In a couple weeks I’ll be travelling through and around Vietnam and Laos. Since my GF did all the arrangements (we go with a tour company) I only have weak grasp of what we’ll see and what to expect.
As far as I can remember we’ll cross from Thailand to Laos around the center of the country and go to some place called Pra Baang (or something similar), I think we’ll spend one day in Laos. On the second we’ll enter Vietnam and travel from the center South. The names I could retain where Hue City and Da Nang, I think we’ll also go all the way to Halong Bay. Besides the last I really don’t know what Vietnam has to offer in terms of tourism attractions. What should be looking forward to see there?
A friend at the office stressed that I should be very careful with money in Vietnam, when he was there last year everyone and their uncle tried to cheat him out of his money.
Any other things I should be aware of?
I haven’t been to Vietnam, but if you like, uh… rustic places, Laos is awesome.
The place you’re going is Luang Prabang. It’s rather nice. Be sure to check out the caves along the Mekong, you can book a tour just about anywhere (a boat is needed).
One of my favorite trips was heading north in Thailand, north of Chang Rai, crossing over to Laos, and taking a slow boat to Luang Prabang. It took two days and the scenery was awesome. And when I say slow boat, it was more like a kind of dhow sort of thing (pic) than a passenger boat.
Be warned that getting around in Laos can be EXTREMELY difficult. There are few flights, and the roads are horrendous. The bus I took from L.P. to Vientiane was like a flatbed truck with planks for seats. I have no clue if things have gotten better in the last eight years. Anyway, leave flex time for transportation difficulties.
You would be well advised to check on malaria medications, and investigate the visa situation before you leave home. And no, you shouldn’t use the water to brush your teeth, although I rarely follow that rule and have so far been okay… but I wouldn’t advise anyone to follow my stupidity.
Have a great time! I’m doing a Northern Vietnam trip next year and am already obsessively planning it. My itinerary includes Hanoi-Sapa-Halong Bay-Hue-Hoi An with side trips to Tam Coc and the Perfume Pagoda. And a long time in Hoi An because I’m getting a new wardrobe made there.
Post when you get back, I’d love to hear about what was/wasn’t worth it.
Yes, I like Luang Prabang. Nice little town, but I hear it’s maybe filled up since I was there last. Never fly domestically in Laos, although Lao Airlines’ international flights are okay; higher safety standard for international. But I’d be wary about the bus between Luang Prabang and Vientiane, as bandit attacks not too far outside the capital are not unheard of, with everyone on the bus killed as a matter of course. I think it’s been at least a couple of years since I heard of that happening, though. However, Ale says he has only one day in Laos, so I doubt he’ll be see Vientiane. Yes, the caves are good, and there’s a great waterfall an hour or so away (and I liked the signs around the picnic tables that said in English: “Please keep cleaning.”)
There’s a town in Laos called Vang Vieng which is somewhere between Vietienne and Luang Prabang. It’s a charming little village. A popular thing to do is float down the river in an innertube, which I really regret not having heard about until I was leaving. The valley is super pretty. There’s also a crack into a cave that my teenage guide kept on trying to get me to jump into the rushing river below it claiming that I would pop out outside the cave. He also offered me some opium, but I chickened out on both suggestions.
Hao Long Bay is magical. It looks like a friggin’ postcard. Make sure you take a tour that allows you to stay at least two nights on that island that most tours go to. Watch Indochine for inspiration.
You should check out Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations show on Viet Nam. It showed some really spectacular street food in some particular spot in Saigon. Nevertheless, I don’t think there really is any bad food in Viet Nam (although, I didn’t really care for the dog).
Na Trang is a really awesome beach town. There used to be some drunken snorkeling trip available, which I also didn’t learn about it before leaving town.
Two years ago I did a motor bike trip through North Vietnam and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I’m not too knowledgeable about the South, but in my experience: don’t expect too much touristy things. People don’t speak English, or very broken, and it can be hard to get yourself understood (funny story: I once tried to buy two packs of cigarettes and although I knew the word for ‘two’ [hai], the sales woman couldn’t understand that I wanted to buy two packs, and kept trying to sell me two single cigarettes).
The people aren’t ready for much tourism, and don’t expect to get a nice comfy room with hot water and bath. But you go with a tour company, so a lot of things will probably be arranged for you.
The country is very pure though, with lots of places unspoilt. Enjoy yourself and don’t get too hung up one what you are used to at home, and you should be fine.
By the way, if you are traveling from Hue to the South, are you sure you’re going to Ha Long? That’s quite a way out of the way.
I think it depends on your perspective. I thought Viet Nam had a really terrific tourist infrastructure. Compared to Laos, Vietnam is like Germany (at least in 2001). I’m a backpacker kind of traveler and I thought the European/American bus tour people were missing out. I took the train from Saigon to Hue and it was uncomfortable but really interesting. The sleeping car was brutal, so I just hung out in the bar car with the train employees.
As I understand it, the differences between North and South Vietnam are huge. The South is much more set up for tourism. I drove around on a motor bike and can tell you, apart from Ha Noi and Sa Pa, I hardly saw any tourists. At one point the only place to sleep we could find was a decomissioned communist office building that was transferred into some sort of hostel, but didn’t have any running water.
We are traveling by bus (or van, not sure yet). I hope the roads have improved since then, but that was one of the things I tried to argue with my GF against going to Laos by road, it can get complicated.
I already checked about the visa, I can get one at arrival to the Vien Tiane border crossing; I already applied for a visa for Vietnam which I should receive next Tuesday.
About the malaria, what do you suggest? Before moving to Thailand I paid a visit to a doctor to get my vaccines in order, she was quite excited to have a pacient going to an exotic place that would call for all kinds of medicines she never get the chance to prescrive. We talked a little about malaria, she thumbed some medications reference book, stopped at a page and started mumbling to herself “yeah, yeah, you could use this… it’s going to make your teeth go black and fall off though…” some pages later she found some other medicine without such drastic side effects, but I can’t remember what was the name.
Since, AFAIK, we go into Laos via Vien Tiane and onwards to Luang Prabang, I suppose we should do a stop over at that place. If we do I’ll refuse the-jump-in-the-cave and opium deals too…
Well, if we go to Luang Prabang then Halong Bay ain’t too far from it, and it would be on the way to Hanoi. However, as I said I’m a bit fuzzy about the details of the trip. Perhaps the tour goes South up to Hue City and Da Nang. In any case it’s a five day long tour, so we’d probably cover a lot of ground.
Whatever you do, don’t take Lariam. Rumor has it that there are people who don’t have side effects, but everyone I spoke to have had them in one way or another. I myself had the bad kind: night terrors, mild psychosis, not fun. I feel that the side effects are often worse than the actual illness. I don’t take malaria medicine anymore, but if you decide you want to, Malarone is probably the safest.
Aghris, were you going off the beaten path to more remote villages? Because my blog friend and her husband went on a 17 day honeymoon to Vietnam doing the same Hanoi-Sa Pa-Hue-Halong Bay-Hoi An itinerary I will be using and stayed in luxury accomodations all the way. For instance, this hotel only costs $35 and has almost uniformly amazing reviews. People have uploaded pictures and it seems perfectly nice.
Off the beaten path would be a good description for it I suppose. We rented a motor bike in Ha Noi and decided to do the North Vietnam loop. Sa Pa and Ha Long were a few destinations, but we couldn’t travel more than 200-300 kilometers per day, so we were forced to stay at more remote locations as well. I agree that Sa Pa and Ha Long were very nice, but in the North they were almost the only places that were set up for tourism, although we did find a secluded resort somewhere in the middle of nowhere that was dirt cheap and the most luxureous I had ever seen (with free massage, steam baths, etc.). That was nice, as we had travelled 8 hours through pouring rain.
In Pakse, Laos at the moment. Very pretty place, went to an ancient Khmer temple some distance away from the city.
I’ll be going to some other place in Laos tomorrow, and then back to Thailand by Friday. We have already bagged nearly 3500 kilometers on the road!.
My GF and I have taken more than a thousand pictures so far, it’s going to take time to process and upload the best shots, but I’ll let them trickle in here as they come out.
