Flat, low-lying, and with interconnecting waterways, the Delta is one
of the most fertile and densely populated places on Earth.
(Of course its people will suffer as the sea level rises,
see the note on
climate change
and Vietnam on this page.)
Denece and I had a (US$20) two-day tour of the Mekong Delta on our first
(2004) visit to Vietnam.
The tour included travel in boats in the Saigon area and the Can Tho
area, as well as busses between those places.
There were visits to various places of interest such as a coconut candy
'factory' and a rice noodle 'factory', and a short performance of
Vietnamese traditional music and song was included.
The weather was hot, but the boats had protection from the direct sunlight,
and from the occasional torrential downpour (which lowered the temperature
for a while).
| |
| |
Four on a scooter is not an unusual sight anywhere in a Vietnamese city,
although not easy to capture on a photo.
| |
|
| |
Crossing the busier streets in Ho Chi Minh can be a bit daunting until
you get used to it.
| |
|
| |
A very small part of a market in the Pham Ngu Lao area of Ho Chi Minh.
All the larger cities in Vietnam have very well stocked markets where
prices are very low and, it seems, you can buy almost anything.
Some of the most interesting, and cheapest, eating is available in the
markets, although language can be a major problem.
|
|
Commonly called Saigon outside of Vietnam, but officially Ho Chi Minh
City, this is the biggest city in the country and the commercial hub.
(Officially, Saigon is a relatively small section of Hi Chi Minh City.)
You can pay a lot for accommodation, or you can get a very pleasant and
comfortable air conditioned double room with en-suite bathroom and toilet
for around Aust$20 per night (including breakfast).
We stayed at Hotel 64 in both 2004 and 2006.
General shopping opportunities are probably Vietnam's best, or at least
most extensive, in Saigon.
|
|
| |
A part of the excellent vegetarian restaurant Phien Tinh Tien,
17 Huynh Thuc Khang street, Dalat
|
| |
Vintage motorbike in Restaurant de Famille; one of many restaurants
with excellent food
|
|
A bakery photographed from both ends.
It was on the river that runs parallel to Phan Dinh Phung street.
I just happened to notice the beautiful fresh bread as I walked past the
door.
It seems to use waste wood as fuel for its ovens.
Delicious fresh bread from a very ordinary looking source.
|
|
|
|
Part of Dalat market.
Most of it is in the buildings on the right side of the photo.
Note the pastel colours of the buildings in the background; very typical of
Vietnam.
Also interesting is the Araucaria tree; (right of centre)
these were fairly common in the Dalat area.
|
|
|
| |
At Dalat Flower Garden
We saw plant scuptures such as this many places around Vietnam.
They would be quiet impractical in Australia's low humidity, too hard
to stop them drying out.
|
|
|
Dalat is at an altitude of 1500m.
You might think that it would be cool, but in June (summer) it is quite
warm during the day; the nights are comfortably cool.
We did not have air conditioning in our hotel (Dreams 2), and found that
the room was quite comfortable so long as we opened the window for an hour
or more in the early evening.
See also
accommodation.
Dalat is much less on the tourist map of Westerners than the more
popular of Vietnamese destinations.
On the other hand, it is one of the most popular destinations with Vietnamese
holiday makers; and the locals are not silly.
Of all the places Denece and I stayed in Vietnam in 2008, the management
of Dreams 2 hotel in (Phan Dinh Phung street) Dalat,
Luyen Nguyen and his mother, were the most
helpful and it seemed, honest.
Both spoke good or workable English, and gave advice that seemed to be
aimed to advantage us, rather than them.
The breakfasts too, at Dreams, were impossible to fault.
The front door of the hotel was opened at 0600hrs each day.
I rise early, and would have liked to go out around 0500hrs.
I mentioned this to Luyen early in our stay and he told me that all I
had to do was to knock on the door to the foyer and a lad who slept there
would let me out.
Although I tried this once, I didn't get any response!
There are many interesting places that can be visited both in and around
Dalat.
There are a number of pagodas, a cable car ride, the Crazy House, several
waterfalls, ethnic minority villages, coffee plantations, commercial
flower gardens, a short and quaint train journey, a palace of the last
king of Vietnam, and other attractions.
We travelled by bus from Dalat to Nha Trang.
In the vicinity of Dalat the great majority of the trees were conifers;
as we travelled north broad-leaved trees began to dominate.
I inquired in Dalat about the pine trees, thinking that they seemed
unlikely to be local natives, but could not get any definite answer.
It is possible that they were planted after the USians had denuded all
the hills with herbicides during the war.
Denece and I ate at many more places than those listed below, but did not
make (decipherable) notes on them.
The simpler places aiming at the less well-off Vietnamese were extremely
cheap by Western standards, and, in our experience, had good food.
The more comfortable places, those with a door, air conditioning and with
table settings, were more expensive, but still much cheaper than you would
pay in any Western country.
Language was more likely to be problematic in the simpler places, but one
advantage was that the food was more traditionally Vietnamese.
| Restaurants in Dalat
|
|---|
| Name | Notes | Cost
|
| Vegetarian restaurant Phien Tinh Tien on
17 Huynh Thuc Khang street; near Crazy House
| Good food, great setting – you can eat in the garden or indoors if you
prefer
| 2 main cources, 2 beers, 82 000VND (~Au$5.50)
|
| Hao Vi Cafe, 219 Phan Dinh Phung
| Aimed more at locals than foreigners, good food; we ate there often
| Excellent value
|
| Trong Dong Vietnamese Restaurant, 220 Phan Dinh Phung St.
| Very good food
| More expensive than some
|
Also see the note on Hoang Huy Seafood restaurant in
Quy Nhon and the Huu Nghi Restaurant in
Hoi An.
|
|
| |
Sunrise on the waterfront at Nha Trang
| |
|
| |
In the Nha Trang sea-front park, late afternoon
| |
On the very long eastern coast, Nha Trang is a very popular beach
resort.
We visited it in 2006 and 2008.
The beach is sandy and clean, but sometimes the waves can be dumpers and
make swimming in the shallows unpleasant and getting beyond the breakers
difficult.
Still, the hotels are good and many have swimming pools.
Nha Trang is not one of our favourite places, we much preferred the
relatively undeveloped
Quy Nhon.
|
|
| |
Boats pulled up on the Quy Nhon beach for maintenance
| |
|
| |
An old bloke's discussion group
| |
|
| |
Getting through the surf
|
|
The part of the beach where the fishing boats are repaired is not
where you would want to go swimming.
It seems that quite a few people live on the boats, and crap on the
beach nearby – one of the facts of life in Asia.
There is a much cleaner section of the beach further along to the
east.
In July Quy Nhon is hot!
From around 1000 to 1400 hours it's best to stay inside with the air
conditioner, if you possibly can.
When you go out walk slowly, avoid the sun if you can, and have breaks
for iced coffee (I found eating the ice from the iced coffee helped to
cool me down).
The sea is cool, but if your hotel is not very close to the beach you
will be just as hot again before you get back.
I swam in Nha Trang at 1630hrs; there were hundreds of people in the water.
I swam in Quy Nhon at about 1030hrs, I was the only one in the water
in sight.
This was at least partly, I suspect, because no-one who doesn't need
to be out after 1000hrs would be – it's simply too hot.
There were many more swimmers in Quy Nhon at other times of the day.
The best
restaurant that Denece and I ate at in Vietnam in 2008
was Hoang
Huy Seafood (Nha Hang), 18 Xuan Dieu (next door to Barbaras Kiwi Cafe).
The service was unbeatable, prices very low, setting great – a quiet
part of the street on the beach front – and the food was top.
(Geographic coordinates, N13.77180, E109.24121)
Also see
eating.
The round basket boats are used to get from the shore to the fishing
boats.
They seem remarkably well suited for their use; they skim over the
water rather than cutting through the water as does a conventions
dinghy.
|
|
|
A beautiful hotel (probably out of our price range) in
Hoi An.
Vietnamese architecture is much more imaginative and decorative
than is Australian.
|
|
All but the very cheapest hotels in the lower parts of the country have
air conditioned rooms; we didn't have, or need, air conditioning in our
room in Dalat (altitude 1500m).
Room prices didn't vary greatly across the country.
Of course there was hardly any limit to how much you could pay if you
wanted to, but, in general, a good room could be had for around Au$25 per
night in the more touristy places, going down to Au$10-$18 in the less
visited places (like Quy Nhon and Danang).
Breakfast is usually included in the price of the room.
This usually means a cooked breakfast if you want one, but generally you
eat so much and so well at lunch and dinner you will welcome a light
breakfast.
Many hotels provide limited Internet access at no extra charge.
Also see the note about Dreams 2 Hotel in Dalat.
|
|
| |
A woman sculling a wooden boat on the Hoi An river in the early morning
| |
|
| |
Mobile phones are all the go in Vietnam too!
Note that the bloke is smoking and talking on his phone while a woman is
doing the work of paddling; this seems typical.
| |
|
| |
Intricate wooden panel in the Trieu Chau Assembly Hall
| |
|
| |
A general view of the Hoi An waterfront in the early morning
| |
Hoi An has at least two main attractions to Western tourists.
Shopping for tailor made clothes is probably some of the best in the
world, quite probably the best in the world if you consider value for
money; and then there is the fascinating and historical architecture.
In addition, the food is excellent, a boat tour on the river is well
worth-while and can be instructive, and there is a good beach about four
kilometres away.
(Jellyfish stings can be a problem at the beach.)
We heard while we were there that Hoi An had been added to the UN
World Heritage list.
One of the best, and best value, restaurants in Hoi An in our opinion was
Huu Nghi Restaurant, 56 Bach Dong Street (on the river).
Hoi An is one of the most tourist developed places in Vietnam.
|
|
| |
Foreigners and cameras are still a novelty in Danang.
| |
| |
A narrow quintessentially Vietnamese house across the river from central
Dalat.
Although narrow, it was long; the length was hidden in this end-on
photo.
|
| |
Danang is only 30km from the very touristy town of Hoi An and most of
the tourists who visit Hoi An go through Danang.
Yet very few of them spend any time in Danang which, consequently, provides
a refreshing change from the tourist hordes.
The children of Danang are fascinated by Western tourists and their
cameras; they love having their photos taken and collapse into giggling
helplessness when shown the photos.
Denece and I only had a part of a day in Danang.
If we go back to Vietnam we'd like to spend more time there.
We stayed in Xuan Hung hotel, 56 Phan Chu Trihm street.
(Very good room, Au$19, including breakfast – but coffee was an extra
dollar if you wanted that at breakfast!)
It was a fairly short walk from the water-front of the river, where
many of the locals walk in the relative coolness of morning and evening.
One minor problem we had was getting out of the hotel early in the morning.
We had to wake one of the staff, who was sleeping in the reception area;
then he had to go down to the big front roller-door, bang on the door
and wake the man who was sleeping on the street in front of the door
(the big door could only be opened from the outside).
We ate dinner at a restaurant on the esplanade by the bridge (Nha hang
Sao Do, 50 Bach Dang street).
The food was excellent, and the menu exotic; it included – if I remember
rightly – horse, crocodile, ostrich, camel, and "muscle of cow".
Unfortunately we did not record the name of the restaurant.
|
|
| |
Throne room of the last king of Vietnam
| |
|
| |
A little of the grounds of one of the Hue palaces
| |
|
| |
Died sticks ready to coat with incence
|
|
Once the capital of Vietnam, there are more palaces in and around Hue
than you can poke a stick at.
Hue is also conveniently close to the Demilitarised Zone of the American
War with its restored Vinh Moc tunnels where Vietnamese lived to escape
the bombing and several important and historical American war sites.
|
|
Gekkos on an illuminated sign in Hue
|
|
|
| |
This photo was taken near the entrance to Amazing Cave, where hordes of
tourists go.
| |
|
| |
Some of the islands in Amazing Cave area
|
|
Halong Bay (Latitude N20.8°, Longitude E107.1°)
is a maze of steep limestone islands in the north-east of the country.
It has been given World Heritage status, and is the biggest tourist
attraction in Vietnam.
When Denece and I visited, June 2006, the visitor numbers were being
handled without spoiling the area; I hope that remains to be the case.
|
|
| |
The local people walked and exercised around Hoan Kiem Lake in the cool of
the early morning
| |
|
|
Now you see them...
Motorbikes on the street in the evening; they are there throughout the
daylight hours too.
| |
|
|
Now you don't...
The motorbikes disappear indoors overnight; this photo was taken in
the early morning at the same place as the one above.
| |
Vietnam's second-biggest capital and city, Hanoi is where you will
probably fly into or out of if you go to the north of the country.
Our first visit to Hanoi was in 2004 and did not give a good first
impression of Vietnam.
We had dropped in to Hanoi only to change planes on our way to Britain.
There were signs in the airport that stated clearly that airport
exit taxes did not have to be paid by those who were in transit.
Yet we and others found that there was no way we could get through
the airport without paying the tax.
Did it go into the pockets of corrupt officials?
We'll probably never know.
Denece and I went back to Hanoi with our kids (then in their late twenties)
in 2006.
Hoan Kiem Lake is my favourite place of Hanoi.
I start my day early in the morning.
(Especially in a place with a hot climate like Vietnam, it is the best part
of the day.
Why not make the most of the part of the day that is coolest and most
comfortable?)
Many of the people of Hanoi (it seems the Vietnamese in general) also
make an early start.
Before daylight there were hundreds or thousands of Hanoiese walking
around Hoan Kiem Lake; mostly in a clockwise direction (if my memory
is correct).
Another thing that I first noticed in Hanoi (and saw repeated in many other
Vietnamese cities) was that the motorbikes that are so numerous on the
streets during the day disappear at night.
They are either being ridden on the streets or parked on the footpaths
during the day, but are brought inside overnight.
Two photos on the right show the same bit of street in the evening and
again in the early morning.
While many Vietnamese were out on foot, it seems that they wait until
later before bringing most of the motorbikes out.
|
|
| |
Girls of the Black H'mong ethnic minority in Sapa
| |
|
| |
Tapas "Echo Retreat" in the hills of the Sapa region
| |
Sapa is in the mountains near the northern border with China.
We got there by night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai, then minibus up the
mountainside.
Lao Cai is in a deep and remarkable straight valley that is conveniently
positioned on a direct line to Hanoi; the railway, of course, follows
the valley.
Sapa is built around rather steep hills and is interesting, among other
things, for the several minority ethnic groups who live through the
nearby hills and valleys.
In 2006 we stayed a couple of nights at an 'Echo-Retreat' called Tapas
that was perhaps a half-hour drive away.
Tapas itself was beautiful, comfortable, and very well run; it's only
disadvantage was that we were told that we were not supposed, by law,
to leave the resort without a local guide.
This was apparently another strange law made by the local government
with the expressed intention of stopping undesirable interaction
between the foreign visitors and the local people, but perhaps really
aimed at making the local officials feel that they are in control of
where the foreigners can go and what they can do.
This may have changed since 2006.
|
|
| |
Street stall coffee in Ho Ann
| |
|
| |
The coffee in the glass
| |
It is worth adding a bit to this page to talk about the sort of coffee
you are likely to get at street stalls in Vietnam.
In my opinion, the coffee as the Vietnamese have it at the street stalls
is even better than that served to tourists at most of the restaraunts,
not for the coffee itself, but for the way that it is served.
There was much variation in the serving styles at street stalls (and some of
these may well have been regional), the most elaporate was that which I
encountered in a stall, near the Japanese bridge on the waterfront if I
remember correctly, in Hoi Ann.
This is pictured on the right.
The pot is full of green tea, some of which has been poured into a glass;
the other glass contains water (the far glass was left behind by another
patron).
The aluminium cup has hot water, apparently to keep the glass of coffee
hot.
Tea and water came with the coffee, without me requesting them and at no
extra charge; most street stall managers had little English, and I have no
Vietnamese.
In the second photo the glass of coffee has been taken out of the aluminium
cup; note that the coffee is very strong, the glass is quite small, and
that there is a thick layer of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of
the coffee glass.
Black coffee is an option, I think most Vietnamese drink it white, like this.
Coffee at a street stall was almost always 5000 Dong (Aust$0.40);
once in Saigon they asked only 4000D.
|
|
|
A seller of pottery whistles in Hoi An
photographed in 2006.
I believe it was the same lady selling the same pottery whistles in
the same place in 2008.
| |
|
|
Vegetable gardens at Lat village near
Dalat.
The Lat village is home to a number of people from one of the Vietnamese
ethnic minorities.
| |
|
|
A part of Linh An Pagoda near
Dalat
One of many beautiful temples and pagodas in Vietnam
| |
|
| |
Elephant waterfall near
Dalat
| |
|
|
Mid-day service in the main Cao Dai temple which is within day-trip
distance of Saigon
If you must indulge in religious delusions, this is a beautiful place to
do it.
|
|
Trains in Vietnam are comfortable, although not fast.
The night trains are very convenient, so long as there is one when and
where you need it.
'Soft Sleepers' provide comfortable and cheap travel, four bunks to
a compartment; the toilets are at the ends of the carriages.
If there is a well timed train, you can get a good night's sleep,
a night's accommodation, and get to where you want to go – all in one.
In our experience, booking on the trains could be made much easier –
this seems to be one thing that still suffers from the poor service that
seems a characteristic of socialist economies.
There are also poor and desperate people who inhabit the stations hoping
to be able to 'help' foreigners find their seats or bunks and carry the
luggage; for a small fee.
On one train a pushy man grabbed my case, without asking, lifted it
up onto a high shelf in our train compartment, and demanded payment.
I tried to point out that I didn't need, want, or ask for his help, but
he would not leave until I took my case off the high shelf to prove
that he was superfluous; I put it back up after he left looking for others
to help before the train left.
We travelled by night train both directions from Hanoi to Lao Cai,
from Hanoi to Hue, and again from Nha Trang to Saigon (this last train
got us into Saigon around 0330hrs, rather an inconveniently early
arrival.
ATM machines are easy to find in the larger or more touristy cities in
Vietnam.
Internet access, likewise, is easy to find.
Laundry services are usually provided by hotels, but might be even cheaper
if you take your washing to the easily found laundries yourself.
Posting stuff back home is very easy, at least in Hoi An where we needed
to send a box full off.
We took our stuff to the post office.
The clerk found a box the right size, helped us pack it, and then helped
us with the necessary paper work.
We later learned that Post Office staff would have come to our hotel
and done it all there had we requested it.
Vietnam is hot.
With
climate change it will probably get
hotter.
Much of the highly populated parts of Vietnam is very low-lying.
As the sea level rises, and typhoons become more intense and common,
flooding will increase, especially in the Mekong and Red River deltas.
The Vietnamese are responsible for only a very small percentage of the
carbon dioxide (CO2) that has been added to the atmosphere in the last
couple of hundred years and is the main cause for climate change.
Nations like Australia and the
USA are much more to
blame for the problem, but the Vietnamese will probably suffer more
than we will.
This, and similar ethical considerations connected with the
record of USA and Australia, weighs on my conscience and should weigh on
the conscience of all thinking Westerners.
Vietnam has a very mixed bag of
religions.
Christian churches are common, Buddhist temples (and pagodas) are everywhere,
ancestor worship and animism is widely practiced, Vietnam is the home of
Cao-Diaism, and then, I believe, there are Taoism and Confucianism.
I had the impression that at least some of the Vietnamese mix their
religions, praying at several temples devoted to different religions.
The Vietnamese people seem very tolerant with regard to religion, perhaps
with such diversity they realise that to believe that whichever one they
followed was "the one true religion" would be a highly questionable
assumption.
The communist government, to their credit, tried to discourage superstitions
(which of course includes all religions), but don't seem to have been very successful.
I have written on the Vietnam war in
another page and, in regard to the USA, on my page
The Real USA.
