy as

Edit : If you can pre book your seat as I did with Qatar sit near the front and race off the plane to avoid a queue at the visa desk. I was no more than 5 mins waiting for visa to be processed.

[buksida]

Done, they replied already with the approval letter - so easy!

[pitsch]

Download the On arrival form (e.g. http://www.myvietnamvisa.com/download-form.html) and fill it in and attach your foto. Then you save a lot of time and get your stamp while the other travellers are filling in this form.

[buksida]

We're all set, got the visa, flights booked. Accommodation seems easy, there are some good discounts on Agoda.

A few questions from those that have been there ...

1) Money: can you change Thai Baht over there or is it USD only?
2) ATMs: do Thai bank cards work in ATMs there or do I need to bring a wad of cash?
3) Any 'must sees' or 'must avoids' to look out for?


cheers.

[Terry]

1) Better to bring USD - more universally changeable - but some banks will change Baht.
2) Thai (Bangkok Bank) cards work at many of the ATMs - don't know about other Thai banks - but I see no reason why the other 'major' Thai banks should not work.
3) Me.............

Seriously, where are you staying? - Hanoi or other locations also.

Can really only talk of Hanoi or Ha Long Bay (made one trip).

[Bamboo Grove]

3. Really depends where you go. It's a long country.

[buksida]

The rough plan is to fly into Hanoi, spend a few nights, visit Halong Bay, then take the train down the coast stopping off here and there over about 12-14 days, flying back from HCMC.

[Bamboo Grove]

After leaving Hanoi (I'm sure Terry will tell you more about that but remember to visit the Water Puppet show, that's very entertaining) you could stop in Hue, the old capital, couple of days will be sufficient there, then to Hoi An. From there you could try to go up the mountains to Dalat but if that's too much of an effort, Nha Trang is to most popular tourist beach area in Vietnam and well worth a few days. I've only stayed there one night but I think it's good for snorkelling. From Saigon you can do day trips to Mekong Delta and Cu Chi -tunnels + the nearby Cao Dai temple.

[MrPlum]

If you are feeling adventurous, find the 'easy riders' in Dalat and take a bike trip up the central highlands. Cost me $50 for 6 days (not sure on prices now). Guest houses en route are cheap. Otherwise, it's pretty hard to get off the tourist trail since there is little tourist development away from the coast. Hoi An (tailor town) is great for clothing. Halong Bay a must-see.

Watch the water, I picked up Giardia and another nasty bug while I was there.

[Homer]

The rough plan is to fly into Hanoi, spend a few nights, visit Halong Bay, then take the train down the coast stopping off here and there over about 12-14 days, flying back from HCMC.

I also planned on taking the train. Then I compared the cost of train tickets purchased outside the country with air fare. Cost of air vs time on train made the flying the clear choice for the long legs of the trip.

[playboy]

Halong Bay is nice, spend overnight sleep over, on the boat. Make sure good tour company, in the night, there is strong wind in the bay!! If you take a train from Hanoi to Hoi An, make sure there is no flood along vietnam's rail. Two years ago we took the train from Hanoi to Hoi An the end of September, there was the flood cut off the rail road, so instead of 8 hours train, it became 20hours train.(by the way, there was a rat ran on the the train floor, it jumped on the lower bed passenger while he was sleeping!!) The train stopped couple hours, waiting waiting and waiting, no one(official personal) has idea how long, then they took all of us in to the bus for couple hours and then put us back again on the train till Hoi An. Have fun.

[buksida]

Cheers for the tips, traveling with the tribe so have to take into consideration things for kids which means no offroad biking etc. Train tickets for the longest leg (Hanoi - Hue) were about $60 each for a sleeper, naturally they'll be more if booked online or via agents. Will consider internal flights only if it does work out cheaper and we're really pressed for time.

For those that have been if you had to choose between Hue, Danang and Hoi An for 3-4 nights where would you go and why?

[Homer]

Train tickets for the longest leg (Hanoi - Hue) were about $60 each for a sleeper

You may already know this about sleepers on VN trains, but just in case ...

Vietnam-henk-soft-sleeper.jpg (17.24 KiB) Viewed 744 times

Photo of 4 berth soft sleeper car. The bed is the seat. Nothing moves to convert beds into seats into beds. Result is a seat with a 90 degree unpadded back. Never been in one but talked to people who have so as to learn about it. Almost everyone said soft sleeper berths were more comfortable and safe than sleeper buses but they weren't comfortable as either beds or seats. Also notice the single seat is shared between top and bottom berth passengers.

Vietnam-train-soft-seats.jpg (42.02 KiB) Viewed 744 times

I spent 3 hours in a soft seat car like the one pictured above. Could easily sleep in one of these seats.

More on VN trains, and all things train at http://seat61.com/Vietnam.htm#.UE_nxEh0JnR

[buksida]

Looks good, there are four of us so we'll just book the whole cabin. Should cost about 4,400 baht and save us a night in a hotel.

Just checked the cost of 4 of us to fly from Hanoi to Danang with Vietnam Airlines .... 8,500 baht.