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Ho Chi Minh City | Mekong delta | Southern & central highlands | Da Lat | South central coast | Nha Trang | Central provinces | Hoi An | Hué | The DMZ | Vinh | Hanoi | Ha Long Bay | Haiphong | Northern mountains | » The Spring Hotel at 44 Le Thanh Ton lived up to its reputation of helpful and friendly staff. Excellent value.
» I'd just like to recommend Sinh and his tour company SinhBalo Adventures. He was incredibly knowledgeable and very helpful on my recent visit. He stood out head and shoulders above the competition in terms of reliability.
» The wholly Taiwanese-invested Fosaco held a soft opening for its eco-tourism resort covering 25ha in Nhuan Duc Commune, Cu Chi District, HCMC. The resort, capitalized at over US$1 million, has gardens, areas for animals, cute pets and ostrich, handicraft showrooms, Vietnamese restaurants, and a water park. It also features music shows and skills to make handicrafts by Muong, Bana, Thai and Chau Ro ethnic peoples.
» Serious crime, thankfully, is rare. Petty crime, such as bag snatching, is rife in Ho Chi Minh City. In general women are targeted far more heavily than men. A few tips:
» The most common taxi scams are taking you the long way around or "modified" meters. Either way, there's little you can do if you don't know your way around. You must pay what's on the meter. One other common occurrence is the driver "not having enough change". This is common with cyclos and motorbike taxis, too. Always try to keep a supply of smaller notes on you.
» Long An province has started construction work on Thanh Nien Garden in Thanh Hoa District and Tan Lap Floating Tourism Village in Moc Hoa Town. The first project will cost VND36 billion and the second VND45billion. The resorts include sections for wild animals, gardens, hotel accommodations and areas for picnic activities.
» According to Radio Australia, Amnesty International has urged Vietnam to halt repression of the ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands. The area was the scene of widespread unrest in 2001 (sparked by land grievances and a government crackdown on their Christian faith), during which more than 1000 people fled to Cambodia.
» We spent a day in Da Lat on a country-side "motorbike" tour with two locals as our guides, as it proves to be more hassle free to venture off this way. Our guides were very informative, and we enjoyed going to agricultural farms, incense-making "factory" (which is really a one room shed where one woman rolls incense), and going to the local Chua Lam Pagoda and monastery. Chris and I loved the opportunity to talk with one of the monks there; we both wanted to chat the whole day with him, but our guides moved us along to the next activity. We had the opportunity to visit an ethnic minority village which earned it's nickname, Chicken Village, due to the HUGE statue of a chicken (no kidding!) at the village's ctr. Some pray to the chicken in hopes of a good harvest. Others believe there is a love legend that goes with it, which eludes me at the moment, but the begging inhabitants make it hard to understand anything from this particular village, minus their evident poverty level. I would candidly say that they've had much exposure to tourists...and understand how to pull the heart-strings of travellers wanting to do good passing through.
» Asia Pulse/VNA reports on a draft plan by Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) to build a 260-megawatt hydroelectricity plant on the Ba Ha River in the central province of Phu Yen. If given the go-ahead, construction is scheduled to start in 2004. Over 5000 people will have to be resettled.
» Re Mama Hanh's boat trip - I wish I had known more about this trip - I don't think that I would have gone! I guess that it was an experience - I suppose that it made matters worse that the weather wasn't very good and so we felt that the water was too cold to swim. All in all, a very bizarre day - what I thought was really weird, was that it was so un-Vietnamese... I don't think that the average Vietnamese goes out on a boat, gets drunk and doped out and then plays really loud music, so that the whole bay can hear! In some ways, I thought that it was quite offensive to the Vietnamese culture and I'm sure that if it didn't bring money into the locals' pockets, they would not put up with it. It's really a matter of taste and we bumped into loads of people who really raved about it, but I think that people just have to keep in mind that it's not a cultural experience at all! There were other trips available, and I don't think that they were all like Mama Hanh's.
» I only had two days to spend here. The first day, I spent 20,000 VND and took a 2-hour bus ride north to Dai Lanh. Dai Lanh has a very picturesque harbour with many fishing boats at anchor, and I enjoyed poking around the place for half a day. The second day I took Mama Hanh’s boat tour. For US$7 you get some snorkeling around a reef, a huge seafood lunch, another huge spread of tropical fruits, and of course the floating bar. I particularly enjoyed the floating bar, where we’d float in life preserver rings with a drink in one hand and a smoke in the other and chat to our neighbours.
» Three recommendations. Rhum Cafe on 17/3 Phan Dinh Phung St: You walk down a short path away from the road, comming to a cosy bar nicely and tastefully decorated, with pooltable and a friendly couple running the bar - real barman experience giving real and good drinks. Cafe 96, 96 Bach Dang St. - rest looks like a painters worst nightmare but it has the best food I tasted in Hoi An - better than mes amis/des amis and without all the french selfcouncious bragging you get at mes amis/des amis. The fried Wantons were just delicious chunks of paradise. Thuong Cloth Shop, 30 Le Loi St: Good quality and friendly service that considers the small details!
» Hai's Scout Cafe, 98 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street. Tel 863210. A new cafe run by a Hai who has spent time in Australia offers 'Vietnamese cooking classes, sandwiches, cakes and muffins, latte, cappucino & expresso. Hoi An specialities.' plus more substantial meals. Their Chicken Salad with Green Papaya and Fresh Mint and White Rose are not to be missed. Also offers Internet, full range of beers and wine.
» A couple of recommendations: Cafe Phuong Nam, 5 Rue Hung Voung. Real good and cheap food, the best fruitshakes as the sign says.
» We checked out most of the hotels along the small alleyway opposite the Century Riverside Inn. The Mimosa has sharpened up it's act and is now a friendly family run 6 bedroom guesthouse. Simple, clean rooms with attached hot bath. No mossie net. Good value breakfast for $1. French spoken. Laundry done. Cycle friendly people. Double rooms around $8-$10. Avoid top room though. La Caramble Restaurant, 19 Pham Ngu Lao next to Dong Hoi Hotel. Authentic French meals (run by a Frenchman) and local dishes. Excellent presentation, ambience and pleasant staff. Rendevous Cafe, Hung Vuong, next to Hung Vuong Hotel. Good value tasty meals. Friendly staff. Book exchange.
» Forget the overpriced concrete monoliths of Phuong Dong and Huu Nghi and try the Long Binh Hotel, in an alleyway east of HW1 and north of the radio mast. Clean tidy double rooms with attached hot bath, mosquito nets and small balcony under $10. Vinh Moc: From the north turn east at the village of Ho Xa to take a paved road 14km to Vinh Moc. For cylists wishing to stay overnight from Vinh Moc head back on the same road and turn south towards Cua Tung beach about 8kms away. There are two hotels there. The state run Cua Tung (I think that was the name) offers ground floor rooms with nets, attached hot bath for around $10. Across the road by the beach is a restaurant which can rustle up fresh fish, rice and a vegetable dish washed down by a Saigon Beer. Small supply shops selling noodles on this road. Keep heading south and eventually you will rejoin HW1.
» Provincial authorities in Quang Binh have given their in-priciple approval to the development of a US$10 million resort in Dong Hoi town. Truong Thinh Construction, which proposed the resort project, aims to attract holiday makers interested in eco-tourism and beaches. On completion, the resort would be the province's biggest hotel.
» The Thanh Lich Hotel is now a fairly grubby place with small dark rooms which seems to cater to a select group of businessmen and their lady visitors. In other words a brothel. However the Thoang Mai, south of the Kim Lien offers tidy rooms with attached bath and mosquite net and lift for under $10. Cycle friendly place and reasonably quiet as 4th floor away off the road. Accomodation between Vinh and Dong Hoi is reasonably regular. ie every 50 kms. We stayed in a basic bungalow style guesthouse in the small town of Ky Anh, about 100kms out from Vinh.
HANOI » Nam Phuong Hotel, $9 for small double room, clean but staff obsessed with handing key in, too many rules A-Z Queens Cafe (now Hanoi Spirit House), 50 Hang Be, clean basic rooms for $8-10. Seems to be room for negotiation. One room with large balcony. 12 bed dorms $2.50 per bed. Clean tidy. Internet available. Cyclist friendly. Leaving Hanoi for Haiphong cyclists have to cross on the railway bridge. Flat busy route to Haiphong but protected by barriers.
» Thuong Mai Hotel, 20/23 Minh Kai Street. Clean, tidy rooms, attached bath, hot water, mosquito nets. $9 for double. Some cheaper rooms without bath. Hoang Y restaurant, back towards the quay from Flightless Bird, does good quality seafood at good prices and charming hosts. Getting to Cat Ba Island by bicycle. Go East down Dien Bien Phu and keep going until you reach the ferry port. Ferries start at 0800 and every 1 1,2 hours. Highway QL10 from Haiphong to Ninh Binh is now a newish road with bridges and no more ferries. Traffic is steady until HW1 then okay.
» According to Radio Australia, Vietnam's parliament has approved the construction of the controversial hydro-electric power project in Son La. The project has been scaled down in size, but the creation of the reservoir will still result in as many as 91,000 people being relocated. Construction is due to start in 2005, for completion in 2012.
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