Thorn Tree travel forum

FAQ Thread for Vietnam

The purpose of this thread is to provide answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about traveling in Vietnam I hope that this FAQ helps newcomers and others plan their trips to Vietnam. I would like to thank all the posters who have contributed information to this thread. To make searching easier for you, please find my index of some major topics as follows:

1. Visa for Vietnam => find posts #115, 117, 111
2. Ha Long bay tours/Cat Ba => #83, 84
3. Vietnam - China border crossings => #7
4. Vietnam - Laos border crossings => #8, 50, 58
5. Vietnam - Cambodia border crossings => #96, 107
6. What to see in Vietnam? => #12
7. Taxi/bus from airport to cities => #3
8. Train in Vietnam => #76
9. The lunar new year (Tet) => #23, 80, 114
10. Bus from Hanoi to Vientiane => #79
11. Bus/train from Hanoi to Kunming => #105, 106
12. Bus/train from Hanoi to Nanning => #95, 99, 100
... more »

Note about Hanoi massage salon mentioned in LP

Hi all, SF Salon & Spa mentioned in LP seemed like a good choice for a massage. Unfortunately, it is no longer at 16 P Hang Buom. The signboard was still hanging though and said it had "removed to 30 Cau Dong". We walked to Cau Dong, but there didn't seem to be a no.30 at all. In fact, nothing on this street was open when we were there around 7pm. So anyone thinking of heading there might want to try calling them up before making a wasted trip.

Note about Hanoi eatery mentioned in LP

Hi all, this is about an eatery in Hanoi that specialises in "cha ca" (filleted fish slices grilled over a charcoal stove) called Cha Ca La Vong located at 14 P Cha Ca. Note that this is the only food they sell, thus there is no menu. It certainly has a very authentic, smoky atmosphere about it, but the price is no longer 80,000d (as was mentioned in LP) but 100,000d per person. What's disappointing was that the portion of fish estimated for each person was miserable. We got about 5-7 slices of fish per person and each slice was about the size of half a thumb. We would have liked at least twice the portion of fish to feel like we were getting a meal. To be fair, the fish was not bad tasting, but the portion was so dreadfully small that we couldn't help feeling that it was a rip-off. To add on, service was generally terrible. We paid 500,000d for 5 people and for that price in Hanoi,... more »

Northern Laos Loop Journey Time / Recommendations

I'm trying to plot my laos travel strategy at the moment on a limited
time schedule. based on past travel / trek experience along with
current accounts of the mekong "party scene", my intuition is telling
me that making a loop trip in the north of the country is where i
should be focusing the limited travel time i have. unfortunately i'm
probably looking realistically at about 2 weeks (preferably 12 days)
for total loop time.

based on what i've read, my thought would be to start in LP, slowboat
upstream on the mekong to huay xai (to get 2 days on the mekong
proper) and then start looping up north to some of the towns there..
Luang Nam Tha for one. Then from there further on to Phongsali etc.
maybe get a little trekking in, etc. maybe a nice outpost not on the
beaten path quite yet. then make my way back down via another route to
LP, preferably taking a river of... more »

Christmas Eve in Saigon

Hi, I will be arriving the afternoon of dec 24 and was wondering if someone who will be there as well has got some suggestions on how to spend Christmas Eve. Thanks a bunch and hope to see ya.

1st time SE Asia - which way round?

Hi everyone,

my fiancé and I will be travelling Sout East Asia as part of our RTW Trip. Neither of us have been to SE Asia before.

We'll be flying from Kathmandu into BKK, and out of Singapore. We'll be there from mid-December 2010 until early May 2011. I know, this sounds like ages away, but we leave in May and I'd like to have at least a rough idea of what we're going to do (although it's probably going to change at least 3 times anyway...) :)

As I said we'll be flying into BKK and only want to stay as long as we have to to get our Myanmar Visas (or is it possible to get them in Kathmandu?). So then we're off to Myanmar for 28 days, flying back into BKK, probably mid January.

We then want to travel through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia (most probably peninsular only) to catch our flight home to NZ from Singapore (only want to stay there for a day or two), ... more »

HUe- looking for a used book store

hi- need some new reading material for the buses/train rides. anyone know the address of a decent used book store in Hue? thanks

Laos to Vietnam overland by bus

My son recently sent this e-mail. I am not sure of the exact entry point into Vietnam but his story confirms what I have read elsewhere. I will definite fly to Hanoi as we pass thru Laos in Feb.

"Just a quick note about the bus ride from vientiane to hanoi...it was brutal, the worst of our trip so far. First off, as soon as we got on the bus, we were told that foreigners must sit in the back, even though at the time there were other open seats...so we went to the back. The bus workers were very rude and aggressive, and ended up packing the excess baggage at our feet, taking up any kind of leg room we might have hoped for. We got to the border at 3am, and had to wait 4 hrs for it to open, then when it finally did it was chaos and nobody really showed us what needed to be done...but we eventually made it through. After 20 hours of unpleasantness, we got dropped off on the side of th... more »

Visit the whole Vietnam or stay Mid/South-have budget concern! Please help

Hello, all

Thank you for reading my post. So finally I will be start working in Jan after 12 months unemployment, I'd like to see as much as I could within my 12 days trip (2 half days and 10 full days). However, I am concerned about the cost.

Questions 1 Would you recommend me to go for Route A or Route B? perhaps adding Laos?? Is there any place I should skip or add?

A) South and Mid-Vietnam
HCM (2 days)- Cu Chi tunnal and Cao Dai (1 day) - Mekong Delta (2 days) - Hue (2 days) - Hoi An (2days) - Da lat ( 2 days) - Nha Trang (1 day)

B) South North Vietnam
HCM (2 days) - Cu Chi tunnal and Cao Dai (1 day) - Mekong Delta (1 days) - Hoi An ( 2 days) - Hue (2 days) - Ha Noi (2 days)- H Long Bay (2 days)

Question 2 Will Route B cost much more than Route A becuase of the travel expense? I am hoping to take train up to the north and return to HCM b... more »