Cambodia and Vietnam

elantan

PompeyPete wrote: »

Last bit of help from me. Here's the main Trip Advisor discussion forum for Cambodia...

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g293939-i9162-Cambodia.html

And another great guide to Cambodia...

http://www.canbypublications.com/

You really need to help yourself a bit before asking loads of random questions about how to spend 4 weeks. People who ask whether Battambang is near the beach are simply showing that they want everyone else to do the work for them! Sorry, but it's true and a turn-off.

Get hold of a guide book (LP or Rough Guide), and spend a bit of time studying it. Then, once you've got a bit of an idea about the country ask more questions regarding an itinerary.

i would agree with that and after i posted i finally got time to figure out how to work the forums on trip advisor so have got it sussed a bit better now ... i have learned a wee bit about the scams amongst other things,

i was really looking for a start as i know i have a lot to do just unfortunatley i was out and about today a lot ( as previously mentioned ) and therefore didnt get much time to re search ...

i also did state i would be going to the library etc to get some books ... but i do agree with what you are saying and think i have a fair bit to be getting on with now ... thank you anyway and no i didnt really expect you to plan my holiday for me or do all the work but i can see why you may have thought that

lovesgshp

Having been to both Vietnam and Cambodia a few years ago, then I hope these tips work out for you.
In Vietnam, we stayed in Saigon for about a week. We had a couple of cyclo riders to take us around and we kept the same 2 for each day. They would arrive at the hotel and then we would go around the city, with them always walking with us to make sure we were not robbed. Always bought them lunch and dinner. There is so much to see just in that city, the hotel where all the newspaper people stayed during the war, the US Embassy where the tank broke through the gates, etc.
Stay out of badly lit streets after dark, but otherwise it is a great experience.
We then went up to Nha Trang for a week at the beach.

Cambodia: First week in Phnom Pehn. We stayed at Raffles, and again had a regular tuk-tuk driver. Visit the Killing Fields and S21, both very sad places, but they give a insight into how things were in the recent past.
Our driver was very poor, so we gave him $50 to buy food for his family and were invited to share it with them, in the small Kampong they lived in outside the city. Lovely meal prepared by them and as there was some type of festival going on at the Bhuddist Temple we were invited to go there as well ..... a real experience when you cannot speak the language, but so much fun with the locals trying to make each other understood!!!
When we said we were going to Siem Reap, we took the TT driver with us, as he had been so good. We paid for a room for him in another hotel and we all travelled by coach. We were flying out from SR, so he had a return ticket.
Had a 5 day pass if I remember rightly for Angkor and managed to get just about everywhere. Found a lot of good restaurants and street food places. Wife went off to Khoh Kher to see the newly discovered temple there at the time, while I stayed behind with a few beers!!!
If using a digital camera, watch out that if you have the pics put to cd in a shop, then they do not overwrite originals on the disk. Took me ages to recover the files!!!!
HTH

totallybored

PompeyPete wrote: »

Vietnam bods - How long did you stay in the country? Was it long enough? Anywhere you wished you'd gone that you regret missing out? If you hadn't used internal flights to get around how much extra time would you have needed to see what you saw?

Although I've never been to Vietnam I think it will deserve at least 3 weeks. I don't like internal flights because you see fascinating countries and meet the people at ground level, so I expect I'd have to say 4 weeks travelling by road and rail.

I spent 2 weeks and I found that to be long enough. I was only own though but I felt I got to see more than enough. I started in Hanoi for a few nights which I quite liked and did a 1 night Halong Bay trip. I found this more than enough time for Halong Bay. I then did the overnight train to Da Nang and went to Hoi An for a few nights. Hoi An is lovely. Loads of Aussies there though. Another train to Nha Trang for a few days. I hated Nha Trang, it was like a communist Bennidorm. Absolutely loads of Russians there and loads of Russian nail bars, hair dressers and restaurants with Russian menus. Certainly not what my Lonely Planet described it as. Another long train to Ho Chi Minh. Wasn't keen on HCM, the war museum was ok but the market wasn't great and I was tiring of arguing over the price of buying even a coke by that point. I them got a bus to Phnom Penh from HCM. If I go back to Vietnam it would only be to Hoi An and possibly Hanoi.

The trains were cheap but slow. I got my Hanoi hotel to book them all for me. If you do the train make sure you book a bottom bunk soft sleeper. Anything else would be awful. I enjoyed the train and shared my cells with Vietnamese people who wanted to talk to me on each journey which was interesting. You can also walk around which you can't do on the bus and have a bit more space.

Peccary

If you have time you can go by boat from HCMC to Phnom Penh or vice versa. I absolutely loved this trip, conditions were pretty basic but I really enjoyed seeing the way of life on the Mekong. I must say, I left my heart in Laos, I never wanted to leave Luang Prabang!
If you are still considering some beach time, look at Phu Quoc island.

numpty2009

Hi

As with others we've just returned from vietnam with our 2 kids aged 7 and 2. Kuoni wanted £10,000 for a holiday that cost us £3000 to book ourselves. I got the kuoni brochure. Chose the luxury places I wanted to stay in and then booked it independently.

We flew eithad to Kuala Lumpur. Did 3 nights there than flew to da nang via Ho Ci Minh. We stayed at the victoria in hoi an for 9 nights. Absolutely beautiful and I can't recommend it enough. It's so easy to travel there and the hotels will book good transfers for you which made our life easier with the kids. If we can do it easily with a toddler in tow it'll be fine for anyone else.
We booked hotels through agoda. Staying at the Shang ri la in kl as well. Internal flights wi vietnam airlines.

Very jealous. WEre already planning to go back next year,

neon_dannii

Do you need malaria tablets for Cambodia and Vietnam?

PompeyPete

neon_dannii wrote: »

Do you need malaria tablets for Cambodia and Vietnam?

The only person to ask about vaccinations/medical precautions is your own GP, who knows your medical history. Best advice is to make an appointment with your local GP Travel Clinic a few weeks before travelling.

The 4 UK standards are Diptheria, Tetanus, Hep 'A' and Typhoid, and all UK travellers should be in date before travelling anywhere.

Six weeks before our recent trip to Thailand and Cambodia we had an appointment with our GP Travel Clinic.

We had a one-2-one consultation.

Lots of questions, particularly about intended activities, lifestyle, and length of stay in any particular area.

We gave lots of honest answers, and also discussed commonsense things like precautions against mossie bites.

At the end we were each given a fully personalised travel health brief MASTA (Minding Your Health Abroad).

This is a one-off brief, valid only for the journey discussed at the consultation.

If I needed to make a claim on my Travel Insurance then I would have used the MASTA brief to support my claim.

The consultation was free, it took only half an hour, and it definitely put our mind at rest.

Doshwaster

PompeyPete wrote: »

The only person to ask about vaccinations/medical precautions is your own GP, who knows your medical history. Best advice is to make an appointment with your local GP Travel Clinic a few weeks before travelling.

My experience is that unless your GP takes a special interest in travel medicine then most of them are fairly clueless when it comes to knowing what is required for particular regions. When I asked mine about a trip to India he just said "you might as well have everything."

poor_johno

I was in Vietnam in April for two weeks, I now wish we had gone for three because there are other places Id like to visit e.g. Da Lat, Mui Ni, Sapa and Phu Quoc.

We traveled North to South flying into Hanoi and out of HCMC. We decided to go with Visa on arrival as it is considerably cheaper and luckily didn't take us that long. I've heard it can be more of a nightmare in HCMC though.

Highlights include the 2 day 1 night cruise of Halong Bay, a private cycle tour of Hue, traveling the Hai Van Pass on the back of a moped with a local family, it was fantastic. Hoi An was beautiful. The food!. To be honest everyday was a highlight, even the over night train from Hanoi to Hue. Saying that though I enjoyed HCMC the least out of all places but pleased we went because we did a great foodie tour with a group of Vietnamese girls, didn't think much of the balut eggs though.

We took Malaria tablets but stopped after a few days because they made us feel rough. Unless you're thinking of visiting Sapa or Mekong Delta I probably wouldn't bother.

totallybored

neon_dannii wrote: »

Do you need malaria tablets for Cambodia and Vietnam?

I didn't bother in Vietnam as non of the areas I went to were are a risk according to the Nhs malaria map. You might need them for Hue, I'm not sure. I took them for Cambodia though. Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are low risk according to the NHS so I didn't bother taking them for there last year. However, Kep and and Kampot as well as Battambang and the border were higher risk so I took them this time. There were loads of mozzies in Kampot and I was worried about them as I went to the mountains and on a boat trip at dusk to find fireflies. I did cover myself in deet though and didn't get a single bite until Siem Reap when I was very unlucky and managed to get 27 bites one evening when I got out of the hotel pool.

There is now a generic version of malarone that is slightly cheaper per tablet. I think I paid £1.75 per tablet from travelpharm.