Travelling to Vietnam

Kido

My brother's moved to Vietnam and now he's settled he's anxious for me to visit him. I have a couple of questions:
Do I need any injections if I'm staying in a private residence in Ho Chi Minh City? If so what would happen re. travel insurance if I didn't have them - would it invalidate any I got?
Also I'm looking into flights, the quickest one only allows an hour to change in Singapore airport. I'm assuming that as this is a standard fare this is long enough, but what would happen if my flight from London to Singapore was delayed by a couple of hours? Would I automatically be put on the next flight or would the connection be held?

Sorry for the questions, I've no experience of travelling to the far east. I've only done europe and Cdana using direct flights and no injections.

Caz3121

Kido wrote: »

My brother's moved to Vietnam and now he's settled he's anxious for me to visit him. I have a couple of questions:
but what would happen if my flight from London to Singapore was delayed by a couple of hours? Would I automatically be put on the next flight or would the connection be held?

If you purchase the ticket from London to Ho Chi Minh (with a change in SIN) then if you are delayed into SIN they will put you onto a later flight...your original plane will not wait for you.

The danger of getting stuck is if you buy a LON-SIN return ticket then a seperate ticket for Singapore to Vietnam.

Totally amazing place....I wanted a t-shirt to say "I crossed the road in Ho Chi Minh City" was such an achievement! just need to make eye contact and keep walking the bikes will swerve round you!!

travelgran

Some travel insurance can be invalidated if you don't take the recognised precautions. After all, you can catch malaria (for example) whether you stay in a private residence or not. Agree with the T-shirt, great place!

Miró

Just got back from Vietnam a few weeks ago. Wonderful place! I was tempted to do without the malaria tablets but after getting a few seriously nasty infected bites I was really glad I paid out the £70+ for Malarone. Would also advise the free jabs you can get on the NHS (Typhoid and Hep A)....just not worth taking risks.

Can I sign up for a T-shirt too please!!! Although they were employing 'helpers' to get tourists across the roads in the centre of Ho Chi Minh City when I was there!

RamitB

Due to travel there also on 13/12/2010 - looking to see what you recommend as the best way to take spending money - CAsh, pre paid cards, travel chqs??

Also any other hints and tips would be great. Going for 5 weeks to travel as much of it as I can

Thanks

Graeme

Bob_the_Saver

One more for the T-shirt please, If you're not booked right through to HCMC check Tiger Airways and Air Asia for back-up low cost flights (possibly via Kuala Lumpur) If you're not going through Changi as a transit passenger a 1 hour connection would be too short especially if your are flying on from the separate budget terminal.

Good luck, it's a great place.

agrinnall

Kido - I was in Vietnam for a month two years ago, I flew with Lufthansa, had to change in Frankfurt but it was direct (with a short stop in Bangkok) from there. I would strongly recommend speaking to your doctor about what injections to have and follow their advice, I had to go to a hospital in HCMC (luckily as an outpatient for some tests) and I wouldn't really want to be going there with a serious illness that could have been avoided. If you are not travelling outside HCMC you may not have to have so many jabs but you'll be missing a lot of the Vietnam experience if you don't travel a bit.

RamitB - there are ATMs in all cities and towns, most of them charge but some don't, unfortunately I can't remember which ones. I used a Nationwide debit card as there was no charge by them at the time but the thieving B's have taken that benefit away now (which is the reason why I've transferred the bulk of my savings to other providers). I also took US dollars (but didn't really use them in Vietnam, more use in Cambodia where they are effectively the main currency for foreigners) and sterling TCs which most banks would change without any hassle. Five weeks is a good amount of time, it should allow you to see the whole country - I recommend Hanoi, Sapa, Halong Bay, Hoi An, Dalat and HCMC but I also went to less visited places such as Quang Ngai and Qui Nhon where there is much less English spoken but you get to meet Vietnamese people who have little contact with foreigners. Due to the hospital visits mentioned above I didn't get to spend any time touring the Mekong Delta but I definitely would have done if my visa hadn't been running out.