Accommodation
We booked all our accommodation before we left. We set a budget (NZD$120 per night), and then we took turns choosing hotels, which was a great way to get some 'buy in' about the holiday from the kids before we left. It was also fun while we were there, to work out "whose hotel" we were staying in and why they thought it was a good place to stay. For $120 we always got two rooms (family rooms would have been cheaper but two rooms helped us all keep our sanity), breakfast, wifi and usually a swimming pool.
We used booking.com to choose our accommodation - it was the first site where I worked out how to get the actual price of accommodation for 4 people in two rooms, rather than just the cheapest room. The bonus of using booking.com is that we could see how families scored the hotel and it also had an app, which was invaluable when we were in Vietnam (mainly to show taxi drivers where we were going or work out where we were on the map). Just for the record, we have no attachment to booking.com - other than the emotional attachment of having it as our constant companion throughout our holiday.
We used booking.com to choose our accommodation - it was the first site where I worked out how to get the actual price of accommodation for 4 people in two rooms, rather than just the cheapest room. The bonus of using booking.com is that we could see how families scored the hotel and it also had an app, which was invaluable when we were in Vietnam (mainly to show taxi drivers where we were going or work out where we were on the map). Just for the record, we have no attachment to booking.com - other than the emotional attachment of having it as our constant companion throughout our holiday.
Bartering
We got quite good at bartering towards the end of the trip - and still laugh about the look of incredulity on the faces of the women we brought a whole lot of North Face gear from on our first night in Hanoi when we just paid the asking price. Before we left we read all sorts of things about Vietnamese losing respect for people who didn't barter, and you need to get at least 1/3 off the price etc - but we didn't find that was the case (or maybe we were just rubbish at bartering). Before we started bartering, we would ask ourselves "who needs the $1-5 dollars that we will save more? Us or them?" usually it was them, so we would barter in a very lacklustre way and head off, happy with our purchases.
Clothes
The size of our bags meant we didn't have a lot of room for clothes - and luckily temperatures were so hot that we didn't have to worry about bulky clothing. We settled on 2 pairs of shorts, 4 t-shirts each, and a couple of dresses for the girls. What the females of the family decided is that next time we would ditch one of the pairs of shorts and take more dresses - it was SO HOT that dresses were the ONLY thing you could wear. It also pays to pack at least one dress that goes below the knees, and buy a scarf over there to cover up your shoulders (for temple visits). If you are going jungle trekking, also pack long pants and top (preferably lightweight) - helps protect against centipede bites and poison ivy.
Currency
Despite most sites (i.e. booking.com) giving their prices in USD (US Dollars), as it turns out USD were not that widely accepted. Singles were handy for tips, but besides that we mostly used VND (Vietnamese Dong). So here are the things we learned about money:
- We needed $USD to pay for our Visa on Arrival. Apart from that, we didn't really use US money (which was lucky, one currency was enough to get used to. Those US dollars all look the same...) We took $1,000 USD in cash, which we used to exchange for VND at our hotel or currency conversion places (there is lots of advice on trip advisor about where to exchange money).
- Cash is king, so we would withdraw VND from ATM's when we could. Here is what we learned - Citibank ATM's allow you to withdraw up to 6 million VND - most others the limit is 2 million. Considering we paid $8 NZD per withdrawal, it worked out far better to get as much as we could each time (and then panic until we got back to our hotel safe), then it did to get small amounts. In Hoi An, we found a bank and withdrew 15 million VND which lasted us a good couple of weeks
- For most other things, we used our Mastercard or our Westpac Travel card - but be aware there is a 3% transaction fee each time.
- We put the XE currency converter app on our phones. It worked off-line and was really handy when we were bartering.
- If we carried a reasonable sum of money, we would split it up. So Paul would carry a bit in his cargo shorts, I'd take a bit in my travel bag and often the kids would carry some in their shoe (along with the hotel address, in case we got separated and they could then catch a taxi. It never happened but we felt better knowing they had some way of getting back to the hotel).
Food
Tried as we might, we couldn't convince the kids to eat in the alleyways among the chickens, so most meals were consumed in restaurants or cafe's (or roadside Banh Mi stands. Yum). We didn't push the issue - we figured the children were far enough out of their comfort zone as it was. We did learn (or the children learned), that in Vietnam, it pays to eat Vietnamese (or French) food. Hamburgers, no. Fish and Chips, probably not. We are lucky that our kids are fairly adventurous when it comes to food, so we didn't really come across anything they didn't like (besides the spam-burger, that is...). And we didn't get sick (well, not from the food, anyway).
Internal travel
Travelling the length of the country meant we had quite a bit of internal travel between cities - not to mention travel within a city. Here is what we did:
- Flights (Da Nang to Nha Trang, Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh) were booked online before we left NZ with Vietnamese Airlines. You can also fly Jet Star or Viet Jet to and from most major internal destinations.
- Transfers from train stations, airports, bus stations to our hotel were arranged with the hotel / home stay before we left NZ. They did work out more expensive than taxi's, but felt a lot safer and we felt they were worth the extra $$.
- Our sleeper train (Hanoi-Dong Hoi) was arranged by our hotel in Hanoi before we left NZ. The train wasn't particularly cheap, but we saved on a hotel room and, looking back, it was worth it for the experience. If you can, get the super-flash sleepers; we had the 'soft' sleeper, but 'concrete mattress sleeper' may have been a better description.
- We took the bus from Ho Chi Minh to Can Tho. It was possibly the strangest bus trip we'd ever had (but very cheap) - we had reclining seats in individual 'cages'. If you are over 175cm tall then I would seriously think about paying the extra for a car transfer - it might be a very long and uncomfortable trip otherwise.
- In other places we arranged a private car transfer through the hotel or places we found on trip advisor - which usually worked out at USD$75-125 for a whole day. We felt very safe in these cars (not so much in the buses).
- We mostly walked around the cities, but when we wanted to go further or it was just too hot to contemplate walking we caught a taxi. They were incredibly cheap. Mah Linh (the green taxi's) were generally the cheapest and were well-maintained.
- We also rode lots of bikes - but not on main roads. We didn't have a death-wish.
Language
We learned a few basic phrases (two, actually) before we left - Hello/Xin Chao ("Sin Chow") and Thank you/Ca Mon ("Car Moon"). It's embarrassing to say that most people were fairly impressed when we trollied out these two phrases - enough to make us wish that we'd learned more (they were almost as impressed when they saw we could use chopsticks. Needless to say, Vietnamese don't have particularly high expectations of tourists...). Intonation is everything in Vietnam, so if you do choose to trot out some Vietnamese phrases, make sure you practice first (we don't know if this is true, but one of our tour guides told us that if we said Xin Chao with a slightly different intonation then we were telling women they had lovely breasts. From that point on we lived in fear that Dylan was yelling "nice boobies" at everyone we passed.).
We could usually find someone who spoke English, and when we couldn't then hand signals and calculators (it was usually at a market) did the trick. Google translate came in handy, although because both the adults carried iphones it didn't work offline. Nonetheless, we managed to muddle through with very little hassle.
We could usually find someone who spoke English, and when we couldn't then hand signals and calculators (it was usually at a market) did the trick. Google translate came in handy, although because both the adults carried iphones it didn't work offline. Nonetheless, we managed to muddle through with very little hassle.
Luggage
Crazy though it may seem, this topic was one that took up a lot of our time and energy pre-trip. Not being seasoned travellers, we didn't have a lot of luggage, and we didn't really want to spend money on new bags before we left. We also didn't want to be encumbered with loads of luggage on our trip to Ha Long Bay and on the overnight train etc. Our solution was to borrow three backpacks (with wheels) from well-traveled friends, which were small enough to be cabin luggage and the perfect size for the kids to wheel behind them. We took one largish bag, which we used to keep our first aid kids, medicine, a couple of small bags that rolled up into virtually nothing, and anything else that didn't fit in the little bags. We used the small roll-up bags to hold the overflow until our last stop in Ho Chi Minh City, where we bought a giant wheeled Samsonite suitcase ($1.2m VND or about $75 NZD) to hold all our purchases. Voila, luggage problem solved.
Medicine and first aid kids
We possibly went slightly overboard on the whole medicines and first aid kit thing. We did this because, with such a limited amount of time in the country, we didn't want to spend any of it in hospital. The only things we really used were plasters (band aids) for blisters, along with paracetamol, hand sanitiser and a super-awesome tummy antibiotic - but it felt good to know that we were well-prepared for most eventualities. So here is what we took:
- Hand sanitiser
- Hand wipes
- Insect repellent (x4 - we used 1)
- Antibiotics (Augmentin - obtained from our GP before we left)
- Small packs of tissues
- Antihistamine cream
- Ibuprofen and paracetomal
- Ural (urinary alkalinizer)
- Alcohol wipes
- Antiseptic cream
- Ventolin inhaler
- Pamol (kid's paracetomal)
- Cough medicine
- A standard first aid kit with extra plasters
- And some super-awesome tummy medication that only needed us to take 1 (yes, 1!) tablet for diarrhea/vomiting (which I can't recall the name of but which was stupendous - just ask your GP)
- We also took a sewing kit and rain ponchos, both of which we used.
Shopping
I suspect that if we put "I'm just browsing" into google translate, then there would be no translation into Vietnamese. Browsing is just not a word in their dictionary - if you are looking then you are buying. We were very allergic to this, and would often just walk away when we started to feel pressured into buying goods. The kids in particular didn't react well to Vietnamese pressure selling - they had saved up some spending money before we left, and were very picky about where they spent it (having their own spending money and not a lot of room in their bags was a very helpful way to teach them about ethical consumption - buy good quality stuff and only buy what you need). Be prepared to be treated rudely when you do just want to look (and not buy, or to have a think about what you are buying). What was interesting was that we always spent the most amount of money when we were just left alone - as an example we bought all our souvenirs (mainly silk scarves) in one tiny souvenir shop in Hoi An because the young man in the shop was SO helpful and SO friendly and it was such a pleasure to browse in his shop and take our time looking and choosing (you can read more about him in our Hoi An diary entry).
Toiletries
Here is the thing - they don't sell hair conditioner in Vietnam (or if they did, we didn't see any). If you are traveling with females (especially 13-year-old females), then we recommend you take enough hair conditioner to last the trip. In fact, take any toiletries you need - they are fairly expensive and you don't want to spend half a morning looking for a shop that sells shampoo and body wash.
Vaccinations
It seemed that no matter what we read, everyone had a different opinion on what vaccinations are needed for Vietnam. Rabies or no rabies? Malaria or no malaria? What to do about Dengue Fever? Thanks to NZ's immunisation schedule, we were all fully immunised against measles, chicken pox, polio, mumps, meningitis etc etc so didn't have to worry about those. In the end, we settled for Hep B (parents and kids), diptheria and tetanus (parents - kids were already immunised). We spent a good two weeks before we left telling Dylan not to pet the animals (in case of rabies - when you read our travel diary you'll see this may have not worked as well as we thought), and stocked up on mosquito repellent (malaria, dengue fever). As it turns out, none of us got sick, until the plane trip home where we all caught the most dreadful cold...
Visas
We chose to get a Visa on Arrival (VoA). The process was a bit of a pain, but we found a site on the internet (https://vietnamvisa.gou.vn/) where we put in our details, paid and then printed off the letter and a couple of passport-sized photos each. Then we made sure to put them in our hand luggage. The VoA process at Hanoi Airport was quick - perhaps 10 mins and the worst thing about it was having our HIDEOUS passport photos flashed up on the big screen for all to see. Oh well... For more VoA advice, see Trip Advisor.
Water
We were told to use bottled water to clean our teeth - which we did religiously for about the first week and then forgot about. And we all lived. We took one water purification bottle in case of emergency, but I'd recommend taking one of these per person to use everyday - you drink SO MUCH water that it gets to be expensive (even in Vietnam!). Also helps you cut down on the amount of plastic waste you generate - which can never be bad.