| |
|
Here's my borother's little write up. I can get him to write more about particular things you're interested in if you like.
I've never travelled overseas by myself, let alone SE Asia so I really didn't know what to expect.. I caught a shuttle bus for about US$6 from the airport into Hanoi. If you can carry your luggage on your back, they say to get a local to ride you in on a motorbike or if you want to spend US$10 take a cab.
I went without any bookings or reservations and they dumped me at a hotel and started taking my bags up before I even really had a say, but I arrived at night and couldn't be stuffed arguing and they all ended up being really nice anyway. So, I got a room for US$12 a night and it was all good, if I had caught a cab I would have still had to find a place to stay, not that it would have been very hard.
I wouldn't recommend going for a walk around the lake the very first night you are there, not unless you are accustomed to poverty, I did and got pretty spun out by all the street kids that hassle you. I had three days in Hanoi so being an inexperienced traveller: I spent my first day walking around in a daze trying to fight off the masses of beggars and merchants, eating all the food I could and having about five showers.
The next day, I gave up on the showering every few hours and hired a motorbike, which was a major highlight for me. The third day I spent mainly eating and shopping, I was still pretty culture shocked.. If I had more time or organized myself better I really wish I had gone to see a place called Halong bay, I got told about it and it sounds fantastic but being a few hours out you really need at least a whole day if not over night.
If you have the time, just about every hotel runs tours of the surrounding area. Getting to HCMC was a little bit hairier, some advice I learned the hard way: Don't get into the unmarked van of a guy who offered to take your bags before you even got out of the airport:-) Tell anyone offering anything that you are not interested, go outside and catch a marked cab into town (a cab should be willing to take you for less then US$10 and a it's lot safer).
After getting a hotel room (I was there in low season and got a big discount just by asking at the Royal Hotel dead in the heart of Saigon), all I did was walk around the area outside the opera house and chatted to a few of the local "tour guides" until I found one that didn't offer straight away to find "beautiful girls" for me and I asked him to take me on his motorbike to Ku Chi (where the Viet cong tunnels were/are) and a couple of the markets.
I also spent one day in Cholon ("Chinatown" about 20min from HCMC) That was another highlight mainly due to the fact that there were hardly any tourists and hardly any beggars, a great break from Saigon which gets a bit daunting at times.
I spent another day in a place called Vung Tau, which is an hour by hydrofoil and even the trip out is a pretty cool adventure down The river. It's a costal town so the seafood is great and they have these amazing temples set in the surrounding forest which are amazing (tour curtesy of another guy and his motorbike). That place was actually recommended to me by an Australian that I met in a pub called The Underground (yes "London" theme), which is the final place I'd recommend to see.
I'd usually avoid "tourist" dives but this one was right across the street from my hotel and I wanted to see how they do a London pub in Saigon. The pub/cafe scene is pretty big, so you are missing something if you avoid it altogether. For most of the trip I mainly kept to myself and apart from An (the tour guide) the pub was probably the only place I actually got to really talk to some of the locals, especially around my age, I probably got the most out of that experience out of all. It was easy to meet people because they are all eager to work on their English by chatting (you have no problem running into English speaking people anywhere)..
One last thing, I guess, unfortunately, the one piece of advice that I find hard to give but is probably important is that the tourism and the dollars do make some of the people dependant and greedy (if it can be called that) so remember that (unless you actually are) you are not there on a charity mission, you can be nice to people and help a few people out, but there are a lot of people that would take advantage of you and you can't save everyone.
It's mainly "fat cat" tourists that create that situation in the first place really. I had a pretty hard time dealing with that, especially after An (my tour guide) told me that the little girls that beg in Saigon are forced to do so by their parents. So giving them money only encourages more people to force their children into doing the same, while he instead works very hard to send his kids to school..
That aside, it is way too easy to have a great time so don't worry too much and don't be scared to get lost wandering around looking at interesting things in the cities. You should get the business card of the hotel you are staying at or remember a significant landmark and then, if you get lost, it's just a matter of going up to just about anyone sitting near their motor bike and offering them a couple of bucks to take you back.. (about US$1 is a full tank of gas on one of those little motorbikes, so if you are only several blocks away it should be enough to offer, but always make the offer at the start of the trip and only pay when you have got to where you asked to go otherwise they tend to take you on the scenic route.) |
|
|
