things you might want to know if you are going to vietnam
After having spent two month in Vietnam here is little information page on what to expect:
fast facts (2008):
The local currency is the Vietnam dong (approx 16000 dong for 1 dollar us). The prices in Vietnam are going rapidly up and most prices on travel guide won’t be accurate, you can add easily 5 to 10 dollars to all the prices stated in guidebooks.
The convenient ways of transportation are: plane and bus. forget the train unless you are really ready to endure it. it is extremely slow (count on 12 to 30+ hours), there is hardly any food and drink available on board, and it’s very expensive . don’t go thinking it is the orient express or something. even the one train call express is still very slow so be careful. the main bus routes are convenient but the quality of your journey will really depend on the bus operator. some are good with new buses and even sleeping coaches, but others are to avoid at all cost as they will always be hours late and have the worst buses in the country (it is not rare for these buses to break down and in some cases you even might have to walk for a while). especially when climbing to dalat. the plane is really convenient because it’s cheap and fast. on top of that you won’t miss anything because during bus rides for example, you just travel from town to town and the scenery is not that great.
Accommodations: are actually quite good value all around with all the amenities, clean along with decent size rooms. rooms price vary between 10 and 20 dollars us. but be prepared to pay more while in the cities. also, keep in mind that most guest house/hotels won’t have lifts. its not rare at all in Vietnam to have your room on the 3rd or 4th floor, so, be prepare to walk a few story with your bags. needless to say that it is not a favorable destination for people with disabilities. Another thing that you might want to know is that in Vietnam every hotel will ask your passport and keep it. it may feel strange at first but after a while you’ll get us to it. it is actually a regulation from the government and not from the hotels. don’t worry too much about it, because its for everybody the same, even Vietnamese people have to leave there ID. Vietnamese people are quite worry about safety sometimes a bit too much for my taste but well. in effect its always an issue when people are going out at night. most of the guest houses will close there iron gate/curtain after 11 or 12 at night. a lot of time you’ll have to wake up somebody in order to get the door open for you. it does alter you sense of freedom a bit but well customs are customs. away from that on the safety side, it is usually trouble free and I have not heard any story of people getting stuff taken from their room.
when is the best time to go?: the most vital thing before you go to Vietnam, is to make sure you do your homework about the weather! it is quite a complicate one as well. If you make the wrong choice for example, during February you could leave ho chi minh in short and slippers with its 30 degrees Celsius and fly to Hanoi the same day just to find out on arrival that it is 5 or 10 degrees outside,so be really careful. Same also for diving and the beach. In the wrong months beaches will be dirty with murky water and all dive shops will be close. Also a lot of tours might be unavailable. so really when to go is actually more important then you might think, especially if you intend to do a specific activity. Around may most of Vietnam has a warm enough weather north and south but then you will have a rain factor to take into account. so like I said, the best is to see for yourself depending on what do you intend to do and where you want to go. that will actually decide for the best time to go.
regarding tours and activities: Vietnam is still very young when it comes to tourism and organization and there are not so many infrastructure for activities such as trekking diving, kayaking, windsurfing rafting etc… A lot of echoes I heard from travelers that went on to some organized tours with such activities were not very positive. Most of the people came back with a : “well yeah, its was ok I guess” while some others really did warn others about having being ripped off. what happen a lot actually in Vietnam is that when a “tour operator” open an agency and it concept seem to work well (for example the easy rider tours) then you will have copycats of the same agency with people that have actually no clue of what they are doing but that will still try to imitate the others. they even go as far as opening a shop with the exact same name and offerings. so for instance, if you hear about the easy riders bike tours near nha thrang and dalat you will see that everybody claims to be the real ones and will try to sell you anything. so always be careful in Vietnam with tour operators because a lot of them are just improvised shops trying to make money by imitating the real thing. the best is always to choose an operator with a bit of history and also ask people that have taken a tour with them if it was worth it. If by any chance you were thinking about doing Vietnam the wild way on your own , better go somewhere else. Vietnam is not the place to do that and you can feel that the country is not geared for that sort things. the only infrastructures that you will find around is the ones that are on the tourist trail or should I say “rail”. because being on a rail, is actually the feeling I got when I went to Vietnam! it really feels like you can go only go were the tourist trail takes you, and every time you try to get out of it you can really see that you are not in the place you should be. for example if you try, you’ll hardly find places to stay, restaurant will be for locals only (meaning that the menu will be in Vietnamese only) and you won’t find anywhere to ask for information. then people will look at you as you as if you were lost and looking for your group. on top of that of course not a soul will speak a word of English. but really, all in all it really does just feel that you are not meant to be doing that.
a word about the English language in Vietnam: one big warning regarding language. most Vietnamese people do not speak English at all. and the one that does are barely speaking it. as an example i came across a tour guide from one agency claiming to be the best thing around with English speaking guide and all, and the guy could just about give the information needed for the people during the tour. so better be warned if you are someone who imagine having somebody with very good English with a small accent your are in for a disappointment, because Vietnam is not there yet. when a board state: “English spoken” be ready to have in front of you someone with a very strong accent that you’ll just about understand. it is that bad. of course it is already an amazing effort from Vietnamese people to speak some English, but it will take some time before most people start speaking a decent English. the only Vietnamese that can speak good English are the one with Australian, American boyfriends etc… if you know what I mean. :O)
what about socializing: well unfortunately, vietnam for some reason is not the good destination if you intend to make some new friends being local or foreigners . locals are very close together and don’t open up that much. they will be friendly and stuff but away from that you won’t get too far. but the funny thing is that the foreign crowd is also not that open at all.I don’t know if it is something to do with the feel of the country itself but people are really not keen to talk or be social. the few fellow travelers i met that were also thinking on meeting other like most places in Asia were actually quite surprised by the coldness of the tourists. but when you look closely you can see that in Vietnam you find a specific type of crowd. it is merely couples or small group of friends on a mission not really keen on sharing too much time with others. so if you are single better be ready to spend some time on your own or other wise go with someone else. now the other interesting thing is the feels you have in the air. it just never feels chill and care free in Vietnam. even when in some bars they are trying to create the cool atmosphere by putting fancy deco, couch outside near the sea, hammock, decent music etc… you never get that : “yeah that’s chill out” kind of things. maybe because you can feel local people are not chill most of the time :O( anyway Vietnam is Vietnam and its not Thailand or India, so don’t expect to be in chill out mode while being there. and do remember the number of single travelers is very low.
for surfers: I am a surfer myself and I can tell you that there is no real surf in Vietnam. the footage from apocalypse now were taken somewhere else because Vietnam does not have the proper coast and exposure for get real surf. so if you intend to go there on a mission, forget it, as it is totally useless. the only waves I have seen are the usual beach breaks breaking in all direction or just on the shore. maybe during a typhoon swell geared with an airplane or helicopter you might spot a break somewhere but generally speaking the coast of Vietnam does not have the potential for surfing.
don’t have too much expectation: sorry to say but a lot of people I have met including me where not that impressed after hearing so much hype about this country. and it is true that while some part of Vietnam might be very impressive like halong bay the mekong delta or the mountains in the north and central, the rest of the country fail to impress and does not give that feeling of: “yes I will come back”. once again better see for yourself but the best is to arrive with no expectations.
The critical Frenchman
Tags: , 2008, best time to go, diving, english, fast facts, hotels, information, language, surf in vietnam, transport, Travel, Vietnam, weahter, Tag Index