Kurt Johnson

Vietnam was incredible; we had a great time, learned a lot, and connected with some of Susanne’s family in Hanoi. Overall the country was much safer and cleaner than I expected, people were extremely friendly, and the purchasing power of US tourists is so high that it’s hard not to have a good time if you bring a modest amount of money to spend.

Below are some rambling notes I’ve typed up to put in the public domain, partly to address some of the questions I couldn’t easily answer via a Google search before the trip.

Our itinerary:

• 1 day in Hanoi
• 2 days in Ha Long Bay with an overnight on a midsize junk
• 1 evening back in Hanoi with a flight the next afternoon to:
• 3 days in Hoi An with side trips to Hue and Danang. Afternoon flight back to Hanoi
• 2 days in Sapa (night train up, night train back, and one night in the Bamboo Sapa Hotel)
• 2 days back in Hanoi

Things that worked out well (or better than expected):

* As alluded to in the last post Korean Air provided a laptop power jack and plenty of entertainment options, so the flight over wasn’t bad
* Everywhere we went except the Seoul airport used US plugs so no power adapter was necessary
* Synthetic/performance clothing from REI was great. It sounds trivial but having wicking/quick-dry underwear/pants/shirt made a big difference in comfort since I was sweating heavily pretty much any time we were outside
* Save most souvenir shopping for the last day in Hanoi. Virtually everything you can get in Hoi An/Sapa/etc. you can get in Hanoi for cheaper. The “hand made at home” ethnic handicrafts you buy in the villages around Sapa are supposedly shipped up from Hanoi; in any case you can get them there.
* Hoi An does have some great tailor shops; we loaded up a big duffel bag of custom stuff to take home; wool slacks were $25 and I got a tuxedo for $65. The art scene in Hoi An is also worth checking out since it may be hard to find the same stuff in Hanoi
* Local food was great; neither of us had any problems. We generally avoided street food but had a number of meals in working class places where the food was awesome even if the places weren’t visually appealing

Timing

• 2 days in Ha Long (really 24 hours) was about right. We were concerned about staying overnight on the boat because of either motion sickness or lousy food. The motion sickness wasn’t an issue as the part of the bay where junks anchor overnight is extremely sheltered with no waves to speak of. The food on our boat (Lagoon Explorer, www.tropical-sails.com) was phenomenal. Going to the bay without an overnight stay would be tiring, I think, since the drive out from Hanoi is several hours each way.
• Hanoi can probably be done in 2 days by most people depending on the depth of one’s interest in museums, pagodas, etc. We took longer because we were connecting with family and using Hanoi as a base to relax a bit between flights.
• Sapa for two days was about right for us as we did the wimp’s tour of the area. Sapa isn’t really a town; it’s a gathering point for locals who live in small villages in the area to meet. Since 1991 about 100 hotels have gone up and a tourist infrastructure has been created. We had a private car/driver to get out to different villages and sights so two days (36 hours) was enough time to see everything we wanted to; people who choose to hike/homestay will probably require 3-4 days. BTW, there’s a reason that the vast majority of sapa guides/drivers have four wheel drive jeeps; the driver that our family hooked us up with had an old Daewoo compact that we nearly got stranded in on a road to one village.

Packing

• Unless you are bringing synthetic/high performance clothing you may want to pack light and buy more clothes when you get in country as the shopping is great. Laundry is cheap; you can do your own in the sink or send it out for $1/kilo (except at business hotels such as the Sheraton or Metropole where normal business rates are charged).
• Bags for packing are cheap and plentiful in tourist towns (Hanoi and Hoi An) so don’t buy backpacks or luggage in the states before going. Hanoi probably has a dozen vendors around the lake downtown all selling hundreds of knockoff North Face/Lowe Alpine bags. The bags are pretty decent quality except the sometimes spotty zippers; we got two small backpacks, a large duffel bag, and a fanny pack for $15 combined.
• I had worried about theft since I was bringing quite a bit of valuable electronics, however we had no problems about theft at any point.
• I packed more photography gear than 99% of people probably will: a small camera for Susanne (SD450) and my 20d with 10-22, 17-40, 50/1.8, and 70-200/2.8. I brought a laptop to store photos and take notes on and a 60gb Ipod video to back everything up to in case the laptop was stolen. Everything worked out great; I don’t think there is a need for any lenses longer than 200mm (with or without crop factor) and I didn’t use the 10-22 all that much. For almost everybody I think a 28-135mm equivalent range including one fast prime should work pretty well. The Ipod was brand new for the trip and I’m very happy with how it worked out, both for entertainment and as a way to have a backup of photos in case the laptop was stolen or damaged.
• We debated about getting large backpacks but ended up just taking normal carryon rollaboards and it worked out fine

Intracountry travel

• We controlled our own itinerary but used Handspan for the Ha Long Bay and Tam Coc/Hoa Lu trips. Handspan isn’t the cheapest nor the most expensive but they do provide english speaking guides (very nice) and seemed pretty professional; we’d use them again.
• Vietnam Airlines was an easy way to get from Hanoi to Hue; unlike some national airlines the flying experience was very efficient; there wasn’t a need to show up more than an hour early or plan on a 3-4 hour delay. The airport/airline experience was very much inline with US standards.
• The best way to get to/from Sapa is the overnight train which leaves around 10 pm and gets in at 6am. There’s no airport nearby and the drive is reported to be bumpy, prone to delays, etc. Our booking agent screwed up our reservation for one of the “nice” private cars and shunted us to a Vietnam Railways (state) car, which caused some concern (I pictured accommodations like a troop ship) but the Vietnam Railways car ended up being fine - 4 berth sleeper cabins with decent bedding etc. - no need to panic if you can’t book the Ratraco / Tulico / etc. private cars (they’re all attached to the same train, BTW). Bring earplugs and try to book a cabin in the middle of the car rather than the ends to minimize motion.
• If you’ve got a moderate budget we would recommend the Lucky Star hotel (Hanoi, $16 per night for good service, clean rooms, AC, etc.) and the Phuong Nam hotel in Hoi An ($17 for very plain but clean rooms and fantastic attitudes from staff). If budget isn’t much of a constraint the Sofitel Metropole in Hanoi was one of the better hotels I’ve ever stayed at ($160 and up). We booked the Metropole for our first 2 nights in town and Susanne noted that it really made the inbound trip less stressful as it would have been hard to get off the plane at midnight and then end up in some crappy third world hotel where nobody spoke english.

I’ll update this as I think of more….

More of my photos from the trip to the bay are in this album.
More info on Ha Long Bay is here.

We’re layed over in Incheon right now after a flight from JFK. We flew fairly close to the pole, basically skirting Alaska’s North shore. Korea Air was a great way to fly - 110V power jacks under the seat for my laptop, Boeing’s new internet service (Connexion or something like that - $26 for the whole flight or $10/hr) available on the flight, and plenty of movies on the seatback (no satellite TV though). All in all about as pleasant as 16 hours in economy can be.

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Taken near Prudhoe Bay; I tweaked it a little to better show the cracks in the ice.