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St Francis |
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Laos & Vietnam Travel Notes
August 15 - September 6, 2023
About the Trip
Just about the time we were finishing boat work in the yard in Pangkor Marina, Malaysia, we realized our visa was running out. The plan HAD been to cruise up to Thailand, spend a few weeks, and cruise back to the marina to put the boat up for a couple of months' trip back to the USA. But as projects dragged out, the time we would have to spend in Thailand got smaller and smaller. We eventually decided to fly to Vietnam instead.
We didn't spend a lot of time planning this trip. At first, we looked at a "G-Adventures" 10-day tour. Sherry had done one to India with her daughter a few years back. But after browsing through a Lonely Planet, we decided a tour like that would skip too much. So we expanded our timeline from 10 days to 20 days and started laying out a rough plan.
We gathered up all the cruiser-generated info we could find (mainly trip reports from friends). (our "Compendium" of information is linked below).
One of the first things we did was decide to include a quick stop in Laos, just to see a little of the country, and add another country to our "countries visited" list.
Though it is possible to get to Vietnam from Malaysia without flying, we were short on time, so several major hops were done by airplane. It turns out that Vietnam is quite a LONG country. We ended up also scheduling a few jumps on overnight trains. And buses and "Limo-vans" filled in the rest of the transportation.
Here is the overview of the trip:
- Bus from Pangkor to Kuala
Lumpur Airport
- Air Asia flight (thru Bangkok) to Luang Prabang, Laos
- A few days in Laos
- Laos Airlines flight to Hanoi
- About 8 days in
Hanoi and surrounding areas, including Sapa (mountains to the north) and
Halong Bay (cruise destination east of Hanoi)
- Start working our way
south through the central area, with stops at a couple of national parks,
the DMZ, Hue, Danang, and Hoi An
- Fly to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City and
spend a few days there
- Fly back thru Singapore to Ipoh (a 2 hour drive
from Pangkor)
Visas: Americans need visas for both Vietnam and Laos. It was easy to use their online visa application portal, and we were emailed visa approvals within about 3 working days. We printed these out and were asked for them at the airline ticket counter on check-in and at Immigration on arrival.
https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/
These are the current government sites for applying for your visas. You don't need any sponsor letters or any visa agent. Both sites took my American VISA credit card with no problems.
Both sites took American credit cards for the visa application fee.
Travel Arrangements: We made most of the first half of the trip's arrangements ourselves online. (Google Flights, Airline websites, Agoda, Klook, Trip Advisor, etc). But while in Hanoi, and after wasting precious sightseeing time laboriously working on making our own onward travel reservations, we popped into a shop advertising "money changing, and sim cards", and met a very engaging guy who is a travel agent, who convinced us that he could make all our arrangements easier, and for less money than we could. So the 2nd half of the trip we let Tung at Hanoi Old Quarter Travel make most of the arrangements, for hotels, transfers, trains, flights, and tours. This turned out to be a very good decision. Tung did all the hard work, and messaged us every day for feedback on that day's activities and details about the next day's activities.
Attached is a PDF of our overall plan, as well as Tung's itinerary for the things he booked for us.
DIY Travel: Vietnam is easy to travel in. If you have the time, you don't need to book a tour or a use a travel agent. Hotels are easy to book on Agoda or Booking.com, and once at a hotel, the hotels are quite eager to help you with other arrangements (tours, transfers to your next town, etc).
We don't know a single word of Vietnamese, and we were getting around fine. Enough people in Vietnam (in the tourist areas) know English to get by.
Do they Hate Americans? No, in spite of the fact that we bombed the crap out of them in the 60's, it has been long enough that we didn't feel any animosity from anyone at all. (Everyone just sees us as another tourist--ie. walking dollar signs). We got the same friendly interest and smiles that we have gotten in every other country we have traveled through.
What is it like traveling in a Communist Country? Just like traveling anywhere else in SE Asia. Vietnam's tourism infrastructure is pretty new, so it outclassed most of the other SE Asia destinations we have been in recently. ("Best bathrooms in all of SE Asia!")
We had a pretty full (exhausting) trip, and would love to have spent at least double the time.
I don't know what you need to do
to stay longer than the 30-day Visa on Arrival that we got.
Best Time to Go to Vietnam: Dry season is Novemner to April, and so would be the best time to visit. Hanoi and further north will be cold during December and January. Hot and wet season is May to October. We went in September, and found it hot and humid, but fewer crowds. We made sure our hotels/homestays had air conditioning and we were fine. Most "rainy days" were only rainy half the day, and there were only a couple of these.
Time Zone: Vietnam is +7 UTC, so 7am Vietnam time is 9pm USA East Coast, 6pm USA West Coast, 2am in London, and 8am in Malaysia.
Money: Most tourist oriented things quote in USD and Vietnamese Dong (about 25,000VND to $1 US in Aug 2023). There are money change signs everywhere, and many mainstream currencies are accepted. We also found multiple ATMs in nearly every town. The smaller towns and establishments want cash, but a lot of places will take VISA (with a 3-3.5% surcharge tacked on).
There were 2 ATM's in the Hanoi airport.
Cell Sims & Internet: We got one sim at the airport and another in a shop in Hanoi (every other shop in the tourist areas have a sim card sign). Cost $8-10 USD and seemingly unlimited internet for 30 days.
Normally when visiting a new country, we get 2-3 sims at the airport. (one for each of us and one for our mifi hotspot... because for us, communications between us, and internet access is key). We experienced a few cell coverage holes, but for the most part, we had pretty good internet from our phones almost everywhere.
Booking Hotels: We mostly used Agoda or Booking.com, unless someone gave us the name of a recommended hotel, and then we would search for a direct booking site online. (ie, the hotel's own website). The booking sites take around 15% of the booking price, and control your interaction with the hotel (ie, you must communicate thru the app, not directly). This control issue can get problematic, and a direct booking gives more of your $$ to the actual hotel owner vs the advertising site.
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Day 1 - Bus Seri Manjung to Kuala Lumpur $21 for 2p
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Day 2 - Flight from KL to Luang Prabang, Laos $357 for 2p
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Day 3 - Luang Prabang Sightseeing
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Day 4 - Luang Prabang Sightseeing & Flight to Hanoi
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Day 5 - Hanoi Sightseeing
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Day 6 - Hanoi Sightseeing & Night Train to Sapa
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Day 7 - Sapa Arrival
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Day 8 - Sapa Hike Through the Countryside
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Day 9 - Visiting Waterfalls & Luxury Van back to Hanoi
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Day 10 - Halong/Lan Ha Bay Overnight Cruise $330 for 2
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Day 11 - End of Cruise & Travel to Ninh Binh
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Day 12 - Day tour Ninh Binh Highlights
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Day 13 - Motor cycle trip to see additional Ninh Binh sites
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Day 14 - Phong Nha Paradise Cave and Dark Cave
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| Day 15 - Phong Nha Ke Bang Cave Tour |
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Day 16 - Transit to Hue via DMZ with several stops ($136 private taxi)
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Day 17 - Touring in Hue
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Day 18 - Hue to Hoi An via Hai Van Pass and Danang by "Easy Rider" Motor Cycle Tour
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Day 19 - Relaxing Day
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Day 20 - My Son Ruins Tour
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Day 21 - Fly Danang to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City
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Day 22 - Touring Cu Chi Tunnels Complex
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Day 23 - Fly Ho Chi Minh to Ipoh & taxi "home"
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Our Rough Plan in Excel
Spreadsheet format
Hanoi
Old Quarter Travel Agent Bookings