The Rough Guide to Vietnam – Read Now and Download Mobi
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This sixth edition first published October 2009 by Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
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ISBN: 978-1-84836-084-6
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This Digital Edition published 2010. ISBN: 9781405380430
The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all the information in The Rough Guide to Vietnam, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss, injury, or inconvenience sustained by any traveller as a result of information or advice contained in the guide.
Introduction to Vietnam
Phu Quoc Island
Exercisers at Hoan Kiem Lake
Few countries have changed so much over such a short time as Vietnam. Less than forty years since the savagery and slaughter of the American War, this resilient nation is buoyant with hope. It is a country on the move: access is now easier than ever, roads are being upgraded, hotels are springing up and Vietnam’s raucous entrepreneurial spirit is once again alive and well as the old-style Communist system gives way to a socialist market economy. As the number of tourists finding their way here soars, the word is out that this is a land not of bomb craters and army ordnance but of shimmering paddy fields and sugar-white beaches, full-tilt cities and venerable pagodas – often overwhelming in its sheer beauty.
The speed with which Vietnam’s population has been able to put the bitter events of its recent past behind it, and focus its gaze so steadfastly on the future, often surprises visitors expecting to encounter shell-shocked resentment of the West. It wasn’t always like this, however. The reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975, ending twenty years of bloody civil war, was followed by a decade or so of hardline centralist economic rule from which only the shake-up of doi moi – Vietnam’s equivalent of perestroika – beginning in 1986, could awaken the country. This signalled a renaissance for Vietnam, and today a high fever of commerce grips the nation: from the flash new shopping malls and designer boutiques to the hustle and bustle of street markets and the booming cross-border trade with China. From a tourist’s point of view, this is a great time to visit – not only to soak up the intoxicating sense of vitality and optimism, but also the chance to witness a country in profound flux. Inevitably, that’s not the whole story. Doi moi is an economic policy, not a magic spell, and life, for much of the population, remains hard. Indeed, the move towards a market economy has predictably polarized the gap between rich and poor. Average monthly incomes for city-dwellers are around US$60, while in the poorest provinces workers may scrape by on as little as US$20 a month – a difference that amply illustrates the growing gulf between urban and rural Vietnam.
Fact file
• The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the capital of which is Hanoi, is one of the world’s last surviving one-party Communist states. It shares land borders with China, Laos and Cambodia. Vietnam is a long, thin country comprising over 330,000 square kilometres, with more than 3400km of coastline. At its narrowest point it measures a mere 50km wide.
• Vietnam has a population of 86 million, of which 74 percent live in the countryside, giving Vietnam some of the highest rural population densities in Southeast Asia. Over half the people are under 25 years old and 13 percent belong to one of the many ethnic minority groups.
• Over half of the Vietnamese population earn their living from agriculture. The average per capita income hovers around $700 a year, though many people survive on less than $1 a day.
• During the last decade the Vietnamese economy has grown at over seven percent a year. Vietnam has transformed itself from being a rice-importer before 1986 to become the world’s second largest rice-exporter after Thailand. The percentage of households living in poverty has fallen from seventy percent in the 1980s to under thirty percent today.
• Vietnam is home to a tremendous diversity of plant and animal life, including some of the world’s rarest species, a number of which have only been discovered in the last few years. The Java rhino, Asiatic black bear, Sarus crane and golden-headed langur are just some of the endangered species maintaining a toehold in the forests and wetlands of Vietnam.
There is an equally marked difference between north and south, a deep psychological divide that was around long before the American War, and is engrained in Vietnamese culture. Northerners are considered reticent, thrifty, law-abiding and lacking the dynamism and entrepreneurial know-how of their more worldly-wise southern compatriots. Not surprisingly, this is mirrored in the broader economy: the south is Vietnam’s growth engine, it boasts lower unemployment and higher average wages, and the increasingly glitzy Ho Chi Minh City looks more to Bangkok and Singapore than Hanoi.
Sleeping cyclo driver
Many visitors find more than enough to intrigue and excite them in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the other major centres; but despite the cities’ allure, it’s the country’s striking landscape that most impresses. Vietnam occupies a narrow strip of land that hugs the eastern borders of Cambodia and Laos, hemmed in by rugged mountains to the west, and by the South China Sea – or the East Sea, as the Vietnamese call it. To the north and south of its narrow waist, it fantails out into the splendid deltas of the Red River and the Mekong, and it’s in these regions that you’ll encounter the paddy fields, dragonflies, buffaloes and conical-hatted farmers that constitute the classic image of Vietnam.
In stark contrast to the pancake-flat rice-land of the deltas, Ha Long Bay’s labyrinthine network of limestone outcrops loom dramatically out of the Gulf of Tonkin – a magical spectacle in the early morning mist. Any trip to the remote upland regions of central and northern Vietnam is likely to focus upon the ethnic minorities who reside there. Elaborate tribal costumes, age-old customs and communal longhouses await those visitors game enough to trek into the sticks. As for wildlife, the discovery in recent years of several previously unknown species of plants, birds and animals speaks volumes for the wealth of Vietnam’s biodiversity and makes the improving access to the country’s several national parks all the more gratifying.
Tet
The biggest bash in Vietnam’s festive calendar is the lunar New Year holiday known as Tet Nguyen Dan, or simply Tet. The date of the festival, which lasts for several days, varies from one year to the next, but falls somewhere between late January and the middle of February. Tet is the Vietnamese equivalent of Thanksgiving, New Year and a nationwide birthday celebration rolled into one – everyone becomes a year older at New Year. It is a time of forgiveness and fresh starts, when the trials and tribulations of the old year are left behind, to be replaced by renewed optimism for the year ahead. As the festival approaches, the streets fill with people buying new clothes, having their hair cut and stocking up on seasonal delicacies such as candied lotus seeds and sweetmeats made of sticky rice. Flower markets add to the colour with the first shy blossoms of peach, plum or apricot alongside miniature kumquat trees laden with their brash, golden fruit – the traditional symbols of Tet. The excitement culminates with municipal fireworks displays on New Year’s Eve, after which the first few days of the year are traditionally devoted to renewing family ties – both with the living and with the ancestral spirits who come back to share in the feasting.
Where to go
The “Hanoi or bust” attitude, prompting new arrivals to doggedly labour between the country’s two major cities, no matter how limited their time, blights many a trip to Vietnam. If you want to travel the length of the country at some leisure, see something of the highlands and the deltas and allow for a few rest days, you’ll really need a month. With only two weeks at your disposal, the choice is either to hopscotch up the coast calling at only the most mainstream destinations or, perhaps better, to concentrate on one region and enjoy it at your own pace. However, if you do want to see both north and south in a fortnight, internal flights can speed up an itinerary substantially, and aren’t too expensive.
For the majority of visitors, Ho Chi Minh City provides a head-spinning introduction to Vietnam. Set beside the broad swell of the Saigon River, the southern capital is rapidly being transformed into a Southeast Asian mover and shaker to compete with the best of them. The city’s breakneck pace of life translates into a stew of bizarre characters and unlikely sights and sounds, and ensures that almost all who come here quickly fall for its singular charm. Furious commerce carries on cheek-by-jowl with age-old traditions; grandly indulgent colonial edifices peek out from under the shadows of looming office blocks and hotels; and cyclo drivers battle it out with late-model Japanese taxis in the chaotic boulevards.
Few tourists pass up the opportunity to take a day-trip out of the city to Tay Ninh, the nerve centre of the indigenous Cao Dai religion. The jury is still out on whether the ostentatious Cao Dai Holy See constitutes high art or dog’s dinner, but either way it’s one of Vietnam’s most arresting sights, and is normally twinned with a stop-off at the Cu Chi Tunnels, where Vietnamese villagers dug themselves a warren stretching over two hundred kilometres, out of reach of US bombing.
Hmong minority people
Most tourists next venture southwest to explore the Mekong Delta, where one of the world’s truly mighty rivers finally offloads into the South China Sea; its skein of brim-full tributaries and waterways has endowed the delta with a lush quilt of rice-rich flats and abundant orchards. You won’t want to depart the delta without spending a day or more messing about on the water and visiting a floating market, which is easily arranged at Cai Be and Can Tho.
Rice planting near Can Tho
Da Lat, the “capital” of the central highlands, is chalk to Ho Chi Minh City’s cheese. Life passes by at a rather more dignified pace at this altitude, and the raw breezes that fan this oddly quaint hillside settlement provide the best air conditioning in Vietnam. Minority peoples inhabit the countryside around Da Lat, but to visit some really full-on montagnard villages you’ll need to push north to the modest towns of Buon Ma Thuot, Plei Ku and Kon Tum, which are surrounded by E De, Jarai and Bahnar communities. Opt for Kon Tum, and you’ll be able to visit minority villages independently or join treks that include river-rafting.
Northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Highway 1, the country’s jugular, girds its loins for the arduous journey up to Hanoi and the north. For many people, first stop is at the delightful beach and sand dunes of Mui Ne, fast becoming one of the country’s top coastal resorts. Another popular spot is Phan Rang, which is blessed with some of the most splendid examples of the Cham towers that punctuate Vietnam’s south-central coast. Nha Trang has grown into a crucial stepping stone on the Ho Chi Minh City – Hanoi run, and the tirelessly touted boat trips around the city’s outlying islands are a must. North of Nha Trang, Son My village attained global notoriety when a company of American soldiers massacred some five hundred Vietnamese, including many women and children; unspeakable horrors continue to haunt the village’s unnervingly idyllic rural setting.
Once a bustling seaport, the diminutive town of Hoi An perches beside an indolent backwater, its narrow streets of wooden-fronted shophouses and weathered roofs making it an enticing destination. Inland, the war-battered ruins of My Son, the greatest of the Cham temple sites, lie mouldering in a steamy, forest-filled valley. Da Nang, just up the coast, lacks Hoi An’s charm, but good transport links make it a convenient base for the area. From Da Nang a corkscrew ride over clifftop Hai Van Pass, or a straight run through the new 6km-long tunnel, brings you to the aristocratic city of Hué, where the Nguyen emperors established their capital in the nineteenth century on the banks of the languid Perfume River. The temples and palaces of this highly cultured city still testify to past splendours, while its Imperial mausoleums are masterpieces of architectural refinement, slumbering among pine-shrouded hills.
Burning incense at Quan Am pagoda
Only a hundred kilometres north of Hué, the tone changes as war-sites litter the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which cleaved the country in two from 1954 to 1975. More than three decades of peace have done much to heal the scars, but the monuments that pepper these windswept hills bear eloquent witness to a generation that lost their lives in the tragic struggle. The DMZ is most easily tackled as a day-trip from Hué, after which most people hop straight up to Hanoi. And there’s little to detain you on the northward trek, save the glittering limestone caverns of Phong Nha, the entrance to a massive underground river system tunnelling under the Truong Son Mountains. Then, on the very fringes of the northern Red River Delta, lie the ancient incense-steeped temples of Hoa Lu and, nearby, the mystical landscapes of Tam Coc and Van Long, where paddy fields lap at the feet of limestone hummocks.
In the splendid deltas of the Red River and the Mekong you’ll encounter the paddy fields, dragonflies, buffaloes and conical-hatted farmers that constitute the classic image of Vietnam.
Anchored firmly in the Red River Delta, Hanoi has served as Vietnam’s capital for close on a thousand years. It’s a relatively small, decidedly proud city, a place of pagodas and dynastic temples, tamarisk-edged lakes and elegant boulevards of French-era villas, of national monuments and stately government edifices. But Hanoi is also being swept along on a tide of change as Vietnam forges its own shiny, high-rise capital. Though life proceeds at a slightly gentler pace than in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi is also throwing up new office blocks, hotels and restaurants.
From Hanoi most visitors strike out east to where northern Vietnam’s premier natural attraction, Ha Long Bay, provides the perfect antidote to such urban exuberance, rewarding the traveller with a leisurely day or two drifting among the thousands of whimsically sculpted islands anchored in its aquamarine waters. Ha Long City, on the northern coast, is the usual embarkation point for Ha Long Bay, but a more appealing gateway is mountainous Cat Ba Island, which defines the bay’s southwestern limits. The route to Cat Ba passes via the north’s major port city, Haiphong, an unspectacular but genial place with an attractive core of faded colonial facades.
Ha Long Bay provides the perfect antidote to urban exuberance, with its whimsically sculptured islands anchored in aquamarine waters
To the north and west of Hanoi mountain ranges rear up out of the Red River Delta. Vietnam’s northern provinces aren’t the easiest to get around, but these wild uplands are home to a patchwork of ethnic minorities and the country’s most dramatic mountain landscapes. The bustling market town of Sa Pa, set in a spectacular location close to the Chinese border in the far northwest, makes a good base for exploring nearby minority villages, though a building boom has taken some of the shine off its laidback vibe. Further south, the stilthouse-filled valley of Mai Chau offers another opportunity to stay in a minority village. Though few people venture further inland, rough backroads heading upcountry link isolated outposts and give access to the northwest’s only specific sight, where the French colonial dream expired in the dead-end valley of Dien Bien Phu. East of the Red River Valley lies an even less-frequented region, whose prime attraction is its varied scenery, from the vertigo-inducing valleys of Ha Giang to the limestone crags and multi-layered rainforest of Ba Be National Park, then east over immense, empty hill country to the remote valleys of Cao Bang, farmed by communities still practising their traditional ways of life.
Stilthouse around Mai Chau
Water-puppets
Vietnam’s unique contribution to the world of marionettes, water-puppetry is a delightfully quirky form of theatre in which the action takes place on a stage of water. It was probably spawned in the murky rice paddies of the northern Red River Delta where performances still take place after the spring planting. Obscured by a split-bamboo screen, puppeteers standing waist-deep in water manipulate the wooden puppets, some weighing over 10kg, which are attached to the end of long poles concealed beneath the surface. Dragons, ducks, lions, unicorns, phoenixes and frogs spout smoke, throw balls and generally cavort on the watery stage – miraculously avoiding tangled poles. Brief scenes of rural life, such as water-buffalo fights, fishing or rice planting, take place alongside the legendary exploits of Vietnam’s military heroes or perhaps a promenade of fairy-like immortals. In the more sophisticated productions staged for tourists in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, even fireworks emerge to dance upon the water, which itself takes on different characters, from calm and placid to seething and furious during naval battles.
When to go
Vietnam has a tropical monsoon climate, dominated by the south or southwesterly monsoon from May to September and the northeast monsoon from October to April. The southern summer monsoon brings rain to the two deltas and west-facing slopes, while the cold winter monsoon picks up moisture over the Gulf of Tonkin and dumps it along the central coast and the eastern edge of the central highlands. Within this basic pattern there are marked differences according to altitude and latitude; temperatures in the south remain equable all year round, while the north experiences distinct seasonal variations.
In southern Vietnam the dry season lasts from December to late April or May, and the rains from May through to November. Since most rain falls in brief afternoon downpours, this need not be off-putting, though flooding at this time of year can cause problems in the Mekong Delta. Daytime temperatures in the region rarely drop below 20°C, occasionally hitting 40#x00B0;C during the hottest months (March, April and May). The climate of the central highlands generally follows the same pattern, though temperatures are cooler, especially at night. Again, the monsoon rains of May to October can make transport more complicated, sometimes washing out roads and cutting off remoter villages.
The Old Quarter, Hanoi
Along the central coast the rainfall pattern reverses under the influence of the northeast monsoon. Around Nha Trang the wet season starts with a flourish in November and continues to December. Further north, around Hué and Da Nang, the rains last a bit longer, from September to February, though even the dry season (March–Aug) brings a fair quantity of intermittent rain. If possible it pays to visit these two cities in the spring (Feb–May), just before the rains break in September or as they begin to fizzle out in November. Temperatures reach their maximum (often in the upper 30s) from June to August, when it’s pleasant to escape into the hills. The northern stretches of this coastal region experience a more extreme climate, with a shorter rainy season (peaking in Sept and Oct) and a hot dry summer. The coast of central Vietnam is the zone most likely to be hit by typhoons, bringing torrential rain and hurricane-force winds. Though notoriously difficult to predict, in general the typhoon season lasts from August to November.
Market vendor, Ho Chi Minh City
Northern Vietnam is generally warm and sunny from October to December, after which cold winter weather sets in, accompanied by fine persistent mists which can last for several days. Temperatures begin to rise again in March, building to summer maximums that occasionally reach 40°C between May and August, though average temperatures in Hanoi hover around a more reasonable 30ŶC. However, summer is also the rainy season, when heavy downpours render the low-lying delta area almost unbearably hot and sticky, and flooding is a regular hazard. The northern mountains share the same basic regime, though temperatures are considerably cooler and higher regions see ground frosts, or even a rare snowfall, during the winter (Dec–Feb).
With such a complicated weather picture, there’s no one particular season to recommend as the best time for visiting Vietnam. Overall, autumn (Sept–Dec) and spring (March and April) are probably the most favourable seasons if you’re covering the whole country.
31 things not to miss
It’s not possible to see everything Vietnam has to offer in one trip – and we don’t suggest you try. What follows is a selective taste of the country’s highlights: outstanding architecture, classic landscapes and mouthwatering food and drink.
Basics
Getting there
Red tape and visas
Health
Getting around
Accommodation
Eating and drinking
The media
Festivals and religious events
Sports and outdoor pursuits
Crime and personal safety
Culture and etiquette
Shopping
Travel essentials
Getting there
While the number of airlines offering non–stop services to Vietnam is gradually increasing, the majority of visitors take the cheaper option of an indirect flight routed through a carrier’s domestic hub to one of Vietnam’s three international airports: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. With time in hand, you can generally build a stopover in Bangkok, Singapore or Hong Kong, for example, into your schedule, usually at no extra cost. It’s also worth investigating the cost of buying a bargain–basement flight to Bangkok and a separate ticket through one of the region’s low–cost carriers, such as Jetstar, Tiger Airways and Air Asia, for the Vietnam leg.
Airlines that fly in and out of both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City normally sell you an open-jaw ticket, which allows you to fly into one city and out of the other, leaving you to travel up or down the country under your own steam.
Airfares always depend on the season, with the highest generally being July to August, during the Christmas and New Year holidays and around Tet, the Vietnamese New Year; fares drop during the “shoulder” season – September to mid-December – and you’ll get the best prices during the low season, January to June. Note also that flying at weekends is generally more expensive; price ranges quoted below assume midweek travel.
You can often cut costs by going through a specialist flight agent – either a consolidator, who buys up blocks of tickets from the airlines and sells them at a discount, or a discount agent, who in addition to dealing with discounted flights may also offer special student and youth fares and a range of other travel-related services such as travel insurance, rail passes, car rentals, tours and the like.
If Vietnam is only one stop on a longer journey, you might want to consider buying a round-the-world (RTW) ticket. Some travel agents can sell you an “off-the-shelf” RTW ticket that will have you touching down in about half a dozen cities; others will have to assemble one for you, which can be tailored to your needs but is apt to be more expensive. Although few off-the-shelf tickets take in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi, several offer a stop in Bangkok, Singapore or Hong Kong, from where you can make a side-trip to Vietnam. The most comprehensive and flexible deals are offered by Sky Team, Star Alliance and One World, all of which allow you to take in a huge number of destinations around the globe. Prices vary enormously depending upon your itinerary, but tickets including Bangkok or Singapore – excluding taxes and surcharges – can be as low as £600 from the UK; $1300 from the US; CAN$2000 from Canada; AUS$2100 from Australia; and NZ$2700 from New Zealand; a side-trip to Vietnam can then usually be added for around $250.
Combining Vietnam with other Southeast Asian countries is becoming increasingly popular – and a lot cheaper and easier – thanks to some good-value regional air deals. Jetstar, for example, flies from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City (from $40 one-way), while Tiger Airways flies from Singapore to Hanoi (from $100 one-way) and Ho Chi Minh City (from $55 one-way). Air Asia offers daily services from Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur to both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with fares starting at $50 one-way. As with all discount airlines, prices depend on availability, so the earlier you book the better, though you may also find last-minute promotional fares, seat giveaways and so forth at less busy times of the year.
From the UK and Ireland
There are as yet no non-stop flights to Vietnam from the UK or Ireland. Instead, most people fly with a Southeast Asian carrier such as Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Malaysia Airlines or Cathay Pacific from London via the airline’s home city. Alternatively you can fly direct from Paris to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City with Air France, which has connecting flights to Paris from regional airports such as Dublin, Edinburgh and Manchester. Vietnam Airlines offers code-share flights from Paris with Air France or Frankfurt with Lufthansa. Scheduled low-season fares from London start at around £450, rising to £750 or more at peak periods.
A good place to look for the best deals is the travel sections of the weekend newspapers and in regional listings magazines. Students and under-26s can often get discounts through specialist agents such as STA (see "Visa extensions") or USIT in Ireland (www.usit.ie). Whoever you buy your ticket through, check that the agency belongs to the travel industry bodies ABTA or IATA, so that you’ll be covered if the agent goes bust before you get your ticket.
From the US and Canada
In 2004 United Airlines became the first American carrier to resume direct flights to Vietnam since 1975. The airline operates a daily service from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City via Hong Kong; standard return fares start at around $1100. As yet, no other American or Canadian carriers offer direct services, which means you’ll either have to get a flight to San Francisco or catch one of the many flights to a regional hub, such as Bangkok, Singapore or Hong Kong, and continue on from there. Scheduled flights start at around $1300 from New York, $1100 from Los Angeles, CAN$2000 from Vancouver and CAN$2500 from Toronto.
Note that some routings require an overnight stay in another city such as Bangkok, Taipei, Hong Kong or Seoul, and often a hotel room will be included in your fare – ask the airline and shop around since travel agents’ policies on this vary. Even when an overnight stay is not required, going to Vietnam can be a great excuse for a stopover: Most airlines will allow you one free stopover in either direction.
From Australia and New Zealand
A reasonable range of flights connects Australia and New Zealand with Vietnam, with Qantas, Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar offering direct services from Australia. The alternative is to fly to another Asian gateway, such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or Hong Kong, and then either get connecting flights or travel overland to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.
By far the cheapest flight from Australia is the daily Jetstar service to Ho Chi Minh City from Sydney (AUS$390 one-way) via Darwin (AUS$240 one-way). Both Vietnam Airlines and Qantas operate direct flights to Ho Chi Minh City from Melbourne and Sydney; low-season scheduled fares start at around AUS$1300 with Vietnam Airlines, and slightly more with Qantas at AUS$1400. If you want to stop off on the way, there are good deals to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with Malaysia Airlines via Kuala Lumpur, Singapore Airlines via Singapore, and Thai Airways via Bangkok, all costing around AUS$1100 to AUS$1500. Cheaper still are the fares offered by Tiger Airways, a discount airline operating daily flights between Perth and Singapore: one-way fares start as low as AUS$200. From Singapore you can get an onward flight to Hanoi (from around AUS$100 one-way) or Ho Chi Minh City (from around AUS$55 one-way).
From New Zealand, low-season fares with Malaysia Airlines, Thai, Qantas and Singapore Airlines are all around NZ$1500 to NZ$2200, with a change of plane in the carrier’s home airport.
From neighbouring countries
It’s increasingly popular to enter Vietnam overland from China, Laos or Cambodia, an option that means you can see more of the region than you would if you simply jetted in.
From China there are three possibilities. The Beijing–Hanoi train enters Vietnam at Dong Dang, north of Lang Son, where there’s also a road crossing known as Huu Nghi Quan (see "Across the border to China"). The border is also open to foot traffic at Lao Cai (see "Onward travel to China") in the northwest and Mong Cai in the far northeast (see "Mong Cai and around").
From Laos, six border crossings are currently open to foreigners: Lao Bao (see "Lao Bao border crossing into Laos"), the easiest and most popular, some 80km west of Dong Ha; Cau Treo and Nam Can, to the north and northwest of Vinh (see "Cau Treo and Nam Can border crossings into Laos"); Na Meo, northwest of Thanh Hoa (see "The central provinces"); Bo Y, northwest of Kon Tum (see "Moving on to Laos"); and Tay Trang, just west of Dien Bien Phu (see "Eating and drinking"). While it’s perfectly possible – and cheaper – to use local buses to and from the borders, international bus services also run from Savannakhet and Vientiane to Hanoi, Dong Ha, Vinh, Da Nang and other destinations in Vietnam: these direct services are recommended, as regular reports of extortion continue to come in from those crossing independently.
From Cambodia you can travel by bus from Phnom Penh straight through to Ho Chi Minh City via Moc Bai (about 60km northwest of Ho Chi Minh City), or take a local bus to the border and continue by share taxi. The other option is to cross at Vinh Xuong or Tinh Bien (30km north and 25km west of Chau Doc in the Mekong Delta respectively). Vinh Xuong is the most popular crossing, as it entails a cheap boat ride (around $8) from Chau Doc to Phnom Penh, organized through Ho Chi Minh City’s budget tour operators or through hotels in Chau Doc. There are also relatively new border crossings at Xa Xia near Ha Tien in the Mekong Delta, which is useful if you are coming from Kep or Sihanoukville on the Cambodian coast, and at Le Thanh in the Central Highlands, making it possible to go from Banlung in northeast Cambodia straight through to Plei Ku.
As long as you have a valid visa, crossing these borders is generally not a problem, though you may still find the odd Vietnamese immigration official who tries to charge a “processing fee”, typically one dollar. Most border gates are open from around 7am to 5pm and may close for an hour over lunch.
Six steps to a better kind of travel
At Rough Guides we are passionately committed to travel. We feel strongly that only through travelling do we truly come to understand the world we live in and the people we share it with – plus tourism has brought a great deal of benefit to developing economies around the world over the last few decades. But the extraordinary growth in tourism has also damaged some places irreparably, and of course climate change is exacerbated by most forms of transport, especially flying. This means that now more than ever it’s important to travel thoughtfully and responsibly, with respect for the cultures you’re visiting – not only to derive the most benefit from your trip but also to preserve the best bits of the planet for everyone to enjoy. At Rough Guides we feel there are six main areas in which you can make a difference:
• Consider what you’re contributing to the local economy, and how much the services you use do the same, whether it’s through employing local workers and guides or sourcing locally grown produce and local services.
• Consider the environment on holiday as well as at home. Water is scarce in many developing destinations, and the biodiversity of local flora and fauna can be adversely affected by tourism. Try to patronize businesses that take account of this.
• Travel with a purpose, not just to tick off experiences. Consider spending longer in a place, and getting to know it and its people.
• Give thought to how often you fly. Try to avoid short hops by air and more harmful night flights.
• Consider alternatives to flying, travelling instead by bus, train, boat and even by bike or on foot where possible.
• Make your trips “climate neutral” via a reputable carbon offset scheme. All Rough Guide flights are offset, and every year we donate money to a variety of charities devoted to combating the effects of climate change.
Organized tours
If you want to cover a lot of ground in a short time in Vietnam or have a specific interest, an organized tour might be worth considering. Specialist tour operators offer packages that typically include flights, accommodation, day excursions and internal travel by plane, train or road. These are expensive compared to what you’d pay if you arranged everything independently, but the more intrepid tours often feature activities that would be difficult to set up yourself. There’s a wide variety of all-inclusive packages available, as well as organized tours that cover everything from hill-tribe visits to trekking and biking. Tours range in length from a few days to several weeks, and you can choose to explore Vietnam only, or combine a tour with Laos and Cambodia.
Alternatively, you can make arrangements through local tour operators in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and other tourist centres either before you arrive or on the ground; they’ll arrange your entire trip or just the first few days to get you started. Fixing it up before you arrive saves time, though all local operators will also arrange an itinerary for you on the spot.
Prices will be generally cheaper with a local operator and they should have more in-depth local knowledge. However, you’ll need to check carefully that they’re financially sound, reliable and can deliver what they promise – never deal with a company that demands cash upfront or refuses to accept payment by credit card, and get references if you can. Also check carefully before booking to make sure you know exactly what’s included in the price.
We’ve listed some of the bigger and better-established agents below with a solid reputation for organizing small-group and customized tours, and given details of others throughout the Guide.
Specialist tour operators abroad
Local tour operators
Airlines, agents and operators
Many airlines and discount travel websites offer you the chance to book your tickets online, cutting out the costs of agents and middlemen. The websites listed below offer good deals and useful price comparisons.
Online booking
Airlines
Flight agents and tour operators
Red tape and visas
All foreign nationals need a visa to enter Vietnam, with certain exceptions: citizens of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Japan and South Korea do not need a visa if they are travelling to Vietnam for less than fifteen days, have a passport valid for three months following the date of entry and hold a return air ticket. Citizens of certain ASEAN–member countries, including Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are also exempt for stays of up to thirty days. Tourist visas are generally valid for thirty days and for a single entry, though some embassies issue visas for three months or longer and may also issue multiple–entry visas. A standard thirty–day visa costs the local equivalent of US$30–100, depending on how quickly you want it processed.
The majority of visitors apply for a visa in their country of residence, either from the embassy direct, or through a specialist visa agent or tour agent. Processing normally takes around a week, though many embassies now also offer a more expensive “express” service. To be on the safe side, it’s best to allow several weeks as delays and mistakes can occur (check the details carefully on receipt). For people travelling via neighbouring Asian countries, Bangkok is still the most popular place to apply for a Vietnamese visa, since it’s relatively straightforward (1–5 working days; around US$55–80), though Cambodia has a reputation for being quick, helpful and cheap. At the time of writing, the embassy in Phnom Penh was issuing thirty-day tourist visas in two days for $30, while the consulate in Sihanoukville did them on the spot.
To apply for a tourist visa, you have to submit an application form with one or two passport-sized photographs (procedures vary) and the fee. The visa shows specific start and end dates indicating the period of validity within which you can enter and leave the country. The visa is valid for entry via Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang international airports and any of Vietnam’s land borders open to foreigners (see "From neighbouring countries").
Business visas are valid for one month upwards and can be issued for multiple entry, though you’ll need a sponsoring office in Vietnam to underwrite your application.
One-year student visas are relatively easy to get hold of if you enrol, for example, on a Vietnamese language course at one of the universities; you’ll be required to attend a minimum number of classes per week to qualify. It’s easiest to arrange it in advance, but you can enter Vietnam on a tourist visa and apply for student status later – the only downside is that you may have to leave the country in order to get the visa stamp.
Special circumstances affect overseas Vietnamese holding a foreign passport: check with the Vietnamese embassy in your country of residence for details.
Most major tour agents in Vietnam are now authorized to issue visas on arrival at Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang international airports. It’s not necessarily any more expensive (prices range from US$25 to US$90 for a one-month tourist visa, depending on your nationality and how quickly you need the application processed), but check carefully to make sure you’re quoted a price including the visa and not just the handling fee. There’s also an element of risk since you are reliant on the agency completing the paperwork in time for your arrival. However, it can be handy if there is no Vietnamese embassy in your home country. The agency will need a photocopy of your passport, your full name, date of birth, proposed dates of stay, flight details and a fax number or email address to which they will send an “invitation letter” saying you have approval to enter the country. While some agencies are able to process the application in one day, allow at least one week to be on the safe side. If you follow this route, look out for the Visa on Arrival desk at the airport before you pass through immigration.
On arrival In Vietnam, you’ll need to fill in an Arrival and Departure Card, which has to be submitted when you leave the country, so it’s a good idea to staple it into your passport while travelling.
Visa extensions
Thirty-day extensions are issued in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Da Nang, Hué and Hoi An. Some people have managed to obtain second and even third extensions, usually in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Applications have to be made via a tour agent. In general they take three to five days to process and cost $25 for the first one-month extension.
Holders of business visas can apply for an extension only through the office that sponsored their original visa, backed up with reasons as to why an extension is necessary.
Incidentally, overstaying your visa will result in fines of between US$10 and US$50, depending how long you overstay and the mood of the immigration official, and is not recommended.
Vietnamese embassies and consulates
A full list of Vietnamese embassies and consulates is available at www.vietnamtourism.com.
Health
Vietnam’s health problems read like a dictionary of tropical medicine. Diseases that are under control elsewhere in Southeast Asia have been sustained here by poverty, dietary deficiencies, poor healthcare and the disruption caused by half a century of war. The situation is improving, however, and by coming prepared and taking a few simple precautions while in the country, you’re unlikely to come down with anything worse than a cold or a dose of travellers’ diarrhoea.
Before you go
When planning your trip it’s wise to visit a doctor as early as possible, preferably at least two months before you leave, to allow time to complete any recommended courses of vaccinations. It’s also advisable to have a trouble-shooting dental check-up – and remember that you generally need to start taking anti-malarial tablets at least one week before your departure.
For up-to-the-minute information, it may be worth visiting a specialized travel clinic; most clinics also sell travel-associated accessories, including mosquito nets and first-aid kits.
Vaccinations
No vaccinations are required for Vietnam (except yellow fever if you’re coming directly from an area where the disease is endemic), but typhoid and hepatitis A jabs are recommended; it’s also worth ensuring you’re up to date with boosters such as tetanus and polio. Additional injections to consider, depending on the season and risk of exposure, are hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, meningitis and rabies. All these immunizations can be obtained at international clinics in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, but it’s less hassle and usually cheaper to get them done at home. Get all your shots recorded on an Inter-national Certificate of Vaccination and carry this with your passport when travelling abroad.
For protection against hepatitis A, which is spread by contaminated food and water, the vaccine is expensive but extremely effective – an initial injection followed by a booster after six to twelve months provides immunity for up to ten years. Hepatitis B, like the HIV virus, can be passed on through unprotected sexual contact, blood transfusions and dirty needles. The very effective vaccine (three injections over six months) is recommended for anyone in a high-risk category, including those travelling extensively in rural areas for prolonged periods, with access to only basic medical care. It’s also now possible – and cheaper – to have a combined vaccination against both hepatitis A and B: the course comprises three injections over six months.
The risks of contracting Japanese encephalitis are extremely small, but, as the disease is untreatable, those travelling for a month or more in the countryside, especially in the north during and soon after the summer rainy season (June–Nov), should consider immunization. The course consists of two or three injections over a month with the last dose administered at least ten days before departure. Note that it is not recommended for those with liver, heart or kidney disorders, or for multiple-allergy sufferers. If your plans include long stays in remote areas your doctor may also recommend vaccination against meningitis (a single shot) and rabies.
Avian flu
Avian flu or bird flu is a contagious disease normally limited to birds and, less commonly, pigs. However, the virus can spread to humans by direct contact with infected poultry or with contaminated surfaces. In the 2004–05 outbreak in Vietnam of the highly contagious H5N1 strain of the disease, there were around sixty confirmed cases involving humans, of which some forty were fatal, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of people infected had direct contact with diseased birds. Since the initial outbreak, a further forty or so cases have been reported, the most recent in February 2009.
Evidence of human-to-human transmission has yet to be confirmed but the indications are that, if it is possible, it is extremely rare and has so far been limited to close family members. The main fear among health experts is that the virus will mutate into a form that is highly infectious to and easily spread among humans.
At present the risk to travellers visiting infected areas remains low. As a precaution, however, you are advised to avoid contact with live poultry and pigs, including live animal markets, and to eat only well-cooked poultry and eggs. Check the latest with your doctor or travel health specialist prior to travel. You’ll also find up-to-date information on the following websites: www.avianinfluenza.com.au, www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en and www.cdc.gov.
Mosquito–borne diseases
Both the Red River and Mekong deltas (including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) have few incidences of malaria. The coastal plain north of Nha Trang is also considered relatively safe. Malaria occurs frequently in the highlands and rural areas, notably the central highlands, as well as the southern provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Tay Ninh. The majority of cases involve the most dangerous strain, Plasmodium falciparum, which can be fatal if not treated promptly.
The key preventive measure is to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes (which carry the disease), but if you’re travelling in high-risk areas it’s advisable to take preventive tablets.
Mosquitoes are also responsible for transmitting dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis. Dengue is carried by a variety of mosquitoes active in the daytime (particularly two hours after sunrise and several hours before sunset) and occurs mostly in the Mekong Delta, including Ho Chi Minh City, though the chances of being infected remain small. There is a more dangerous version called dengue haemorrhage fever, which primarily affects children but is extremely rare among foreign visitors to Vietnam. If you notice an unusual tendency to bleed or bruise, seek medical advice immediately.
There are several things you can do to avoid getting bitten. Mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk, so at these times wear long sleeves, trousers and socks, avoid dark colours and perfumes, which attract mosquitoes, and put repellent on all exposed skin. Sprays and lotions containing around thirty to forty percent DEET (diethyltoluamide) are effective and can also be used to treat clothes, but the chemical is toxic: keep it away from eyes and open wounds.
Many hotels and guesthouses provide mosquito nets over beds or meshing on windows and doors. Air-conditioning and fans also help keep mosquitoes at bay, as do mosquito coils and knockdown insecticide sprays (available locally), though none of these measures is as effective as a decent net.
What about the water?
The simple rule is don’t drink tap water in Vietnam, with the exception of one or two top hotels which now offer filtered water, and never drink river water. It’s wise also to avoid ice in your drinks except, again, in top hotels and other trustworthy places. Contaminated water is a major cause of sickness due to the presence of pathogenic organisms: bacteria, viruses and cysts. These micro-organisms cause ailments and diseases such as diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, poliomyelitis, hepatitis A and giardia – and can be present even when water looks clean and safe to drink.
Fortunately there are plenty of alternative drinks around: hot tea is always on offer, while cheap, bottled water and carbonated drinks are widely available. When buying bottled water check the seal is unbroken and the water is clear, as bottles are occasionally refilled from the tap. Tap water in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is chlorinated and most travellers use it for brushing their teeth without problem, but this is not recommended in rural areas, where water is often untreated. Particular care should be taken anywhere where there is flooding as raw sewage may be washed into the water system. The only time you’re likely to be out of reach of bottled water is trekking into remote areas, when you’ll be relying on boiled water. Boiling for ten minutes gets rid of most bacteria in water but at least twenty minutes is needed to kill amoebic cysts, a cause of dysentery. Alternatively, you can use iodine purification tablets or solutions, which are more effective than chlorine compounds, though still leave a nasty aftertaste – using a filter afterwards makes the water slightly more palatable. Note that iodine products are unsuitable for pregnant women, babies and people with thyroid problems.
Bites and creepy–crawlies
Bed bugs, fleas, lice or scabies can be picked up from dirty bedclothes, though this is relatively unusual in Vietnam. Try not to scratch bites, which easily become septic. Ticks picked up walking through scrub may carry a strain of typhus; carry out regular body inspections and remove ticks promptly.
Rabies is contracted by being bitten, or even licked on broken skin or the eyes, by an infected animal. The best strategy is to give all animals, especially dogs, cats and monkeys, a wide berth.
Vietnam has several poisonous snakes but in general snakes steer clear of humans and it’s very rare to get bitten. Avoid walking through long grass or undergrowth, and wear boots when walking off-road. If bitten, immobilize the limb (most snake bites occur on the lower leg) to slow down absorption of the venom and remove any tight-fitting socks or other clothing from around the wound. It’s important to seek medical assistance as quickly as possible. It helps if you can take the (dead) snake to be identified, or at least remember what it looked like.
Leeches are more common and, though harmless, can be unpleasant. Long trousers, sleeves and socks help prevent them getting a grip. The best way to get rid of leeches is to burn them off with a lighted match or cigarette; alternatively rub alcohol or salt onto them.
Worms enter the body either via contaminated food, or through the skin, especially the soles of the feet. You may notice worms in your stools, or experience other indications such as mild abdominal pain leading, very rarely, to acute intestinal blockage (roundworm, the most common), an itchy anus (threadworm) or anaemia (hookworm). An infestation is easily treated with worming tablets from a pharmacy.
Heat trouble
Don’t underestimate the strength of the tropical sun: sunburn can be avoided by restricting your exposure to the midday sun and liberal use of high-factor sunscreens. Drinking plenty of water will prevent dehydration, but if you do become dehydrated – signs are infrequent or irregular urination – drink a salt and sugar solution.
Heatstroke is more serious and may require hospital treatment. Indications are a high temperature, lack of sweating, a fast pulse and red skin. Reducing your body temperature with a lukewarm shower will provide initial relief.
High humidity often causes heat rashes, prickly heat and fungal infections. Prevention and cure are the same: wear loose clothes made of natural fibres, wash frequently and dry off thoroughly afterwards. Talcum powder helps, particularly zinc oxide-based products (prickly heat powder), as does the use of mild antiseptic soap.
Sexually transmitted diseases
Until recently Vietnam carried out very little screening for sex workers, injecting drug users and other high-risk groups. As a result, sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhoea and syphilis, both easily treated with antibiotics, and AIDS are flourishing. It is, therefore, extremely unwise to contemplate casual unprotected sex, and bear in mind that Vietnamese condoms (bao cao su) are often poor-quality (more reliable imported varieties are available in major cities).
Getting medical help
Pharmacies can generally help with minor injuries or ailments and in major towns you will usually find a pharmacist who speaks English. The selection of reliable Asian and Western products on the market is improving rapidly, and both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi now have well-stocked pharmacies. That said, drugs past their shelf life and even counterfeit medicines are rife, so inspect packaging carefully, check use-by dates – and bring anything you know you’re likely to need from home, including oral contraceptives. Tampons and reliable, imported brands of condoms (bao cao su) are sold in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, but don’t count on getting them easily elsewhere.
Local hospitals can also treat minor problems, but in a real emergency your best bet is to head for Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. Hospitals in both these cities can handle most eventualities and you also have the option of one of the excellent international medical centres. Addresses of clinics and hospitals can be found in our “Listings” sections for major towns throughout the book. Note that doctors and hospitals expect immediate cash payment for health services rendered; you will then have to seek reimbursement from your insurance company (make sure you get receipts for any payments you make).
Getting around
Vietnam’s transport network has improved markedly in recent years. Massive infrastructure projects have seen the country’s main thoroughfare, Highway 1 – which runs from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, passing through Hué, Da Nang and Nha Trang en route – widened and resurfaced for much of its length, while the nation’s first stretch of motorway was inaugurated early in the new millennium. State–run bus services are slowly being upgraded and there’s an increasing number of relatively comfortable, privately owned minibuses in operation, while the introduction of new rolling stock, complete with air–conditioned carriages and restaurant cars, is slowly transforming train travel.
That said, there’s plenty of room for improvement, particularly as regards road transport: buses are often packed to the gunnels; driving standards leave a lot to be desired; and passengers – not just foreigners – are sometimes overcharged or forced to change buses and pay a second time. It’s therefore not surprising that an increasing number of tourists, and the more affluent Vietnamese, are opting for internal flights, privately operated “open-tour” buses or organized tours. Public transport shouldn’t be rejected out of hand, though: many visitors have their warmest encounters with the Vietnamese within the chaos of a bus or train.
Security is an important consideration. Never fall asleep with your bag by your side, and never leave belongings unattended. On trains, be especially vigilant when the train stops at stations and ensure your money belt is safely tucked under your clothes before going to sleep and that your luggage is safely stowed.
By plane
Flying comes into its own on longer hauls, and can shave precious hours or even days off journeys – the two-hour journey between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, for instance, compares favourably with the thirty to forty hours you would spend on the train, and costs from around 750,000đ with Jetstar. Other useful services from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City fly to Hué, Da Nang and Nha Trang, and Phu Quoc Island. Note that you’ll need your passport with you when taking internal flights.
The Vietnamese national carrier, Vietnam Airlines (www.vietnamairlines.com), operates a reasonably cheap, efficient and comprehensive network of domestic flights. The company maintains booking offices in all towns and cities with an airport; addresses and phone numbers are listed throughout the Guide. If you’re booking international flights with Vietnam Airlines, it’s worth checking their domestic fares at the same time as they sometimes offer good discounts as part of a package; otherwise, it’s generally cheaper to buy tickets in Vietnam. Two other airlines also operate domestic flights: Jetstar (www.jetstar.com), which flies from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Nha Trang, and from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, Haiphong, Vinh and Da Nang; and Vasco (www.vasco.com.vn), from Ho Chi Minh City to Con Dao and Ca Mau.
By rail
Vietnam Railways (www.vr.com.vn) runs a single-track train network comprising more than 2500km of track, stretching from Ho Chi Minh City to the Chinese border. Much of it dates back to the colonial period, though it’s gradually being upgraded. Most of the services are still relatively slow, but travelling by train can be far more pleasant than going by road – though prices on the coastal route can’t compare with buses, you’re away from the busy (and often dangerous) Highway 1, and get to see far more of the countryside.
The most popular routes with tourists are the shuttle from Da Nang to Hué (2–3hr), a picturesque sampler of Vietnamese rail travel, and the overnighters from Hué to Hanoi (11–16hr) and from Hanoi up to Lao Cai, for Sa Pa (8–9hr).
Services
The country’s main line shadows Highway 1 on its way from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, passing through Nha Trang, Da Nang and Hué en route. From Hanoi, three branch lines strike out towards the northern coast and into its hinterland. One line traces the Red River northwest to Lao Cai, site of a border crossing into China’s Yunnan Province, and just an hour by bus from Sa Pa. Another runs north to Dong Dang, and is the route taken by the trains from Hanoi to Beijing. The third branch, a shorter spur, links the capital with Haiphong.
Six Reunification Express services depart daily from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City and vice versa, a journey that takes somewhere between thirty and forty hours. On the northern lines, two trains per day make the run from Hanoi to Haiphong (2–3hr) and two to Dong Dang (6hr). There are also three night trains (7–8hr) and a day service (9hr) to Lao Cai.
Note that departure times change regularly – current times are displayed in stations and on the tickets themselves – and that trains generally leave pretty much on schedule. You’ll also find timetables on the Vietnam Railway’s website, though it’s always wise to double-check at the station.
When it comes to choosing which class to travel in, it’s essential to aim high. At the bottom of the scale is a hard seat, which is just as it sounds, though bearable for shorter journeys; the carriages, however, tend to be filthy and there are few views since the windows are caged. Soft seats offer slightly more comfort, especially in the new air-conditioned carriages, some of which are double-decker. On overnight journeys, you’d be well advised to invest in a berth of some description, though since the country’s rolling stock is being upgraded it’s not always possible to know exactly what you’re getting. The new hard-berth compartments are now quite comfortable and have six bunks, three either side – the cramped top ones are the cheapest, and the bottom ones the priciest – though some of the old hard-as-nails relics remain in service. Roomier soft-berth compartments, containing only four bunks, are always comfortable.
All Reunification Express trains now have air-conditioning, as do the overnight Lao Cai trains which have been upgraded with soft-sleeper berths. All trains are theoretically non-smoking, though try telling the locals: in hard-seat class, even the guards will be puffing away.
Simple meals are often included in the price of the ticket, but you might want to stock up with goodies of your own. You’ll also have plenty of opportunities to buy snacks when the train pulls into stations – and from carts that ply the aisles.
Tickets
Booking ahead is wise, and the further ahead the better, especially if you intend travelling at the weekend or a holiday period. Sleeping compartments should be booked at least three days before departure, and even further ahead for soft-sleeper berths on the Hanoi–Hué and Hanoi–Lao Cai routes. It’s not possible to buy through tickets and break your journey en route; each journey requires you to buy a separate ticket from the point of departure.
Fares vary according to the class of travel and the train you take; as a rule of thumb, the faster the train, the more expensive it is. Prices (which are always quoted in dong) change regularly, but as an indication of the fare range, on the most expensive services from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City you’ll pay around 1,100,000đ for a soft-sleeper berth, and around 750,000đ for a hard sleeper in the slowest trains; the equivalent fares for Hanoi to Hué are 520,000đ and 250,000đ respectively. Prices to Lao Cai vary from 80,000đ for a hard seat on the day train to over 300,000đ for a soft sleeper.
By bus
Whilst Vietnam’s national bus network offers daily services between all the major towns, the lion’s share of tourist journeys are made on privately-operated services. These have air-conditioning, limited seating, fixed time-tables and don’t pick up on route, making them infinitely more comfortable than the national services. Most travellers use buses to get around Vietnam but never actually see a bus station, since these companies operate from their own offices. Competition between the companies is so fierce that prices are as low as the national bus network. Though some operators are more reliable than others, on the whole these buses are reasonably comfortable (but don’t expect much leg-room) and tend to run on time.
Most popular of all are the “open-tour” buses shuttling between the major tourist destinations. One-way through tickets, for example, from Ho Chi Minh City to Hué (around US$25) or Hanoi (US$35 and up), or vice versa, enable you to stop off at specified destinations en route: heading south to north, the main stops are Da Lat, Mui Ne, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Da Nang, Hué and Ninh Binh. On the way buses also call at the occasional tourist sight, such as the Marble Mountains and Lang Co. You can either make firm bookings at the outset or opt for an open-dated ticket for greater flexibility, in which case you may need to book your onward travel one or two days in advance to be sure of a seat. Alternatively, you can buy separate tickets as you go along, though this can work out slightly more expensive, depending on the operator. Each main town on the itinerary has an agent (one for each operator) where you can buy tickets and make onward reservations. To avoid being sold a fake ticket or paying over the odds, it’s best to buy direct from the relevant agent rather than from hotels, restaurants or unrelated tour companies.
The downside of these open-tour buses is that you’ll be encouraged to book into the company’s own or affiliated hotels, though there’s nothing to stop you staying elsewhere. You’ll also have less choice when it comes to meal stops, which tend to be at rather mediocre and overpriced restaurants; it’s worth taking a picnic. Finally, bear in mind that some buses run overnight – you may save on a night’s accommodation, but don’t expect to get much sleep.
On the national bus network, the government is slowly upgrading state buses, replacing the rickety old vehicles with swish air-conditioned models, particularly on the more popular routes. Don’t necessarily expect a comfortable ride, however, since they still try to cram in as many people as possible, plus luggage, which could be anything from live pigs in baskets to scores of sacks of rice. Progress can be agonizingly slow as buses stop frequently to pick up passengers or for meal breaks. Among older vehicles, breakdowns are fairly common and can sometimes necessitate a roadside wait of several hours while driver, fare collector and mechanic roll up their sleeves and improvise a repair.
Tickets are best bought at bus stations, where fares should be clearly indicated above the ticket windows. At smaller and less organized stations, or if you join a bus mid-route, how much you pay depends very much upon luck and where you are: at certain tourist hot spots, especially in the south, you’ll often be charged over the odds; elsewhere, you might pay the going price. Try to ascertain the correct price and have the exact money ready before boarding as fare collectors will often take advantage of your captive position. For long journeys, buy your ticket a day in advance since many routes are heavily oversubscribed.
Privately owned minibuses compete with public buses on most routes; they sometimes share the local bus station, or simply congregate on the roadside in the centre of a town. You can also flag them down on the road. If anything, they squeeze in even more people per square foot than ordinary buses, and often drive interminably around town, touting for passengers. On the other hand, they do at least run throughout the day and serve routes not covered by public services. Again, try to find what the correct fare should be and agree a price before boarding. Even so, be prepared to find the price has suddenly increased once you’ve got going. You may also find yourself dumped at the side of the road before reaching your destination and having to cram onto the next passing service.
By ferry and boat
A boat-tour around Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam’s most enjoyable trips, while scheduled ferries sail year-round – weather permitting – to the major islands off Vietnam’s coastline, including Phu Quoc, Cat Ba and Con Dao. In addition, ferry and hydrofoil services run from Haiphong to Cat Ba, and hydrofoils from Ho Chi Minh City to Vung Tau, and from Ha Long City (Bai Chay) to Mong Cai. Though they are gradually being replaced by bridges, a few river ferries still haul themselves from bank to bank of the various strands of the Mekong from morning until night. Numerous aged (and often less than seaworthy) cargo vessels also dawdle between towns, and some ply the route to Ho Chi Minh City, but they tend to be slow and basic; we’ve outlined a handful of the more do-able ones in the text.
By car and jeep
Self-drive in Vietnam is not yet an option for tourists and other short-term visitors. However, it’s easy to rent a car, jeep or minibus with driver from the same companies, agencies and tourist offices that arrange tours. This can be quite an economical means of transport if you are travelling in a group. Moreover, it means you can plan a trip to your own tastes, rather than having to follow a tour company’s itinerary.
Prices vary wildly so it pays to shop around, but expect to pay in the region of $35–50 per day for a car, and $60–100 per day for a jeep or other 4WD, depending on the vehicle’s size, age and level of comfort. When negotiating the price, it’s important to clarify exactly who is liable for what. Things to check include who pays for the driver’s accommodation and meals, fuel, road and ferry tolls, parking fees and repairs and what happens in the case of a major breakdown. There should then be some sort of contract to sign showing all the details, including an agreed itinerary, especially if you are renting for more than a day; make sure the driver is given a copy in Vietnamese. In some cases you’ll have to settle up in advance, though, if possible, it’s best if you can arrange to pay roughly half before and the balance at the end.
Hitching
Although not really comparable to hitching in the Western sense, there is a tradition of drivers (especially truck drivers) picking up passengers from the roadside, in exchange for a small payment – and this system has been used to great effect by some travellers. However, in addition to the risks associated with hitching anywhere, you’re also quite likely to be overcharged, due to the prevailing (and not unreasonable) assumption that all foreigners are wealthy. Set against the relatively low cost of other forms of transport, hitching is an ill-advised and unattractive proposition.
By motorbike
Motorbike rental is possible in most towns and cities regularly frequented by tourists, and pottering around on one can be a most enjoyable and time-efficient method of sightseeing. Lured by the prospect of independent travel at relatively low cost, some tourists cruise the countryside on motorbikes, but inexperienced bikers would do well to think very hard before undertaking any long-distance biking since Vietnam’s roads can be distinctly dangerous (see "Rules of the road").
The appalling road discipline of most Vietnamese drivers means that the risk of an accident is very real, with potentially dire consequences should it happen in a remote area. Well-equipped hospitals are few and far between outside the major centres, and there’ll probably be no ambulance service.
On the other hand, many people ride around with no problems and thoroughly recommend it for both day-trips and touring. The best biking is to be found in the northern mountains, the central highlands and around the Mekong Delta, while the Ho Chi Minh Highway offers pristine tarmac plus wonderful scenery. Some also do the long haul up Highway 1 from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi (or vice versa), a journey of around two weeks, averaging a leisurely 150km per day.
There’s no shortage of motorbikes for rent in Vietnam’s major tourist centres; the average rate is around US$7 per day, with discounts for longer periods. You’ll sometimes be asked to pay in advance, sign a rental contract and/or leave some form of ID (a photocopy of your passport should suffice). If you’re renting for a week or so, you may be asked to leave a deposit, often the bike’s value in dollars though it might also be your air ticket or departure card. In the vast majority of cases, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Although it’s technically illegal for non-residents to own a vehicle, there’s a small trade in secondhand motorbikes in the two main cities – look at the noticeboards in hotels, travellers’ cafés and tour agents for adverts. So far the police have ignored the practice, but check the latest situation before committing yourself. The bike of choice is usually a Minsk 125cc, particularly for the mountains; it’s sturdy, not too expensive, and the easiest to get repaired outside the main cities.
Whether you’re renting or buying, remember to check everything over carefully, especially brakes, lights and horn. Wearing a helmet is now a legal requirement, and most rental outlets have helmets you can borrow, sometimes for a small charge, though they may not be top-quality.
Note that international driving licences are not valid in Vietnam, but you will need your home driving licence and bike registration papers. You also need at least third-party insurance, which is available (with the aforementioned documentation) at Bao Viet insurance offices.
Though road conditions have improved remarkably in recent years, off the main highways they can still be highly erratic, with pristine asphalt followed by stretches of spine-jarring potholes, and plenty of loose gravel on the sides of the road. Repair shops are fairly ubiquitous – ask for sua chua xe may (motorbike repairs) – but you should still carry at least a puncture-repair kit, pump and spare spark plug. Fuel (xang) is cheap (18,000đ, around US$1 per litre, at the time of writing) and widely available. Finally, try to travel in the company of one or more other bikes in case one of you gets into trouble. And if you want to get off the main highways, it really pays to take a guide.
Rules of the road
There’s no discernible method to the madness that passes as a traffic system in Vietnam so it’s extremely important that you don’t stray out onto the roads unless you feel a hundred percent confident about doing so. The theory is that you drive on the right, though in practice motorists and cyclists swoop, swerve and dodge wherever they want, using their horn as a surrogate indicator and brake. Unless otherwise stated, the speed limit is 60kph on highways and 40kph or less in towns.
Right of way invariably goes to the biggest vehicle on the road, which means that motorbikes and bicycles are regularly forced off the highway by thundering trucks or buses; note that overtaking vehicles assume you’ll pull over onto the hard shoulder to avoid them. It’s wise to use your horn to its maximum and also to avoid being on the road after dark, since many vehicles either don’t have functioning headlights or simply don’t bother to turn them on.
On the whole the police seem to leave foreign riders well alone, and the best policy at roadside checkpoints is just to drive by slowly. However, if you are involved in an accident and it was deemed to be your fault, the penalties can involve fairly major fines.
When parking your bike, it’s advisable to leave it in a parking compound (gui xe) – the going rate is 2000đ to 5000đ for a motorbike and 1000đ to 2000đ for a bicycle – or paying someone to keep an eye on it. If not, you run the risk of it being tampered with.
By bicycle
Cycling is an excellent way of sightseeing around towns, and you shouldn’t have to pay more than 30,000đ per day for the privilege, even outside the main tourist centres.
While you can now buy decent Japanese-made bikes in Vietnam, if you decide on a long-distance cycling holiday, you should really bring your own bike with you, not forgetting all the necessary spares and tools. Hardy mountain bikes cope best with the country’s variable surfaces, though tourers and hybrids are fine on the main roads. Bring your own helmet and a good loud bell; a rear-view mirror also comes in handy.
When it all gets too much, or you want to skip between towns, you can always put your bike on the train (though not on all services; check when buying your ticket) for a small fee; take it to the station well ahead of time, where it will be packed and placed in the luggage van. Some open-tour buses will also take bikes – free if it goes in the luggage hold (packed up), otherwise you’ll have to pay for an extra seat.
If you want to see Vietnam from the saddle, there are several companies that offer specialist cycling tours – see details of specialist tour operators in "Local tour operators".
Organized tours
Ever-increasing numbers of tourists are seeing Vietnam through the window of a minibus, on organized tours. Ranging from one-day jaunts to two- or three-week trawls upcountry, tours are ideal if you want to acquaint yourself speedily with the highlights of Vietnam; they can also work out much cheaper than car rental. On the other hand, by relying upon tours you’ll have little chance to really get to grips with the country and its people, or to enjoy things at your leisure.
Hordes of state-owned and private tour companies compete for business in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other major destinations (see "Airlines, agents and operators" for a list of well-established agents). While a few companies now put together more innovative itineraries, the vast majority offer similar tours. However, it pays to shop around since prices vary wildly depending, for example, on how many people there are in a group, the standard of transport, meals and accommodation, whether entry fees are included and so forth.
It’s important to check exactly what is included in the price before handing over any cash. It’s also a good idea to ask about the maximum number of people on the trip and whether your group will be amalgamated with others if you don’t want to be travelling round in a great horde. Bear in mind, as well, that you’re far better off dealing directly with the company organizing the tour, rather than going through a hotel or other intermediary. Not only are you more likely to get accurate information about the details of the tour, but you’ll also be in a much stronger position should you have cause for complaint.
The other alternative is to set up your own custom-made tour by gathering together a group and renting a car, jeep or minibus plus driver (see "By car and jeep").
Local transport
In a country with a population so adept at making do with limited resources, it isn’t surprising to see the diverse types of local transport. While taxis are increasingly common and a number of cities now boast reasonable bus services, elsewhere you’ll be reliant on a host of two- and three-wheeled vehicles for getting around.
Most common by far are motorbike taxis known as xe om. In the cities you’ll rarely be able to walk twenty yards without being offered a ride; prices tend to start at around 10,000đ for short runs, though this goes up after dark (as does the possibility of extortion). At all times the rules of bargaining apply: when haggling, ensure you know which currency you are dealing in (five fingers held up, for instance, could mean 5000đ or US$5), and whether you’re negotiating for a single or return trip, and for one passenger or two; it’s always best to write the figures down. Should a difference of opinion emerge at the end of a ride, having the exact fare ready to press into an argumentative driver’s hand can sometimes resolve matters.
Xe om have almost entirely replaced that quintessential Vietnamese mode of transport, the cyclo, which are becoming increasingly rare in city centres. These three-wheeled rickshaws comprising a “bucket” seat attached to the front of a bicycle can carry one person, or two people at a push, and are now only really found in tourist areas. Prices are a little lower than corresponding trips by xe om, though there are continuous stories of cyclo drivers charging outrageous sums for their services. To avoid getting badly ripped off, find out first what a reasonable fare might be – from your hotel or the like – and, if the first driver won’t agree to your offer, simply walk on and try another.
Taxis are now a common sight on the streets of all major cities. The vast majority are metered (with prices in dong) and fares are not expensive; a short ride within central Hanoi, for example, should cost around 25,000đ (just over a dollar). Though standards have been improving with greater competition, some drivers need persuading to use their meters, while others dawdle along as the meter spins suspiciously fast, or take you on an unnecessarily long route. When arriving in a town, beware of drivers who insist the hotel you ask for is closed and want to take you elsewhere; this is usually a commission scam – be firm with your directions. In general, smarter-looking taxis and those waiting outside big hotels tend to be more reliable.
Accommodation
Vietnam’s accommodation scene continues to improve – recent and ongoing booms in tourism and construction mean that rooms are generally becoming better value for money, and service standards are rising as a result of increased competition. An increase in the numbers of luxury resorts and boutique hotels has led to a decrease in the popularity of the country’s state–owned monstrosities, while there’s almost always plenty of choice for those travelling on a budget.
Another consequence of the number of new hotels springing up in recent years is that getting a reservation is no longer the nightmare it once was, and even among international-class hotels there are some bargains to be had, particularly at weekends; however, booking in advance is a must around the Tet festival in early spring.
Tourist booth staff at the airports in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi will phone to reserve a room for you, and it’s increasingly simple to book online. Be wary of asking advice from cyclo or taxi drivers, as travellers are often told that their hotel of choice is full or closed. It’s also important to note that Vietnam is full of copycat establishments – to avoid being taken to a similarly-named hotel, write down the street name and show it to your driver.
Once you’ve found a hotel, look at a range of rooms before opting for one, as standards can vary hugely within the same establishment. You’ll also need to check the bed arrangement, since there are many permutations in Vietnam. A “single” room could have a single or twin beds in it, while a “double” room could have two, three or four single beds, a double, a single and a double, and so on.
When you check in at a Vietnamese hotel or guesthouse, you’ll be asked for your passport, which is needed for registration with the local authorities. Depending on the establishment, these will be either returned to you the same night, or kept as security until you check out. If you’re going to lose sleep over being separated from your passport, say you need it for the bank; many places will accept photocopies of your picture and visa pages. It’s normally possible to pay your bill when you leave, although a few budget places ask for payment in advance.
Room rates fluctuate according to demand, so it’s always worth bargaining – making sure, of course, that it’s clear whether both parties are talking per person or per room. Your case will be that much stronger if you are staying several nights.
All hotels charge ten percent government tax, while top-class establishments also add a service charge. These taxes may or may not be included in the room rate, so check to be sure. (Our price codes – (See "Accommodation price codes") – include all applicable taxes.) Increasingly, breakfast is included in the price of all but the cheapest rooms, though in budget places it will consist of little more than bread with jam or cheese and a cup of tea or coffee.
Although the situation is improving, hotel security can be a problem. Never leave valuables lying about in your room and keep documents, traveller’s cheques and so forth with you at all times, in a money pouch. While top-end and many mid-range hotels provide safety deposit boxes, elsewhere you can sometimes leave things in a safe or locked drawer at reception; put everything in a sealed envelope and ask for a receipt. In the real cheapies, where the door may only be secured with a padlock, you can increase security by using your own lock.
In some older budget hotels, rooms are cleaned irregularly and badly, and hygiene can be a problem, with cockroaches and even rats roaming free; you can at least minimize health risks by not bringing foodstuffs or sugary drinks into your room.
Pretty much any guesthouse or hotel will offer a laundry service, and Western-style laundry and dry-cleaning services are widely available in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other major cities. Washing is often given a rigorous scrubbing by hand, so don’t submit anything delicate.
Finally, prostitution is rife in Vietnam, and in less reputable hotels it’s not unknown for Western men to be called upon, or even phoned from other rooms, during the night.
Types of accommodation
Grading accommodation isn’t a simple matter in Vietnam. The names used (guesthouse, mini-hotel, hotel and so on) can rarely be relied upon to indicate what’s on offer, and there are broad overlaps in standards. Vietnam’s older hotels tend to be austere, state-owned edifices styled upon unlovely Eastern European models, while many private mini-hotels make a real effort. Some hotels cover all bases by having a range of rooms, from simple fan-cooled rooms with cold water, right up to cheerful air-conditioned accommodation with satellite TV, fridge and mini-bar. As a rule of thumb, the newer a place is, the better value it’s likely to represent in terms of comfort, hygiene and all-round appeal.
Budget accommodation
The very cheapest form of accommodation in Vietnam is a bed in a dormitory. Dormitories are not a new concept in Vietnam: many bus and train stations have on-site dorms known as nha tro, but these practically never take foreigners – which is no loss, since they generally have appalling standards of cleanliness and little security.
However, there are a few “backpacker” dorms in Ho Chi Minh City and, to a lesser extent, Hanoi, where you can expect to pay US$3–8 for a bed or a mattress on the floor, sharing common facilities. You’ll generally find these dorms in the budget guesthouses (nha khach) that proliferate around Ho Chi Minh City’s De Tham enclave. In Hanoi, a couple of places in the Old Quarter offer dormitory accommodation. Details are given in the Guide.
Good news for single travellers is the recently established network of youth hostels fully accredited by Hostelling International (www.hihostels.com). You’ll need a current Youth Hostel card, which is generally easiest and cheapest to obtain at home through your national youth hostel association; make sure it’s a full member of Hostelling International. Alternatively, you can join Vietnam Hostelling International (VHI) at any of the hostels.
If you prefer your own privacy, you’ll find simple fan rooms in either a guesthouse or hotel (khach san) costing anywhere between US$5 and $10 (US$10 and under); these are likely to be ensuite, although you might not get hot water at this price level in the warmer south. Add air-conditioning, satellite TV and slightly better furnishings, maybe even a window, and you’ll be paying between $10 and $20 (US$11–20). Upgrading to $20–30 (US$21–30) will get you a larger room with better-standard fittings, usually including a fridge and bathtub, and possibly a balcony. Note that while many hotels advertise satellite TV, which channels you actually get varies wildly, let alone the quality of reception, so check first if it matters to you.
Accommodation price codes
All accommodation listed in this guide has been categorized according to the following scale:
Rates are for the cheapest available double or twin room. During holiday periods, rates are liable to rise, and proprietors may be less amenable to bargaining. Although the law requires prices to be quoted in dong, most hotels give their rates in US$; payment can be made in either currency.
Mid- and upper-range accommodation
For upwards of US$30 per room per night, accommodation can begin to get quite rosy. Rooms at this level will be comfortable, reasonably spacious and well appointed with decent furniture, air-conditioning, hot water, fridge, phone and satellite TV in all but the most remote areas.
Paying US$30–75 (US$31–75) will get you a room in a mid-range hotel of some repute, with in-house restaurant and bar, booking office, room service and so on. At the top of the range (US$76–US$151 and over) the sky’s the limit. Inter-national-class hotels are for the most part confined to the two major cities, which also have some reasonably charismatic places to stay, such as the Metropole in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh’s Continental. However, in recent years developers have targeted Nha Trang, Hoi An, Da Nang and Ha Long City, all of which now boast upmarket resort hotels.
Village accommodation and camping
As Vietnam’s minority communities have become more exposed to tourism, staying in stilthouses or other village accommodation has become more feasible.
In the north of the country, notably around Sa Pa, He Ho and in the Mai Chau Valley, you can either take one of the tours out of Hanoi which includes a home-stay in one of the minority villages, or make your own arrangements when you get there ((see "Visiting minority villages") for details). In the central highlands, the Plei Ku and Kon Tum tourist offices can also arrange a stilthouse home-stay for you.
Accommodation usually consists of a mattress on the floor in a communal room. Those villages more used to tourists normally provide a blanket and mosquito net, but it’s advisable to take your own net and sleeping bag to be on the safe side, particularly as nights get pretty cold in the mountains. Prices in the villages vary from US$5–15 per person per night, depending on the area and whether meals are included.
Where boat trips operate in the Mekong Delta, notably around Vinh Long, tour operators in Ho Chi Minh City or the local tourist board can arrange for visitors to stay with owners of fruit orchards, allowing a close-up view of rural life (see "Tour agents").
Virtually no provisions exist in Vietnam for camping at the present time. The exceptions are at Nha Trang and Mui Ne, where some guesthouses offer tents for a few dollars a night when all rooms are full. Some tour companies also offer camping as an option when visiting Ha Long Bay (see "Organized tours of Ha Long Bay").
Eating and drinking
At its best, Vietnamese food is light, subtle in flavour and astonishing in its variety. Though its cuisine is related to that of China, Vietnam has its own distinct culinary tradition, using herbs and seasoning rather than sauces, and favouring boiled or steamed dishes over stir–fries.
In the south, Indian and Thai influences add curries and spices to the menu, while other regions have evolved their own array of specialities, most notably the foods of Hué and Hoi An. Buddhism introduced a vegetarian tradition to Vietnam, while much later the French brought with them bread, dairy products, pastries and the whole café culture. Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the major tourist centres are now well provided, with everything from street hawkers to hotel and Western-style restaurants, and even ice-cream parlours.
The quality and variety of food is generally better in the main towns than off the beaten track, where restaurants of any sort are few and far between. That said, you’ll never go hungry; even in the back of beyond, there’s always some stall selling a noodle soup or rice platter and plenty of fruit to fill up on.
Vietnam’s national drink is green tea, which is the accompaniment to every social gathering or business meeting and is frequently drunk after meals. At the harder end of the spectrum, there’s also rice wine, though some local beer is also excellent, and an increasingly wide range of imported wines and spirits.
For a glossary of food and drink terms, see "Eating and drinking".
Where to eat
Broadly speaking, there are two types of eating establishment to choose from. One step up from hawkers peddling their dish of the day from shoulder poles or handcarts are street kitchens, inexpensive joints aimed at locals. More formal, Western-style restaurants come in many shapes and sizes, from simple places serving unpretentious Vietnamese meals to top-class establishments offering high-quality Vietnamese specialities and international cuisine.
Throughout the Guide we’ve given phone numbers for those restaurants where it’s advisable to make reservations. While most eating establishments stay open throughout the year, some close over Tet (see "Festivals and religious events" for more on Tet). The Vietnamese eat early: outside the major cities and tourist areas, food stalls and street kitchens rarely stay open beyond 8pm and may close even earlier, though they do stay open later in the south, especially in Ho Chi Minh City. You’ll need to brush up your chopstick-handling skills, too, although other utensils are always available in places frequented by tourists – in Western-style restaurants you won’t be expected to tackle your steak-frites with chopsticks.
When it comes to paying, the normal sign language will be readily understood in most restaurants. In street kitchens you pay as you leave – either proffer a few thousand dong to signal your intentions, or ask bao nhieu tien? (“how much is it?”).
Street kitchens
Street kitchens range from makeshift food stalls, set up on the street round a cluster of pint-size stools, to eating houses where, as often as not, the cooking is still done on the street but you either sit in an open-fronted dining area or join the overspill outside. Like the food stall, these streetside restaurants offer few concessions to comfort, but they are permanent, with an address if not a name, and serve basic meals for next to nothing. Some places stay open all day (7am–8pm), while many close once they’ve run out of ingredients and others only open at lunchtime (10.30am–2pm). To be sure of the widest choice and freshest food, it pays to get there early (as early as 11.30am at lunchtime, and by 7pm in the evening), and note that the best places will be packed around noon.
Most specialize in one type of food, generally indicated on a signboard, or offer the ubiquitous com and pho rice dishes and noodle soups. Com binh dan, “people’s meals”, are also popular. Here you select from an array of prepared dishes displayed in a glass cabinet or on a buffet table, piling your plate with such things as stuffed tomatoes, fried fish, tofu, pickles or eggs, plus a helping of rice; expect to pay from around 20,000đ for a good plateful. Though it’s not a major problem at these prices, some street kitchens overcharge, so double-check when ordering.
While regular restaurants in Vietnam are definitely improving, the food served at many street kitchens is often superior in quality and much cheaper; they’re also a lot more fun. All you need is a bit of judicious selection – look for clean places with a fast turnover, where the ingredients are obviously fresh – plus a smattering of basic vocabulary (see "Eating and drinking").
In a similar vein to street kitchens are bia hoi outlets. Though these are primarily drinking establishments, many provide good-value snacks or even main meals (see "Bia hoi know-how" for more on bia hoi).
For more on street food, (See "Vietnamese street food").
Restaurants
If you’re after more relaxed dining, where people aren’t queuing for your seat, then head for a Western-style Vietnamese restaurant (nha hang), which will have chairs rather than stools, a name, a menu and will often be closed to the street. In general these places serve a more varied selection of Vietnamese dishes than the street kitchens, plus a smattering of international – generally European – dishes.
Menus at this level don’t always show prices, and overcharging is a regular problem, making for tedious ordering as you check the cost of each dish or risk an astronomical bill at the end. Another thing to watch out for are the extras: peanuts, hot towels and packs of tissues on the table may be added to the bill even if untouched; ask for them to be taken away if you don’t want them, and check the bill carefully. A modest meal for two should cost roughly 130,000–160,000đ. Opening hours at such places are usually from 10.30am to 2pm for lunch, and in the evening from 5pm to no later than 9pm, or 8pm in the north.
In the main tourist haunts, you’ll find cheap and cheerful cafés aimed at the backpacker market and serving often mediocre Western and Vietnamese dishes – from burgers and banana pancakes to spring rolls, noodles and other Vietnamese standards. They have the advantage, however, of all-day opening, usually from 7am to 11pm or midnight. And, should you crave a reasonably priced Western-style breakfast, fresh fruit salad or a mango-shake, these are the places to go.
As you move up the price scale, the decor and the cuisine become more sophisticated and the menu more varied. The more expensive restaurants (including the smarter hotel dining rooms) tend to stay open later in the evening, perhaps until 9.30pm or 10.30pm, have menus priced in dollars and accept credit cards. Usually menus indicate if there’s a service charge, but watch out for an additional three to four percent on credit card payments. These restaurants can be relatively fancy places, with at least a nod towards decor and ambience, and correspondingly higher prices (a meal for two is likely to cost at least US$20 and often much more).
The most popular foreign cuisine on offer is French, though both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City boast some pretty good inter-national restaurants, including Thai, Chinese, Tex Mex, Indian and Italian. As yet, high-class restaurants are scarce in the rest of Vietnam, though Hué, Da Nang, Hoi An and Nha Trang are beginning to get in on the act.
Vietnamese food
The staple of Vietnamese meals is rice, with noodles a popular alternative at breakfast or as a snack. Typically, rice will be accompanied by a fish or meat dish, a vegetable dish and soup, followed by a green tea digestive. Seafood and fish – from rivers, lakes, canals and paddy fields as well as the sea – are favoured throughout the country, either fresh or dried. The most commonly used flavourings are shallots, coriander and lemon grass, though ginger, saffron, mint, anise and a basil-type herb also feature strongly, and coconut milk gives some southern dishes a distinctive richness.
Even in the south, Vietnamese food tends not to be over-spicy; instead chilli sauces or fresh chillies are served separately. Vietnam’s most famous seasoning is the ubiquitous nuoc mam, a nutrient-packed sauce which either is added during cooking or forms the base for various dipping sauces. Nuoc mam is made by fermenting huge quantities of fish in vats of salt for between six months and a year, after which the dark brown liquid is strained and graded according to its age and flavour. Foreigners usually find the smell of the sauce pretty rank, but most soon acquire a taste for its distinctive salty-sweetness.
The use of monosodium glutamate (MSG) can be excessive, especially in northern cooking, and some people are known to react badly to the seasoning. A few restaurants in the main cities have cottoned on to the foibles of foreigners and advertise MSG-free food; elsewhere, try saying khong co my chinh (without MSG), and keep your fingers crossed. Note that what looks like salt on the table is sometimes MSG, so taste it first.
The most famous Vietnamese dish has to be spring rolls, variously known as cha gio, cha nem, nem ran or just plain nem. Various combinations of minced pork, shrimp or crab, rice vermicelli, onions, bean sprouts and an edible fungus are rolled in rice-paper wrappers, and then eaten fresh or deep-fried. In some places they’re served with a bowl of lettuce or mint, in which case you’re supposed to wrap some leaves around each roll – using deft chopstick manoeuvres – before dipping it in the accompanying sauce. In addition, a southern variation has barbecued strips of pork wrapped in semi-transparent rice wrappers, along with raw ingredients such as green banana and star fruit, and then dunked in a rich peanut sauce.
Breakfast
Vietnamese traditionally breakfast on pho or some other noodle soup. Alternatively, you might find early-morning hawkers peddling xoi, a wholesome mix of steamed sticky rice with soya bean, sweet corn or peanuts. Simple Western breakfasts (such as bread with jam, cheese or eggs and coffee) are usually available in the backpacker cafés or hotels. More upmarket places increasingly stretch to cereals and fresh milk, while some top-class hotels lay on the full works in their breakfast buffets. In towns, you could always buy jam and bread or croissants for a do-it-yourself breakfast; however, things get more difficult out in the sticks, where you may even develop a taste for starting the day on a pho.
Soups and noodles
Though it originated in the north, another dish you’ll find throughout Vietnam is pho (pronounced fur”), a noodle soup eaten at any time of day but primarily at breakfast. The basic bowl of pho consists of a light beef broth, flavoured with ginger, coriander and sometimes cinnamon, to which are added broad, flat rice-noodles, spring onions and slivers of chicken, pork or beef. At the table you add a squeeze of lime and a sprinkling of chilli flakes or a spoonful of chilli sauce.
Countless other types of soup are dished up at street restaurants. Bun bo is another substantial beef and noodle soup eaten countrywide, though most famous in Hué, while in the south, hu tieu, a soup of vermicelli, pork and seafood noodles, is best taken in My Tho. Chao (or xhao), on the other hand, is a thick rice gruel served piping hot, usually with shredded chicken or filleted fish, flavoured with dill and with perhaps a raw egg cooking at the bottom; it’s often served with fried breadsticks (quay). Sour soups are a popular accompaniment for fish, while lau, a standard of most restaurant menus, is more of a main meal than a soup, where the vegetable broth arrives at the table in a steamboat (a ring-shaped metal dish on live coals or, nowadays, often electrically heated). You cook slivers of beef, prawns or similar in the simmering soup, and then drink the flavourful liquid that’s left in the cooking pot.
Fish and meat
Among the highlights of Vietnamese cuisine are its succulent seafood and freshwater fish. Cha ca is a famous fish dish (sautéed in butter at the table with dill and spring onions, then served with rice noodles and a sprinkling of peanuts) invented in Hanoi but now found in most upmarket restaurants, while ca kho to, fish stew cooked in a clay pot, is a southern speciality. Another dish found in more expensive restaurants is chao tom (or tom bao mia), consisting of savoury shrimp pâté wrapped round sweet sugar cane and fried.
Every conceivable type of meat and part of the animal anatomy finds itself on the Vietnamese dining table, though the staples are straightforward beef, chicken and pork. Ground meat, especially pork, is a common constituent of stuffings, for example in spring rolls or the similar banh cuon, a steamed, rice-flour “ravioli” filled with minced pork, black mushrooms and bean sprouts; a popular variation uses prawns instead of meat. Pork is also used, with plenty of herbs, to make Hanoi’s bun cha, small hamburgers barbecued on an open charcoal brazier and served on a bed of cold rice-noodles with greens and a slightly sweetish sauce. One famous southern dish is bo bay mon (often written bo 7 mon), meaning literally beef seven ways, consisting of a platter of beef cooked in different styles.
Roving gourmets may want to try some of the more unusual meats on offer. Dog meat (thit cay or thit cho) is a particular delicacy in the north, where “yellow dog” (sandy-haired varieties) is considered the tastiest. Winter is the season to eat dog meat – it’s said to give extra body heat, and is also supposed to remove bad luck if consumed at the end of the lunar month. Snake (thit con ran), like dog, is supposed to improve male virility. Dining on snake is surrounded by a ritual, which, if you’re guest of honour, requires you to swallow the still-beating heart. Another one strictly for the strong of stomach is trung vit lon, embryo-containing duck eggs boiled and eaten only five days before hatching – bill, webbed feet, feathers and all.
Vegetables – and vegetarian food
If all this has put you off meat for ever, it is possible to eat vegetarian food in Vietnam, though not always easy. The widest selection of vegetables is to be found in Da Lat where a staggering variety of tropical and temperate crops thrive. Elsewhere, most restaurants offer a smattering of meat-free dishes, from stewed spinach or similar greens, to a more appetizing mix of onion, tomato, bean sprouts, various mushrooms, peppers and so on; places used to foreigners may be able to oblige with vegetarian spring rolls (nem an chay, or nem khong co thit). At street kitchens you’re likely to find tofu and one or two dishes of pickled vegetables, such as cabbage or cucumber, while occasionally they may also have aubergine, bamboo shoots or avocado, depending on the season.
However, unless you go to a specialist vegetarian outlet – of which there are some excellent examples in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hué – it can be a problem finding genuine veggie food: soups are usually made with beef stock, morsels of pork fat sneak into otherwise innocuous-looking dishes and animal fat tends to be used for frying.
The phrase to remember is an chay (vegetarian), or seek out a vegetarian rice shop (tiem com chay). Otherwise, make the most of the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month when many Vietnamese Buddhists spurn meat and you’re more likely to find vegetarian dishes on offer.
Snacks
Vietnam has a wide range of snacks and nibbles to fill any yawning gaps, from huge rice-flour crackers sprinkled with sesame seeds to all sorts of dried fish, nuts and seeds. The white steamed dumpling called banh bao is a Chinese import, filled with tasty titbits, such as pork, onions and tangy mushrooms or strands of sweet coconut. Banh xeo, meaning sizzling pancake, combines shrimp, pork, bean sprouts and egg, all fried and then wrapped in rice paper with a selection of greens before being dunked in a spicy sauce. A similar dish, originating from Hué – a city with a vast repertoire of snack foods – is banh khoai, in which the flat pancake is accompanied by a plate of star fruit, green banana and aromatic herbs, plus a rich peanut sauce.
Markets are often good snacking grounds, with stalls churning out soups and spring rolls or selling intriguing banana-leaf parcels of pâté (a favourite accompaniment for bia hoi), pickled pork sausage or perhaps a cake of sticky rice.
A relative newcomer on the culinary scene is French bread, made with wheat flour in the north and rice flour in the south. Baguettes – sometimes sold warm from streetside stoves – are sliced open and stuffed with pâté, soft cheese or ham and pickled vegetables.
Fruit and sweet things
Vietnam is not strong on desserts, and restaurants usually stick to ice cream and fruit, although fancier international places might venture into tiramisu territory. Those with a sweet tooth are better off browsing around street stalls where there are usually candied fruits and other Vietnamese sweetmeats on offer, as well as sugary displays of French-inspired cakes and pastries in the main tourist centres.
Green-coloured banh com is an eye-catching local delicacy made by wrapping pounded glutinous rice around sugary, green-bean paste. A similar confection, found only during the mid-autumn festival, is the “earth cake”, banh deo, which melds the contrasting flavours of candied fruits, sesame and lotus seeds with a dice of savoury pork fat. Fritters are popular among children and you’ll find opportunistic hawkers outside schools, selling banana fritters, banh chuoi, or mixed slices of banana and sweet potato, banh chuoi khoai.
Most cities now have ice-cream parlours selling tubs or sticks of the local, hard ices in chocolate, vanilla or green-tea flavours, though for health reasons it’s safest to buy only from the larger, busier outlets and not from street hawkers. More exotic tastes can be satisfied at the European- and American-style ice-cream parlours of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, while excellent yoghurts are also increasingly available at ice-cream parlours and some cafés.
With its diverse climate, Vietnam is blessed with both tropical and temperate fruits, including dozens of banana species. The richest orchards are in the south, where pineapple, coconut, papaya, mango, longan and mangosteen flourish. Da Lat is famous for its strawberries, while the region around Nha Trang produces the peculiar “dragon fruit” (thanh long). The size and shape of a small pineapple, the dragon fruit has a mauvish-pink skin, studded with small protuberances, and smooth, white flesh speckled with tiny black seeds. The slightly sweet, watery flesh is thirst-quenching, and so is often served as a drink, crushed with ice.
A fruit that is definitely an acquired taste is the durian, a spiky, yellow-green football-sized fruit with an unmistakably pungent odour reminiscent of mature cheese and caramel, but tasting like an onion-laced custard. Jackfruit looks worryingly similar to durian but is generally larger and has smaller spikes. Its yellow segments of flesh are deliciously sweet.
Drinks
Giai khat means “quench your thirst” and you’ll see the signs everywhere, on stands selling fresh juices, bottled cold drinks or outside cafés and bia hoi (draught beer) outlets. Many drinks are served with ice: tempting though it may be, the only really safe policy is to avoid ice altogether – dung bo da, cam on (“no ice, thanks”) should do the trick. That said, ice in the top hotels, bars and restaurants is generally reliable, and some people take the risk in far dodgier establishments with apparent impunity.
A traditional tipple
While beer and imported spirits are drunk throughout Vietnam, the traditional tipple is ruou can, or rice-distilled liquor. Until recently, ruou can was regarded as decidedly downmarket, the preserve of labourers, farmers and ethnic minorities. Nowadays, however, it’s becoming popular among the middle class and especially young urban sophisticates – including a growing number of women – as city-centre bars and restaurants begin to offer better quality ruou can.
Recipes for ruou can are a closely guarded secret, but its basic constituents are regular or glutinous rice, the latter of which is said to be more aromatic and have a fuller, smoother taste. Selected herbs and fruits can then be steeped in the liquor to give it further flavour, not to mention all sorts of medicinal and health benefits. You’ll also see jars containing snakes, geckos and even whole crows. Traditionally, the basic ingredients are heated together and buried in the ground for a month or more to ferment. Nowadays, more modern – and hygienic – techniques are used to produce ruou can for general consumption. Look out for the high-quality rice-distilled liquors marketed under the Son Tinh brand (www.sontinh.com).
The ethnic minorities of the northwest (Thai and Muong) concoct their own home-distilled ruou can, sometimes known as stem alcohol. Visitors are often invited to gather round the communal jar to drink the liquor through thin, bamboo straws. In more traditional villages it’s regarded as a sacred ritual, which it would be an insult to refuse. Chuc suc khoe (Your health)! Or, for more serious drinking sessions, Tram phan tram (down in one)!
Water and soft drinks
Bottled water is widely available at around 7000đ for a large bottle (1.5 litres); avoid any other water, and even drinks that may have been diluted with suspect water (see "What about the water?" for more on this).
Locally made soft drinks are tooth-numbingly sweet, but are cheap and safe – as long as the bottle or carton appears well sealed – and on sale just about everywhere. The Coke, Sprite and Fanta hegemony also means you can find fizzy drinks in surprisingly remote areas. Oddly, canned drinks are usually more expensive than the equivalent-sized bottle, whether it’s a soft drink or beer – apparently it’s less chic to drink from the old-fashioned bottle.
A more effective thirst-quencher is fresh coconut juice, though this is more difficult to find in the north. Fresh juices such as orange and lime are also delicious – just make sure they haven’t been mixed with tap water – or try sugar-cane juice (mia da) with a dash of lime. Pasteurized milk, produced by Vinamilk, is now sold in the main towns and cities.
Somewhere between a drink and a snack, ché is made from taro flour and green bean, and served over ice with chunks of fruit, coloured jellies and even sweet corn or potato. In hot weather it provides a refreshing sugar-fix.
Tea and coffee
Tea drinking is part of the social ritual in Vietnam. Small cups of refreshing, strong, green tea are presented to all guests or visitors: the well-boiled water is safe to drink, as long as the cup itself is clean, and it’s considered rude not to take at least a sip. Although your cup will be continually replenished to show hospitality, you don’t have to carry on drinking; the polite way to decline a refill is to place your hand over the cup when your host is about to replenish it. Green tea is also served at the end of every meal, particularly in the south, and is usually provided free in restaurants and at food stalls.
Vietnam’s best tea is said to grow around Bao Loc, southwest of Da Lat in the central highlands, and the best coffee further north among the hills of Buon Me Thuot. Coffee production has boomed in recent years, largely for export, with serious environmental and social consequences. The Vietnamese drink coffee very strong and in small quantities, with a large dollop of condensed milk at the bottom of the cup. Traditionally, coffee is filtered at the table by means of a small dripper balanced over the cup or glass, which sometimes sits in a bowl of hot water to keep it warm. However, places accustomed to tourists increasingly run to fresh (pasteurized) milk, while in the main cities you’ll now find fancy Western-style cafés turning out quite decent lattes and cappuccinos. Out in the sticks, look out for the Trung Nguyen chain of coffee houses – they’re cheap and cheerful and the coffee isn’t bad either.
Alcoholic drinks
Canned and bottled beers brewed under licence in Vietnam include Tiger, Heineken, Carlsberg and San Miguel, but there are also plenty of very drinkable – and cheaper – local beers around, such as Halida, 333 (Ba Ba Ba) and Bivina. Some connoisseurs rate Bière la Rue from Da Nang tops, though Saigon Export, Hanoi Beer and BGI are also fine brews. Many other towns boast their own local beers, such as Hué (where the main brand is Huda), Haiphong and Thanh Hoa (where it’s simply named after the town) – all worth a try.
Roughly forty years ago technology for making bia hoi (draught beer) was introduced from Czechoslovakia and it is now quaffed in vast quantities, particularly in the north. Bia hoi may taste fairly weak, but it measures in at up to four percent alcohol. It’s also cheap – between 2000đ and 4000đ a glass – and supposedly unadulterated with chemicals, so in theory you’re less likely to get a hangover. Bia hoi has a 24-hour shelf life, which means the better places sell out by early evening and you’re unlikely to be drinking it into the wee hours. In the south, you’re more likely to be drinking bia tuoi (“fresh” beer), a close relation of bia hoi but served from pressurized barrels. Outlets are usually open at lunchtime and then again in the evening from 5pm to 9pm.
Wine made from grapes is becoming increasingly popular in Vietnam. Local production – dating from the French era and centred around Da Lat – has been ramped up in recent years and even in fairly small towns you’ll find the odd bottle of imported wine for sale. Many bars and restaurants in the major tourist destinations now serve wine, though some of it is pretty disgusting. For a decent bottle that’s been properly stored you’ll be paying premium prices at one of the top restaurants or specialist shops in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
In Vietnam, drinking alcohol is a social activity to be shared with friends. You’ll rarely see the Vietnamese drinking alone and never without eating. Be prepared for lots of toasts to health, wealth and happiness and no doubt to international understanding, too, and note that it’s the custom to fill the glasses of your fellow guests; someone else will fill yours.
Bia hoi know-how
There are countless bia hoi (draught beer) outlets in most major cities in Vietnam, ranging from a few ankle-high stools gathered round a barrel on the pavement to beer gardens. Quality tends to be more consistent at the larger outlets supplied by major breweries such as Hanoi Beer and Halida (under the name Viet Ha), rather than the smaller places which usually buy their beer from microbreweries. On the whole, the more expensive – and colder – the beer, the better it is.
Bia hoi culture is about enjoying a few beers with a group of friends – usually all male, though in the cities you see a few women these days. People almost never drink alone and rarely drink without eating, so many places serve a range of snacks and more extensive dishes.
To help you order food in a bia hoi outlet, we’ve listed a few classic dishes below. Menus, if they exist, will be in Vietnamese. They normally give a price range for each dish (meat dishes typically range between 30,000đ and 50,000đ), so you order a small, medium or large amount, for example, depending on the size of your group. To maximize the variety, it makes sense to order small quantities of several dishes and share. If no prices are indicated on the menu, be sure to ask when ordering. Usually a note with the running total is left on the table, so you can keep track of how much you’re spending.
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The media
Vietnam has several English–language newspapers and magazines, of which the daily Viet Nam News (www.vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn) has the widest distribution. It provides a brief – and very select – run–down of local, regional and international news, as well as snippets on art and culture. Though short on general news, both the weekly Vietnam Investment Review (www.vir.com.vn) and the monthly Vietnam Economic Times (www.vneconomy.com.vn) cover issues in greater depth and are worth looking at for an insight into what makes the Vietnamese economy tick. Both also publish useful supplements (Time Out and The Guide respectively) with selective but up–to–date restaurant and nightlife listings mainly covering Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, plus feature articles on culture and tourist destinations.
All media in Vietnam are under tight government control. There is, however, a slight glimmer of less draconian censorship, with an increasing number of stories covering corruption at even quite senior levels and more criticism of government policies and ministers, albeit very mild by Western standards.
Specifically for tourists, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (www.vietnamtourism.com) puts out the excellent free monthly, Vietnam Discovery. In addition to travel articles and restaurant and shop reviews, the magazine includes a handy pull-out listings supplement covering the main tourist destinations. Lastly, Vietnam Pathfinder (www.pathfinder.com.vn), also published monthly, is usually worth a look for its travel features.
Foreign publications, such as the International Herald Tribune, Time, Newsweek, The Financial Times and the Bangkok papers are sold by street vendors and at some of the larger bookshops and in the newsstands of more upmarket hotels in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (see "Markets and shopping" and "Galleries" respectively).
The government radio station, Voice of Vietnam (www.vov.org.vn), began life in 1945 during the August Revolution. It became famous during the American War when “Hanoi Hannah” broadcast propaganda programmes to American GIs. Nowadays it maintains six channels, of which VOV5 broadcasts English-language programmes several times a day covering a whole range of subjects: news, weather, sport, entertainment and culture, even market prices. You can pick up the broadcasts on FM in and around Hanoi, Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City.
To keep in touch with the full spectrum of international news, however, you’ll need a short-wave radio to pick up one of the world service channels, such as BBC World Service (www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice), Radio Canada (www.rcinet.ca) and Voice of America (www.voa.gov); local frequencies are listed on the relevant website.
Vietnamese television (VTV, www.vtv.org.vn) is also government-run and airs a mix of films, music shows, news programmes, soaps, sport and foreign (mostly American, Korean and Japanese) imports. VTV1, the main domestic channel, presents the news in English once a day, usually at 2pm. However, hotels increasingly provide satellite TV, and even budget places in the main cities now offer CNN, MTV and HBO as standard.
Festivals and religious events
The Vietnamese year follows a rhythm of festivals and religious observances, ranging from solemn family gatherings at the ancestral altar to national celebrations culminating in Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. In between are countless local festivals, most notably in the Red River Delta, honouring the tutelary spirit of the village or community temple.
The majority of festivals take place in spring, with a second flurry in the autumn months. One festival you might want to make a note of, however, is Tet: not only does most of Vietnam close down for the week, but either side of the holiday local transport services are stretched to the limit and international flights are filled by returning overseas Vietnamese.
Many Vietnamese festivals are Chinese in origin, imbued with a distinctive flavour over the centuries, but minority groups also hold their own specific celebrations. The ethnic minorities continue to punctuate the year with rituals that govern sowing, harvest or hunting, as well as elaborate rites of passage surrounding birth and death. The Cao Dai religion has its own array of festivals, while Christian communities throughout Vietnam observe the major ceremonies. Christmas is marked as a religious ceremony only by the faithful, though it’s becoming a major event for all Vietnamese as an excuse to shop and party, with sax-playing santas greeting shoppers in front of malls.
The ceremonies you’re most likely to see are weddings and funerals. The tenth lunar month is the most auspicious time for weddings, though at other times you’ll also encounter plenty of wedding cavalcades on the road, their lead vehicle draped in colourful ribbons. Funeral processions are recognizable from the white headbands worn by mourners, while close family members dress completely in white. Both weddings and funerals are characterized by streetside parties under makeshift marquees, and since both tend to be joyous occasions, it’s often difficult to know what you’re witnessing, unless you spot a bridal gown or portrait of the deceased on display.
Most festivals take place according to the lunar calendar, which is also closely linked to the Chinese system with a zodiac of twelve animal signs. The most important times during the lunar month (which lasts 29 or 30 days) are the full moon (day one) and the new moon (day fourteen or fifteen). Festivals are often held at these times, which also hold a special significance for Buddhists, who are supposed to pray at the pagoda and avoid eating meat during the two days. On the eve of each full moon, Hoi An now celebrates a Full-Moon Festival: traffic is barred from the town centre, where traditional games, dance and music performances take place under the light of silk lanterns.
All Vietnamese calendars show both the lunar and solar (Gregorian) months and dates, but to be sure of a festival date it’s best to check locally.
Tet: the Vietnamese New Year
“Tet”, simply meaning festival, is the accepted name for Vietnam’s most important annual event, properly known as Tet Nguyen Dan, or festival of the first day. Tet lasts for seven days and falls sometime between the last week of January and the third week of February, on the night of the new moon. This is a time when families get together to celebrate renewal and hope for the new year, when ancestral spirits are welcomed back to the household and when everyone in Vietnam becomes a year older – age is reckoned by the new year and not by individual birthdays.
There’s an almost tangible sense of excitement leading up to midnight on the eve of Tet, though the welcoming of the New Year is now a much more subdued – and less dangerous – affair since firecrackers were banned in 1995. Instead, all the major cities hold fireworks displays.
Tet kicks off seven days before the new moon with the festival of Ong Tau, the god of the hearth (23rd day of the twelfth month). Ong Tau keeps watch over the household throughout the year, wards off evil spirits and makes an annual report of family events, good or bad, to the Jade Emperor. In order to send Ong Tau off to heaven in a benevolent mood, the family cleans its house from top to bottom, and makes offerings to him, including pocket money and a new set of clothes. Ong Tau returns home at midnight on the first chime of the new year and it’s this, together with welcoming the ancestral spirits back to share in the party, that warrants such a massive celebration.
Tet is all about starting the year afresh, with a clean slate and good intentions. Not only is the house scrubbed, but all debts are paid off and those who can afford it have a haircut and buy new clothes. To attract favourable spirits, good-luck charms are put in the house, most commonly cockerels or the trinity of male figures representing prosperity, happiness and longevity. The crucial moments are the first minutes and hours of the new year as these set the pattern for the whole of the following year. People strive to avoid arguments, swearing or breaking anything – at least during the first three days when a single ill word could tempt bad luck into the house for the whole year ahead. The first visitor on the morning of Tet is also vitally significant: the ideal is someone respected, wealthy and happily married who will bring good fortune to the family; the bereaved, unemployed, accident-prone and even pregnant, on the other hand, are considered ill-favoured. This honour carries with it an onerous responsibility, however: if the family has a bad year, it will be the first-footer’s fault.
The week-long festival is marked by feasting: special foods are eaten at Tet, such as pickled vegetables, candied lotus seeds and sugared fruits, all of which are first offered at the family altar. The most famous delicacy is banh chung (banh tet in the south), a thick square or cylinder of sweet, sticky rice that is prepared only for Tet. The rice is wrapped round a mixture of green-bean paste, pork fat and meat marinated in nuoc mam, and then boiled in banana leaves, which impart a pale green colour. According to legend, an impoverished prince of the Hung dynasty invented the cakes over two thousand years ago; his father was so impressed by the simplicity of his son’s gift that he named the prince as his heir. Tet is an expensive time for Vietnamese families, many of whom save for months to get the new year off to a good start. Apart from special foods and new clothes, it’s traditional to give children red envelopes containing li xi, or lucky money, and to decorate homes with spring blossoms. In the week before Tet, flower markets grace the larger cities: peach blossoms in the north, apricot in Hué and mandarin in the south. Plum and kumquat (symbolizing gold coins) are also popular, alongside the more showy, modern blooms of roses, dahlias or gladioli.
Public holidays
January 1 New Year’s Day
Late January/mid-February (dates vary each year): Tet, Vietnamese New Year (four days, though increasingly offices tend to close down for a full week)
April 30 Liberation of Saigon, 1975
May 1 International Labour Day
September 2: National Day
Vietnam’s major festivals
Spring festivals (Jan–April)
Tet The most important date in the Vietnamese festival calendar is New Year (Tet Nguyen Dan). After an initial jamboree, Tet is largely a family occasion when offices are shut, and many shops and restaurants may close for the seven-day festival. Officially only the first four days are public holidays, though many people take the whole week. First to seventh days of first lunar month; late January to mid-Feb.
Tay Son Festival Martial arts demonstrations in Tay Son District, plus garlanded elephants on parade. Fifth day of first lunar month; late January to mid-Feb.
Water Puppet Festival As part of the Tet celebrations a festival of puppetry is held at Thay Pagoda, west of Hanoi. Fifth to seventh days of first lunar month; Feb.
Lim Singing Festival Two weeks after Tet, Lim village near Bac Ninh, in the Red River Delta, resounds to the harmonies of “alternate singing” (quan ho) as men and women fling improvised lyrics back and forth. Thirteenth to fifteenth days of the first lunar month; Febuary–March.
Hai Ba Trung Festival The two Trung sisters are honoured with a parade and dancing at Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung temple. Sixth day of the second lunar month; March.
Perfume Pagoda Vietnam’s most famous pilgrimage site is Chua Huong, west of Hanoi. Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims flock to the pagoda for the festival, which climaxes on the full moon (fourteenth or fifteenth day) of the second month, though the pilgrimage continues for a month either side. March–April.
Den Ba Chua Kho The full moon of the second month sees Hanoians congregating at this temple near Bac Ninh, to petition the goddess for success in business. March–April.
Thanh Minh Ancestral graves are cleaned and offerings of food, flowers and paper votive objects made at the beginning of the third lunar month. April.
Summer festivals (May–Aug)
Phat Dan Lanterns are hung outside the pagodas and Buddhist homes to commemorate Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and the attainment of Nirvana. Eighth day of the fourth lunar month; May.
Chua Xu Festival The stone statue of Chua Xu at Sam Mountain, Chau Doc, is bathed, and thousands flock to honour her. Twenty-third to twenty-fifth day of fourth lunar month; May.
Tet Doan Ngo The summer solstice (fifth day of the fifth moon) is marked by festivities aimed at warding off epidemics brought on by the summer heat. This is also the time of dragon-boat races. Late May to early June.
Trang Nguyen (or Vu Lan) The day of wandering souls is the second most important festival after Tet. Offerings of food and clothes are made to comfort and nourish the unfortunate souls without a home, and all graves are cleaned. This is also time for the forgiveness of faults, when the King of Hell judges everyone’s spirits and metes out reward or punishment as appropriate. Until the fifteenth century prisoners were allowed to go home on this day. Fourteenth or fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month; August.
Autumn festivals (Sept–Dec)
Do Son Buffalo-fighting Festival Held in Do Son village, near Haiphong. Ninth and tenth days of the eighth lunar month.
Kate Festival The Cham New Year is celebrated in high style at Po Klong Garai and Po Re Me, both near Phan Rang. September–October.
Trung Thu The mid-autumn festival, also known as Children’s Day, is when dragon dances take place and children are given lanterns in the shape of stars, carp or dragons. Special cakes, banh trung thu, are eaten at this time of year. These are sticky rice cakes filled with lotus seeds, nuts and candied fruits and are either square like the earth (banh deo), or round like the moon (banh nuong) and containing the yolk of an egg. Fourteenth or fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month; September–October.
Whale Festival Lang Ca Ong, Vung Tau. Crowds gather to make offerings to the whales. Sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month; September–October.
Oc Bom Boc Festival Boat-racing festival in Soc Trang. Tenth day of tenth lunar month; November–December.
Da Lat Flower Festival An annual extravaganza in which the city shows off the abundance of blooms grown locally. December.
Christmas Midnight services at the cathedrals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and much revelry in the streets. December 24.
Sports and outdoor pursuits
Though Vietnam was slow to develop its huge potential as an outdoor adventure destination, things have really changed in the last few years. Apart from trekking in the mountainous north, visitors can now also go rock–climbing, canyoning, sea kayaking or kitesurfing, among other activities. Da Lat has emerged as Vietnam’s adventure sports capital and Mui Ne its surf city, though some sports like mountain biking can be done throughout the country.
Trekking
The easiest and most popular area for trekking is in the northwest mountains around Sa Pa and, to a lesser extent, Mai Chau. Sa Pa is also the starting point for ascents of the country’s highest peak, Fan Si Pan, a challenge to be undertaken only by experienced hikers. Other options include hiking around Kon Tum or Da Lat in the central highlands or in one of Vietnam’s many national parks, including Cat Ba, Cuc Phuong, Bach Ma, Cat Tien and Yok Don. In Yok Don you can even go elephant trekking, though prices are rather steep.
There’s no problem about striking out on your own for a day’s hiking. However, for anything more adventurous, particularly if you want to overnight in the villages, you’ll need to make arrangements in advance. This is easily done either before you arrive in Vietnam or through local tour agents, most of which offer organized tours and tailor-made packages. In most cases you can also make arrangements through guesthouses and guides on the spot. Note that it’s essential to take a guide if you are keen to get off the beaten track: many areas are still sensitive about the presence of foreigners.
Biking
Mountainbiking is becoming increasingly popular in Vietnam. The classic ride is from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, a journey of between two and three weeks. Previously, this would have taken you along Highway 1, battling with trucks and buses, but now the more switched-on tour companies are offering excursions down the Ho Chi Minh Highway which runs along the western Truong Son mountain chain, and is so far thankfully free of heavy traffic.
The area around Sa Pa is a focus for biking activity, with tour operators offering excursions to suit all levels of experience and fitness. You can choose from half-day excursions to multi-day outings including overnighting in minority villages. Other good areas for exploring by bike include Mai Chau, Bac Ha, Da Lat and the Mekong Delta.
North Vietnam is also popular among the motorbiking fraternity. Specialist outfits in Hanoi organize tailor-made itineraries taking you way off the beaten track.
Water sports
With its three-thousand-kilometre coastline, Vietnam should be a paradise for water sports, but the options remain fairly limited at present, for a variety of reasons. One is simply a matter of access: the infrastructure is not yet in place. More crucial is the presence of potentially dangerous undercurrents along much of the coast, accompanied by strong winds at certain times of year. Many of the big beach resorts have guards or put out flags in season indicating where it’s safe to swim. Elsewhere, check carefully before taking the plunge.
Whilst many of the beaches along the central and south-central coast are great for swimming, the best are those around Mui Ne, with Nha Trang, Hoi An and Da Nang close behind. Mui Ne is also the country’s top venue for windsurfing and kitesurfing, both of which are currently hugely popular. Phu Quoc Island, off Vietnam’s southern coast, is also famed not only for its fabulous beaches but also as the country’s top spot for snorkelling and scuba-diving. The Con Dao Islands and Nha Trang are other popular places to don a snorkel or wet suit, but wherever you dive, it’s worth noting that standards of maintenance aren’t always great, so check equipment carefully and only go out with a properly qualified and registered operator that you trust.
Heading inland, the rivers and waterfalls around Da Lat provide good possibilities for canyoning and rock-climbing.
Both Mui Ne and Non Nuoc beach near Da Nang have a good reputation for windsurfing. Mui Ne even hosts an international kitesurfing competition each spring (usually February).
In north Vietnam Ha Long Bay is the watersports centre. Most boat tours of the bay allow time for swimming – weather permitting – while there are decent beaches on Cat Ba and better still on remote Quan Lan Island. For those in search of more strenuous exercise, a number of tour agents offer sea-kayaking trips on the bay – not recommended in the heat of summer.
Other activities
Vietnam has over 850 species of birds, including several that have only been identified in the past few years. The best places for birdwatching are the national parks, including Cuc Phuong (famous also for its springtime butterfly displays), Bach Ma and Cat Tien. The rare Sarus crane, amongst many other species, spends the dry season in and around the Tram Chim National Park in the Mekong Delta. For more information check out www.vietnambirding.com or www.birdwatchinigvietnam.net.
Finally, there are now dozens of excellent golf courses in Vietnam – around Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Phan Thiet and Da Lat amongst others – all with much cheaper green fees than in the West.
Crime and personal safety
Vietnam is a relatively safe country for visitors, including women travelling alone. In fact, given the country’s recent history, many tourists, particularly Americans, are pleasantly surprised at the warm reception that foreign travellers receive. That said, petty crime is on the rise – though it’s still relatively small–scale and shouldn’t be a problem if you take common–sense precautions. Generally, the hassles you’ll encounter will be the milder sort of coping with pushy vendors and over–enthusiastic touts and beggars.
Petty crime
As a tourist, you’re an obvious target for thieves (who may include your fellow travellers): carry your passport, traveller’s cheques and other valuables in a concealed money belt. Don’t leave anything important lying about in your room: use a safe, if you have one. A cable lock, or padlock and chain, comes in handy for doors and windows in cheap hotels, and is useful for securing your pack on trains and buses. It’s not a bad idea to keep US$100 or so separately from the rest of your cash, along with your traveller’s cheques receipts, insurance policy details and photocopies of important documents, such as the relevant pages of your passport including your visa stamp, and departure card.
At street level it’s best not to be ostentatious: forego eye-catching jewellery and flashy watches, try to be discreet when taking out your cash, and be particularly wary in crowds and on public transport. If your pack is on the top of the bus, make sure it’s attached securely (usually everything is tied down with ropes) and keep an eye on it during the most vulnerable times – before departure, at meal stops and on arrival at your destination. On trains, either cable-lock your pack or put it under the bottom bench-seat, out of public view. The odd instance has been reported of travellers being drugged and then robbed, so it’s best not to accept food or drink from anyone you don’t know and trust. Bear in mind that when walking or riding in a cyclo you are vulnerable to moped-borne snatch-thieves; don’t wear cameras or expensive sunglasses hanging round your neck and keep a firm grip on your bags. If you do become a target, however, it’s best to let go rather than risk being pulled into the traffic and suffering serious injury.
The place you are most likely to encounter street crime is in Ho Chi Minh City, which has a fairly bad reputation for bag-snatchers, pickpockets and con artists. Be wary of innocent-looking kids and grannies who may be acting as decoys for thieves – especially in the bar districts and other popular tourist hangouts. It’s best to avoid taking a cyclo at night, and you’d be unwise to walk alone at any time outside Districts One, Three and Five.
Petty crime, much of it drug- and prostitution-related, is also a problem in Nha Trang, where you should watch your belongings at all times on the beach. Again, be wary of taking a cyclo after dark and women should avoid walking alone at night. Single males, on the other hand, are a particular target for “taxi girls”, many of whom also double as thieves.
It’s important not to get paranoid, however: crime levels in Vietnam are still a long way behind those of Western countries, and violent crime against tourists is extremely rare.
If you do have anything stolen, you’ll need to go to the nearest police station for a report in order to claim on your insurance. Try to recruit an English-speaker to come along with you – someone at your hotel should be able to help.
“Social evils” and serious crime
Since liberalization and doi moi, Vietnamese society has seen an increase in prostitution, drugs – including hard drugs – and more serious crimes. These so-called “social evils” are viewed as a direct consequence of reduced controls on society and ensuing westernization. The police have imposed midnight closing on bars and clubs for several years now, mainly because of drugs, but also to curb general rowdiness, although you’ll always find the occasional bar that somehow manages to keep serving. That apart, the campaign against social evils should have little effect on most foreign tourists.
Single Western males tend to get solicited by prostitutes in cheap provincial and seaside hotels, though more commonly by women cruising on motorbikes. Quite apart from any higher moral considerations, bear in mind that AIDS is on the increase in Vietnam.
Finally, having anything to do with drugs in Vietnam is extremely unwise. At night there’s a fair amount of drug selling on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Nha Trang and even Sa Pa, and it’s not unknown for dealers to turn buyers in to the police. Fines and jail sentences are imposed for lesser offences, while the death penalty is regularly imposed for possessing, trading or smuggling larger quantities.
Emergency phone numbers
The following numbers apply throughout Vietnam. If possible, get a Vietnamese-speaker to phone on your behalf.
Police113
Fire114
Ambulance115
Military and political hazards
Not surprisingly, the Vietnamese authorities are sensitive about military installations and strategic areas – including border regions, military camps (of which there are many), bridges, airports, naval dockyards and even train stations. Anyone taking photographs in the vicinity of such sites risks having the memory card removed from their camera or being fined.
Unexploded ordnance from past conflicts still poses a threat in some areas: the problem is most acute in the Demilitarized Zone, where each year a number of local farmers, scrap-metal scavengers or children are killed or injured. Wherever you are, stick to well-trodden paths and never touch any shells or half-buried chunks of metal.
Needless to say, political activists aren’t exactly welcome in Vietnam and anyone carrying political literature or in contact with known activists will be treated with suspicion, possibly tailed and even deported. Their Vietnamese contacts will be treated less leniently. The same goes for religious activists, too.
Beggars, hassle and scams
Given the number of disabled, war-wounded and unemployed in Vietnam, there are surprisingly few beggars around. Most people are actually trying hard to earn a living somehow, and in the circumstances it doesn’t seem unreasonable to have your shoes cleaned more times than they might need, or buy a couple of extra postcards.
At many tourist spots, you may well be swamped by a gaggle of children or teenagers selling cold drinks, fruit and chewing gum. Although they can sometimes be a bit overwhelming, as often as not they’re just out to practise their English and be entertained for a while. They may even turn out to be excellent guides, in which case it’s only fair that you buy something from them in return.
A common scam among taxi drivers is to tell new arrivals in a town that the hotel they ask for is closed or has moved or changed its name. Instead, they head for a hotel that pays commission. This may work out fine (new hotels often use this method to become known), but more often than not it’s a substandard hotel and you will in any case pay over the odds since the room rate will include the driver’s commission. To avoid being ripped off, always insist on being taken to your chosen hotel, at least just to check the story.
Another common complaint is that organized tours don’t live up to what was promised. There are more people on the tour than stated, for example, or the room doesn’t have air-conditioning, or the guide’s English is limited. If it’s a group tour and you’ve paid up front, unfortunately there’s very little you can do beyond complaining to the agent on your return; you may be lucky and get some form of compensation, but it’s very unlikely. As always, you tend to get what you pay for, so avoid signing up for dirt-cheap tours.
Women travellers
Vietnam is generally a safe country for women to travel around alone. Most Vietnamese will simply be curious as to why you are on your own and the chances of encountering any threatening behaviour are extremely rare. That said, it pays to take the normal precautions, especially late at night when there are few people on the streets and you should avoid taking a cyclo by yourself; use a taxi instead – metered taxis are generally considered safest.
Most Vietnamese women dress modestly, keeping covered from top to toe. It helps to do the same and to avoid skimpy shorts and vests, which are considered offensive. Topless sunbathing, even beside a hotel pool, is a complete no-no.
Culture and etiquette
With its blend of Confucianism and Buddhism, Vietnamese society tends to be both conservative and, at the same time, fairly tolerant. This means you will rarely be remonstrated with for your dress or behaviour. Furthermore, by following a few simple rules, you can minimize the risk of causing offence. This is particularly important in rural areas and small towns where people are less used to the eccentric habits of foreigners.
As a visitor, it’s recommended that you err on the side of caution. Shorts and sleeveless shirts are fine for the beach, but are not welcome in pagodas, temples and other religious sites. When dealing with officialdom, it also pays to look as neat and tidy as possible. Anything else may be taken as a mark of disrespect.
Women in particular should dress modestly, especially in the countryside and ethnic minority areas, where revealing too much flesh – no shorts or sleeveless shirts – is regarded as offensive. (See "Culture and etiquette" for more advice for women travellers.)
It’s also worth noting that nudity, either male or female, on the beach is absolutely beyond the pale.
When entering a Cao Dai temple, the main building of a pagoda or a private home it’s the custom to remove your shoes. In some pagodas nowadays this may only be required when stepping onto the prayer mats – ask or watch what other people do. In a pagoda or temple you are also expected to leave a small donation.
Officially, homosexuality is regarded as a “social evil”, alongside drugs and prostitution. However, there is no law explicitly banning homosexual activity and, as long as it is not practised openly, it is largely ignored. Indeed, the number of openly gay men has increased noticeably in recent years, particularly in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and homosexuality is discussed more frequently in the media, although the lesbian scene remains very low-key. Although outward discrimination is rare, this is still a very traditional society and it pays to be discreet in Vietnam. For more information, consult the excellent Utopia Asia website, www.utopia-asia.com.
As in most Asian countries, it’s not done to get angry, and it certainly won’t get things moving any quicker. Passing round cigarettes (to men only) is always appreciated and is widely used as a social gambit aimed at progressing tricky negotiations, bargaining and so forth.
Tipping, while not expected, is always appreciated. In general, a few thousand dong should suffice. Smart restaurants and hotels normally add a service charge, but if not ten percent is the norm in a restaurant, while the amount in a hotel will depend on the grade of hotel and what services they’ve provided. If you’re pleased with the service, you should also tip the guide, and the driver where appropriate, at the end of a tour.
Other social conventions worth noting are that you shouldn’t touch children on the head and, unlike in the West, it’s best to ignore a young baby rather than praise it, since it’s believed that this attracts the attention of jealous spirits who will cause the baby to fall ill.
Shopping
Souvenir–hunters will find rich pickings in Vietnam, whose eye–catching handicrafts and mementos range from colonial currency and stamps to fabrics and basketware crafted by the country’s ethnic minorities, and from limpet–like conical hats to fake US Army–issue Zippo lighters.
Throughout the Guide, we’ve highlighted places to shop, but in general you’ll find the best quality, choice and prices in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hoi An. Though you’ll find more shops now have fixed prices, particularly those catering to tourists, in markets and rural areas prices are almost always open to negotiation (See "The art of bargaining" for some tips on successful bargaining).
Clothing, arts and crafts
Few Western tourists leave Vietnam without the obligatory conical hat, or non la, sewn from rain- and sun-proof palm fronds; at around 25,000đ for a basic version, they’re definitely an affordable keepsake. From the city of Hué comes a more elaborate version, the poem hat, or non bai tho, in whose brim are inlays which, when held up to the light, reveal lines of poetry or scenes from Vietnamese legend. Vietnamese women traditionally wear the ao dai – baggy silk trousers under a knee-length silk tunic slit up both sides. Extraordinarily elegant, ao dai can be bought off the peg anywhere in the country for around US$20; or, if you can spare a few days for fitting, you can have one tailor-made for US$30 or so, depending on the material.
Local silk is sold by the metre in Vietnam’s more sizeable markets and in countless outlets in Hoi An, along Dong Khoi in Ho Chi Minh City and on Hanoi’s Hang Gai. These same shops also sell ready-made clothes and accessories, including embroidered silk handbags and shoes, and most also offer tailoring. In general, Hoi An’s tailors have the best reputation, either working from a pattern book or copying an item you take along. Just make sure you allow plenty of time for fittings.
Embroidered cotton, in the form of tablecloths, sheets and pillowcases, also makes a popular souvenir. Meanwhile, the sartorial needs of backpackers are well catered for in major tourist destinations, where T-shirt sellers do brisk business. Predictably popular designs include a portrait of Uncle Ho, and the yellow Communist star on a red background.
The art of bargaining
The Vietnamese, not unreasonably, see tourists as wildly rich – how else could they afford to stop working and travel the world – and a first quoted price is usually pitched accordingly. It makes sense, therefore, to be prepared.
First of all, do your homework. Find out the approximate going rate, either from your hotel or fellow tourists, or from one of the increasing number of fixed-price shops – remembering to take into account the difference in quality, for example, between mass-produced and hand-crafted goods.
The trick then is to remain friendly and amused, but also to be realistic: traders will quickly lose interest in a sale if they think you aren’t playing the game fairly. Any show of aggression, and you’ve lost it in more ways than one. If you feel you’re on the verge of agreement, moving away often pays dividends – it’s amazing how often you’ll be called back.
Keep a sense of perspective. If a session of bargaining is becoming very protracted, step back and remind yourself that you’re often arguing the toss over mere pennies – nothing to you, but a lot to the average Vietnamese.
Traditional handicrafts
Of the many types of traditional handicrafts on offer in Vietnam, lacquerware (son mai) is among the most beautiful. Made by applying multiple layers of resin onto an article and then polishing vigorously to achieve a deep, lustrous sheen, lacquer is used to decorate furniture, boxes, chopsticks and bangles and is sometimes embellished with eggshell or inlays of mother-of-pearl (which is also used in its own right, on screens and pictures) – common motifs are animals, fish and elaborate scrolling. More recently, the lacquerware tradition has been hijacked by more contemporary icons, and it’s now possible to buy colourful lacquerware paintings of Mickey Mouse, Tin Tin and Batman. Imported synthetic lacquer has also made an appearance. These brightly coloured, almost metallic, finishes may not be for the purist, but they make for eye-catching bowls, vases and all sorts of household items.
Bronze, brass and jade are also put to good use, appearing in various forms such as carvings, figurines and jewellery. In Hué, brass and copper teapots are popular. Of the earthenware, porcelain and ceramics available across the country, thigh-high ceramic elephants and other animal figurines are the quirkiest buys – though decidedly tricky to carry home. Look out, too, for boxes and other knick-knacks made from wonderfully aromatic cinnamon and camphor wood. For something a little more culturally elevated, you could invest in a water puppet or a traditional musical instrument (for more on both of these, see "Music and theatre").
Vietnam’s ethnic minorities are producing increasingly sophisticated fare for the tourist market. Fabrics – sometimes shot through with shimmering gold braid – are their main asset, sold in lengths and also made into purses, shoulder bags and other accoutrements. The minorities of the central highlands are adept at basketwork, fashioning backpacks, baskets and mats, and bamboo pipes. Hanoi probably has the greatest variety of minority handicrafts on sale. In the far north, Sa Pa is a popular place to buy Hmong clothes, bags and skull-caps, and you’ll find lengths of woven fabrics or embroidery in markets throughout the northern mountains.
Paintings
A healthy fine arts scene exists in Vietnam, and painting in particular is thriving. In the galleries of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Hoi An you’ll find exquisite works in oil, watercolour, lacquer, charcoal and silk weaving by the country’s leading artists. Hanoi is the best single place to look for contemporary art.
For the top names you can expect to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Buyer beware, however: many artists find it lucrative to knock out multiple copies of their own or other people’s work. You’ll need to know what you’re doing, or to buy from a reputable gallery.
A cheap alternative is to snap up some of the charming hand-painted silk greetings cards sold in most tourist centres. A recent innovation is the sale of old Communist-era propaganda posters, both genuine and copies.
Books, stamps and coins
You can buy photocopied editions of almost all the books ever published on Vietnam from strolling vendors in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. There are also an increasing number of locally published coffee-table books, histories and guides available from bona-fide bookshops and the more upmarket hotels. However, if all you want is some general reading matter, both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City now have secondhand bookshops where you can exchange or buy used books.
Philatelists meanwhile will enjoy browsing through the old Indochinese stamps sold in the souvenir shops of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Similarly, old notes and coins, including French-issue piastres and US Army credits, are available.
Memorabilia, trinkets and food
Army surplus gear is still a money-spinner, though fatigues, belts, canteens and dog tags purportedly stolen from a dead or wounded GI aren’t the most tasteful of souvenirs – and the vast majority are fakes anyway. The green pith helmets with a red star on the front, worn first by the NVA during the American War and now by the regular Vietnamese Army, find more takers. Other items that sell like hot cakes, especially in the south, are fake Zippo lighters bearing such pithy adages as “When I die bury me face down, so the whole damn army can kiss my ass” and “We are the unwilling, led by the unqualified, doin’ the unnecessary for the ungrateful”, though again they’re very unlikely to be authentic GI issue. In Ho Chi Minh City, extravagant wooden model ships are sold in a string of shops on Hai Ba Trung, at the east side of Lam Son Square.
Finally, foodstuffs that may tempt you include coffee from the central highlands, candied strawberries and artichoke tea from Da Lat, coconut candies from the Mekong Delta, preserved miniature tangerines from Hoi An and packets of tea and dried herbs and spices from the northern highlands. As for drinks, most of the concoctions itemized in "Tea and coffee" are securely bottled. The Soc Tinh range of rice-distilled liquor makes an attractively packaged souvenir.
Travel essentials
Addresses
Locating an address is rarely a problem in Vietnam, but there are a couple of conventions it helps to know about. Where two numbers are separated by a slash, such as 110/5, you simply make for no. 110, where an alley will lead off to a further batch of buildings – you want the fifth one. Where a number is followed by a letter, as in 117a, you’re looking for a single block encompassing several addresses, of which one will be 117a. Vietnamese cite addresses without the words for street, avenue and so on; we’ve followed this practice throughout the Guide except where ambiguity would result.
Admission charges
Admission charges are usually levied at museums, historic sights, national parks and any place that attracts tourists – sometimes even beaches. Charges at some major sights range from a dollar or two up to around US$4–5 for the Cham ruins at My Son or Hué’s citadel and royal mausoleums. Elsewhere, however, the amount is usually just a few thousand dong. Note that there’s often a hefty additional fee for cameras and videos at major sights.
Apart from those with some historical significance, pagodas and temples are usually free, though it’s customary to leave a donation of a few thousand dong in the collecting box or on one of the altar plates.
Costs
With the average Vietnamese annual income hovering around US$500–600, daily expenses are low, and if you come prepared to do as the locals do, then food, drink and transport can all be incredibly cheap – and even accommodation needn’t be too great an expense. Bargaining is very much a part of everyday life, and almost everything is negotiable, from fruit in the market to a room for the night: see "The art of bargaining" for some tips.
By eating at simple com (rice) and pho (noodle soup) stalls, picking up local buses and opting for the simplest accommodation there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to adhere to a daily budget in the region of US$15–20. Upgrading to more salubrious lodgings with a few mod cons, eating good food followed by a couple of beers in a bar and signing up for the odd minibus tour and visiting a few sights could bounce your expenditure up to a more realistic US$30–35. A fair mid-level budget, treating yourself to three-star hotels and more upmarket restaurants, would lie in the US$50–100 range, depending on the number and type of tours you took. And if you stay at the ritziest city hotels, dine at the swankiest restaurants and rent cars with drivers wherever you go, then the sky’s the limit.
Electricity
The electricity supply in Vietnam is 220 volts. Plugs generally have two round pins, though you may come across sockets requiring two flat pins and even some requiring three pins. Power supplies are erratic, so be prepared for cuts and surges.
Ethical tourism and the environment
The expansion of tourism in Vietnam has been spectacular, growing from just ten thousand foreign visitors in 1993 to more than four million in 2008. In addition, at least fifteen million Vietnamese now take holidays within the country each year. While this has undoubtedly been a boon for the economy, tourism has brought with it serious and potentially disruptive effects environmentally, socially, culturally, and economically. Some of the most distressing examples are to be found in Vietnam’s ethnic minority areas. Sa Pa’s famous “love market” attracted so much tourist attention it eventually relocated to a more remote location. Many families in the area have sold off their antique jewellery, while Hmong children beg for sweets, pens and money, and some even sell drugs.
Insurance
It is essential to have a good travel insurance policy to cover against theft, loss and illness or injury. It’s also advisable to have medical cover that includes evacuation in the event of serious illness, as the local hospitals aren’t that great. Most policies exclude so-called dangerous sports unless an extra premium is paid: in Vietnam this can include scuba-diving, whitewater-rafting, windsurfing and trekking. If you’re doing any motorbike touring, you are strongly advised to take out full medical insurance including emergency evacuation; make sure the policy specifically covers you for biking in Vietnam, and ascertain whether benefits will be paid as treatment proceeds or only after return home, and whether there is a 24-hour medical emergency number. If you need to make a claim, you should keep receipts for medicines and medical treatment, and in the event that you have anything stolen, you must obtain an official statement from the police.
Internet and email
Accessing the internet in Vietnam has become a great deal easier, though it is still monitored and controlled by a government fearful of this potentially subversive means of communication.
There’s no problem about logging on in the major cities and tourist centres in Vietnam, where you’ll find dozens of internet cafés, while many hotels also offer internet access. Many upmarket and even some budget hotels offer wi-fi broadband access in your room – sometimes free to attract custom. Even remote regions are wired to the web these days, though the service may be slower and more expensive. Rates in the big cities currently stand at around 100đ per minute, with some places charging by the hour (about 6000đ).
Pricing policy
Although Vietnamese law requires that all prices are quoted in dong, you’ll find many hotels, the more upmarket restaurants, tour agents and so forth still use US dollars and, occasionally, euros. To reflect this and to avoid exchange-rate fluctuations, throughout the Guide we quote prices in the currency used on the spot.
Incidentally, don’t be alarmed if you notice that Vietnamese pay less than you for plane tickets, at some hotels and at certain sights: Vietnam maintains a two-tier pricing system, with foreigners sometimes paying many times more than locals. The good news for tourists is that the system is being phased out, with prices for foreigners being adjusted downwards while those for Vietnamese rise to meet them. A single price system now applies on the trains, for example, while the gap has gradually been narrowing for air travel. It will take several more years before the practice disappears completely, however, and for the moment it remains something of a grey area, particularly as regards hotels and bus tickets, where the amount you pay may well depend on the person you happen to be dealing with.
Laundry
Most top- and mid-range hotels provide a laundry service, and many budget hotels too, but rates can vary wildly, so it’s worth checking first. In the bigger cities, especially in tourist areas, you’ll find laundry shops on the street, where the rate is usually around 5000đ per kilo.
Mail can take anything from four days to four weeks in or out of Vietnam, depending largely where you are. Services are quickest and most reliable from the major towns, where eight to ten days is the norm. Overseas postal rates are reasonable: a postcard costs 7000–8000đ, while the price of a letter is in the region of 10,000đ for the minimum weight. Express Mail Service (EMS) operates to most countries and certain destinations within Vietnam; the service cuts down delivery times substantially and the letter or parcel is automatically registered. For a minimum-weight dispatch by EMS (under 250g), you’ll pay around US$30 to the UK, US$32 to the US, US$35 to Canada and US$27 to Australia.
Poste restante services are available at all main post offices. You’ll need to show your passport to collect mail and will be charged a small amount per item. Mail is held for two months before being returned. To avoid misfiling, your name should be printed clearly, with the surname in capitals and underlined, and it’s still worth checking under all your names, just in case. Have letters addressed to you c/o Poste Restante, GPO, town or city, province.
When sending parcels out of Vietnam, take everything to the post office unwrapped since it will be inspected for any customs liability and wrapped for you, and the whole process, including wrapping and customs inspection, will cost you upwards of 30,000đ. Pirated CDs and DVDs and any other suspect items will be seized. Surface mail is the cheapest option, with parcels taking between one and four months.
Receiving parcels is not such a good idea. Some parcels simply go astray; those that do make it are subject to thorough customs inspections, import duty and even confiscation of suspicious items – particularly printed matter, videos or cassettes. However, if you do need to collect a parcel, remember to take your passport.
Maps
The most accurate and reliable map of Vietnam is the Rough Guides Map of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (1:1,200,000). Other decent maps are the International Travel Map of Vietnam (1:1,000,000) or Nelles (1:1,500,000) map of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia: both feature plans of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Alternatively, the locally produced maps you’ll find on sale in all the major towns and tourist destinations in Vietnam aren’t bad.
If you need more detailed coverage, if you’re cycling or motorbike touring for example, there’s no beating the book of maps entitled Giao Thong Duong Bo Vietnam (1:500,000) published by Ban Do Cartographic Publishing House and available in bigger bookshops in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Trouble is, it weighs about a kilo. Another good option for cyclists and bikers is the Vietnam Administrative Atlas by the same publisher, with a map of each province per page. Look out, too, for Fauna and Flora International’s Vietnam Ecotourism Map (1:1,000,000). Not only is it pretty accurate, but also includes information on visiting the national parks and other areas of environmental interest.
Money
Vietnam’s unit of currency is the dong, which you’ll see abbreviated as “đ”, “d” or “VND” after an amount. Notes come in denominations of 500đ, 1000đ, 2000đ, 5000đ, 10,000đ, 20,000đ, 50,000đ, 100,000đ, 200,000đ and 500,000đ, coins in 200đ, 500đ, 1000đ, 2000đ and 5000đ. In addition to the dong, the American dollar operates as a parallel, unofficial currency and most travellers carry some dollars as a back-up to pay large bills. On the whole, though, it’s more convenient to operate in dong, and you’ll often find dong prices are slightly lower than the equivalent in dollars.
At the time of writing, the exchange rate was around 25,000đ to £1; 17,000đ to US$1; 21,000đ to 1 Euro; 14,000đ to CA$1; 11,000đ to AUS$1; and 9,000đ to NZ$1. Recently the country has been plagued by high inflation rates, so these exchange rates are liable to fluctuate. For the latest exchange rates go to www.xe.com.
Dong are not available outside Vietnam at present, so take in some small-denomination American dollars to use until you reach a bank. Most banks and exchange bureaux don’t charge for changing foreign currency into dong; banks in major cities will accept euros and other major currencies, but elsewhere may only accept dollars. Some tour agents and hotels will also change money, and most jewellery shops in Vietnam will exchange dollars at a slightly better rate than the banks, but watch out for scams. Wherever you change money, ask for a mix of denominations (in remote places, bigger bills can be hard to split), and refuse really tatty banknotes, as you’ll have difficulty getting anyone else to accept them.
There’s also a comprehensive network of ATMs, many open 24 hours: most accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards issued abroad. The maximum withdrawal is two million dong at a time, with a flat-rate charge of 20,000đ per transaction (in addition to whatever surcharges your own bank levies). In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City you’ll also find ATMs operated by ANZ and HSBC. These accept a wider range of cards, including those in the Cirrus and Plus networks.
Major credit cards – Visa, MasterCard and, to a lesser extent, American Express – are accepted in Vietnam’s main cities and major tourist spots. All top-level and many mid-level hotels will accept them, as will a growing number of restaurants, though some places levy surcharges of three to four percent.
Traveller’s cheques are less common now that ATMs are so widespread, but can be cashed at major banks (you need your passport as ID), for a commission of up to two percent. Vietinbank generally charges the lowest rates: at the time of writing these were 0.55 percent (minimum US$1.1) when changing into dong and 1.1 percent (minimum US$2.2) into dollars or other foreign currencies. Vietcombank waives commission on American Express traveller’s cheques.
Having money wired from home via MoneyGram (UK 0800/8971 8971, US 1-800/666-3947, www.moneygram.com) or Western Union (US 1-800/325 6000, www.westernunion.com) is never cheap, and should be considered a last resort. It’s also possible to have money wired directly from a bank or post office in your home country to a bank in Vietnam, although this has the added complication of involving two separate institutions; money wired this way normally takes two working days to arrive, and charges vary according to the amount sent.
Opening hours
Basic hours of business are 7.30–11.30am and 1.30–4.30pm, though after lunch nothing really gets going again before 2pm. The standard closing day for offices is Sunday, and many now also close on Saturdays, including most state-run banks and government offices.
Most banks tend to work Monday to Friday 8–11.30am and 1–4pm, though some stay open later in the afternoon or may forego a lunch break. In tourist centres you’ll even find branches open evenings and weekends. Post offices keep much longer hours, in general staying open from 6.30am through to 9pm with no closing day. Some sub-post offices work shorter hours and close at weekends.
Shops and markets open seven days a week and in theory keep going all day, though in practice most stallholders and many private shopkeepers will take a siesta. Shops mostly stay open late into the evenings, perhaps until 8pm or beyond in the big cities.
Museums tend to close one day a week, generally on Mondays, and their core opening hours are 8–11am and 2–4pm. Temples and pagodas occasionally close for lunch but are otherwise open all week and don’t close until late evening.
Telephones
Rates for international calls are very reasonable, with international direct dialling (IDD) costing around 3,500đ per minute (depending where you are calling). Using the prefix 171 routes calls through the internet and reduces rates by a further 10–20 percent. The 171 service can be used from any phone, except for operator-assisted calls, mobile phones, cardphones or faxes: post offices will charge a small fee for using it.
Nearly all post offices have IDD (inter-national direct dialling) facilities, and most hotels offer IDD from your room, but you’ll usually be charged at least ten percent above the norm and a minimum charge of one minute even if the call goes unanswered.
If you’re running short of funds, you can almost always get a “call-back” at post offices. Ask to make a minimum (1min) call abroad and remember to get the phone number of the booth you’re calling from. You can then be called back directly, at a total cost to you of a one-minute international call plus a small charge for the service. It’s also possible to make collect calls to certain countries; ask at the post office or call the international operator on 110.
Local calls are easy to make and are often free, though you may be charged a small fee of a few thousand dong for the service. As in many countries, public phones are turning into battered monuments to outdated technology as mobile phones become ubiquitous (over 30 million users in Vietnam and numbers rising daily). However, transport centres like airports and bus stations still maintain a few functioning machines, which accept only pre-paid phone cards, not coins. All post offices also operate a public phone service, where the cost is displayed as you speak and you pay the cashier afterwards.
In late 2008, all phone numbers in Vietnam acquired an extra digit after the area code and before the actual number, so phone numbers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City now have eleven digits and other towns have ten digits. For subscribers to Vietnam Post and Telecommunications (VNPT), which is over 95 percent of the country, the extra digit is 3, though subscribers to smaller service providers have added a 2, 4, 5 or 6. We have included the new digits in this Guide, though you may still see some old numbers in Vietnam itself.
Dialling codes
All phone numbers in Vietnam consist of 10 or 11 digits, with the first 2–4 digits representing the area code and the remaining digits the specific number. The complete number must be dialled whether you are phoning locally or long-distance.
To call Vietnam from abroad, dial your international access code, then 84 + number minus the first 0.
To call abroad from Vietnam, dial either 171 00 or just 00 followed by the country code (See "Telephones") + area code minus first 0 + number.
Australia61
Canada1
Ireland353
New Zealand64
UK44
US1
Mobile phones
If you want to use your own mobile phone in Vietnam, the simplest – and cheapest – thing to do is to buy a SIM card and a prepaid phone card locally. Both the big phone companies, Vinaphone (www.vinaphone.com.vn) and Mobiphone (www.mobiphone.com.vn), offer English-language support and similar prices, though Vinaphone perhaps has the edge for geographical coverage (which extends pretty much nationwide). At the time of writing, Vinaphone starter kits including a SIM card cost 120,000đ (with 100,000đ worth of calls credited to your account). Further prepaid cards are available in various sizes from 100,000đ to 500,000đ. Phone calls cost slightly more than from a land line, while sending an SMS message costs 350–400đ in Vietnam and about 2,500đ internationally. However, rates are falling rapidly as more competitors enter the increasingly deregulated market.
The other, far more expensive, option is to stick with your home service-provider – though you’ll need to check beforehand whether they offer international roaming services.
Time
Vietnam is seven hours ahead of London, twelve hours ahead of New York, fifteen hours ahead of Los Angeles, one hour behind Perth and three hours behind Sydney – give or take an hour or two when summer time is in operation.
Tourist information
Tourist information on Vietnam is at a premium. The Vietnamese government maintains a handful of tourist promotion offices and a smattering of accredited travel agencies around the globe, most of which can supply you with only the most general information. A better source of information, much of it based on firsthand experiences, is the internet, with numerous websites around to help you plan your visit. Some of the more useful and interesting sites are www.travelfish.org, a regularly-updated online guide to Southeast Asia; www.worldtravelguide.net, a viewer-friendly source of information on Vietnam and other countries; www.activetravelvietnam.com, with helpful information about national parks and beaches; and www.thingsasian.com, which consists mostly of features on Asian destinations and culture.
In Vietnam itself there’s a frustrating dearth of free and impartial advice. The state-run tourist offices – under the auspices of either the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (www.vietnamtourism.com) or the local provincial organization – are thinly disguised tour agents, profit-making concerns which don’t take kindly to being treated as information bureaux, though the official website has a lot of useful information about destinations and practicalities such as visas. In any case, Western concepts of information don’t necessarily apply here – bus timetables, for example, simply don’t exist. The most you’re likely to get is a glossy brochure detailing their tours and affiliated hotels.
You’ll generally have more luck approaching one of the many private tour agencies operating in all the major tourist spots (See "Tourist information"), where staff have become accustomed to Westerners’ demands for advice.
Another useful source of information, including restaurant and hotel listings as well as feature articles, is the growing number of English-language magazines, such as Vietnam Discovery, Time Out, The Guide and Vietnam Pathfinder(see "Information"). There’s also a government-run telephone information service (1080; 300đ per minute) with some English-speaking staff who will answer all manner of questions – if you can get through, since the lines are often busy.
Travellers with special needs
Despite the fact that Vietnam is home to so many war-wounded, few provisions are made for the disabled. This means you’ll have to be pretty self-reliant. It’s important to contact airlines, hotels and tour companies as far in advance as possible to make sure they can accommodate your requirements.
Getting about can be made a little easier by taking internal flights, or by renting a private car or minibus with a driver. Taxis are widely available in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other major cities. Even so, trying to cross roads with speeding traffic and negotiating the cluttered and uneven pavements – where pavements exist – pose real problems. Furthermore, few buildings are equipped with ramps and lifts.
When it comes to accommodation, Vietnam’s new luxury hotels usually offer one or two specially adapted rooms. Elsewhere, the best you can hope for is a ground-floor room, or a hotel with a lift.
One, albeit expensive, option is to ask a tour agent to arrange a customized tour. Saigontourist (www.saigontourist.com) has experience of running tours specifically for disabled visitors. For general information, post a question on the Vietnamese-run Disability Forum http://forum.wso.net.
Travelling with children
Travelling through Vietnam with children can be challenging and fun. The Vietnamese adore kids and make a huge fuss of them, with fair-haired kids coming in for even more manhandling. The main concern will probably be hygiene: Vietnam can be distinctly unsanitary, and children’s stomachs tend to be more sensitive to bacteria. Avoiding spicy foods will help while their stomachs adjust, but if children do become sick it’s crucial to keep up their fluid intake, so as to avoid dehydration. Bear in mind, too, that healthcare facilities are fairly basic outside Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, so make sure your travel insurance includes full medical evacuation.
Long bus journeys are tough on young children, so wherever possible, take the train – at least the kids can get up and move about in safety. There are reduced fares for children on domestic flights, trains and open-tour buses. On trains, for example, it’s free for under-fives (as long as they sit on your lap) and half-price for children aged five to ten. Open-tour buses follow roughly the same policy, though children paying a reduced fare are not entitled to a seat; if you don’t want them on your lap you’ll have to pay full fare. Tours are usually either free or half-price for children.
Many budget hotels have rooms with three or even four single beds in them. At more expensive hotels under-twelves can normally stay free of charge in their parents’ rooms and baby cots are becoming more widely available.
Working and studying in Vietnam
Without a prearranged job and work permit, don’t bank on finding work in Vietnam. With specific skills to offer, you could try approaching some of the Western companies now operating in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Otherwise, English-language teaching is probably the easiest job to land, especially if you have a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), TESOL (Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages) or CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) qualification. Universities are worth approaching, though pay is better at private schools, where qualified teachers earn upwards of $15–20 an hour. In either case, you’ll need to apply for a work permit, sponsored by your employer, and then a working visa. Private tutoring is an unwieldy way of earning a crust, as you’ll have to pop out of the country every few months to procure a new visa. Furthermore, the authorities are clamping down on people working without the proper authorizations.
The main English-language teaching operations recruiting in Vietnam include the British Council (www.britishcouncil.org/Vietnam.htm), ILA Vietnam (www.ilavietnam.com), Language Link Vietnam (www.languagelink.edu.vn) and RMIT International University (www.rmit.edu.vn). The TEFL website (www.tefl.com) and Dave’s ESL Café (www.eslcafe.com) also have lists of English-teaching vacancies in addition to lots of other useful information.
There are also opportunities for volunteer work. Try contacting the organizations listed below, or look on the websites of the NGO Resource Centre Vietnam (www.ngocentre.org.vn) and Volunteer Abroad (www.volunteerabroad.com).
Study, work and volunteer programmes
Explore Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City and around
The Mekong Delta
The central highlands
The south–central coast
The central provinces
The central provinces - Part 2
Hanoi and around
Ha Long Bay and the northern seaboard
The far north
Ho Chi Minh City and around
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC for short), still known as Saigon to its seven million or so inhabitants, is Vietnam’s centre of commerce and the country’s biggest city by far, though not its administrative capital – an honour that rests with Hanoi. As a result of the sweeping economic changes wrought by doi moi in 1986, this effervescent city, perched on the west bank of the Saigon River, has changed its image from that of a war-torn city to one of a thriving metropolis, challenging Singapore, Bangkok and the other traditional Southeast Asian powerhouses.
All the accoutrements of economic success – fine restaurants, flash hotels, glitzy bars and clubs, and shops selling imported luxury goods – are here, adding a glossy veneer to the city’s hotch-potch landscape of French stones of empire, venerable pagodas and austere, Soviet-style housing blocks. Sadly, however, Ho Chi Minh City is still full of people for whom economic progress has not yet translated into food, housing and jobs. Street children range through tourist enclaves hawking books, postcards, lottery tickets and cigarette lighters; limbless mendicants haul themselves about on crude trolleys; and watchful pickpockets prowl crowded streets on the lookout for unguarded wallets. Though the number of beggars is gradually declining, tourists must quickly come to accept them as a hassle that goes with the territory. In addition, the arrival, en masse, of wealthy Westerners has lured many women into prostitution, for which the go-go bars of Dong Khoi became famous during the American War.
If Hanoi is a city of romance and mellow charms, then Ho Chi Minh City is its antithesis, a fury of sights and sounds, and the crucible in which Vietnam’s rallying fortunes are boiling. Few corners of the city afford respite from the cacophony of construction work casting up new office blocks and hotels with logic-defying speed. An increasing number of cars and minibuses jostle with an organic mass of state-of-the-art SUVs, Hondas and cyclo, choking the tree-lined streets and boulevards. Amid this melee, the local people go about their daily life: smartly-dressed schoolkids wander past streetside baguette-sellers; women shoppers ride Hondas clad in gangster-style bandanas and shoulder-length gloves to protect their skin from the sun and dust; while teenagers in designer jeans chirrup into mobile phones. Much of the fun of being in Ho Chi Minh City derives from the simple pleasure of absorbing its flurry of activity – something best done from the seat of a cyclo or a roadside café. To blink is to miss some new and singular sight, be it a motorbike stacked high with piglets bound for the market, or a boy on a bicycle rapping out a staccato tattoo on pieces of bamboo to advertise noodles for sale.
It’s one of Ho Chi Minh City’s many charms that once you’ve exhausted, or been exhausted by, all it has to offer, paddy fields, beaches and wide-open countryside are not far away. The most popular trip out of the city is to the Cu Chi tunnels, where villagers dug themselves out of the range of American shelling. The tunnels are often twinned with a tour around the fanciful Great Temple of the indigenous Cao Dai religion at Tay Ninh. A brief taster of the Mekong Delta at My Tho or a dip in the South China Sea at Ho Coc are also eminently possible in a long day’s excursion (See "My Tho and around" and "Ho Coc Beach" respectively).
The best time to visit tropical Ho Chi Minh City is in the dry season, which runs from December through to April. During the wet season, May to November, there are frequent tropical storms, though these won’t disrupt your travels too much. Average temperatures, year-round, hover between 26 and 29°C; March, April and May are the hottest months.
Highlights
US plane at the War Remnants Museum
Some history
Knowledge of Ho Chi Minh City’s early history is sketchy, at best. Between the first and sixth centuries, the territory on which it lies fell under the nominal rule of the Funan Empire to the west. Funan was subsequently absorbed by the Kambuja peoples of the pre-Angkor Chen La Empire, but it is unlikely that these imperial machinations had much bearing upon the sleepy fishing backwater that would later develop into Ho Chi Minh City.
Khmer fishermen eked out a living here, building their huts on the stable ground just north of the delta wetlands, which made it ideal for human settlement. Originally named Prei Nokor, it flourished as an entrepôt for Cambodian boats pushing down the Mekong River, and by the seventeenth century it boasted a garrison and a mercantile community that embraced Malay, Indian and Chinese traders.
Such a dynamic settlement was bound to draw attention from the north. By the eighteenth century, the Viets had subdued the kingdom of Champa, and this area was swallowed up by Hué’s Nguyen Dynasty. With new ownership came a new name, Saigon, thought to be derived from the Vietnamese word for the kapok tree. Upon the outbreak of the Tay Son Rebellion, in 1772, Nguyen Anh bricked the whole settlement into a walled fortress, the eight-sided Gia Dinh Citadel. The army that put down the Tay Son brothers included an assisting French military force, who grappled for several decades to undermine Vietnamese control in the region and develop a trading post in Asia. Finally, in 1861, they seized Saigon, using Emperor Tu Duc’s persecution of French missionaries as a pretext. The 1862 Treaty of Saigon declared the city the capital of French Cochinchina.
Ho Chi Minh City owes much of its form and character to the French colonists: channels were filled in, marshlands drained and steam tramways set to work along its regimental grid of tamarind-shaded boulevards, which by the 1930s sported names like Boulevard de la Somme and Rue Rousseau. Flashy examples of European architecture were erected, cafés and boutiques sprang up to cater for its new, Vermouth-sipping, baguette-munching citizens, and the city was imbued with such an all-round Gallic air that Somerset Maugham, visiting in the 1930s, found it reminiscent of “a little provincial town in the south of France… a blithe and smiling little place”. The French colons (colonials) bankrolled improvements to Saigon with the vast profits they were able to cream from exporting Vietnam’s rubber and rice out of the city’s rapidly expanding seaport.
On a human level, however, French rule was invariably harsh; dissent crystallized in the form of strikes through the 1920s and 1930s, but the nationalist movement hadn’t gathered any real head of steam before World War II’s tendrils spread to Southeast Asia. At its close, the Potsdam Conference of 1945 set the British Army the task of disarming Japanese troops in southern Vietnam. Arriving in Saigon two months later, they promptly returned power to the French, and so began thirty years of war. Saigon saw little action during the anti-French war, which was fought mostly in the countryside and resulted in the French capitulation at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Designated the capital of the Republic of South Vietnam by President Diem in 1955, Saigon was soon both the nerve centre of the American war effort, and its R&R capital, with a slough of sleazy bars along Dong Khoi (known then as Tu Do) catering to GIs on leave from duty. Despite the Communist bomb attacks and demonstrations by students and monks that periodically disturbed the peace, these were good times for Saigon, whose entrepreneurs prospered on the back of the tens of thousands of Americans posted here. The gravy train ran out of steam with the withdrawal of American troops in 1973, and two years later the Ho Chi Minh Campaign rolled into the city and through the gates of the presidential palace and the Communists were in control. Within a year, Saigon had been renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
The war years extracted a heavy toll: American carpet-bombing of the Vietnamese countryside forced millions of refugees into the relative safety of the city, and ill-advised, post-reunification policies triggered a social and economic stagnation whose ramifications are still evident. To make matters worse, persecution of southerners with links to the Americans saw many thousands sent to re-education camps, and millions more flee the country by boat.
Only in 1986, when the economic liberalization of doi moi was established, and a market economy reintroduced, did the fortunes of the city show signs of taking an upturn. Today, more than two decades later, the city’s resurgence is well advanced, and its inhabitants are eyeing the future with unprecedented optimism.
Arrival
The lion’s share of new arrivals to Vietnam fly into Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport, which is also the terminus for all internal flights. Arriving overland, you’ll end up either at the train station, a short distance north of the downtown area, or at one of a handful of bus terminals scattered across the city.
By plane
Tan Son Nhat Airport, with its swish new international terminal, is 7km northwest of the city centre and the journey downtown takes about 30–45 minutes, depending on the traffic. Facilities include duty-free; foreign exchange (daily 7am–1am); taxi, limo and hotel booking desks; a post office (daily 9am–10pm); and left-luggage facilities (daily 7.30am–10pm; $3 per bag per day, $4 for larger items). Don’t lose the immigration card that you fill in on arrival as you will need to hand it in on departure.
The easiest way into the city centre is by metered taxi (about $5–6) from outside the terminal. Make sure the driver switches on the meter and knows exactly where you want to go, as there are many sharks eager to prey on new arrivals. Alternatively, many hotels offer a pick-up service for advance bookings. If you don’t have much baggage, you can get the #152 air-conditioned bus which runs every fifteen minutes or so between the domestic terminal (200m to the right of the international terminal as you leave) and downtown (both Dong Khoi and Pham Ngu Lao) for just 3000đ. A motorbike will run you into town for $3–4, but you’ll have to bargain hard: to find one, walk outside the airport gates (only a hundred metres or so).
By train
Trains from the north pull in at the train station, or Ga Saigon (08/3843 6528), 3km northwest of town, on Nguyen Thong. The ticket office is open daily 7.30–11.30am and 1.30–4.30pm, though you can also book tickets with agents around De Tham. Since it’s a few kilometres from the centre, it’s best to take a taxi (about $3–4), though you might save a dollar if you bargain furiously with a cyclo or xe om driver.
By bus
Regular buses stop at a clutch of different terminals, while open-tour buses and most arrivals from Phnom Penh in Cambodia terminate on De Tham in the heart of the budget accommodation area.
Buses from the north arrive at sprawling Mien Dong bus station, 5km northeast of the city on Xo Viet Nghe Tinh; the #26 bus shuttles between here and Ben Thanh bus station, which is a five-minute walk from the budget hotel district. Buses from the southwest terminate at Mien Tay bus station, 10km west of the city centre in An Lac District; take a taxi or a #2 bus to Ben Thanh bus station. Well-signposted shuttle buses between Mien Tay and Mien Dong terminals make it possible to bypass central Ho Chi Minh City altogether in the event that you want to travel direct from the Mekong Delta to the north, or vice versa.
By boat
The only regular waterborne arrivals in Ho Chi Minh City are hydrofoils from Vung Tau and express boats from Can Tho, which dock at the Bach Dang jetty on Ton Duc Thang.
Information
For practical information with no strings attached, enquire at your guesthouse or hotel, or at one of the tour agents along Pham Ngu Lao and De Tham. These should also be able to provide you with a basic map of the city centre, while a more detailed map is available from bookshops and street hawkers.
For information about what’s on in Ho Chi Minh City, you’ll find in many hotels and restaurants the free magazines, The Word or Asia Life, which are aimed at expats. Another useful source of info is The Guide, which covers the whole country and is sold in bookstores for 30,000đ. All are published monthly.
City transport
Faint-hearted visitors to Ho Chi Minh City will blanch upon first encountering the chaos that passes for its traffic system. Thousands of motorcycles, bicycles and cyclo fill the city’s streets and boulevards in an insectile swarm that is now supplemented by a burgeoning number of cars and minibuses, most with their horns constantly blaring.
Despite the city’s massive sprawl, most of its attractions are conveniently clustered so that it is quite feasible to explore many of them on foot. But first you have to learn to cross the streets where the traffic never stops. There’s an art to crossing the street in Vietnam: besides nerves of steel, a steady pace is required – motorbike riders are used to dodging pedestrians, but you’ll confuse them if you stop in your tracks.
To get from A to B when you don’t fancy walking, the xe om is the most prevalent and practical mode of transport, though taxis are also inexpensive and worth considering if only to avoid interminable haggling over fares. Cyclo routes are sadly limited, being prohibited from several central streets, though for many visitors a leisurely ride around some of the city’s main sights adds a uniquely Vietnamese touch to the experience.
Cyclo
Cyclo are a dying breed in Ho Chi Minh City, since the local government plans to phase them out. Already they are forbidden to enter many key streets in the city centre, so if your rider seems to be taking a circuitous route, he is probably not doing so to bump up the fare. Despite these difficulties, a ride in a cyclo is usually a memorable experience, if only for the close encounter with the city’s crazy traffic; about $3 an hour is the normal rate, though initially they will ask more than double this. Though it’s feasible to ride two (very small) passengers to a cyclo, the corresponding rise in cost and lessening of comfort make this a false economy.
Taxis and xe om
Taxis are easy to flag down on the street, though it’s just as easy to call for a pick-up wherever you are (see "Listings" for numbers). The flag fare of 12,000đ goes up after dark but you can still traverse a decent chunk of the city for 30,000đ, so they are well worth considering, especially given the horrifying pollution levels of the city’s streets.
The motorbike taxi or xe om is a faster alternative to both taxi and cyclo. Translated, it means “motorbike embrace”: passengers ride pillion on a motorbike, hanging on for dear life. Wearing helmets is compulsory for passengers as well as riders. Xe om are much more prevalent than cyclo, so you’ll probably find yourself using them at some stage, but beware of riders who double up as pimps and drug dealers, of which there are many. If you find a reliable driver, take his phone number so you can call him again. Prices are about 10,000đ for a short ride, or $2 an hour.
Tour agents
There are hundreds of tour agents in Ho Chi Minh City, but many of them are fly-by-night set-ups, and we receive numerous reports of inefficient and unscrupulous companies, so it’s worth choosing your agent carefully. Those listed below have good reputations for consistent, reliable services.
Buses
Few visitors ever take a public bus, though it’s relatively easy to hop on one to Cho Lon from the backpacker district. When leaving the city, Ben Thanh bus station is a useful point of departure, linking other long-distance bus stations in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as offering direct services to Vung Tau and other places.
Sample fares around town
Costs of local transport are quite reasonable. For example, you can expect to pay about 10,000đ for a short cyclo or xe om ride within central Ho Chi Minh City, while the standard fare for bus services is 3000–5000đ. Fares for cyclo and xe om are negotiable, though the list below provides a guideline. Note that cyclo drivers charge more for extra passengers or luggage, and that by “centre” we mean Dong Khoi.
Pham Ngu Lao to GPO: 15,000đ
Train station to centre: 15–20,000đ
Pham Ngu Lao to Cho Lon: 20–25,000đ
Centre to Jade Emperor Pagoda: 20,000đ
Mien Dong bus station to centre: 40,000đ
Motorbikes, bicycles and car rental
Motorbike and bicycle rental in Ho Chi Minh City is very cheap – just $5–6 and $1.50 per day respectively, though you’ll need bravery far beyond that necessary to cross the street to survive in the traffic. Most hotels and guest-houses can arrange a motorbike for you, though bicycles are a bit more difficult to track down. Self-drive car rental isn’t an option yet in Ho Chi Minh City, but Budget and many tour operators offer car rental plus driver(see "Listings") for $50–100 per day, depending on the vehicle and driver’s proficiency in English.
Accommodation
There are thousands of hotel rooms in Ho Chi Minh City, ranging from budget windowless cupboards to top-end sumptuous suites, yet the city is so popular that rooms can be difficult to find, especially in December and January. If you make an advance booking, you will save hauling your bags round the streets and may also be picked up at the airport or station, making a smooth start to your stay.
The best hotels in town are located around Dong Khoi in the city centre, and there are some smart mini-hotels on nearby Mac Thi Buoi. Ho Chi Minh City’s budget enclave centres around Pham Ngu Lao, De Tham and Bui Vien, which lies 1km west of the city centre but is still convenient for visiting most city attractions. Besides having over a hundred accommodation options, there are also travel agencies, restaurants, bars and shops catering for travellers. By staying in this area, you’ll save not only on accommodation, but on food and drinks as well, since most restaurants here are significantly cheaper than those downtown. Hotels, mini-hotels, guesthouses and rooms for rent are ten-a-penny here, ranging from dormitories costing a few dollars to luxurious rooms for around $150. If the De Tham region is too much for you, there’s a smaller clutch of budget hotels in an alley a few blocks south off Co Giang. Most places that charge more than $15 a night include breakfast in the price.
Dong Khoi and around
All the following hotels and guesthouses are marked on the map "Central Ho Chi Minh".
Caravelle 19 Lam Son Square 08/3823 4999, www.caravellehotel.com. A grandiose entrance leads to the city’s most prestigious hotel, featuring luxurious rooms and suites with all conceivable comforts and dizzying views across the city. US$151 and overMajestic 1 Dong Khoi 08/3829 5517, www.majesticsaigon.com.vn. Historic 1920s riverfront hotel, still oozing character. All the rooms are charming (especially those with a river view) and the staff fall over themselves to be helpful. There’s a first-floor pool and rooftop bar too. US$151 and overSpring 44–46 Le Thanh Ton 08/3829 7362, www.springhotelvietnam.com. An excellent mid-range hotel with top-quality services, conveniently located just north of the centre. All the rooms are carpeted with cable TV and bathtubs. US$31–75De Tham and around
All the following hotels and guesthouses are marked on the map "Accommodation: De Tham & Around", except Guest House California and Miss Loi on "Central Ho Chi Minh".
An An 40 Bui Vien 08/3837 8087, www.ananhotel.com. This welcoming mini-hotel has 22 bright and airy rooms, all with a/c, bathtubs and internet connections. There’s a second branch with slightly smaller and cheaper rooms at 216 De Tham. US$31–50Lan Anh 252 De Tham 08/3836 5197, [email protected]. In a prime location, this friendly, family-run mini-hotel in the heart of De Tham has 23 bright, clean rooms with a/c. Ask for a room at the back to escape the street noise. US$11–30Madam Cuc 127 Cong Quynh 08/3836 8761, www.madamcuchotels.com. The genial Madam Cuc pays more attention to detail than most, resulting in a range of wholesome rooms, some sleeping up to four. Staff are informative and helpful and there’s free breakfast, fruit, tea and coffee. They will also collect from the airport. If this place is full, they have two more branches at 184 Cong Quynh and 64 Bui Vien. US$11–30West of De Tham
All the following hotels and guesthouses are marked on the map "Ho Chi Minh City".
Four Roses 790/5 Nguyen Dinh Chieu 08/3832 5895, [email protected]. Located in no-man’s-land between Cho Lon and the city centre, the Four Roses is full of character. Set in a tranquil garden bordered by bougainvillea, it has just six immaculately clean, pleasantly furnished rooms all with balconies. Family-run with a distinctly French flavour, it offers the perfect antidote to hectic Ho Chi Minh City; there’s a beauty salon in the basement (the owner is a beautician) and meals can also be rustled up on request. US$11–30The City
Ho Chi Minh City – or Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, to give it its full Vietnamese title – is divided into 24 districts, though tourists rarely travel beyond districts One, Three and Five. In addition, an increasing number of expats reside in Phu My Hung, aka South Saigon, in district Seven – a squeaky-clean suburb that wouldn’t look out of place in Singapore, making quite a contrast to the rest of this seething metropolis. The city proper hugs the west bank of the Saigon River, and its central area, District One, nestles in the hinge formed by the confluence of the river with the silty ooze of the Ben Nghe Channel; traditionally the French Quarter of the city, this area is still widely known as Saigon. Dong Khoi is its delicate backbone, and around the T-shape it forms with Le Duan Boulevard are located several of the city’s museums and colonial remnants. However, many of the city’s other sights are scattered further afield, so visitors have to effect a dot-to-dot of the sights that appeal most. These invariably include one or more of the museums that pander to the West’s fixation with the American War, the pick of the bunch being the War Remnants Museum and Ho Chi Minh City Museum.
For some visitors, the war is their primary frame of reference, and such historical hot spots as the Reunification Palace rank highly on their itineraries. Yet the city pre-dates American involvement by several centuries, and not all of its sights revolve around planes, tanks and rusting ordnance. Ostentatious reminders of French rule abound, among them such memorable buildings as Notre Dame Cathedral and the grandiose Hotel de Ville – but even these look spanking-new when compared to gloriously musty edifices like Quan Am Pagoda and the Jade Emperor Pagoda, just a couple of the many captivating places of worship across the city. And if the chaos becomes too much, you can escape to the relative calm of the Botanical Gardens – also home to the city’s History Museum and zoo.
Dong Khoi
Slender Dong Khoi, running for just over 1km from Le Duan to the Saigon River, has long mirrored Ho Chi Minh City’s changing fortunes. The French knew the road as Rue Catinat, a tamarind-shaded thoroughfare that constituted the heart of French colonial life. Here the colons would promenade, stopping at chic boutiques and perfumeries, and gathering at noon and dusk at cafés such as the Rotonde and the Taverne Alsacienne for a Vermouth or Dubonnet, before hailing a pousse-pousse (a hand-pulled variation on the cyclo) to run them home. With the departure of the French in 1954, President Diem saw fit to change the street’s name to Tu Do, “Freedom”, and it was under this guise that a generation of young American GIs came to know it, as they toured the glut of bars – Wild West, Uncle Sam’s, Playboy – that sprang up to pander to their more lascivious needs. After Saigon fell in 1975, the more politically correct monicker of Dong Khoi, or “Uprising”, was adopted, but the street quickly went to seed in the dark, pre-doi moi years, and by the seventies had gone, in the words of Le Ly Hayslip, from “bejewelled, jaded dowager to shabby, grasping bag lady”.
Today, however, Dong Khoi is enjoying a renaissance. Its eclectic melange of buildings – from grand colonial facades and slender shophouses to unlovely concrete-slab buildings – is crammed with souvenir shops and designer boutiques catering for the current wave of tourism, with a massive development called “Times Square”, half-way down the street, set to transform the street’s image yet again in the near future.
Notre Dame Cathedral
Straddling the northern reach of Dong Khoi is the pleasing redbrick bulk of the late nineteenth-century Notre Dame Cathedral. Aside from the few stained-glass windows above and behind its altar, and its marble relief Stations of the Cross, the interior boasts only scanty decoration, but there’s plenty of scope for people-watching, as a steady trickle of Catholics pass through in their best silk tunics and black pants, fingering rosary beads, their whispered prayers merging with the insistent murmur of the traffic outside. A statue of the Virgin Mary provides the centrepiece to the small park fronting the cathedral, where cyclo drivers loiter and kids hawk postcards and maps. Take a close look at her face, as on occasion locals swear they have seen her shed tears.
The cathedral’s twin compass-point spires were, for decades, one of Saigon’s handiest landmarks, but they’re now dwarfed by the glass facade of Diamond Plaza, one of the city’s gleaming shopping malls, and by the telecom tower above the General Post Office, east of the park. A classic colonial edifice unchanged since its completion in the 1880s, the GPO is worth a peek inside for its nave-like foyer, lent character by two huge map-murals, one charting Saigon and its environs in 1892, the other the telegraphic lines of southern Vietnam and Cambodia in 1936. Further in, a huge portrait of Uncle Ho sporting a healthy tan and warm smile gazes down at the aged wooden benches and tables of the cavernous main hall.
Notre Dame Cathedral with the modern Diamond Plaza shopping mall behind
Lam Son Square
Dong Khoi briefly widens a couple of hundred metres south of the cathedral, where the smart, white walls of the Hotel Continental(see "Dong Khoi and around") announce your arrival in Lam Son Square. Once a bastion of French high society, and still one of the city’s premier addresses, the hotel front terrace was the place to see and be seen earlier last century. Little wonder, then, that Somerset Maugham’s nose for a story led him here in the mid-twenties: “Outside the hotels are terraces,” he recounted, ”and at the hour of the aperitif, they are crowded with bearded, gesticulating Frenchmen drinking the sweet and sickly beverages…which they drink in France and they talk nineteen to the dozen in the rolling accent of the Midi… It is very agreeable to sit under the awning on the terrace of the Hotel Continental, with an innocent drink before you, [and] read in the local newspaper heated controversies upon the affairs of the colony.” Sadly the terrace no longer exists, so if you want to tap into the history of the place, the best you can do is to ensconce yourself in the hotel’s café.
Standing grandly on the eastern side of Lam Son Square, its cyclopean, domed entrance peering southwestwards down Le Loi, is the century-old Municipal Theatre. The National Assembly was temporarily housed here in 1955, but today, lovingly restored to its former glory, it once again embraces programmes that include fashion shows, drama and dance. Just below the theatre, the 1958-built and now grandiosely revamped Caravelle Hotel(see " Dong Khoi and around") gazes down across the square at the more diminutive Continental. In its former incarnation, the Caravelle found favour with those Western journalists assigned to cover the war, and its terrace bar saw many a report drafted over a stiff drink.
Down towards the riverbank
Though glitzy boutiques predominate along Dong Khoi below the Caravelle, they haven’t yet managed entirely to eradicate the past, and it’s still possible to winkle out relics of old Saigon. Wander south of Lam Son and you’ll soon meet Dong Du, where a left turn reveals the white and blue-washed walls of the 1930s Indian Jamia Mosque, now towered over by the Sheraton(see "Dong Khoi and around"). The rounded curves of its arches and its slender minarets make a stark contrast to the utilitarian design of the hotel next door, and there’s a reassuring sense of peace that’s enhanced by the slumbering worshippers lazing around the complex. If you’re feeling peckish, check out the simple restaurant that is tucked round the back of the mosque, serving cheap and tasty dishes, many of which are vegetarian. Continuing down Dong Khoi to the river takes you past two of the city’s more venerable hotels, the lovingly restored Dong Khoi and around on the left, followed 30m later on the right by the lavish, riverfront Dong Khoi and around.
Along the waterfront
In colonial days, the quay hugging the confluence of the Saigon River and Ben Nghe Channel provided new arrivals with their first real glimpse of Indochina – scores of coolie-hatted dock-workers lugging sacks of rice off ships, shrimp farmers dredging the oozy shallows, and junks and sampans bobbing on the tide under the vigilant gaze of colons imbibing at nearby cafés. Arriving by steamer in 1910, Gabrielle Vassal felt as if “all Saigon had turned out… Some expected friends, others came in the hope of meeting acquaintances or as mere spectators. One was reminded of a fashionable garden party, for the dresses and equipages were worthy of Paris itself.” These days the only river traffic consists of hydrofoils bound for Vung Tau, a few tourist boats and a ferry linking Districts one and two, though a tunnel currently being built beneath the river will soon render this obsolete.
At the bottom of Dong Khoi, take a left onto Ton Duc Thang, and it’s only a short skip to Me Linh Square, where a statue of Tran Hung Dao points across the river: it’s a striking image when framed by the towering Renaissance Hotel(see "Dong Khoi and around") and the Me Linh Point Tower. Ton Duc Thang draws its name from a former president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, whose life is celebrated at the nearby Ton Duc Thang Museum (Tues–Sun 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–5pm; free). Don’t expect any fireworks here: besides some grim photographs highlighting the many years he spent de-husking rice on the prison island of Poulo Condore (now known as Con Dao, see "The Con Dao Archipelago"), a few evocative photos of old Saigon and some of the bric-a-brac of the man’s life comprise the museum’s principal highlights.
The Ho Chi Minh Museum
Where the Ben Nghe Channel enters the Saigon River, a bridge crosses it to an imposing mansion that was erected in the 1860s. Known as the Nha Rong, or Dragon House, this former headquarters of a French shipping company is now home to the Ho Chi Minh Museum (1 Nguyen Tat Thanh; Tues–Sun 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–5pm; 10,000đ) – an apposite venue, given that it was from the abutting wharf that Ho left for Europe in 1911. Sadly, the collection within fails to capture the spirit of this man whose life was dedicated to liberating his homeland from colonialism. If you decide to visit, you’ll need to wring all the interest you can out of personal effects such as Ho’s walking stick, rattan suitcase, sandals made from tyres and watering can, a map of his itinerant wanderings, and a few blurred photographs of him at official receptions. If all the Ho Chi Minh museums in Vietnam are to be believed, Ho was evidently a compulsive hoarder.
The days when the Ben Nghe Channel was choked with sampans are long gone, and now its pitch-black waters are eerily calm. An effort is under way to clean up this pungent part of the city; already parts of it are being built over and the rotting shacks on its banks have been cleared. However, the fetid stench of the canal still lingers.
Around Nguyen Hué
When Saigon’s French administrators laid the 750-metre sweep of Charner Boulevard over a filled-in canal and down to the Saigon River, their brief was to replicate the elegance of a tree-lined Parisian boulevard, and in its day this broad avenue was known as the Champs Elysées of the East. These days, however, Nguyen Hué, as it is now known, has little character except on Sundays and at festival time. Each Sunday evening, the city’s trendsetting youth converge here and on nearby Dong Khoi on their motorbikes, to circle round and round, girlfriends riding pillion, in a strange ritual that recreates the traffic jams that they suffer through on weekdays. At Tet the street also bursts into life, hosting a vast, riotously colourful flower market which draws Vietnamese belles in their thousands to pose in their best ao dai among the roses, sunflowers, chrysanthemums and conical orange trees.
The stately edifice that stands at Nguyen Hué’s northern extent is the former Hotel de Ville, the city’s most photographed icon and an ostentatious reminder of colonial Europe’s stubborn resolve to stamp its imprint on the countries it subjugated, no matter how incongruous. Built in 1908 as the city’s administrative hub, this wedding cake of a building today houses the People’s Committee behind its showy jumble of Corinthian columns, classical figures and shuttered windows. A statue of Uncle Ho cradling a small child in his lap watches over the tiny park fronting the building, where flower beds add a splash of colour.
Though the Rex Hotel(see "Dong Khoi and around"), at the junction of Nguyen Hué and Le Loi, may give the impression of being venerable, in fact it has only operated as a hotel since 1976. Having started out as a garage for the Renaults and Peugeots of the city’s French expat community, during the 1960s it billeted American officers, and hosted regular press briefing sessions that came to be known by jaded members of the press as the “Five O’Clock Follies”. From its fifth-floor Rooftop Garden bar, the hotel yields a superb view of the whirl of life on the street below, best enjoyed over a fruit juice or cool glass of beer. At night, the hotel’s emblem, a giant crown, lights up on the terrace, providing the city with one of its best-known landmarks.
The southern face of the block south of the Rex hides peaceful Sri Thendayyutthapani Temple, whose gopuram (sculpted gate tower) stands at 66 Ton That Thiep. The place manages a certain rag-tag charisma, the lavish murals normally associated with Hindu temples replaced by faded paintings of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and various deities from the Hindu pantheon, plus a ceiling gaily studded with coloured baubles and lamps. Steps beyond the topiary to the right of the main sanctuary lead to a roof terrace that’s dominated by a weather-beaten tower of deities, whose ranks have been infiltrated by two incongruous characters dressed like public schoolboys in braces, shorts and striped ties, and waving merrily.
The Ho Chi Minh City Museum
Of all the stones of empire thrown up in Vietnam by the French, few are more eye-catching than the former Gia Long Palace, a block west of the Hotel de Ville at 65 Ly Tu Trong, built in 1886 as a splendid residence for the governor of Cochinchina. Homeless after the air attack that smashed his own palace, Diem decamped here in 1962, and it was in the tunnels beneath the building that he spent his last hours of office, before fleeing to the church in Cho Lon where he finally surrendered (see "Nguyen Trai and around"). Ironically, it now houses the Ho Chi Minh City Museum (daily 8am–5pm; 15,000đ), which makes use of photographs, documents and artefacts to trace the struggle of the Vietnamese people against France and America. Even if you’re not desperate to learn more about the country’s war-torn past, you’re likely to be enchanted by the grandeur of the building, and you might even witness couples posing for wedding photographs, as the regal structure and well-tended gardens are a favourite backdrop for photographers.
The downstairs area is a hotchpotch of ancient artefacts and antique collections, along with a section on nature and another featuring ethnic clothing and implements. The museum shifts into higher gear upstairs, where the focus turns to the war with America. The best exhibits are those showcasing the ingenuity of the Vietnamese – bicycle parts made into mortars, a Suzuki motorbike in whose inner tubes documents were smuggled into Saigon, a false-floored boat in which guns were secreted, and so on. Look out, too, for sweaters knitted by female prisoners on Con Dao Island bearing the Vietnamese words for “peace” and “freedom”. Elsewhere, there’s a cross-sectional model of the Cu Chi tunnels, and a rewarding gallery of photographs of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign and the fall of Saigon.
As with many of Vietnam’s museums, the hardware of war is on display in the gardens. Tucked away behind the frangipanis and well-groomed hedges out back are a Soviet tank, an American helicopter and an anti-aircraft gun, while out front are two sleek but idle jets.
The Reunification Palace and around
Five minutes’ stroll north up Nam Ky Khoi Nghia from the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, a red flag billows proudly above the Reunification Palace (daily 7.30–11am & 1–4pm; 15,000đ including guided tour). A whitewashed concrete edifice with all the charm of a municipal library, the palace occupies the site of the former Norodom Palace, a colonial mansion erected in 1871 to house the governor-general of Indochina. After the French departure in 1954, Ngo Dinh Diem commandeered this extravagant monument as his presidential palace, but after sustaining extensive damage in a February 1962 assassination attempt by two disaffected Southern pilots, the place was condemned and pulled down. The present building was named the Independence Palace upon completion in 1966, only to be retitled the Reunification Hall when the South fell in 1975 (see "The taking of the presidential palace"). The reversion to the label “Palace” was doubtless made for tourist appeal.
Spookily unchanged from its working days, much of the building’s interior is a time capsule of sixties and seventies kitsch: pacing its airy banqueting rooms, conference halls and reception areas, it’s hard not to think you’ve strayed into the arch-criminal’s lair in a James Bond movie. Before the tour you enter a movie room, where a potted account of Vietnamese history and the American War is screened half-hourly. Then guides usher you through the hall’s many chambers, proudly pointing out every piece of porcelain, lacquerwork, rosewood and silk on display. Most interesting is the third floor, where, as well as the presidential library (with works by Laurens van der Post and Graham Greene alongside heavyweight political tomes), there’s a curtained projection room, and an entertainment lounge complete with tacky circular sofa and barrel-shaped bar. Nearby, a set of sawn-off elephant’s feet add an eerie touch to the decor. Perhaps the most atmospheric part of the building is the basement and former command centre, where wood-panelled combat staff quarters yield archaic radio equipment and vast wall maps.
Adjoining the western edge of the Reunification Palace’s grounds is Cong Vien Van Hoa Park, a municipal park whose tree-shaded lawns are pleasant for a stroll and heave with life each Sunday. During the colonial era, the park’s northernmost corner was home to one of the linchpins of French expat society, the Cercle Sportif, a Westerners-only sports club where the colons gathered to swim and play tennis before sinking an aperitif and discussing the day’s events. Today it functions as the Workers’ Sports Club.
The taking of the presidential palace
The Reunification Palace is so significant to the Vietnamese because it was the storming of its gates by a tank belonging to the Northern Army, on April 30, 1975, that became the defining moment of the fall of Saigon and the South. These days two tanks stand in the grounds as a reminder of the incident.
Of the many Western journalists on hand to witness the spectacle, none was better placed than English journalist and poet James Fenton, who conspired to hitch a ride on the tank that first crashed through the gates: “The tank speeded up, and rammed the left side of the palace gate. Wrought iron flew into the air, but the whole structure refused to give. I nearly fell off. The tank backed again, and I observed a man with a nervous smile opening the centre portion of the gate. We drove into the grounds of the palace, and fired a salute. An NLF soldier took the flag and, waving it above his head, ran into the palace. A few moments later, he emerged on the terrace, waving the flag round and round. Later still, there he was on the roof. The red and yellow stripes of the Saigon regime were lowered at last.”
Inside the palace, Duong Van Minh (“Big Minh”), sworn in as president only two days before, readied to perform his last presidential duty. “I have been waiting since early this morning to transfer power to you,” he said to General Bui Tin, to which the general replied: “Your power has crumbled. You cannot give up what you do not have.”
The War Remnants Museum
A block above the park, at 28 Vo Van Tan, the War Remnants Museum (daily 7.30– noon & 1.30–5pm; 15,000đ) is the city’s most popular attraction but not for the faint-hearted. Unlike at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, you are unlikely to be distracted here by the building that houses the heart-rending exhibits – a distressing compendium of the horrors of modern warfare. Some of the instruments of destruction are on display in the courtyard outside, including a 28-tonne howitzer and a ghoulish collection of bomb parts. There’s also a guillotine that harvested heads at the Central Prison on Ly Tu Trong, first for the French and later for Diem.
Inside, a series of halls present a grisly portfolio of photographs of mutilation, napalm burns and torture. Most shocking is the gallery detailing the effects of the 75 million litres of defoliant sprays dumped across the country: beside the expected images of bald terrain, hideously malformed foetuses are preserved in pickling jars. A gallery that looks at international opposition to the war as well as the American peace movement adds a sense of balance, and makes a change from the self-glorifying tone of most Vietnamese museums. Accounts of servicemen – such as veteran B52 pilot Michael Heck – who attempted to discharge themselves from the war on ethical grounds are also featured. Artefacts donated to the museum by returned US servicemen add to the reconciliatory tone.
At the back of the museum is a grisly mock-up of the tiger cages, the godless prison cells of "Con Son Island", which could have been borrowed from the movie set of Papillon. The souvenir shop, hidden between the tanks and planes in the courtyard, sells Zippo lighters, penknives, dog tags and models crafted from spent bullets.
Xa Loi Pagoda
Vapid Xa Loi Pagoda (daily 6–11.30am & 2–9pm), a short walk west of the museum at 89 Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, became a hotbed of Buddhist opposition to Diem in 1963. The austere, 1956-built complex is unspectacular, its most striking component a tall tower whose unlovely beige blocks lend it a drabness even six tiers of Oriental roofs can’t quite dispel. The main sanctuary, accessed by a dual staircase (men scale the left-hand flight, women the right), is similarly dull: beyond a vast joss-stick urn inventively decorated with marbles and shards of broken china, it’s a lofty hall featuring a huge gilt Buddha and fourteen murals that narrate his life. Turn left and around the back of the Buddha, and you’ll come across a shrine commemorating Thich Quang Duc and the other monks who set fire to themselves in Saigon in 1963 (see "The self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc"). Quang Duc’s is the ghostly figure holding a set of beads, to the left of the shrine.
Ben Thanh Market and around
There’s much more beneath the pillbox-style clock tower of Ben Thanh Market than just the cattle and seafood pictured on its front wall. The city’s busiest market for almost a century, and known to the French as the Halles Centrales, Ben Thanh’s dense knot of trade has caused it to burst at the seams, disgorging stalls onto the surrounding pavements. Inside the main body of the market, a tight grid of aisles, demarcated according to produce, teems with shoppers, and, if it’s souvenirs you’re after, a reconnaissance here will reveal conical hats, basketware, bags, shoes, Da Lat coffee and Vietnam T-shirts. All this, though, is tame stuff compared with the wet market along the back of the complex, where you’ll find buckets of eels, clutches of live frogs tied together at the legs, heaps of pigs’ ears and snouts, and baskets wedged full of hens, among other gruesome sights. If you can countenance the thought of eating after seeing – and smelling – this patch of the market, com, pho and baguette stalls proliferate towards the back of the main hall. In the evenings, foodstalls specializing in seafood set up along the sides of the market, attracting a mixed crowd of locals and tourists.
The aroma of jasmine and incense replaces the stench of butchery a block northwest of Ben Thanh, at Truong Dinh’s Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple. Less engaging than Sri Thendayyutthapani (see "Around Nguyen Hué"), Sri Mariamman’s imposing walls are sometimes lined with vendors selling oil, incense and jasmine petals. The walls are topped by a colourful gopuram, or bank of sculpted gods. Inside, the gods Mariamman, Maduraiveeran and Pechiamman reside in stone sanctuaries reminiscent of the Cham towers upcountry, and there are more deities set into the walls around the courtyard.
The self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc
In the early morning of June 11, 1963, a column of Buddhist monks left the Xa Loi Pagoda and processed to the intersection of Cach Mang Thang Tam and Nguyen Dinh Chieu. There, Thich Quang Duc, a 66-year-old monk from Hué, sat down in the lotus position and meditated as fellow monks doused him in petrol, and then set light to him in protest at the repression of Buddhists by President Diem, who was a Catholic. As flames engulfed the impassive monk and passers-by prostrated themselves before him, the cameras of the Western press corps rolled, and by the next morning the grisly event had grabbed the world’s headlines. More self-immolations followed, and Diem’s heavy-handed responses at Xa Loi – some four hundred monks and nuns were arrested and others cast from the top of the tower – led to massed popular demonstrations against the government. Diem, it was clear, had become a liability. On November 2, he and his brother were assassinated after taking refuge in Cho Lon’s Cha Tam Church (see "Binh Tay Market and around"), the victims of a military coup.
South of Ben Thanh
A short stroll from Ben Thanh Market down Pho Duc Chinh, in a grand colonial mansion, Ho Chi Minh City’s Fine Art Museum (Tues–Sun 9am–5pm; 10,000đ) is worth a visit to view some of the country’s best Cham and Oc Eo relics on the third floor. The first floor hosts temporary exhibitions, while the courtyard out back is given over to commerce in the form of art works on sale by various city galleries. If you’re in the market for a piece of Vietnamese art, it’s worth checking these places out as standards are high and some prices are affordable. Revolutionary art dominates the second floor, relying heavily on hackneyed images of soldiers, war zones and Uncle Ho, though a few offerings capture the anguish and turmoil of the conflicts. Things get better on the third floor where there’s an impressive collection of Oc Eo and Cham statues, gilt Buddhas and other antiquities.
Across the road from the museum, Le Cong Kieu is lined with antique shops selling Oriental and colonial bric-a-brac. Memorabilia reflecting Vietnam’s more recent history are available at the army surplus stalls at the back of Dan Sinh Market, behind the Phung Son Tu Pagoda on Yersin; here you can pick up khaki gear, Viet Cong pith helmets, old compasses and Zippo lighters embossed with saucy pearls of wisdom coined by GIs.
Along Le Duan Boulevard to the Botanical Gardens
Above Notre Dame Cathedral, Le Duan Boulevard runs between the Botanical Gardens and the grounds of the Reunification Palace. Known as Norodom Boulevard to the French, who lined it with tamarind trees to imitate a Gallic thoroughfare, it soon became a residential and diplomatic enclave with a crop of fine pastel-hued colonial villas to boot. Its present name doffs a cap to Le Duan, the secretary-general of the Lao Dong, or Workers Party, from 1959. Turn northeast from the top of Dong Khoi and the sense of harmony created by Le Duan’s graceful colonial piles ends abruptly with a number of brand-new edifices.
One of these, the nondescript building that is the US Consulate, was built right on top of the site of the infamous former American Embassy, where a commemorative plaque is now the only reminder of its existence and significance in the American War. Two events immortalized the former building on this site, in operation from 1967 to 1975 and left standing half-derelict until 1999 as a sobering legacy. The first came in the pre-dawn hours of January 31, 1968, when a small band of Viet Cong commandos breached the embassy compound during the nationwide Tet Offensive. That the North could mount such an effective attack on the hub of US power in Vietnam was shocking to the American public. In the six hours of close-range fire that followed, five US guards died, and with them the popular misconception that the US Army had the Vietnam conflict under control.
Worse followed seven years later, during “Operation Frequent Wind”, the chaotic helicopter evacuation that marked the United States’ final undignified withdrawal from Vietnam. The embassy building was one of thirteen designated landing zones where all foreigners were to gather upon hearing the words, “It is 112 degrees and rising” on the radio followed by Bing Crosby singing White Christmas. At noon on April 29, 1975, the signal was broadcast, and for the next eighteen hours scores of helicopters shuttled passengers out to the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet off Vung Tau. Around two thousand evacuees were lifted from the roof of the embassy alone, before Ambassador Graham Martin finally left with the Stars and Stripes in the early hours of the following morning. In a tragic postscript to US involvement, as the last helicopter lifted off, many of the Vietnamese civilians who for hours had been clamouring at the gates were left to suffer the Communists’ reprisals.
The Botanical Gardens and zoo
The pace of life slows down considerably – and the odours of cut grass and frangipani blooms replace the smell of exhaust fumes – when you duck into the city’s Botanical Gardens (daily 7am–9pm; 8000đ), accessed by a gate at the far eastern end of Le Duan, and bounded to the east by the Thi Nghe Channel. Established in 1864 by the Frenchmen Germain and Pierre (respectively a vet and a botanist), the gardens’ social function has remained unchanged in decades, and their tree-shaded paths still attract as many courting couples and promenaders as when Norman Lewis followed the “clusters of Vietnamese beauties on bicycles” and headed there one Sunday morning in 1950 to find the gardens “full of these ethereal creatures, gliding in decorous groups…sometimes accompanied by gallants”. In its day, the gardens harboured an impressive collection of tropical flora, including many species of orchid. Post-liberation, the place went to seed but nowadays a bevy of gardeners keep it reasonably well tended again, and portrait photographers are once again lurking to take snaps of you framed by flowers.
Stray right inside and you’ll soon reach the zoo, home to camels, elephants, crocodiles and big cats, also komodo dragons – a gift from the government of Indonesia. There’s also an amusement park that is sometimes open, and you can get an ice cream or a coconut from one of the several cafés sprinkled around the grounds.
The History Museum
A pleasing, pagoda-style roof crowns the city’s History Museum (Tues–Sun 8–11am & 1.30–4.30pm; 15,000đ), at 2 Nguyen Binh Khiem, next to the Botanical Gardens. It houses fifteen galleries illuminating Vietnam’s past from primitive times to the end of French rule by means of a decent if unastonishing array of artefacts and pictures. Dioramas of defining moments in Vietnamese military history lend the collection some cohesion – included are Ngo Quyen’s 938 AD victory at Bach Dang (see "The battles of Bach Dang River"), and the sinking of the Esperance. Should you tire of Vietnamese history, you might explore halls focusing on such disparate subjects as Buddha images from around Asia; seventh- and eighth-century Champa art; and the customs and crafts of the ethnic minorities of Vietnam. There’s also a room jam-packed with exquisite ceramics from Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, and you could round off your visit at the water puppetry theatre (shows are performed on the hour from 10am to 4pm, except 1pm; $2).
Jade Emperor Pagoda
A few blocks northwest of the Botanical Gardens, on Mai Thi Luu, stands the Jade Emperor Pagoda, or Chua Phuoc Hai (daily 5am–7pm; free), built by the city’s Cantonese community around 1900. If you visit just one temple in town, make it this one, with its exquisite panels of carved gilt woodwork, and its panoply of weird and wonderful deities, both Taoist and Buddhist, beneath a roof that groans under the weight of dragons, birds and animals.
To the right of the tree-lined courtyard out front is a grubby pond whose occupants have earned the temple its alternative moniker of Tortoise Pagoda. Once over the threshold, look up and you’ll see Chinese characters announcing: “the only enlightenment is in Heaven” – though only after your eyes have adjusted to the fug of joss-stick smoke. A statue of the Jade Emperor lords it over the main hall’s central altar, sporting an impressive moustache, and he’s surrounded by a retinue of similarly moustached followers.
A rickety flight of steps in the chamber to the right of the main hall runs up to a balcony looking out over the pagoda’s elaborate roof. Set behind the balcony, a neon-haloed statue of Quan Am (see "Nguyen Trai and around") stands on an altar. Left out of the main hall, meanwhile, you’re confronted by Kim Hua, to whom women pray for fertility; judging by the number of babies weighing down the female statues around her, her success rate is high. The Chief of Hell resides in the larger chamber behind Kim Hua’s niche. Given his job description, he doesn’t look particularly demonic, though his attendants, in sinister black garb, are certainly equipped to administer the sorts of punishments depicted in the ten dark-wood reliefs on the walls before them.
Le Van Duyet Temple
A national hero is commemorated at the Temple of Marshal Le Van Duyet, known locally as Lang Ong and sited at the top of Dinh Tien Hoang, in the region of the city where the Gia Dinh Citadel once stood. A military mandarin and eunuch who lived around the turn of the nineteenth century, Le Van Duyet succeeded in putting down the Tay Son Rebellion, and later became military governor of Gia Dinh. Strolling around the grounds reveals the two unmarked oval mounds under which the marshal and his wife are buried. The temple itself, which stretches through three halls behind a facade decorated with unicorns assembled from shards of chinaware, is quite atmospheric. Inside, a portrait of the marshal stands on an altar, in front of which is a massive and ancient pair of tusks. The temple receives a steady stream of visitors paying their respects with burning incense, and the ringing of a brass bell adds to the pious mood. On the first day of the eighth lunar month, to coincide with the marshal’s birthday, a theatre troupe dramatizes his life; and there’s more activity around Tet, when crowds of pilgrims gather to ask for safekeeping in the forthcoming year.
Cho Lon
The dense cluster of streets comprising the Chinese ghetto of CHO LON was once distinct from Saigon, though linked to it by the five-kilometre-long umbilical cord of Tran Hung Dao. The distinction was already somewhat blurred by 1950, when Norman Lewis found the city’s Chinatown “swollen so enormously as to become its grotesque Siamese twin”, and the steady influx of refugees into the city during the war years saw to it that the two districts eventually became joined by a swathe of urban development. Even so, a short stroll around Cho Lon (whose name, meaning ”big market”, couldn’t be more apposite) will make clear that, even by this city’s standards, the mercantile mania here is breathtaking. The largest of Cho Lon’s many covered markets are Tran Phu’s An Dong, built in 1991, and the more recent but equally vast An Dong II. If you’re looking to sightsee rather than shop, then historic Binh Tay (see "Binh Tay Market and around") is of far more interest. You’ll get most out of Cho Lon simply by losing yourself in its amorphous mass of life: amid the melee, streetside barbers clip away briskly, bird-sellers squat outside tumbledown pagodas and temples, heaving markets ring to fishwives’ chatter, and stores display mushrooms, dried shrimps and rice paper.
The ethnic Chinese, or Hoa, first began to settle here around 1900; many came from existing enclaves in My Tho and Bien Hoa. The area soon became the largest Hoa community in the country, a title it still holds, with a population of over half a million. Residents gravitated towards others from their region of China, with each congregation commissioning its own places of worship and clawing out its own commercial niche – thus the Cantonese handled retailing and groceries, the Teochew dealt in tea and fish, the Fukien were in charge of rice, and so on.
The great wealth that Cho Lon generated had to be spent somewhere. By the early twentieth century, sassy restaurants, casinos and brothels existed to facilitate this. Also prevalent were fumeries, where nuggets of opium were quietly smoked from the cool comfort of a wooden opium bed. Among the expats and wealthy Asians who frequented them was Graham Greene, and he recorded his experiences in Ways of Escape. By the 1950s, Cho Lon was a potentially dangerous place to be, its vice industries controlled by the Binh Xuyen gang. First the French and then the Americans trod carefully here, while Viet Minh and Viet Cong activists hid out in its cramped backstreets – as Frank Palmos found to his cost, when the jeep he and four other correspondents were riding in was ambushed in 1968.
Post-reunification, Cho Lon saw hard times. As Hanoi aligned itself increasingly with the Soviet Union, Sino-Vietnamese tensions became strained. Economic persecution of the Hoa made matters worse, and, when Vietnam invaded Chinese-backed Cambodia, Beijing launched a punitive border war. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Chinese, many of them from Cho Lon, fled the country in unseaworthy vessels, fearing recriminations. Today, the business acumen of the Chinese is valued by the local authorities, and the distemper that gripped Cho Lon for over a decade is a memory.
Binh Tay Market and around
First impressions of Binh Tay Market, with its multi-tiered, mustard-coloured roofs stalked by serpentine dragons, are of a huge temple complex. Once inside, however, it quickly becomes obvious that only mammon is deified here. If any one place epitomizes Cho Lon’s vibrant commercialism, it’s Binh Tay, its well-regimented corridors abuzz with stalls offering products of all kinds, from dried fish, pickled vegetables and chilli paste to pottery piled up to the rafters, and the colourful bonnets that Vietnamese women so favour. Beyond Binh Tay’s south side, stalls provide cheap snacks for shoppers and traders.
A few steps north of the market lies Tran Chanh Chieu, a street clogged by a poultry market full of chickens, geese and ducks tied together in bundles. Cereals and pulses are the speciality at the street’s east end, with weighty sacks of rice, lentils and beans forming a sort of obstacle course for the cyclo that try to negotiate the narrow strip of roadway still visible.
The slender spire of Cha Tam Church peers down from above the eastern end of cramped Tran Chanh Chieu, but you’ll have to walk round to Tran Hung Dao to find the entrance. It was in this unprepossessing little church, with its Oriental outer gate and cheery yellow walls, that President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu holed up on November 1, 1963, during the coup that saw them chased out of the Gia Long Palace (see "The Ho Chi Minh City Museum"). Early the next morning, Diem phoned the leaders of the coup and surrendered. An M-113 armoured car duly picked them up, but they were shot dead by ARVN soldiers before the vehicle reached central Saigon.
With clearance from the janitor (who’s usually somewhere around hoping for a tip) you can clamber up into the belfry and under the bells, Quasimodo-style, to join the statue of St Francis Xavier for the fine views he enjoys of Cho Lon. The janitor can also point out the pew where Diem and his brother sat praying as they awaited their fate.
Exiting Cha Tam Church along Tran Hung Dao, you’re swallowed up by Cho Lon’s vast and colourful cloth market, while a further five minutes’ walk towards the river brings you to the eastern end of Hai Thuong Lan Ong. Shops specializing in Chinese and Vietnamese traditional medicine have long proliferated here, identifiable by the sickly-sweet aroma that hangs over them. Named after a famous herbalist who practised and studied in Hanoi two centuries ago, the street is lined by dingy shophouses banked with cabinets whose wooden drawers are crammed full of herbs. Step over the sliced roots laid out to dry along the pavement and peer inside any one of the shops, and you’ll see rheumy men and women weighing out prescriptions on ancient balances. Steepled around them are boxes, jars and paper bags containing anything from dried bark to antler fur and tortoise glue. Predictably popular is ginseng, the Oriental cure-all said to combat everything from heart disease to acne. Also available are monkey-, tiger- and rhino-based medicines – despite a government ban on these products.
Nguyen Trai and around
Cho Lon’s greatest architectural treasures are its temples and pagodas, many of which stand on or around Nguyen Trai, whose four-kilometre sweep northeast to Pham Ngu Lao starts just north of Cha Tam Church. North of Nguyen Trai’s junction with Chau Van Liem, on tiny Lao Tu, Quan Am Pagoda is the pick of the pagodas in this part of town. Set back from the bustle of Cho Lon, it has an almost tangible air of antiquity, enhanced by the film of dust left by the incense spirals hanging from its rafters. Don’t be too quick to dive inside, though: the pagoda’s ridged roofs are impressive enough from the outside, their colourful crust of “glove-puppet” figurines, teetering houses and temples from a distance creating the illusion of a gingerbread house. Framing the two door gods and the pair of stone lions assigned to keeping out evil spirits are gilt panels depicting petrified scenes from traditional Chinese court life – dancers, musicians, noblemen in sedan chairs, a game of chequers being played.
When Cho Lon’s Fukien congregation established this pagoda well over a century ago, they dedicated it to the Goddess of Mercy, but it’s A Pho, the Queen of Heaven, who stands in the centre of the main hall, beyond an altar tiled like a mortuary slab. A pantheon of deities throngs the open courtyard behind her, decked out in sumptuous apparel and attracting a steady traffic of worshippers. Twin ovens, flanking the main chamber, burn a steady supply of fake money offerings and incense sticks.
Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda (aka Minh Huong Pagoda), three minutes’ walk north on Hung Vuong, is a disarming place. Beyond the menacing dragons and sea monsters patrolling its roof, and the superb wood carving depicting a king being entertained by jousters and minstrels hanging over the entrance, is the temple’s sanctuary, in which stately Quan Cong sits, instantly recognizable by his blood-red face, and fronted by two storks standing on top of turtles fashioned from countless plectrum-shaped ceramic shards.
Along Nguyen Trai, at Thien Hau Pagoda local women come in numbers to make offerings to Me Sanh, Goddess of Fertility, and to Long Mau, Goddess of Mothers and Newborn Babies. When Cantonese immigrants established the temple towards the middle of the nineteenth century, they named it after Thien Hau, Goddess of Seafarers. New arrivals from China would have hastened here to express their gratitude for a safe passage across the South China Sea. Three statues of her stand on the altar, one behind the other, while a large mural on the inside of the front wall depicts her guiding wildly pitching ships across a storm-tossed sea. The temple’s most attractive aspect is its roof, bristling with so many figurines you wonder how those at the edge can keep their balance.
Quan Am Pagoda
North of Cho Lon
Two of Ho Chi Minh City’s oldest and most atmospheric places of worship, the Giac Lam and Giac Vien Pagodas, are tucked away in the hinterland to the north of Cho Lon – as is the thriving Phu Tho Racecourse, if you fancy a flutter. Also nearby is Dam Sen leisure park. The best way to get to these destinations is by xe om or cyclo, as they are hidden away in the backstreets.
Giac Lam Pagoda
You’ll see the gate leading up to Giac Lam Pagoda (daily 5am–noon & 2–8pm) on Lac Long Quan, a couple of hundred metres northeast of its intersection with Le Dai Hanh. From there, a short track passes a new tower (its seven levels are scaleable and afford good city views) and a cluster of monks’ tombs on its way to the actual pagoda. Built in 1744, rambling Giac Lam is draped over 98 hardwood pillars, each inscribed with traditional chu nom characters (Vietnamese script, based on Chinese ideograms). From its terracotta floor-tiles and extravagant chandeliers to the antique tables at which monks sit to take tea, Giac Lam is characterized by a clutter that imbues it with an appealingly fusty feel, and a reassuring sense of age.
Access is through an entrance at the rear of the right-hand wall, which leads into a funerary chamber flanked by row upon row of gilt tablets above photos of the deceased. The many-armed goddess that stands in the centre of the chamber is Chuan De, a manifestation of Quan Am. A right turn leads to a courtyard-garden, around which runs a roof studded with blue and white porcelain saucers. Monks would once have sat studying on the huge wooden benches in the peaceful old classroom at the back of the complex, still in use as a study centre today. The panels in this chamber depict the ten Buddhist hells; study them carefully, and you’ll see sinners being variously minced, fed to dogs, dismembered and disembowelled by fanged demons.
To the left of the funerary chamber as you enter the pagoda is the main sanctuary, whose multi-tiered altar dais groans under the weight of the many Buddhist and Taoist statues it supports (remember to take off your shoes before entering). Elsewhere in this chamber you’ll spot an ensemble of oil lamps balanced on a Christmas-tree-shaped wooden frame. Worshippers pen prayers on pieces of paper, which they affix to the tree and then feed the lamps with an offering of oil. A similar ritual is attached to the bell across the chamber, though in this case people believe that their prayers are hastened to the gods by the ringing of the bell.
Giac Vien Pagoda
Hidden away in a maze of backstreets, Giac Vien Pagoda was founded in the late eighteenth century, and said to have been frequented by Emperor Gia Long. Like Giac Lam, it has a dark live in atmosphere. Upon entering its red doors daubed with yellow chu nom characters, visitors are confronted by banks of old photos and funerary tablets flanking long refectory-style tables. The two rows of black pillars lend an arresting sense of depth to this first chamber, which is dominated by a panel depicting a ferocious-looking red lion. Continue around the stone walls (crafted, incongruously, in classical Greek style) and into the main sanctuary, and you’ll find a sizeable congregation of deities, as well as a tree of lamps similar to the one at Giac Lam. The monks residing in Giac Vien are hospitable to a fault, and you’ll probably be invited for a cup of tea before you leave.
Phu Tho Racecourse and Dam Sen leisure park
There’s no more potent symbol of the Vietnamese love of gambling than Phu Tho Racecourse (08/3855 1205), located at 2 Le Dai Hanh, just north of Cho Lon. Apart from a 14-year spell between 1975 and 1989, when gambling was seen as an example of bourgeois decadence and outlawed, the track resounds every weekend to the roar of the crowd urging on their favourite. Meetings take place on Saturday and Sunday afternoons (noon–4.30pm; 10,000đ entry), and spending a few hours here is a great antidote to trudging round pagodas, though try not to get swept too deep into the crowd as pickpockets are rife. If you feel like a flutter, the minimum bet is 10,000đ and there’s no upper limit. However, be warned that there are frequent allegations of horses being doped and races being fixed, so the form card is not to be relied on.
Also out this way is Dam Sen Leisure Park at 3 Hoa Binh (Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 8am–7.30pm; 25,000đ, children 15,000đ). Its kitsch diversions – fountains, themed gardens and fairground rides – won’t appeal to everyone, but it’s a welcome retreat from the frenetic pace of the city. Next door, the Dam Sen Water Park (Mon–Sat 9am–6pm, Sun 8.30am–6pm; 80,000đ, children 50,000đ) is a great place to cool down, and easy to get to; take a number 11 bus from Ben Thanh bus station.
Eating
Hanoi may be Vietnam’s administrative capital, but Saigon is without doubt its culinary capital. Besides Vietnamese cuisine, which these days enjoys global popularity, just about every other type of food you could imagine is served here, including Indian, Italian, Brazilian, Japanese, Mexican, Lebanese and German, though perhaps predictably French restaurants comprise the most formidable foreign contingent in town. The French legacy is also evident in the city’s abundance of cafés, which are scattered throughout the city.
Though you’ll probably be tempted by a pizza or burrito at some time during your stay, it would be a crime to ignore the fabulous variety of indigenous food on offer, both in sophisticated restaurants and at streetside stalls. Owing to the transitory nature of foodstalls, it’s impossible to make specific recommendations, but there are plenty to choose from (See "Street kitchens" for more on how to spot a good one). One area well worth checking out in the evening is around Ben Thanh Market, where a cluster of foodstalls offer a bewildering variety of dishes, many specializing in seafood.
Restaurants
One step up from street stalls are eating houses, where good, filling rice and noodle dishes are served from buffet-style tin trays and vast soup urns. If you chance upon such a place displaying something that catches your eye, just point, sit down and eat, then pay a pittance later.
Cheap restaurants, concentrated around De Tham, Pham Ngu Lao and Bui Ven, which cater exclusively for travellers, are fine if you want an inexpensive steak and chips or some fried noodles, but hardly in the league of the city’s heavyweights, its specialist restaurants. Of course, by Vietnamese standards, these restaurants are incredibly expensive – eat at one and you’ll probably spend enough to feed a Vietnamese family for a month – but by Western standards many of them are low-priced, and the quality of cooking is consistently high. What’s more, ingredients are fresh, with vegetables transported from Da Lat, and meat often flown in from Australia.
Many of the upmarket hotels run lunch buffets, which at around $15 for as much as you can eat are excellent value. Some of the swankier restaurants lay on reasonably-priced set menus and also live traditional music in order to lure diners – we’ve mentioned a few such places in our listings. Though there are many delectable dishes to discover in Ho Chi Minh City, keep an eye open for chao bo, slithers of beef grilled on sticks of lemon grass, which can be superb when the beef is well marinated. You’ll find it on the menu of a few of the places listed below, such as Vietnam House and Blue Ginger.
Central Ho Chi Minh City
The following are all marked on the map "Eating and Drinking: Central Ho Chi Minh".
Au Parc 23 Han Thuyen 08/3829 2772. Stylish place between Notre Dame Cathedral and Reunification Palace serving great breakfasts and salads, with a good deli counter and home delivery too. 7am–10.30pm.Blue Ginger 37 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia. Refined, low-ceilinged dining room with eye-catching artwork on the walls and traditional live evening music as you tuck into quality Vietnamese dishes (main courses around $5, excellent menus at $12–27). Popular with tour groups but still worth checking out for its agreeable ambience and great food. 7am–2.30pm & 5–10pm.Nam Giao 136/15 Le Thanh Ton. Excellent Hué food served in this hugely popular but simple place tucked away down an alley behind Ben Thanh Market. 7.45am–10pm.Ngon 138 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia 08/3825 7179. An experience not to be missed – delicious regional specialities served in and around a delightful colonial building at very reasonable prices. It’s extremely popular, so book or be prepared to wait for a table at peak eating times. 7am–11pm.Underground Basement of Lucky Plaza, 69 Dong Khoi. Better known as a night spot, it also turns out some of the tastiest and most imaginative Western food in town. Try the succulent New Zealand grilled steaks, as thick as your fist, for around $12.De Tham and around
The following are all marked on the map opposite, except Ngoc Suong, in "Ho Chi Minh City, and Tin Nghia and Pho 2000 in "Eating and Drinking: Central Ho Chi Minh".
Greater Ho Chi Minh City
The following are all marked on the map "Ho Chi Minh City".
Au Manoir de Khai 251 Dien Bien Phu 08/3930 3394. This is the nearest you’re ever likely to get to feeling like a colonial of consequence, though the experience isn’t cheap. Stunning surroundings, tranquil atmosphere, sensational French food, such as grilled lamb tenderloin with Dijon mustard sauce ($29), and an extensive wine list. 11am–2pm & 6–9.30pm.Café Central 4th floor, 18 An Duong Vuong. Located in district 5 a couple of kilometres west of De Tham (in the same building as the Windsor Plaza Hotel). Fantastic lunch and dinner buffet (around $10 and $20 respectively), featuring Vietnamese, Japanese and Western culinary treats that will have you re-filling your plate time and again. 11am–10pmBuying your own food: markets and supermarkets
With baguettes, cheese and fruit in such abundant supply in Vietnam, making up a picnic is easy. All the basics can be found at any of the city’s markets, though if you’re homesick for peanut butter, Vegemite or other such exotica, you’ll need to head for a specialist supermarket or provisions store.
Markets
The handiest market for De Tham is Thai Binh Market, down at the southwestern end of Pham Ngu Lao. Just about as near, and larger, is Ben Thanh Market(see "Ben Thanh Market and around"), the central market in the city centre. Cho Lon is served by Binh Tay Market(see "Binh Tay Market and around") on its southwestern border and by An Dong Market, northeast of it at the junction of Tran Phu and An Duong Vuong.
Supermarkets and provisions stores
Cafés, ice cream and desserts
Café culture, introduced by the French, is still very much alive in Ho Chi Minh City, and there are numerous places at which to round dinner off with an ice cream, crêpe or sundae. Earlier in the day, the same venues offer the chance to linger over a coffee and watch the world go by.
The following are all marked on the map "Eating and Drinking: Central Ho Chi Minh" except Café Sinh To and Highlands Coffee on "Eating & Drinking: De Tham".
Drinking, nightlife and entertainment
Ho Chi Minh City boasts a good range of nightlife, so there’s no need to head back to your hotel once dinner is through, although an ongoing crackdown on late opening means you’ll probably be tucked up in bed by midnight unless you’re in the De Tham area. Bars and pubs abound, and an increasing number of them now feature live music to pull the crowds. It isn’t unheard-of for big showbiz names from the West to make appearances, so check out the local press for details. Later at night, a number of clubs and discos get going, though they often have short lifespans unless they are under the protection of a major hotel.
The free monthly magazines The Word and Asia Life carry up-to-the-minute listings of the city’s latest bars, plus the hottest new clubs and any more highbrow entertainment on offer.
Traditional entertainment
Few places cater for Westerners wanting an insight into Vietnamese culture, though there is the odd exception. About 8km north of the city, Binh Quoi Village (08/3556 5891, www.binhquoiresort.com.vn) features Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening programmes of dinner followed by folk music and traditional dancing, organized by Saigontourist (tickets for meal and show around $25). For Western and Vietnamese classical music, ask the Conservatory of Music (08/3824 3774) at 112 Nguyen Du about the HCMC Youth Chamber Music Club’s performances, which can be scheduled on demand. It’s also worth checking out what’s on at Lam Son Square’s Municipal Theatre (08/3829 9976), which frequently hosts fashion shows, traditional drama and dance. Water puppetry isn’t as big in Ho Chi Minh City as it is in Hanoi, though if you aren’t going to the north you might want to attend one of the shows laid on at the History Museum, Le Duan (hourly 10am–4pm, except 1pm; $2).
Bars and pubs
Bars and pubs in Ho Chi Minh City range from hole-in-the-wall dives to elegant venues that would not be out of place in a European capital. The area around Dong Khoi is predictably well endowed, and another boozy enclave exists around Le Thanh Ton, Hai Ba Trung and Thi Sach, where a glut of places ranging from slick yuppie haunts to watering holes which hark back to the raunchy GI bars of the 1960s has developed to cater for expats renting apartments nearby. At the other end of the scale, all the cheap restaurants and cafés around De Tham turn their hand to drink at night – fine if you’re willing to forego atmosphere in order to save a dollar or two on a beer, and great for meeting like-minded tourists. For more of a bar atmosphere, head for somewhere like Allez-Boo or Cyclo Bar.
For some years now, a police crackdown has led to the city being strangely silent after midnight, with the notable exception of several bars around De Tham, which seem to be spared the blitz. Prices vary wildly: a Saigon beer at a streetside café in De Tham will cost you less than $1, but you can multiply that by four or five in a more upmarket bar on Dong Khoi. One way to economize while downtown is to take advantage of early-evening happy hours, or check out the surprisingly cheap and tasty bia hoi(see "Bia hoi bars"). Several of the pricier bars, such as Saigon-Saigon, Le Caprice and Panorama, offer sweeping views across the city, best enjoyed as the sun sets.
Central Ho Chi Minh City
The following are all marked on the map "Eating and Drinking: Central Ho Chi Minh".
De Tham and around
The following are all marked on the map "Eating & Drinking: De Tham", except for 17 Saloon, in "Eating and Drinking: Central Ho Chi Minh".
Discos and clubs
Ho Chi Minh City’s disco and club scene has been floundering for the last few years as midnight closing is enforced throughout the city. Apart from regular discos, there are more traditional nightclubs, where the practice of employing hostesses in slit gowns is still prevalent. In addition, some establishments continue to cater for the locals’ love of ballroom dancing – a tradition which is fading out as MTV turns local youngsters on to Viet pop and the latest Western sounds. Most clubs and discos levy a cover charge (normally $4–5), though some just charge higher prices for drinks. Again, see local listings magazines for the hottest new clubs. All the clubs below are marked on the map "Eating and Drinking: Central Ho Chi Minh", except America on "Ho Chi Minh City".
Sax ‘n Art
Bia hoi bars
If you can’t afford the price of a bottle of Saigon beer, you might try a bia hoi bar, where locals glug cheap local draught beer at around 5000đ a litre. These spit-and-sawdust bars tend to open in the morning and close early in the evening, though some stay open later. They crop up all over the city, but the two listed below are convenient for Dong Khoi and De Tham.
Bia Hoi – Bia Chai 20 Dong Du. See map "Eating and Drinking: Central Ho Chi Minh". If the restaurants and bars around Dong Khoi seem too expensive, duck in here and drown your sorrows in a jug of the local special.
Bia Hoi Bar 102 Bui Ven. See map "Eating & Drinking: De Tham". Tiny place but an excellent spot to watch the world wander by while chilling out with a cool beer.
Markets and shopping
Ho Chi Minh City can be a dangerous place to go shopping, as you’ll likely buy more than you intended once you see the prices. Paintings on rice paper, silk ao dai, lacquerware, embroidered cloth, musical instruments and ethnic garments are all popular gifts and souvenirs, as are curios such as opium pipes, antique watches, French colonial stamps and banknotes, and US Army-issue cigarette lighters, while the cheapest items are the ubiquitous T-shirts and conical hats. Visitors interested in Vietnam’s history will find a wealth of copied books on the subject, sold in tourist areas by wandering vendors with a metre-high stack on their hip. Sadly the range of English-language books available in regular bookshops is very limited. For cheap and cheerful souvenirs, head for Ben Thanh Market, Le Loi or De Tham; for something precious and pricey, browse the upmarket boutiques along Dong Khoi and its tentacles, such as Dong Du and Mac Thi Buoi. Bargaining is an essential skill to cultivate if you’re going to be doing much shopping – see "Shopping", for some tips.
Shopping malls attract curious crowds with their glitz and glamour; some offer distractions other than shopping in the form of cinemas and bowling alleys. The local markets are also well worth checking out, both as a source of bargains and as a window on Vietnamese culture. The biggest is Ben Thanh Market(see "Ben Thanh Market and around"), at the junction of Tran Hung Dao, Le Loi and Ham Nghi, which has a huge variety of cheap clothes (ao dai under $30) and all kinds of souvenirs like chopstick sets and carved seals. Dan Sinh Market, 104 Yersin (see "South of Ben Thanh"), has a section specializing in army surplus, both American and Vietnamese. For other smaller souvenirs, check out the shops along Le Loi and Dong Khoi for old coins, stamps, notes and greetings cards featuring typical Vietnamese scenes hand-painted onto silk. Antiques and curios are available in several stores along Le Cong Kieu (see "Eating, drinking and nightlife"), while intriguing model ships are sold on Cao Ba Quat, north of the Municipal Theatre, just east of the Caravelle Hotel.
Generally speaking, shops open daily 10am to dusk, while larger stores often stay open beyond 8pm.
Department stores and shopping malls
Books, newspapers and magazines
Handicrafts, fabrics and antiques
Paintings
Tailors
Listings
Moving on from Ho Chi Minh City
For addresses and telephone numbers of airlines and foreign consulates in Ho Chi Minh City, see "Listings".
By plane
The easiest way to get to Tan Son Nhat is by taxi ($5–6; see "Arrival"). If you don’t have much baggage, you could consider hopping on an xe om (around $3–4), or taking the #152 bus, which stops on Dong Khoi and Pham Ngu Lao. Flight enquiries should be made at the office of the relevant carrier (see " Listings").
By train
Vietnamese trains are oversubscribed, so book as far ahead as possible – particularly for a sleeping berth (see "By rail" for details). Most tour operators, as well as some guesthouses and hotels can reserve tickets for a small fee. The official agent for the railways is Saigon Railways Tourist Service Company, 275c Pham Ngu Lao (08/3836 7640), which has computerized reservations and doesn’t charge any extra commission. Otherwise, go along in person to the ticket office at the main station, Ga Saigon (daily 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–4.30pm; 08/3846 6528) for reservations and timetables.
By bus
To the Mekong Delta The easiest way of making a journey round the delta is to sign up for a tour (see "Tour agents"). If you want to strike out alone, make your way to Mien Tay bus station, where several buses a day leave for all the delta’s major towns.
North of HCMC Buses to all points north depart from Xo Viet Nghe Tinh’s Mien Dong bus station. Shuttle buses run from Ben Thanh bus station to Mien Dong (#26), Mien Tay (#2) and Cho Lon (#1).
By open–tour bus
Many of the tour operators concentrated around De Tham sell tickets for open-tour buses that criss-cross the country. One-way tickets from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi (around $35) or Hué (about $24) allow you to break your journey at various points along the way, including Da Lat and Nha Trang. Tickets for shorter, in-between trips are also available, such as Ho Chi Minh City to: Nha Trang ($9); Da Lat ($8) and Hoi An ($20). There are also daily departures to Phnom Penh in Cambodia ($14). Tickets, information and departing buses, which leave daily in the early morning or evening, can be found at the various companies’ offices around De Tham and Pham Ngu Lao.
By boat
Hydrofoils to Vung Tau make several daily departures from the Passenger Quay of Ho Chi Minh City (Bach Dang Wharf), opposite the end of Ham Nghi at 2 Ton Duc Thang. For tickets ($10) and further information, contact the Vina Express booth at the jetty (daily 6.30–11am & 1.30–4.30pm; 08/3829 7892). There’s also a daily express boat from here to Can Tho operated by Thanh Nhan (08/3914 7979; tickets 250,000đ), which usually leaves at 8am but call to check.
One of the most popular boat trips from Ho Chi Minh City is to Phnom Penh, with a stop-over in Chau Doc in the delta. Visas can be organized by tour agents, and if you book with a company like Delta Adventure Travel, you won’t have to change boats half-way. Prices start at around $30 per person.
By organized tour
Tour agencies abound in Ho Chi Minh City and offer a range of itineraries, from one-day whistle-stop tours around the region to lengthy trips upcountry including accommodation. Operators like Delta Adventure Travel and TNK offer efficiently run and amazingly cheap tours to the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi tunnels, while smaller, more personal set-ups like Sinhbalo Tours can custom-build a cycling or motorbike tour in many parts of the country. Most of the recommended tour operators listed in "Tour agents" can lay on tailor-made itineraries, private cars and personal guides for you. See "Organized tours", for provisos and tips on signing up for a tour in Vietnam.
Around Ho Chi Minh City
When Ho Chi Minh City’s blaring horns and pushy vendors become too much for you, you’ll find you can get quite a long way out of the city in a day. With public transport slow and erratic, day-trips are best arranged through a tour operator (see "Tour agents"). The single most popular trip out of the city takes in one or both of Vietnam’s most memorable sights: the Cu Chi tunnels, for twenty years a bolt hole, first for Viet Minh agents, and later for Viet Cong cadres; and the weird and wonderful Cao Dai Holy See at Tay Ninh, the fulcrum of the country’s most charismatic indigenous religion. While it’s possible to see both places in a day (indeed, most people do), be prepared to spend most of the day on the road.
Another enjoyable day (or half-day) out can be had at one of the water parks that are located on the fringe of the city and make a great antidote to the dust and heat of Ho Chi Minh City (see "Listings"). Southwest of the city, Highway 1 runs down to My Tho(see "My Tho and around"), where you can catch a glimpse of the Mekong River; while to the northeast, it breezes up to the dreary orbital city of Bien Hoa, from where Highway 51 drops down to the beaches around Vung Tau(see "Vung Tau and the coast road").
The Cu Chi tunnels
During the American War, the villages around the district of Cu Chi supported a substantial Viet Cong (VC) presence. Faced with American attempts to neutralize them, they quite literally dug themselves out of harm’s way, and the legendary Cu Chi tunnels were the result (see "A history of the tunnels"). Today, tourists can visit a short stretch of the tunnels, drop to their hands and knees and squeeze underground for an insight into life as a tunnel-dwelling resistance fighter. Some sections of the tunnels have been widened to allow passage for the fuller frame of Westerners but it’s still a dark, sweaty, claustrophobic experience, and not one you should rush into unless you’re confident you won’t suffer a subterranean freak-out.
There are two sites where the tunnels can be seen – Ben Dinh and, 15km beyond, Ben Duoc (both daily 7am–5pm; about $5 entrance, not generally included in tour price), though most foreigners get taken to Ben Dinh. If you don’t want to join a crowd in a bus (around $8 per person), four people will pay around $50 for a taxi following the same itinerary. Another option is to go by boat and return by bus ($14) – contact Delta Adventure Tours (see "Tour agents") for details.
The guided tour of Ben Dinh kicks off in a thatched hut, where a map of the region, a cross-section of the tunnels and a black and white movie bristling with national pride fill you in on the background. From there, you head out into the bush, where your guide will point out lethal booby-traps, concealed trap doors and an abandoned tank. There are several models showing how unexploded ordnance was ingeniously converted into lethal mines and traps, and a demonstration of how smoke from underground fires was cleverly dispersed far from its source.
When you reach the shooting range, you have the chance to shoulder an M16 or AK47 and shoot off a few rounds (about $15 per clip of bullets, depending which rifle you choose), or stop at the adjacent souvenir and snack stalls. Finally, you get the chance to stoop, crawl and drag yourself through a section of the tunnels about 140 metres long (with frequent escape routes for anyone who can’t hack it). It only takes 10–15 minutes to scramble through, but the pitch blackness and intense humidity can be discomforting, so when you emerge, you’ll be glad you don’t have to live down there for weeks on end as the VC did (see "Tunnel life").
The Cao Dai Holy See at Tay Ninh
Above Cu Chi, Highway 22 pushes on northwestward through idyllic paddy flatlands. After several kilometres the highway runs through TRANG BANG, where the photographer Nick Ut captured one of the war’s most horrific and enduring images – that of a naked girl with her back in flames running along the highway, fleeing a napalm attack. The girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, now married and living in Canada, was named in 1997 as a goodwill ambassador for UNESCO. Despite third-degree burns covering half of her body, she remains remarkably unembittered, stating “I am happy because I am living without hatred.”
A few kilometres off the highway lies LONG HOA, the site of the enigmatic Cao Dai Great Temple, or Cathedral, of the Holy See of Tay Ninh District. Joss-stick factories line the road into Long Hoa, their produce bundled into mini-haystacks by the roadside to dry. Around 4km later you reach Long Hoa’s market, from where the cathedral itself is another 2km. Most people go on a tour(see "By organized tour"), but if you’d rather go it alone, infrequent buses to Tay Ninh depart from Ho Chi Minh City’s An Suong station; ask the driver to drop you off at the front gates of the temple.
Worshippers at the Cao Dai Temple
A history of the tunnels
When the first spades sank into the earth around Cu Chi, the region was covered by a rubber plantation tied to a French tyre company. Anti-colonial Viet Minh dug the first tunnels here in the late 1940s; intended primarily for storing arms, they soon became valuable hiding places for the resistance fighters themselves. Over a decade later, VC activists controlling this staunchly anti-government area, many of them local villagers, followed suit and went to ground. By 1965, 250km of tunnels criss-crossed Cu Chi and surrounding areas – just across the Saigon River was the notorious guerrilla power base known as the Iron Triangle – making it possible for the VC guerrilla cells in the area to link up with each other and to infiltrate Saigon at will. One section daringly ran underneath the Americans’ Cu Chi Army Base.
Though the region’s compacted red clay was perfectly suited to tunnelling, and lay above the water level of the Saigon River, the digging parties faced a multitude of problems. Quite apart from the snakes and scorpions they encountered as they laboured with their hoes and crowbars, there was the problem of inconspicuously disposing of the soil by spreading it in bomb craters or scattering it in the river under cover of darkness. With a tunnel dug, ceilings had to be shored up, and as American bombing made timber scarce the tunnellers had to resort to stealing iron fence posts from enemy bases. Tunnels could be as small as 80cm wide and 80cm high, and were sometimes four levels deep; vent shafts (to disperse smoke and aromas from underground ovens) were camouflaged by thick grass and termites’ nests. In order to throw the Americans’ dogs off the scent, pepper was sprinkled around vents, and sometimes the VC even washed with the same scented soap used by GIs.
Tunnel life
Living conditions below ground were appalling for these “human moles”. Tunnels were foul-smelling, and became so hot by the afternoon that inhabitants had to lie on the floor in order to get enough oxygen to breathe. The darkness was absolute, and some long-term dwellers suffered temporary blindness when they emerged into the light. At times it was necessary to stay below ground for weeks on end, alongside bats, rats, snakes, scorpions, centipedes and fire ants. Some of these unwelcome guests were co-opted to the cause: boxes full of scorpions and hollow bamboo sticks containing vipers were secreted in tunnels, where GIs might unwittingly knock them over.
Within the multi-level tunnel complexes, there were latrines, wells, meeting rooms and dorms. Rudimentary hospitals were also scratched out of the soil. Operations were carried out by torchlight using instruments fashioned from shards of ordnance, and a patient’s own blood was caught in bottles and then pumped straight back using a bicycle pump and a length of rubber hosing. Such medical supplies as existed were secured by bribing ARVN soldiers in Saigon. Doctors also administered herbs and acupuncture – even honey was used for its antiseptic properties. Kitchens cooked whatever the tunnellers could get their hands on. With rice and fruit crops destroyed, the diet consisted largely of tapioca, leaves and roots, at least until enough bomb fragments could be transported to Saigon and sold as scrap to buy food. Morale was maintained in part by performing troupes that toured the tunnels, though songs like “He who comes to Cu Chi, the Bronze Fortress in the Land of Iron, will count the crimes accumulated by the Enemy” were not quite up to the standard set by Bob Hope as he entertained the US troops.
The end of the line
American attempts to flush out the tunnels proved ineffective. Operating out of huge bases erected around Saigon in the mid-Sixties, they evacuated villagers into strategic hamlets and then used defoliant sprays and bulldozers to rob the VC of cover, in “scorched earth” operations such as January 1967’s Cedar Falls. Even then, tunnels were rarely effectively destroyed – one soldier at the time compared the task to “fill[ing] the Grand Canyon with a pitchfork”. GIs would lob down gas or grenades or else go down themselves, armed only with a torch, a knife and a pistol. Die-hard soldiers who specialized in these underground raids came to be known as tunnel rats, their unofficial insignia Insigni Non Gratum Anus Rodentum, meaning “not worth a rat’s arse”. Booby-traps made of sharpened bamboo stakes awaited them in the dark, as well as “bombs” made from Coke cans and dud bullets found on the surface. Tunnels were low and narrow, and entrances so small that GIs often couldn’t get down them, even if they could locate them. Maverick war correspondent Wilfred Burchett, travelling with the NLF in 1964, found his Western girth a distinct impediment: “On another occasion I got stuck passing from one tunnel section to another. In what seemed a dead end, a rectangular plug was pulled out from the other side, and, with some ahead pulling my arms and some pushing my buttocks from behind, I managed to get through…I was transferred to another tunnel entrance built especially to accommodate a bulky unit cook.”
Another American tactic aimed at weakening the resolve of the VC guerrillas involved dropping leaflets and broadcasting bulletins that played on the fighters’ fears and loneliness. Although this prompted numerous desertions, the tunnellers were still able to mastermind the Tet Offensive of 1968. Ultimately, the Americans resorted to more strong-arm tactics to neutralize the tunnels, sending in the B52s freed by the cessation of bombing of the North in 1968 to level the district with carpet bombing. The VC’s infrastructure was decimated by Tet, and further weakened by the Phoenix Programme. By this time, though, the tunnels had played their part in proving to America that the war was unwinnable. At least 12,000 Vietnamese guerrillas and sympathizers are thought to have perished here during the American War, and the terrain was laid waste – pockmarked by bomb craters, devoid of vegetation, the air poisoned by lingering fumes.
The Great Temple
A grand gateway marks the entrance to the grounds of the 1927-built Cao Dai Great Temple. Beyond it, a wide boulevard escorts you past a swathe of grassland used on ceremonial occasions, to the wildly exotic temple itself, over whose left shoulder rises distant Nui Ba Den, Black Lady Mountain.
On first sighting, the Great Temple seems to be subsiding, an optical illusion created by the rising steps inside it, but your first impressions are more likely to be dominated by what Graham Greene described as a “Walt Disney fantasia of the East, dragons and snakes in Technicolor”. Despite its Day-Glo hues and rococo clutter, this gaudy construction somehow manages to bypass tackiness. Two square, pagoda-style towers bookend the front facade, whose central portico is topped by a bowed, first-floor balcony and a Divine Eye. The most recurrent motif in the temple, the eye, is surrounded by a triangle, as it is on the American one-dollar bill. A figure in semi-relief emerges from each tower: on the left is Cao Dai’s first female cardinal, Lam Huong Thanh, and on the right, Le Van Trung, its first pope.
The eclectic ideology of Cao Dai is mirrored in the interior. Part cathedral and part pagoda, it draws together a potpourri of icons and elements under a vaulted ceiling, and daubs them all with the primary colours of a Hindu temple. Men enter the cathedral through an entrance in the right wall, women by a door to the left, and all must take off their shoes. Inside the lobby, a mural shows the three “signatories of the 3rd Alliance between God and Mankind”: French poet Victor Hugo and the fifteenth-century Vietnamese poet, Nguyen Binh Khiem, are writing the Cao Dai principles of “God and humanity, love and justice” in French and Chinese onto a shining celestial tablet. Beside them, the Chinese nationalist leader Sun Yat Sen holds an inkstone, a symbol of “Chinese civilization allied to Christian civilization giving birth to Cao Dai doctrine”, according to a nearby sign.
Tourists are welcome to wander through the nave of the cathedral, as long as they remain in the aisles, and don’t stray between the rows of pink pillars, entwined by green dragons, that march up the chamber. Cut-away windows punctuate the outer walls, their grillework consisting of the Divine Eye, surrounded by bright pink lotus blooms. Walk up the shallow steps that lend the nave its litheness, and you’ll reach an altar that groans under the weight of assorted vases, fruit, paintings and slender statues of storks. The papal chair stands at the head of the chamber, its arms carved into dragons. Below it are six more chairs, three with eagle arms, and three with lion arms, for the cardinals. Dominating the chamber, though, and guarded by eight scary silver dragons, a vast, duck-egg-blue sphere, speckled with stars, rests on a polished, eight-sided dais. The ubiquitous Divine Eye peers through clouds painted on the front. You’ll see more spangly stars and fluffy clouds if you look up at the sky-blue ceiling, with mouldings of lions and turtles.
Cao Dai
The basic tenets of Cao Dai were first revealed to Ngo Van Chieu, a civil servant working in the criminal investigation department of the French administration on Phu Quoc Island, at the beginning of the 1920s. A spiritualist, Ngo was contacted during a seance by a superior spirit calling itself Cao Dai, or “high place”. This spirit communicated to him the basics of the Cao Dai creed, and instructed him to adopt the Divine Eye as a tangible representation of its existence. Posted back to Saigon soon afterwards, Ngo set about evangelizing, though according to French convert and chronicler Gabriel Gobron the religion didn’t gather steam until late in 1925, when Ngo was contacted by a group of mediums sent his way by the Cao Dai.
At this stage, revelations from the Cao Dai began to add further meat to the bones of the religion. Twice already, it informed its mediums, it had revealed itself to mankind, using such vehicles as Lao-tzu, Christ, Mohammed, Moses, Sakyamuni and Confucius to propagate systems of belief tailored to suit localized cultures. Such religious intolerance had resulted from this multiplicity, that for the third alliance it would do away with earthly messengers and convey a universal religion via spirit intermediaries, including Louis Pasteur, William Shakespeare, Joan of Arc, Sir Winston Churchill and Napoleon Bonaparte. The revelations of these “saints” were received using a planchette (a pencil secured to a wooden board on castors, on which the medium rests his hand, sometimes known as a corbeille à bec).
Though a fusion of Oriental and occidental religions, propounding the concept of a universal god, Cao Dai is primarily entrenched in Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, to which cause-and-effect creeds, elements of Christianity, Islam and spirituality are added. By following its five commandments – Cao Dai followers must avoid killing living beings, high living, covetousness, verbal deceit and the temptations of the flesh – adherents look to hasten the evolution of the soul through reincarnation.
The religion was effectively founded in October 1926, when it was also officially recognized by the French colonial administration. Borrowing the structure and terminology of the Catholic Church, Cao Dai began to grow rapidly, its emphasis upon simplicity appealing to disaffected peasants, and by 1930 there were 500,000 followers. In 1927, Tay Ninh became the religion’s Holy See; Ngo opted out of the papacy, and the first pope was Le Van Trung, a decadent mandarin from Cho Lon who saw the error of his ways after being visited by the Cao Dai during a seance.
Inevitably in such uncertain times, Cao Dai developed a political agenda. Strongly anti-French during World War II, subsequently the Cao Dai militia turned against the Viet Minh, with whom they fought, using French arms, in the French War. By the mid-Fifties, the area around Tay Ninh was a virtual fiefdom of Cao Dai followers. In The Quiet American, Graham Greene describes the Cao Dai militia as a “private army of 25,000 men, armed with mortars made out of the exhaust-pipes of old cars, allies of the French who turned neutral at the moment of danger”. Even then, however, they were feuding with the rival Hoa Hao sect, and in a few years their power had waned.
Post-liberation, the Communist government confiscated all Cao Dai land, though it was returned ten years later. Today, the religion continues to thrive in its twin power bases of Tay Ninh District and the Mekong Delta.
Services
Services are held daily at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight. Tours usually arrange their visit to coincide with the midday one. Though other times are inconvenient, they do offer the opportunity to concentrate on what’s happening without the accompanying roadshow of hundreds of flashing cameras. Visitors are shepherded upstairs and past the traditional band that plays behind the front balcony, and on into the gods, from where they can look down on proceedings and take photographs. Most worshippers dress in white robes, though some dress in yellow, blue and red, to signify the Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian elements of Cao Dai. Priests don square hats emblazoned with the Divine Eye. At the start of a service, worshippers’ heads nod, like a field of corn in the breeze, in time to the clanging of a gong. Then a haunting, measured chanting begins, against the insect whine of the string band playing its own time. As prayers and hymns continue, incense, flowers, alcohol and tea are offered up to the Supreme Being.
Travel details
Trains
Ho Chi Minh City to: Da Nang (7 daily; 15–22hr); Dieu Tri (7 daily; 11–13hr); Hanoi (6 daily; 30–41hr); Hué (7 daily; 21–23hr); Muong Man (10 daily; 4–5hr); Nha Trang (9 daily; 9–10hr); Ninh Binh (4daily; 34–37hr); Quang Ngai (5 daily; 13–16hr); Thap Cham (6 daily; 6–7hr); Vinh (6 daily; 29–33hr).
Buses
Bus stations are gradually becoming more organized, with ticket desks and scheduled departures. However, it is still almost impossible to give the frequency with which buses run because of the large number of private minibuses that ply more popular routes, and depart only when they have enough passengers to make the journey worthwhile. It’s advisable to start your journey early – most long-distance departures are between 5am and 9am, and few run after midday. Journey times can also vary; figures below show the normal length of time you can expect to take by public bus.
Ho Chi Minh City to: Buon Ma Thuot (7hr); Ca Mau (8hr 30min); Can Tho (4hr); Chau Doc (6hr); Da Lat (7hr); Da Nang (21hr); Hanoi (41hr); Ha Tien (9hr); Hué (25hr); My Tho (2hr); Nha Trang (10hr); Phan Thiet (4–5hr); Qui Nhon (13hr); Vung Tau (2hr).
Hydrofoils and boats
Ho Chi Minh City to: Can Tho (1 daily; 4hr); Vung Tau (about 12 daily; 1hr 15min).
Flights
Ho Chi Minh City to: Buon Ma Thuot (1–2 daily; 1hr); Con Dao (1–2 daily; 1hr); Da Lat (2 daily; 50min); Da Nang (5 daily; 1hr 10min); Haiphong (2 daily; 2hr); Hanoi (12–14 daily; 2hr); Hué (3–4 daily; 1hr 40min); Nha Trang (3 daily; 1hr 10min); Phu Quoc (5–6 daily; 1hr); Plei Ku (1 daily; 1hr 15min); Qui Nhon (1–2 daily; 1hr 10min).
The Mekong Delta
Touring the orchards, paddy fields and swamplands of the Mekong Delta, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve stepped into the pages of a geography textbook. A comma-shaped flatland stretching from Ho Chi Minh’s city limits southwest to the Gulf of Thailand, the delta is Vietnam’s rice bowl, an agricultural miracle that pumps out more than a third of the country’s annual food crop from just ten percent of its total land mass. Rice may be the delta’s staple crop, but coconut palms, fruit orchards and sugar-cane groves also thrive in its nutrient-rich soil, and the sight of conical-hatted farmers tending their land is one of Vietnam’s most enduring images.
To the Vietnamese, the region is known as Cuu Long, “Nine Dragons”, a reference to the nine tributaries of the Mekong River which dovetail across plains fashioned by millennia of flood-borne alluvial sediment. By the time it reaches Vietnam, the Mekong has already covered more than four thousand kilometres from its source high on the Tibetan Plateau; en route it traverses southern China, skirts Burma (Myanmar), then hugs the Laos–Thailand border before cutting down through Cambodia and into Vietnam – a journey that ranks it as Asia’s third-longest river, after the Yangtse and Yellow rivers. Flooding has always blighted the delta; ever since Indian traders imported their advanced methods of irrigation more than eighteen centuries ago, networks of canals have been used to channel the excess water, but the rainy season still claims lives from time to time.
Surprisingly, agriculture gripped the delta only relatively recently. Under Cambodian sway until the close of the seventeenth century, the region was sparsely inhabited by the Khmer krom, or “downstream Khmers”, whose settlements were framed by swathes of marshland. The eighteenth century saw the Viet Nguyen lords steadily broaden their sphere of influence to encompass the delta, though by the 1860s France had taken over the reins of government. Sensing the huge profits to be gleaned from such fertile land, French colons spurred Vietnamese peasants to tame and till tracts of the boggy delta; the peasants, realizing their colonial governors would pay well for rice harvests, were quick to comply. Ironically, the same landscape that had served the French so well also provided valuable cover for the Viet Minh resistance fighters who sought to overthrow them; later it did the same for the Viet Cong, who had well-hidden cells here – inciting the Americans to strafe the area with bombs and defoliants.
A visit to the Mekong Delta is so memorable because of the region’s diversity. Everyday scenes include schoolgirls clad in white ao dai cycling along country lanes; children riding on the backs of water buffalo; rice workers stooping in a sea of emerald; market vendors grinning behind stacks of fruit; bright yellow incense sticks drying at the roadside; flocks of storks circling over a sanctuary at dusk; Khmer monks walking mindfully in the shadow of pastel pagodas; locals scampering over monkey bridges or rowing boats on the Delta’s maze of channels.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence of the river: the lifeblood of the rice and fruit crops grown here, it also teems with craft that range in size from delicate rowing boats to hulking sampans, and it forms a backdrop to everyday activities – some of the region’s biggest markets are waterborne. Inevitably the best way to experience riverine life is on a boat trip. Day trips can be organized in Ho Chi Minh City, My Tho, Vinh Long, Can Tho or Chau Doc, while some tour operators offer 2–3 day live-aboard trips (see "Getting around the delta"). Since most day tours follow a similar itinerary (a visit to a floating market and stops at cottage industries on the shore), you’ll probably want to choose just one. Though Can Tho is most popular for its good range of hotels and restaurants, you’re likely to see more tourists than locals in the nearby floating markets. A good alternative is Vinh Long, from where boats head out in many different directions through the canals of An Binh Island to the floating market at Cai Be.
Getting around the delta
Most visitors hurtle around on a tour bus out of Ho Chi Minh City, denying themselves the chance to sink into the languid life of the delta. With time in hand, it’s far more satisfying to hire a vehicle or take local transport – not nearly as daunting a prospect as it is up the coast, since the number of settlements with hotels means journeys can be kept relatively short. Traffic has to stop occasionally at the ferries that make road travel in the delta possible, though construction of some long-awaited bridges is speeding up travel times. The enforced halts at the ferries are at least enlivened by strolling hawkers. Locals used to do much of their travelling on the passenger and cargo boats that crawl around the delta’s waterways, but the increased prevalence of motorbikes has led to many routes being cut, so this is no longer a viable way of getting around for visitors.
If you really want to do the delta in style, Trans Mekong (071/382 9540, www.transmekong.com) offers a two-day, one-night trip aboard a traditional rice barge converted into a floating hotel. The barge makes its way from Cai Be to Can Tho, stopping at villages and fruit orchards on the way. Prices begin at around $250 per person. Another luxury option, with similar itinerary and rates, is the Song Xanh sampan cruise (091 227 0058, www.vietnamluxurytravel.com). If these rates sound a bit steep, Saigon-based Delta Adventure Tours (08/3920 2112, www.deltaadventuretours.com) offer a more basic 3-day, 2-night Mekong cruise, taking in Cai Be, Sa Dec, Long Xuyen and Chau Doc for just $55 per person.
There are over a dozen towns in the delta with facilities for tourists, though some are rarely visited as they are not on the way to anywhere. My Tho is well geared up for boat trips, and near enough to Ho Chi Minh City to be seen on a day-trip: it affords an appetizing glimpse of the delta’s northernmost tributary, the Tien Giang. From My Tho, laidback Ben Tre and the bounteous fruit orchards besieging it are only a hop and a skip away. Cao Lanh is strictly for bird enthusiasts, but Sa Dec, with its timeless river scenes and riotously colourful flower nurseries, has a more universal appeal, while just down the road, Vinh Long is another jumping-off point for boat trips.
Many visitors spend a day or two in Can Tho, the Delta’s biggest settlement, to take advantage of its decent hotels and restaurants and to recharge batteries before venturing out to the floating markets nearby. From Can Tho, there’s something to be said for dropping down to the foot of the delta, where the swampland that surrounds Ca Mau can be explored by boat. Pulling up, en route, at the Khmer stronghold of Soc Trang is especially rewarding if your trip coincides with the colourful Oc Om Bok festival, during which the local Khmer community takes to the river to stage spectacular longboat races. Northwest of Can Tho meanwhile, and a stone’s throw from the Cambodian border, is the ebullient town of Chau Doc, south of which Sam Mountain provides a welcome undulation in the surrounding plains. The opening of the border here has brought a steady stream of travellers going on to Phnom Penh by boat, and several of them rest up a few days here before leaving the country.
A bustling fishing port due south of Chau Doc on the Gulf of Thailand, Rach Gia is a convenient place to catch a boat or short flight to Phu Quoc Island, whose splendid beaches are a big draw for tourists. Northwest of Rach Gia, Ha Tien, a remote border town surrounded by Khmer villages, now also has daily boats to Phu Quoc. The town has recently become popular for its international border crossing, which allows beach bums to slide along the coast from Phu Quoc Island to Sihanoukville in Cambodia or vice versa.
Given its seasonal flooding, the best time to visit the delta is, predictably enough, in the dry season, which runs from December to May.
Highlights
Chill out on one of Phu Quoc Island’s stunning beaches
My Tho and around
Southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, buses plying Highway 1 eventually emerge from the city’s unkempt urban sprawl and into the pastoral surrounds of the Mekong Delta’s upper plains. The delta is too modest to flaunt its full beauty so soon, but glimpses of rice fields behind the scruffy settlements draped along the highway hint at things to come, their burnished golds and brilliant greens interspersed with the occasional white ancestral grave. Seventy kilometres out of Ho Chi Minh City, a left fork marks the turning to MY THO, an amiable market town that nestles on the north bank of the Mekong River’s northernmost strand, the Tien Giang, or Upper River.
My Tho’s proximity to Ho Chi Minh City means that it receives the lion’s share of day-trippers to the delta, resulting in a scrum of pushy vendors crowding round each tour bus that arrives. Nevertheless, the town comes as a great relief after the onslaught of Ho Chi Minh City, its uncrowded boulevards belying a population of around 200,000, and you can easily escape the melee by hopping onto a boat or wandering into the backstreets.
This daily influx of visitors seems appropriate, given the town’s history. Chinese immigrants fleeing Formosa (modern-day Taiwan) after the collapse of the Ming dynasty established the town in the late seventeenth century, along with a Vietnamese population keen to make inroads into this traditionally Khmer-dominated region. Two centuries later the French, wooed by the district’s abundant rice and fruit crops, rated it highly enough to post a garrison here and to lay a (now-defunct) rail line to Saigon; while the American War saw a consistent military presence in town. Today My Tho’s commercial importance is as pronounced as ever, something a walk through the busy town market amply illustrates.
Arrival and information
Buses terminate at Tien Giang station, 3km northwest of town, from where xe om shuttle into the centre (about 15,000đ). Two state-run companies offer boat trips from My Tho to the islands in the Mekong: Tien Giang Tourist Company has its main office located next to the western tour boat jetty at 8, 30 Thang 4 (073/387 3184, www.tiengiangtourist.com), while Ben Tre Tourist Company is at 4/1 Le Thi Hong Gam (073/387 9103, [email protected]), down a lane to the left just before the new bridge over the river. Both charge $20–50 per boat, depending on how long you want to hire it for. Local boats, which you can find at the small jetty on Trung Trac, are much cheaper, and $15 should get you a two- to three-hour trip – time enough to explore the waterways along the coast of Ben Tre Province, and to land on an island in the river. However, bear in mind that the owners of these boats are not licensed or insured to carry tourists, so it’s a bit of a risky business.
There’s an ATM opposite the jetties (next to the Cong Doan hotel) and another at Vietinbank, at the western end of Thu Khoa Huan. The Agribank at the opposite end of Thu Khoa Huan on the corner of Le Loi will change dollars for dong. The post office is conveniently located opposite the boat jetties on Le Thi Hong Gam, where you can also find internet access.
Accommodation
The Chuong Duong (073/387 0875; US$21–50), opposite the GPO at 10, 30 Thang 4, with prime views of the river, has long been the town’s smartest place to stay; its tidy rooms all have air-conditioning, hot water and TVs, and those upstairs have riverfront balconies. However, the newly-opened Minh Quan (073/397 9979; US$21–50) at 69, 30 Thang 4 provides some stiff competition with its tasteful furnishings and modern fittings, and rooms at the front have good river views too. Also with river views but further west of the centre, the newish Rang Dong (073/397 0085; www.rangdonghotel.net; US$11–30) at 40/5 Section 3, Ward 6, Le Thi Hon Gam, has rooms with air conditioners, cable TV and fridges, as well as an older, more central and cheaper branch at 25, 30 Thang 4, with simple, functional rooms (073/387 4400; US$10 and under). The Cong Doan (073/387 4324; US$10 and under), beside the GPO at 61, 30 Thang 4, has similarly spartan but light double rooms which can accommodate up to four people.
The Town
The abiding reason for a trip to My Tho is to explore its surrounding waterways by boat (see "Arrival and information"), but landlubbers will get a working impression of the majestic Tien Giang by strolling along waterfront 30 Thang 4. The river’s traffic – which ranges from elegant sampans to vast, lumbering cargo boats, unpainted and crude – is best viewed from Lac Hong Park at the street’s eastern end, where you’re sure to catch sight of the most characteristic feature of the boats in the delta – feline eyes painted on their prows. These continue an ancient tradition and were originally intended to scare off “river monsters”, probably crocodiles. In the evenings, especially at weekends, this corner of town is packed as families stroll up and down, interspersed with sellers of balloons, popcorn and even tropical fish. At night, young lovers huddle on their motorbikes, while men play shuttlecock football on the street under the intent gaze of a statue of nineteenth-century anti-French hero Nguyen Huu Huan, who studied in My Tho.
Follow the direction of the canal up past Trung Trac and you’ll soon be gobbled up by My Tho’s vast daily market, which is at its busiest early in the morning. As well as the usual piles of fruit, cereals and tobacco, several stalls sell ships’ chandlery, their heaped fishing nets almost indistinguishable from the fresh noodles on sale nearby. Head west of the town centre on Ly Thuong Kiet, for the Cao Dai Temple, which is worth a look for its colourful architecture.
East of the canal
The southernmost of the bridges spanning the canal deposits you at the start of waterfront Phan Thanh Gian, home to My Tho’s modest Chinese Quarter, though there’s little to betray its existence other than a feverish sense of commerce. Shopfronts here are piled to the rafters with sugar-cane poles, watermelons and fish awaiting transportation to Ho Chi Minh City, as well as half-hatched eggs (containing chick embryos), prized as the perfect complement to a bia hoi.
A short walk or cyclo journey (about 10,000đ) northeast of Phan Thanh Gian to Nguyen Trung Truc’s attractive Vinh Trang Pagoda, with its rajah’s palace-style front facade, is a worthwhile side-trip. Since its construction in 1849, it has been renovated several times, most recently in 2002. The entrance, round to the right, leads into the heart of the temple, where a tiny courtyard is flanked by the cubicles where the monks sleep. The main chamber, beyond the miniature mountain to your left, is characterized by dark-wood pillars and tons of gilt woodwork, but of more interest are the eclectic influences at play in the pagoda’s decor – classical pillars, Grecian-style mouldings of urns and bowls of fruit, and glazed tiles similar to Portuguese azulejos. Outside, the tombs of several monks stand near a pond patrolled by huge elephant-ear fish, while a tall, standing Buddha image watches over the front gate.
Eating and drinking
Though there’s nowhere to get very excited about in town, there are three places just out of town that cater mostly to tour groups but turn out consistently good dishes, including the locally-famous elephant-ear fish. The first, the Ngoc Gia Trang, is at 196A Ap Bac, about 2km northwest of the centre, while the Trung Luong is a couple of kilometres beyond, to the right where the road forks for Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho. The third, and newest, is the Mekong Rest Stop, about 4km further on the road to Saigon. This one is set in a beautifully-landscaped garden with lotus ponds and offers set menus for two people at around $5–7.
Back in town, the Chuong Duong hotel restaurant, which specializes in seafood, is the best bet, with large reasonably-priced portions. For simple but tasty local dishes, the Chi Thanh 1 and 2, the first of which is at 279 Tet Mau Than, and the second around the corner at 19 Ap Bac, are generally reliable, drawing plenty of locals each evening. Down by the riverside, at 11Trung Trac, the Banh Xeo 46 serves up tasty shrimp pancakes. There are also several cheap but popular restaurants at the southern end of Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, including a couple at numbers 24 and 44 that serve hu tieu (noodles with seafood and meat), the local speciality.
There’s little nightlife in My Tho, though the recently-opened Lac Hong Coffee Bar at 63, 30 Thang 4, adds a touch of class to the town with its colonial-style shuttered windows, comfy armchairs and good selection of coffee and cocktails. The bar features live jazz and blues on Thursday evenings.
Around My Tho
Day-trippers tend to see little of My Tho as they disgorge from tour buses and embark on a boat trip round two or three of the islands in the Tien Giang branch of the Mekong River. Upstream at Cai Be it’s a similar story, with fleets of buses from Ho Chi Minh City descending on the village at around 11am for boat tours of the floating market. Arranging trips locally tends to lead to a more relaxed and enjoyable experience, but you’d probably need to sleep over at least one night. In contrast to Cai Be, the quirky snake farm at Dong Tham sees few foreign visitors.
The islands
Beyond its chaotic shoreline of stilthouses and boatyards, Tan Long (“Dragon Island”), the least frequently visited, boasts bounteous sapodilla, coconut and banana plantations, as well as highly regarded longan orchards. As with the other islands, Dragon Island is sparsely inhabited, by small communities of farmers and boat-builders. Thoi Son (“Unicorn Island”) is the largest of the four islands and many of the organized tours out of Ho Chi Minh City stop here for lunch and fruit sampling. Local tours do not always include lunch in the price, but all tours will stop somewhere you can get refreshment. Narrow canals allow boats to weave through its interior. Gliding along these slender waterways, overhung by handsome water-palm fronds which interlock to form a cathedral-like roof, it’s easy to feel you’re charting new territory. Swooping, electric-blue kingfishers and sumptuously coloured butterflies add to the romance.
Qui (“Turtle”) Island is the newest of the group, having been formed by sediment in the river, then stabilized by planting mangroves, and is overflowing with longans, dragon fruit, mango, papaya, pineapple and jackfruit. A small, family-run coconut candy factory is located just opposite on the Ben Tre coastline. Here you can watch the coconut being pressed, and the extracted juice being mixed with sugar and heated, then dried and cut into bite-size pieces. After tasting, many visitors buy a box to take home.
Phung (“Phoenix”) Island is famed as the home of an offbeat religious sect set up three decades ago by the eccentric Coconut Monk, Ong Dao Dua (see "Ong Dao Dua, the Coconut Monk"), although there’s not much left to see from his era, and only the skeleton of the open-air complex he established remains. Among its mesh of rusting staircases and platforms, you’ll spot the rocket-shaped elevator the monk had built to whisk him up to his private meditation platform. Elsewhere are nine dragon-entwined pillars, said to symbolize the Mekong’s nine tributaries and betraying a Cao Daist influence. The Coconut Monk’s story is told (in Vietnamese) on a magnificent urn which he is said to have crafted himself out of shards of porcelain from France, Japan and China.
Ong Dao Dua, the Coconut Monk
Ong Dao Dua, the Coconut Monk, was born Nguyen Thanh Nam in the Mekong Delta, in 1909. Aged 19, he travelled to France where he studied chemistry until 1935, when he returned home, married and fathered a child. During a lengthy period of meditation at Chau Doc’s Sam Mountain (see "Around Chau Doc") he devised a new religion, a fusion of Buddhism and Christianity known as Tinh Do Cu Si. By the Sixties, this new sect had established a community on Phung Island, where the monk lorded it over his followers from a throne set into a man-made grotto modelled on Sam Mountain. The monk became as famous for his idiosyncrasies as for his doctrine: his name, for instance, was coined after it was alleged he spent three years meditating and eating nothing but coconuts.
Unfortunately, the Coconut Monk never got to enjoy his “kingdom” for long: his belief in a peaceful reunification of North and South Vietnam (symbolized by the map of the country behind his grotto, on which pillars representing Hanoi and Saigon are joined by a bridge) landed him in the jails of successive South Vietnamese governments, and the Communists were no more sympathetic to his beliefs after 1975. Ong Dao Dua died in 1990.
Dong Tam Snake Farm
Located 10km west of My Tho and run by the military, the Dong Tam Snake Farm (daily 7am–5pm; 20,000đ) breeds snakes for their meat and skins. Watching the sluggish pythons and cobras sleeping in cages is not a pretty sight, though there are several other animals on display in a small zoo, including porcupines, monitor lizards, otters, monkeys, eagles, peacocks and an enormous albino turtle. One of the farm’s most popular products is Cobratox – a cream that includes cobra venom and stings on application, but is rated by many as an effective cure for rheumatism. A xe om to the farm costs around 20,000đ.
Cai Be Floating Market
Cai Be’s floating market is one of the most popular in the delta, and also the most distinctive because of its backdrop of a slender cathedral spire. Throughout the day boats of all sizes throng in the waters of the Tien Giang, with fruit vendors displaying a sample of their produce suspended from a stick. The market reaches its busiest at around midday when busloads of visitors on organized tours roll in to Cai Be village from Ho Chi Minh City, 110km away. They are shepherded on to boats for a few hours to explore the market and fruit orchards on nearby islands before zipping back to the city. While this may be convenient for those who are short of time, it’s all a bit rushed, and the midday heat can be oppressive. If you have a more relaxed schedule, meandering through the picturesque channels of An Binh Island between Vinh Long and Cai Be market, or overnighting in a home-stay (see "Boat trips from Vinh Long") before visiting the market in the morning, offers a more rewarding experience. Cai Be is about 40km west of My Tho and lies just south of Highway 1.
Ben Tre
The few travellers who push on beyond My Tho into Ben Tre Province are rewarded with some of the Mekong Delta’s most breathtaking scenery. Until recently this province was isolated by the Mekong’s wide arms around it, but the new bridge from My Tho (opened in early 2009) is likely to bring a rush of visitors. Famed for its fruit orchards and coconut groves (Vietnamese call it the “coconut island”), the province has proved just as fertile a breeding ground for revolutionaries, first plotting against the French, and later against the Americans, and was one of the areas seized by the Viet Cong during the Tet Offensive of 1968.
Of the US bombing campaign on the provincial capital of BEN TRE, a US major was quoted as saying, “It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it.” Today, Ben Tre is a pleasant and industrious town displaying none of the wounds of its past, and makes an agreeable contrast to the tourist bustle of nearby My Tho. Though rather short on sights, it’s still a relaxing and friendly place to hole up for a couple of days, with a buzzing town market and a new riverside promenade, which makes a pleasant place to stroll in the morning or evening. You might also be tempted to pass over the quaint bridge leading to the Ben Tre River’s more rustic south bank, where scores of cross-eyed boats moor in front of a jumble of simple houses. With a bicycle or motorbike, you can explore the maze of dirt tracks on this side of the river. Before striking off, though, duck into the riverside wine factory, 450m west of the bridge, where fermenting ruou trang (Vietnamese rice wine) fizzes away in vast earthenware jars. A mountain of rice husks indicates the factory’s location, though you’ll find it easily if you follow your nose.
For more of an adventure, head out of town on a boat trip along the Ben Tre coastline, where labyrinthine creeks afford marvellous scope for exploring, and sometimes include stops at apiaries, rice-wine and sugar-processing workshops. Such an outing can be organized through the Ben Tre Tourist Company (see "Practicalities"), or try the Thao Nhi Guest House(see "Practicalities"), which has a good reputation for cheap and enjoyable boat trips to watch a sunrise or sunset over the Mekong River.
Practicalities
The opening of the new bridge to Ben Tre means that most visitors arrive by road: buses terminate on Doan Hoang Minh about a kilometre west of the town centre. Located at 65 Dong Khoi to the north of the centre, Ben Tre Tourist Company (daily 7–11am & 1–5pm; 075/382 9618) can organize car rental, bicycles and some tours; for motorbikes, contact the Hung Vuong Hotel. The Vietinbank on Nguyen Dinh Chieu exchanges dollars.
The riverside Hung Vuong Hotel (075/382 2408; US$31–50) at 166 Hung Vuong has easily the best location and facilities of Ben Tre’s hotels. Its large, well-equipped rooms all have air-conditioning and TVs, and some have bathtubs and river views. On the north bank of Truc Giang Lake, the state-run Dong Khoi (075/382250 1; US$10 and under–20) at 16 Hai Ba Trung has well-equipped rooms at very cheap rates, but it can get rowdy when they host a wedding, as they often do. Another cheap but adventurous option is the Thao Nhi Guest House (075/386 0009;[email protected]; US$10 and under–20), set in the grounds of a longan orchard. It has a range of rooms, including small ones with fans and larger ones with air-conditioning, and the staff are friendly and helpful. The atmosphere is very relaxing – the kind of place to settle in for a few days – and its restaurant has a good menu that features elephant-ear fish and huge prawns. It’s about 11km north of Ben Tre town, near the former ferry terminal: to get there, take the right turn just before the old ferry terminal and look for a sign after a few hundred metres pointing down a narrow lane to the right. From here it’s another 150m.
There’s not a great deal of choice for places to eat in Ben Tre; the restaurant at the Hung Vuong Hotel serves up decent food in an uninspiring environment, while the Ben Tre Floating Restaurant, moored on the riverbank about 3km west of the centre, is a fine venue for a sunset drink or dinner, with main courses costing around 60,000đ. Failing that, there are plenty of food stalls around the market.
Cao Lanh and around
West of My Tho, and Cai Be, Highway 1 crosses the My Thuan Bridge on its way to Vinh Long and Can Tho. Just before the bridge, however, at An Huu, Highway 30 branches north, rolling into modest CAO LANH 34km later. The town is no oil painting, and offers little unless you’re charmed by wading birds; its location beside the western edge of the Plain of Reeds makes Cao Lanh an ideal launching pad for trips out to the storks and cranes that nest in the nearby swamplands. Coming from Ho Chi Minh City, you’ll pass the two great concrete tusks (intended to resemble lotus petals) of the war memorial as you veer onto the main drag, Nguyen Hué. One tusk bears a hammer and sickle, the other a Vietnamese red star. Way across on the southwestern outskirts of town, another concrete edifice, shaped like an open clam, marks the burial place of Ho Chi Minh’s father, Nguyen Sinh Sac (daily 7–11.30am & 1.30–5pm), which is set in attractive gardens.
The only other place worth visiting in town is the Dong Thap Museum (daily 7–11.30am & 1.30–5pm; free), also located to the southwest of town, just to the left beyond the first bridge. Though there are no English signs, the well-organized display of fossils, skulls, farming tools, fishtraps, basketware and textiles, as well as the inevitable paintings of heroic Vietnamese forces repelling French and American troops, is worth a look.
And that’s about it, unless you’re here for the birds. Of the 220 species nesting 45km northwest of Cao Lanh at the Tram Chim National Park (previously called the Tam Nong Bird Sanctuary), it’s the sarus cranes, with their distinctive red heads, that most visitors come to see, though numbers have sadly declined drastically in recent years, and there’s not much to be seen outside the months of December to May. In flight above the marshland of the sanctuary, the slender grey birds reveal spectacular black-tipped wings. Cranes feed not from the water but from the land, so when the spate season (July–November) waterlogs the delta, they migrate to Cambodia. Visiting the park, however, can be very expensive, so this is a trip for committed bird enthusiasts only: if you’re keen, ask at the office of Dong Thap Tourist in Cao Lanh for details (see "Practicalities").
You’ll also need to approach the tourist office if you want to take a trip out to Xeo Quyt Relic Area, deep in the cajeput forest 20km southeast of Cao Lanh. The district’s dense cover provided the perfect bolt-hole for Viet Cong guerrillas during the American War, and from 1960 to 1975 the struggle against America and the ARVN was masterminded from here. The boggy nature of the terrain made a tunnel system similar to that of Cu Chi (see "The Cu Chi tunnels") unfeasible, so they made do with six submerged metal chambers sealed with tar and resin. Suspecting the base’s existence, Americans bombed the area regularly, and even broadcast propaganda from the air to demoralize its occupants, but by developing a policy of “going without trace, cooking without smoke, speaking without noise”, the cadres residing here escaped discovery throughout the war. The boat trip there involves a charming glide along eucalyptus-shaded canals teeming with freshwater fish and shrimps.
There are further birdwatching opportunities at the Gao Giong Stork Sanctuary, where storks can be seen any day of the year. It’s located just 23km from Cao Lanh, though getting there involves an expensive boat ride, so you’re better off visiting the Bang Lang Stork Sanctuary near Long Xuyen (see "Long Xuyen and around"), which is much easier to get to.
Practicalities
Buses to and from Cao Lanh stop at the bus station, a few paces below the town centre. From Long Xuyen or beyond, buses cross the Tien Giang via the Cao Lanh ferry, around 4km southwest of town, necessitating a short xe om ride (15,000–20,000đ) to the town centre. The Vietinbank on Ly Thuong Kiet exchanges dollars and traveller’s cheques, while Sacombank has an ATM directly in front of the Hoa Binh Hotel. Dong Thap Tourist, whose office (daily 7–11.30am & 1.30–5pm; 067/385 5637) is at 2 Doc Binh Kieu, just off the main road, Nguyen Hué, is the place for tourist information about visits to the nearby bird sanctuaries, though very little English is spoken, so dedicated twitchers might be better off approaching tour operators in Ho Chi Minh City. Internet access is available at the post office on Nguyen Hué in the centre of town.
The tourist board-accredited Song Tra (067/385 2504; US$21–50), at 178 Nguyen Hué, is Cao Lanh’s poshest place to stay, and is where those on birding tours are accommodated; all rooms have air-conditioning, hot water and cable TV. A decent alternative is the Hoa Binh, or “Peace” Hotel, (067/385 1469; US$21–50) – symbolically situated across from the war memorial, east of the town centre on Highway 30. The Xuan Mai (067/385 2852; US$11–30), just west of the post office at 33 Le Qui Don, has been recently renovated: its larger rooms have bathtubs and breakfast is included in the price.
As for eating, there are several options along Nguyen Hué, of which the best is the Ngoc Lan, at no. 210, which is very popular with locals. The A Chau, at 42 Ly Thuong Kiet, also has a good range of dishes such as rice with fried pork and vegetables for around 30,000đ, or there’s the in-house restaurant at the Song Tra, though it’s a rather uncharismatic affair.
Boat trip on the River Mekong
Vinh Long
Ringed by water and besieged by boats and tumbledown stilthouses, the island that forms the heart of VINH LONG has the feel of a medieval fortress. However, if you find yourself yearning for a peaceful backwater, first impressions will be a let-down; central Vinh Long is hectic and noisy, its streets a blur of buses and motorbikes. Make for the waterfront, though, and it’s a different story, with hotels, restaurants and cafés conjuring up something of a riviera atmosphere. From here you can watch the Co Chien River roll by, dotted with sampans, houseboats and the odd raft of river-weed. Though there’s little to see or do in town, Vinh Long offers some of the most interesting boat trips in the delta – to the Cai Be floating market, coconut candy workshops, fruit orchards or even overnighting in home-stays.
Arrival and information
State-run buses pull into the bus station on 3 Thang 2 in the centre of town, while private buses use another bus station a couple of kilometres southwest of town on Nguyen Hué; from here take a xe om (about 10,000đ) into the centre. For information about boat trips or home-stays, check the state-run Cuu Long Tourist (070/382 3616), whose main office is in the Cuu Long ‘B’ Hotel, or the private Mekong Travel 8, 1 Thang 5 (070/383 6252): both charge around $25–30 for a 4–5 hour tour of Cai Be floating market, fruit orchards and the narrow waterways of An Binh Island.
Vietinbank at 143 Le Thai To exchanges traveller’s cheques and cash and has an ATM. The post office is in the middle of town at 12C Hoang Thai Hieu, and internet access is available at the Cuu Long ‘B’ Hotel.
Accommodation
Most of Vinh Long’s accommodation options are located near the boat jetty on the northern edge of town. Where boat trips operate in the Mekong Delta, notably around Vinh Long, the local tourist board can also arrange for visitors to stay with the owners of fruit orchards, allowing a close-up view of rural life (See "Home-stays in the delta").
The Town
Vinh Long has few specific sights, though the Vinh Long Museum (Tues–Thurs 8–11am & 1.30–4.30pm, Fri & Sat 6–9pm; free), facing the waterfront on Phan Boi Chau, is worth a look if you haven’t already visited war museums elsewhere. Displays in various buildings include historical finds from the region, farming implements and musical instruments, as well as a gruesome photographic catalogue of the province’s pummelling during the American War. In the gardens around are tanks, a helicopter and planes from the war. Further west, on Le Van Tam, look out for the impressive French colonial building, Cau Lac Bo Huu Tri. This oddly shaped mansion, with its red-tiled roof and shuttered windows topped by mouldings of garlands, recalls the ghosts of French colons and rice merchants.
Thereafter, you’ll have to journey 2km down the bumpy road that runs parallel to the Rach Long Canal and southeast of town, to the Van Thanh Mieu Temple (daily 5–11am & 1–7pm), in search of diversion. If you wander into the tiny lanes that back onto the river along the way, you can watch tiles and coffins being made in the simplest of surroundings, and you might even be invited to take a tea with the friendly locals. The temple itself is dedicated to Confucius – unusually for southern Vietnam – and a heavily bearded portrait of him watches over proceedings. Another temple at the front of the compound honours local mandarin Phan Thanh Gian (see "Phan Thanh Gian"), who is pictured in red robes, flanked by slender storks. Fronting the temple are two cannons that rained fire on the French in 1860. Unfortunately, both temples are often kept locked, though the gardener or caretaker may be able to open them for you.
Boat trips from Vinh Long
The cheapest and simplest way to see the river is to hop on the An Binh Ferry on Phan Boi Chau, and cross the Co Chien River (5min; 3000đ) to reach AN BINH ISLAND. Sometimes called Minh Island, it’s a jigsaw of bite-sized pockets of land, skeined by a fine web of channels and gullies, eventually merging, to the east, with the province of Ben Tre. This idyllic landscape is criss-crossed by a network of dirt paths, making it ideal for a morning’s rambling, though you’ll need to take your own refreshments.
However, most people fork out for a day or half-day boat trip to see several aspects of delta life, organized either through Cuu Long Tourist or Mekong Travel (see "Arrival and information"), or through local boatmen always on the look-out for customers near the tourist jetty. These tours often include the option of overnighting in a home-stay(see "Home-stays in the delta") in a totally rural environment, though as they increase in popularity, some start to resemble guest houses rather than home-stays, with visitors put up in custom-built bamboo huts separated from the family home.
Most tour itineraries head upriver to the floating market at CAI BE(see "Cai Be Floating Market"), stopping to visit fruit orchards, rice-paper making and candy factories en route; some tours also stop for a fish lunch at a rural outpost. Watching the river traffic, from the tiny rowing boats to huge sampans loaded with rice husks (fuel for the nearby brick kilns), is fascinating, and stepping ashore from time to time reveals insights into the lifestyles of the locals.
Phan Thanh Gian
Born in Vinh Long Province in 1796, the mandarin diplomat Phan Thanh Gian was destined to be involved in a chain of events that was to shape over a century of Vietnamese history.
On August 31, 1858, French naval forces attacked Da Nang, citing persecution of Catholic missionaries as their justification. The French colonial land-grab, that would culminate, in 1885, in the total conquest of Vietnam, had begun. By 1861, the three eastern provinces of Cochinchina had been conquered by the French Expeditionary Corps, and although there were popular anti-French uprisings Emperor Tu Duc sold out the following year, when the three provinces were formally ceded to the French by the Treaty of Saigon, which was signed by Phan Thanh Gian. A year later he had the opportunity to redress the situation, when he journeyed to Paris as ambassador to Emperor Napoleon III, to thrash out a long-term peace – the first Vietnamese ambassador ever to be despatched to Europe.
However, efforts to reclaim territory given up under the terms of the treaty failed, and by 1867 France moved to take over the rest of Cochinchina. Unable to persuade the spineless Tu Duc to sanction popular uprisings, Phan Thanh Gian embarked on a hunger strike in protest at French incursions and Hué’s ineffectuality. When, after fifteen days, he had still not died, he swallowed poison, and his place among the massed ranks of Vietnamese heroes was assured.
Eating and drinking
The Cuu Long Tourist-owned Phuong Thuy, built out over the river, boasts the best location of the town’s restaurants, though the Vietnamese food is only average. The Hoa Nang Café, next to the Cuu Long ‘A’, is a perfect place to sip a cool drink while watching the sun sink into the Mekong. South of town, at 56/1 Pham Thai Buong, the Thien Tan serves up delicious barbecued dishes, while on 2 Thang 9, Tu Hai (at no 29) and Dong Khanh (at no 49) produce standard Vietnamese stir-fries, soups and grilled dishes, with menus in English.
Tra Vinh and around
It’s only another 65km southeast through some classic delta scenery – vivid green rice paddies, backed by coconut and water palms – to TRA VINH, an outback market town whose broad, tree-lined streets and smattering of colonial piles have yet to see tourists in any numbers. Even if you don’t plan to stay here, it makes an interesting day out from Vinh Long. This region of the delta is Khmer country; as you get nearer to Tra Vinh, distinctive pagodas begin to appear beside the road, painted in rich pastel shades of lilac, orange and turquoise, their steep horned roofs puncturing the sky. Altogether there are over 140 Khmer pagodas scattered around the province.
Most visitors come here to visit the storks at nearby Hang Pagoda (see "Hang Pagoda"), although the town’s low-key charm makes it an intriguing place to spend a day or two. Unusually, Tra Vinh isn’t ostensibly dominated by a branch of the Mekong – you’ll have to journey a couple of hundred metres east of the 800-metre-square grid forming the town centre to find the river. A hike through the market to riverside Bach Dang makes the most engaging approach. The bridge 100m north of the fish market commands great views of the Tra Vinh River, whose eddying waters run canal-straight to the north. In places the river is almost corked by boats moored seven or eight deep.
Just south of the market, at the junction of Pham Thai Buong and Tran Quoc Tuan, the Chinese Ong Pagoda is worth a visit as it’s a very active place of worship and there’s always something interesting going on. North of the town centre up Le Loi, the Ong Met Pagoda is very different, with a Khmer-style roof above colonial arches and shutters: you’re assured of a friendly reception here from the monks studying at its English school. Immediately north is the pretty Tra Vinh Church, an imposing buttressed construction, fronted by a statue of Christ above the entrance, with waves of stonework rippling up its spire.
Home-stays in the delta
While the Vietnamese are generally gregarious people, it’s unusual for foreigners to be invited into their homes. However, most visitors are curious about local culture, so it’s not surprising that home-stays are becoming ever more popular and widely available. Though there are home-stays all around the country, those located on tranquil islands of the delta, surrounded by acres of orchards, are particularly attractive.
For around $20 a head, you are transported by boat to your host’s (usually isolated) abode, shown around the gardens, given a tasty dinner (most likely including the delicious elephant-ear fish – a delta speciality) and lodgings for the night, either in a bed or hammock in a spare room. Bathroom facilities are basic, with squat toilets and bucket baths, but generally clean. If you book your home-stay with a tour operator like Sinhbalo Adventures (see "Tour agents"), you can also spend the day kayaking between water palms along narrow canals, or cycling along narrow lanes between coconut, mango and papaya trees.
Practicalities
Buses from Vinh Long and beyond hit the southwest corner of Tra Vinh, terminating about 800m from the centre of town at the bus station on Nguyen Dang, off Dien Bien Phu. The extremely helpful Tra Vinh Tourist Company at 64–66 Le Loi (074/385 8556, 074/385 8768) can provide local information, while the Agribank, one block west of the market at 70–72 Le Loi, will change US dollars, and has an ATM. The post office is located on Hung Vuong, just opposite the Thanh Tra Hotel.
The Cuu Long Hotel (074/386 2615, 074/386 6027; US$11–50), at 999 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai (on the main road just before entering town), is one of the best places to stay, and brings an aura of prosperity to the small town with its surprisingly well-equipped rooms that have a touch of elegance. Almost opposite, the mini-hotel Hoan My (074/386 2211, 074/386 6600; US$11–30), at 105a Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, has tastefully furnished rooms, some with massage showers. The smartest places in the town centre are the Palace (074/386 4999; US$11–20), at 3 Le Thanh Ton, with fancy furnishings and all facilities, and the recently refurbished Thanh Tra (074/385 3626, 074/625 0658; US$11–30) at 1 Pham Thai Buo, which is more of a business-style hotel. For a decent budget choice, the Duy Tung (074/385 8567; US$10 and under–20), just opposite the market at 6 Dien Bien Phu, has clean and functional rooms with cable TV.
Eating options include the popular Ben Co, which serves up huge bowls of delicious banh canh – a noodle soup with pork; it’s located about 5km from the town centre, on the right-hand side of Highway 53 (the road to Vinh Long) about half a kilometre after the turning for Ba Om. Other reliable places are the thatched bar-restaurant behind the Cuu Long Hotel, on the same road heading out of town, and the top-floor restaurant of the Thanh Tra Hotel. For a little more ambience, try the Tuy Huong, opposite the front of the market, whose friendly owners offer a range of Chinese and Vietnamese dishes, or the Viet Hoa, at 80 Tran Phu, which specializes in seafood; to get there walk south of the front of the market along Dien Bien Phu and turn right on to Tran Phu. Be warned that some places, including Viet Hoa close around 8pm. Finally, stalls around the western edge of the market hawk pho and com throughout the evening.
Ba Om Pond
Five kilometres southwest of town, a signposted road on the left runs down to Ba Om Pond, beloved of Tra Vinh picnickers and courting couples. Buses to and from Vinh Long pass the short approach road here, or a xe om from the centre of Tra Vinh costs around 20,000đ. Around the pond, drinks and snack vendors lie in wait for visitors. Though it can get crowded at weekends, on weekdays it is usually restful. Bordered by grassy banks, and shaded by towering, aged trees whose roots clutch at the ground, Ba Om is cloaked with plants that attract flocks of birds in the late afternoon.
The area across the far side of the pond has been a Khmer place of worship since the eleventh century, and today it’s occupied by Ang Pagoda. Steep-roofed and stained with age, the pagoda makes an affecting sight, especially when it echoes with the chants of its resident monks. Fronting it is a nest of stupas guarded by stone lions, while murals inside depict scenes from the Buddha’s life. In season, rice from the pagoda’s paddy fields is heaped next to the altar, where it’s guarded by an impressive golden Sakyamuni image and a host of smaller ones. Several Cambodian monks are resident here, who are eager to practise their English with visitors.
Also worth a look is the Khmer Minority People’s Museum (daily 7–11am & 1–5pm; free), just in front of the pagoda. The display includes musical instruments, a depiction of Khmer daily life, Buddha statues and samples of traditional dress.
Hang Pagoda
The sight of the hundreds of storks that nest in the grounds of Hang Pagoda, a Khmer pagoda around 6km south of town along Dien Bien Phu, is one that will linger in the memory. Timing, however, is all-important, and you should aim to catch these magnificent creatures before dusk, when they wheel and hover over the treetops, their snowy wings catching the evening’s sunlight. It’s a stirring sight, though you might find yourself distracted by the saffron-robed monks who clamour to practise their English. They may also show you their wood-carving workshop, where there’s usually someone at work on a wooden rat or tiger. Hang Pagoda itself – an arched stone gate to the left of the main road betrays the entrance to the compound – is nothing to write home about. Dominating it is a Sakyamuni statue, hooped by a halo of fairy lights and flanked by murals depicting scenes from his life. There’s no public transport to the pagoda, so you’ll have to take a xe om: about 40,000đ for the return trip.
Sa Dec
A cluster of brick and tile kilns on the riverbank announces your arrival in the charming town of SA DEC, a little over 20km upriver of Vinh Long. French novelist Marguerite Duras lived here as a child (see "Marguerite Duras"), and decades later the town’s stuccoed shophouse terraces, riverside mansions and remarkably busy stretch of the rumbling Mekong provided the backdrop for the movie adaptation of her novel The Lover.
As you come in from the bus station, the town’s three main arteries – Nguyen Hué, Tran Hung Dao and Hung Vuong – branch off to your right. It’s worth wandering along Nguyen Hué, whose umbrella-choked lanes hide Sa Dec’s extensive riverside market. Waterfront comings and goings are observed by rheumy old men playing chequers, and women squat on their haunches, selling fruit from wicker baskets. From about halfway down Nguyen Hué, ferries cross to the childhood home of Marguerite Duras, which now belongs to the People’s Committee, and is not open to the public. It’s an elegant old colonial villa that’s been reasonably maintained, and its pale blue shutters and red-tiled roof still give off a refined aura.
A few kilometres north of town by the river, Sa Dec’s famed flower nurseries consist of more than a hundred farms cultivating a host of ferns, fruit trees, shrubs and flowers. The expansive grounds of Tu Ton Rose Garden (daily 8–11am & 1–5pm) get the lion’s share of tourists visiting the area. In addition to the varieties of roses cultivated here (among them the Brigitte Bardot, the Jolie Madame and the Marseille), over 580 species of plants are grown, ranging from orchids, carnations and chrysanthemums, through to medicinal herbs and pines grown for export around Asia. Bear in mind that the nurseries are overrun on Sundays by tourists from Ho Chi Minh City, who come to pose for photos among the blooms; and that things get particularly busy and colourful in the run-up to Tet, as farms prepare to transport their stocks to the city’s flower markets.
Marguerite Duras
Marguerite Duras (1914–96) was born to French parents in a suburb of Saigon, and lived in various locations in Vietnam and Cambodia before going, aged 18, to study at the Sorbonne in France. She wrote many novels, plays and film scripts including the autobiographical novel The Lover (1984) which sold over three million copies and was translated into forty languages. Its subject is an interracial affair between a 15-year-old French girl and her middle-aged Chinese lover, set in 1930s’ Indochina. Duras had little sympathy for her peers, of whom she wrote “I look at the (French) women in the streets of Saigon. They don’t do anything, just save themselves up… Some of them go mad…some are deserted for a young maid.” Duras clearly had no intention of letting life pass her by in this way, even if it meant becoming the subject of the town’s gossip.
Though her novels are principally about the inner thoughts of her characters, she also describes the landscape around Sa Dec as it still appears today: “In the surrounding flatness, stretching as far as the eye can see, the rivers flow as if the earth slopes downward.”
Practicalities
Buses terminate 300m southeast of the town centre. The town’s post office, at the corner of Nguyen Sinh Sac and Hung Vuong, also has internet access.
Accommodation in Sa Dec is pretty limited. The best value in town is the family-run, mini-hotel Huong Thuy (067/386 8963; US$10 and under–20) at 58 Le Thanh Ton: it’s centrally located with immaculately clean, air-conditioned rooms which all have hot water, TVs and fridges. Alternatively, there’s little to choose between the Bong Hong at 251a Nguyen Sinh Sac (067/386 8287; US$11–30) and the Sa Dec, 108/5a Hung Vuong (067/386 1430; US$11–30), at the northern end of the street: both are reasonable if uninspiring places to stay. Eating options are also fairly limited: the Com Thuy at 439 Hung Vuong, serves up Vietnamese staples and has an English menu, while the family-run Chanh Ky, at 193 Nguyen Sinh Sac, doles out Chinese noodles and rice dishes for under $2 that you can wash down with cold beer. The Bong Hong and Sa Dec hotels also have their own, rather soulless, attached restaurants.
Can Tho and around
A population of around half a million makes CAN THO the delta’s biggest city, and losing yourself in its commercial thrum for a few days is the perfect antidote to time spent in quiet backwaters of the delta. However, first impressions are rather less than encouraging: Can Tho is a hefty settlement but, once the oppressive urban sprawl encasing the town has been negotiated, its breezy waterfront comes as a pleasant surprise.
At the confluence of the Can Tho and Hau Giang rivers, the city is a major mercantile centre and transport interchange. But Can Tho is no mere staging post. Some of the best restaurants in the delta are located here; what’s more, the abundant rice fields of Can Tho Province are never far away, and at the inter-sections of the canals and rivers that thread between them are some of the delta’s best-known floating markets. Can Tho was the last city to succumb to the North Vietnamese Army, a day after the fall of Saigon, on May 1, 1975 – the date that has come to represent the reunification of the country.
Bridging the Delta
The Mekong River deposits tons of fertile earth on the delta each year, making the region’s produce so abundant, but it also provides a barrier to swift travel, forcing drivers to queue for hours to cross its countless channels by slow, lumbering ferries. In the late 1990s a plan was hatched to build huge bridges at three key points in the delta – My Thuan, My Tho and Can Tho – in order to cut down journey times. The first of these, at My Thuan, crossing the Tien Giang, opened in 2000 and immediately slashed hours off journey times. The second, linking My Tho and Ben Tre, suffered delays but finally opened in early 2009. The third and biggest project, crossing the widest of the Mekong’s nine arms (the Hau Giang) at Can Tho, was the scene of a tragic accident in September 2007 when a 90-metre section of an approach ramp collapsed, killing more than 50 workers. Construction was delayed for a while but is now in full swing again and this most important of the delta’s bridges should finally be complete by 2010.
Arrival, information and city transport
Construction began in 2005 on the much-touted bridge across the Hau Giang River to Can Tho (see "Bridging the Delta"), but until its completion, probably in 2010, all visitors have to approach the city by ferry. Buses from all destinations currently roll off the ferry and into Can Tho’s bus station, 1200m northwest of town at the junction of Nguyen Trai and Hung Vuong; a xe om into town costs around 10,000đ.
For information about boat trips and other local attractions, drop in at the helpful Can Tho Tourist at 20 Hai Ba Trung (0710/382 1852, [email protected]). Can Tho Tourist tour boats along the river and to the markets depart from the tourist jetty (“Ben Tau Du Lich”), as do evening river cruises (daily 8–9.30pm; 10,000đ), which feature Vietnamese music.
Accommodation
Hai Ba Trung and Chau Van Liem together form the axis of Can Tho’s healthy hotel scene, with the more expensive and mid-range properties clustered around the northern end of Hai Ba Trung, and budget places located around Chau Van Liem and streets further south. If you’d rather stay in a rural setting than amid the downtown bustle, consider the Victoria or the more affordable My Khanh Village(see "Boat trips and floating markets"). Xe om drivers at the bus station will try to take you to a hotel of their choice (thus receiving a small commission), so be firm if you know where you want to go.
Victoria Can Tho Cai Khe Ward 0710/381 0111, www.victoriahotels.asia. Built and furnished in classic French-colonial style but with all the modern facilities you’d expect from the delta’s first international standard hotel. It’s set in a grand riverside location opposite the town and surrounded by lush tropical growth. US$151 and overThe City
Though its boat trips (see "Boat trips and floating markets") are the main reason for visiting Can Tho, a handful of lesser diversions on dry land will help keep you amused in the meantime. Broad Hoa Binh is the city’s backbone, and the site of the impressive Can Tho Museum, 1 Hoa Binh (Tues–Thurs 8–11am & 2–5pm, Sat & Sun 8–11am & 6.30–9pm; free), which presents “the history of the resistance against foreign aggression of Can Tho people”, as well as local economic and social achievements.
The 1946-built Munirangsyaram Pagoda, 250m southwest of the museum, warrants examination only if the more impressive Khmer pagodas around Tra Vinh or Soc Trang aren’t on your itinerary. Entrance into the pagoda compound is through a top-heavy stone gate weighed down with masonry reminiscent of Angkor Wat, but there is little to see inside apart from a few plaster Buddha images.
The waterfront
Walking east of Munirangsyaram Pagoda for five minutes, along Nguyen Thai Hoc, deposits you bang in the middle of the city’s riverside promenade, which extends along Hai Ba Trung. The whole riverfront has been cleaned up in recent years, and the promenade is now lined by beds of plants and stone seats: the old market has also been replaced by a covered area with souvenir stalls and an excellent restaurant. As with most delta towns, this riverside area gets crowded in the evenings as locals come out for a stroll in the cooler air.
Heading north along Hai Ba Trung, an imposing silver statue of a waving Uncle Ho greets you on the promenade. Just north of this is Ong Pagoda, a prosperous place built in the late nineteenth century by wealthy Chinese townsman Huynh An Thai. Inside, a ruddy-faced Quan Cong presides, flaunting Rio Carnival-style headgear. On his left is Than Tai, to whom a string of families come on the first day of every month, asking for money and good fortune. On his right is Thien Hau, Goddess of the Sea. There’s also a small chamber dedicated to Quan Am to the left of the main hall. Waterfront cafés will rustle up a fresh coconut or a pot of green tea to clear the incense smoke out of your lungs, and from your seat you can watch the relentless sampan traffic of the Can Tho River.
Eating
Can Tho is well endowed with good, affordable restaurants, most serving Vietnamese food, though there are plenty that also offer international dishes. Those along Hai Ba Trung target a primarily foreign market, while locals tend to patronize places around the market and along Nam Ky Khoi Nghia.
Mekong Restaurant 38 Hai Ba Trung. This long-established favourite is still hard to top for its cheap, flavoursome Vietnamese and Chinese meals, as well as succulent chateaubriand steaks for around 70,000đ. There is also a good vegetarian selection. 8am–2pm & 4–10pm.Sao Hom Hai Ba Trung. This tastefully decorated, open-sided riverfront place serves an appealing menu of Vietnamese and Western dishes that features items such as sauteed pumpkin flowers with garlic. Draft beer, wines, cocktails, coffee and ice cream too. 5am–11pm.Listings
Boat trips and floating markets
Every morning an armada of boats takes to the web of waterways spun across Can Tho Province and makes for one of its floating markets. Everything your average villager could ever need is on sale, from haircuts to coffins, though predictably fruit and vegetables make up most of what’s on offer. Each boat’s produce is identifiable by a sample hanging off a bamboo mast in its bow, but it’s difficult to get colourful pictures as the produce is stored below. Among the flotilla of craft are ancient luggers piled so high they seem sure to sink, and sampans whose oarsmen and women stand up to strain against their scissor-oars. Few boats are painted, so photographers will have to rely on the glimpses of fruit for splashes of colour.
Of the three major nearby markets, two are west of the city. The most commonly visited, 7km out of Can Tho, is Cai Rang, but you’ll have to be prepared to queue up with all the other tourist boats before you can weave among the fervent waterborne activity, with drinks vendors clamouring to make a sale. This market is particularly active on Sundays.
Another 10km west and you’re at modest Phong Dien, whose appeal is that it sees relatively few tourists and so the locals are correspondingly friendly. If you wish to stay longer here, the purpose-built My Khanh Village (0710/384 6260, www.mykhanh.com; US$21–50), is nearby at 335 Lo Vong Cung, with wooden bungalows in a shady setting and a good-sized pool. Its attractions include an ancient house, a pond full of crocodiles, caged monkeys and a pig-racing track, plus a pony and trap to take visitors round the site. There are also demonstrations on making rice cakes and brewing wine, and traditional musicians perform in the evenings.
To get to Phung Hiep market, 32km south of Can Tho, on the road to Soc Trang, it’s better to go by car or motorbike to arrive early and take a walk through the narrow lanes of the colourful street market, where you’ll see mounds of longans and custard apples, squid and crab, paper flowers, baguettes and chillies, before making your way to the river. Here, dozens of boats jostle and bump along the water’s edge, their owners shouting out to advertise their wares. There is a good view of the maelstrom from Phung Hiep Bridge, which carries the main road across the river. This was once a main centre for buying and selling snakes, but dwindling numbers have forced the government to ban this trade.
Practicalities
Most organized tours take you to Cai Rang or Phong Dien early in the morning, then make a leisurely return to the city, via the maze of picturesque canals and orchards that surround it, usually stopping to sample star fruit and sapodilla, longan and rambutan along the way. Can Tho Tourist (see "Arrival, information and city transport") charges between 150,000–250,000đ per person for such a tour, depending on the itinerary and type of boat. As usual, unofficial boat operators are cheaper, charging about 50,000đ per hour for a simple sampan: women prowl for customers along Hai Ba Trung, and some can be friendly and informative, but be on the lookout for scams. Phong Dien and Phung Hiep are more easily reached by hiring an xe om (about 80,000đ and 150,000đ return respectively), then renting a sampan for an hour’s rowing (about 50,000–60,000đ) among the buyers and sellers.
Around Can Tho: Binh Tuy Temple and The Duong Home
Just six kilometres north of Can Tho along the road to Long Xuyen (about 40,000đ return by xe om) is the Binh Tuy Temple (daily 7.30–10.30am & 1.30–5.30pm; free), which began life in the nineteenth century as a dinh, or communal house for travellers to rest in. The present building dates back to 1909, and immediately catches the eye with its green-tiled eaves framed by frangipani trees. Though it appears small from outside, the cool interior runs very deep, and the walls are decorated with images of Chinese gods and Vietnamese heroes. Between the sturdy wooden pillars are several altars, with some ghoulish characters guarding one of them with axes raised.
Down a side street opposite Binh Tuy Temple, at 26/1a Bui Huu Nghia, is the beautiful Duong Home, which was used in the 1992 filming of The Lover(see "A different perspective"). A classic example of French colonial architecture, its shuttered windows and elaborate stucco decorations conceal a spacious living room featuring period furnishings with mother-of-pearl inlay. The affable owner is often on hand to show visitors round, and the adjacent orchid garden contains what is thought to be the tallest cactus in the country.
Moving on from Can Tho
Onward routes from Can Tho either veer up to Long Xuyen, Chau Doc and the Cambodian border, or follow Highway 1 to Soc Trang and on to Ca Mau. There’s a speedboat to Ca Mau (see "Ca Mau and around"), which departs from the jetty just below the Ho Chi Minh statue (4hr; about 100,000đ) with several departures each morning. Speedboats to Ho Chi Minh City (4hr; about 250,000đ) leave from the Ninh Kieu jetty at the northern end of Hai Ba Trung.
Soc Trang
Straddled across an oily branch of the Mekong, SOC TRANG lacks the panache of other delta towns, though on the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month (Nov–Dec) the town springs to life as thousands converge to see traditional Khmer boats (thuyen dua) racing each other during the Oc Om Boc festival.
Khmer pagodas are ten-a-penny in this region of the delta, with one of the most impressive, the Khleang Pagoda, located right in the middle of town on Nguyen Chi Thanh. It is surrounded by a two-tiered terrace, and the doors and windows are adorned with traditional Khmer motifs in greens, reds and golds. Inside is a wonderfully reposeful golden Sakyamuni statue, though unfortunately, the doors are often locked. Directly opposite the pagoda at 23 Nguyen Chi Thanh, the Khmer Museum (Mon–Sat 7–11am & 1–5pm; free), houses some low-key exhibits including stringed instruments made of snakeskin and coconut husks, and some wonderfully colourful food covers, shaped like conical hats, but with a stippled surface.
Soc Trang’s Khleang Pagoda
Head north from here along Mau Than 68 for a few minutes, and on the right you’ll see Dat Set Pagoda, aka Buu Son Tu Pagoda. Constructed almost entirely from clay, with a smart sheet-metal roof to keep the rain off, Dat Set makes a welcome change from the more numerous Khmer pagodas in this region of the delta. Chinese visitors flock here to see the pagoda’s impressive and highly colourful collection of clay statues; many are life-size, with animals and figures from Chinese mythology being the most popular subjects. The pagoda is also home to some truly gargantuan candles that look like pillars, weigh around 200kg each and are said to last for seventy years of continuous burning.
Located a short way south of the town centre, Mahatup Pagoda, aka Bat Pagoda, is famed for its vast community of golden-bodied fruit bats, which spectacularly take to the skies at dusk. Plan to get here around 5.30pm and as the drop in temperature wakes them you’ll see the bats spinning, preening and flapping their matt-black wings – some have a span of 1.5m. Khmer monks have worshipped at this site for four hundred years, though the present pagoda is only a hundred years old. Inside, bright murals bearing the names of the Khmer communities around the world that financed them recount the life of the Buddha. Outside, look out for the graves of four pigs behind the large hall to the right opposite the pagoda, each of which had five toenails (pigs usually have four). Since such animals are believed to bring bad luck, they are honoured with well-tended resting places to ward off any evil tendencies. The tombstones are painted with their likenesses and the dates of their passing on. To get to the pagoda, go 2km south of town along Le Hong Phong, then turn right at a fork beside a small market and continue another 800m. Cars are not allowed on the last few hundred metres, so you’ll have to walk or hop on one of many waiting xe om.
Practicalities
The waterway running roughly west to east splits Soc Trang in two, with most of the town nestling on its south bank. The town’s spine is Hai Ba Trung, which runs across the water, before becoming Tran Hung Dao on the southern outskirts. The bus station is at the northern end of town on Nguyen Chi Thanh. Soc Trang Tourist, at 104 Le Loi (daily 7–11am & 1–5pm; 079/382 2024), can usually help with local information. The post office is in the centre of town at 1 Tran Hung Dao, and has internet access. There’s an ATM in front of the Khanh Hung Hotel.
If you have your own transport, the best place to stay is a few kilometres out of town at km2127 on Highway 1 – the Ngoc Suong (079/361 3108, www.ngocsuonghotel.com; US$21–50) has a range of comfortable rooms, with a pool and tennis court; the cheaper rooms at the back are particularly good value. At 89 Highway 1, just on the northern fringe of town, the Vinh Thong (079/326 2111; US$11–20) is a smart new, six-storey mini-hotel with wi-fi, cable TV and a top-floor café. In the centre of town, the Khanh Hung Hotel (079/382 1026; US$10 and under–20), at 15 Tran Hung Dao, has 55 rooms ranging from basic and cheap to carpeted suites that have seen better days. A block west, at 128 Nguyen Trung Truc, the Que Huong (079/361 6122; US$11–20) is a newer place with spacious, well-equipped rooms and wi-fi in the lobby.
Eating options are limited, as the town is not really geared up for independent travellers. One very popular place among locals is Hung, north of the river at 24 Hung Vuong (down a small lane), which serves various dishes with rice, although its speciality is steamboat. Alternatively, Hang Ky, at 67 Hung Vuong in the northwest corner of town, turns out tasty Vietnamese staple dishes on rice. For a snack, Lap Hung, at 134 Ly Thuong Kiet, serves the local speciality banh bia, a round cake with a filling made from sweetened beans or durian – something of an acquired taste.
Bac Lieu
Beyond Soc Trang the landscape becomes progressively more waterlogged and water palms hug the banks of the waterways that criss-cross it. A little over 40km southwest of Soc Trang, Highway 1 dips south towards the crown of BAC LIEU, before veering off west to Ca Mau. It may be the back end of nowhere, but Bac Lieu’s prosperity is evident in new shopping complexes and upmarket homes around the centre. The source of this prosperity is overseas Vietnamese, many of whom hail from this region. The town may not boast sights to set the pulse racing, but it’s got the only accommodation between Soc Trang and Ca Mau, and the Bac Lieu Bird Sanctuary (daily 7.30am–5pm; 15,000đ), 6km southwest of town towards the coast, is well worth the visit. There is an observation tower and paths among the cajeput forest, along which local guides can lead you. Lots of birds can be seen here from July to December, but there is little to see from January to June. Guides will appreciate a tip, even if their English skills are limited.
Practicalities
The Bac Lieu Tourist Company, at 2 Hoang Van Thu (daily 7–11am & 1–5pm; 0781/392 2922, 0781/382 4273), is conveniently situated next to the Bac Lieu hotel, and the staff are reasonably helpful with local information. The post office is in the centre of town at 20 Tran Phu, and a little further along the road at no. 82 is Sacombank, where you can exchange money. There’s an ATM conveniently located in front of the Bac Lieu. The bus station is 1.5km west of town, and xe om shuttle back and forth to the centre. Moving on, it’s best to get back on Highway 1 and flag down express buses passing through.
The town’s main hotel, Bac Lieu (0781/395 9697; US$11–30), in the centre of town at 4–6 Hoang Van Thu, has clean but dull rooms, complete with air-conditioning, cable TV and hot water. For more character, head next door to the Cong Tu (0781/395 3304; US$11–30), whose main entrance is on the riverside at 13 Dien Bien Phu: this palatial colonial villa has just ten rooms with fancy furnishings and high ceilings. Kieu Hoi, 8 Ly Tu Trong (0781/395 8080; US$11–20), is slightly cheaper though its surroundings are distinctly drab.
The Bac Lieu’s ground-floor restaurant offers set menus as well as a la carte dishes at around $3–4, while the cafe at the Cong Tu is much more atmospheric, though its menu is long on drinks and short on food. Your best option for nightlife is to join the overseas Vietnamese at Kitty, on the corner of Ba Trieu and Tran Phu: this first-floor bar wouldn’t look out of place in Ho Chi Minh City and serves expensive cocktails, beers and coffee, as well as a reasonable range of Vietnamese dishes.
Ca Mau and around
With its left shoulder braced against the Bac Lieu Canal, Highway 1 now heads westwards from Bac Lieu towards the Ca Mau Peninsula, which constitutes not only the end of mainland Vietnam but of Southeast Asia as well. In this part of the country, waterways are the most efficient means of travel – a point pressed home by the slender ferries moored in all the villages the road passes. Much of this pancake-flat region of the delta is composed of silt deposited by the Mekong, and the swamplands covering portions of it are home to a variety of wading birds. In addition to rice cultivation, shrimp farming is a major local concern – along the way you’re sure to spot shrimp ponds, demarcated by mud banks that have been baked and cracked crazily by the sun.
CA MAU itself, Vietnam’s southernmost town of any size, has a frontier feel to it, though rapid development is changing that fast. Things have changed since 1989 when travel writer Justin Wintle described it as a “scrappy clutter…a backyard town in a backyard province”, though there are still pockets of squalor between the glitzy new buildings. Ca Mau sprawls across a vast area, with broad boulevards connected by pot-holed lanes and a couple of busy bridges spanning the canal that splits the town in two.
As yet, few Western travellers visit Ca Mau, which is hardly surprising; it is nearly 350km from Saigon and until recently was a dead-end destination. However, there are now speedboats to Rach Gia that cover the journey in less than three hours, and improvements to Highway 63 make the journey by road less arduous, so incorporating Ca Mau in a circular tour of the delta is now a possibility.
Arrival and information
Vasco Airlines (www.vasco.com.vn) operates a daily flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Ca Mau airport, a few kilometres southeast of town on Highway 1. Almost next door is the bus station, where buses from Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho and other destinations pull up: a xe om into town will cost about 20,000đ. Minh Hai Tourist (0780/383 1828, 0780/383 7022), at 91–93 Phan Dinh Phung, has helpful staff for local information and can arrange a tour of the region, as well as car and speedboat rental for trips to outlying areas. You’ll need a sizeable group to make hiring a boat economical, as rates are quite high (at least $100 per day).
To exchange traveller’s cheques or cash, Vietinbank is at 94 Ly Thuong Kiet (Mon–Fri 7.30–11am & 1.30–4.30pm); it also has an ATM. The main post office (daily 6am–10pm) is opposite Vietinbank, on Luu Tan Tai; internet is available here, as well as at 68 Nguyen Trai.
Accommodation
Ca Mau’s hotel scene has improved in recent years and there are now plenty of options, including a cluster of long-standing places along Phan Ngoc Hien in the centre, and some smart new alternatives on the south side of town.
Anh Nguyet (Moonlight) 207 Phan Ngoc Hien 0780/356 7666, 0780/356 7547. The exterior may not look much, but the plush, carpeted rooms with stylish furnishings and excellent facilities make this Ca Mau’s most luxurious place to stay. US$21–75The Town
The town is bordered by the Ganh Hao River, which snakes past as though trying to wriggle free before the encroaching stilthouses squeeze the life from it. Lurking along the north bank of the Phung Hiep Canal, which divides the town, is the rag-tag squall of the market, a shantytown of corrugated iron, canvas and sacking. There is little to see in town itself, though the Cao Dai Temple on Phan Ngoc Hien near the canal, is worth a look for its ornate towers, and a couple of parks opposite the temple offer shady areas to escape the bustle of town.
Just a couple of kilometres west of the centre (about 20,000đ for a xe om) lies the town’s most intriguing attraction, at least during the rainy season (July–Nov). The Cultural Park on Ly Van Lam (daily dawn–dusk; 4000đ) is something of a misnomer; it is, in fact, a bird sanctuary teeming with storks and many other birds that nest in the trees in easily observed fenced-off areas. The huge park also has a mini zoo featuring elephants, monkeys, deer and other animals, as well as lots of pavilions and picnic spots.
Owners of small boats at Boat Station B will take you a couple of kilometres downstream to see Ca Mau’s small floating markets for around 30,000đ a person. The two-kilometre journey gives a taste of riverine life, passing factories, a fish market and warehouses, plus lots of flotsam and jetsam, on the way to see a string of boats advertising their produce by suspending a sample from sticks above their bows. A definite risk on this trip is getting splashed by the wake of huge ferries speeding by. The round trip takes around thirty to forty minutes.
Eating
The restaurant at the Anh Nguyet Hotel has tasty food and a relaxing ambience. On the north side of town, Pho Xua at 126d Phan Ngoc Hien is set in traditional pavilions with wooden pillars around a shady garden. It has a fairly extensive menu in English and plenty of seafood options. For basic and cheap rice and noodle dishes, it’s difficult to beat the central Trieu Phat, 22 Phan Ngoc Hien, though you’ll need your phrasebook to understand the menu. If you’re looking for a snack in town, head for Huong Nam, at 21 De Tham, where you can get a sandwich or cake to take away, then drop into the nearby coffeeshop at 17 De Tham and wash it down with a strong coffee or soft drink.
Around Ca Mau
The marshes circling Ca Mau form one of the largest areas of swampland in the world, covering about 150,000 hectares. The Ca Mau Peninsula was a stronghold of resistance against France and America, and for this it paid a heavy price, as US planes dumped millions of gallons of Agent Orange over it to rob guerrillas of jungle cover. Further damage has been done by the shrimp-farm industry, but pockets of mangrove and cajeput forests remain, inhabited by sea birds, wading birds, waterfowl and also honey bees, attracted by the mangrove blossoms.
Minh Hai Tourist (see "Arrival and information") can arrange boat trips to several destinations around town, but with prices beginning at well over $100 per boat, travelling in a group makes it much more feasible. A much cheaper way of going about is to hop on a public ferry or speedboat to an outlying settlement, and rent a boat there. You will need some basic language skills for this, and must be prepared for intense haggling over prices. Local boatmen begin by asking sky-high prices, though most will accept 100,000–150,000đ per hour, depending on the size of the boat.
Boats from Ca Mau
The most useful boat services are to be found at the speedboat jetty, located on the south side of town at 162 Phan Boi Chau. From here you can get to Rach Gia in under three hours for about $6, to Nam Can in 1 hour 15 minutes for around $3, or to Dat Mui (for Cape Ca Mau) in 3 hours for about $5. Regular ferries heading north (apart from Rach Gia) leave from Boat Station A (“Ben Tau A”), a few kilometres west of the centre, while vessels heading south and for Rach Gia depart from Boat Station B, 2km south of the town, on the west bank of the Ganh Hao River. This is also the spot to take a boat to the floating market, and is worth a look for its constant bustle even if you’re not going anywhere. For Can Tho (3hr; $6), you’ll need to go to Cong Ca Mau jetty, about 3km east of town.
Mui Ca Mau
This voyage to the end of the earth may not quite be a Jules Verne epic, but it’s a fun and satisfying way to pass a day, as you get to visit not only the southernmost point of Vietnam but also the end of mainland Southeast Asia. Take a speedboat from the speedboat jetty in Ca Mau to Dat Mui and join in the throng of life in the delta. The boats can get pretty crowded, but if you’re lucky you might get a window seat to look out on the houses, shacks and boats that line the river. On arrival in Dat Mui, either rent a local boat or hop on a xe om (about 30,000đ return) to Mui Ca Mau (Cape Ca Mau) through a mangrove swamp for the last few kilometres.
Once at the cape, you have to pay 10,000đ to enter the national park, after which you can take a photo of yourself standing beside a boat-shaped monument marking the latitude (8 degrees north) and longitude (104 degrees east) of this remote location, then gaze out over the endless ocean and the mountainous Khoai Island just off the coast. There’s even a look-out tower from where you can get good views over the mangrove forests, and a restaurant on stilts over the water.
U Minh Forest
Heading northwest from Ca Mau, ferries leave Boat Station A regularly throughout the day to U Minh, famous for its cajeput forests. Lining the ferry route are water palms, modest groves of cajeput and fish traps consisting of triangles of bamboo sticks driven into the riverbed. From U Minh’s jetty it is about 5km further to the forest. Ask a boatman to take you to “Rung U Minh Ha” or tell them you want to see the cajeput forest, “rung tram”. About an hour or two should be sufficient, as the boats are uncovered (take a hat and brolly for the sun or rain) and the landscape doesn’t vary. The slender white trunks of the cajeput thrive in U Minh’s marshy, coffee-coloured waters, and gliding through them in a boat would be a truly tranquil experience if it were not for the racket of the boat engine. Along the way, you may spot bright blue birds flitting over the water, or, depending on the season, apiarists collecting honeycombs from the trees, which attract bees in huge numbers when they are in flower.
Long Xuyen and around
Some 60km (an hour’s drive) northwest of Can Tho, LONG XUYEN attracts few foreign visitors, though the unusual cathedral, the well-organized museum, Tiger Island and the nearby stork garden are all worth a look. Dominating the town is the spire of the concrete cathedral, on Nguyen Hué, shaped in the form of two upstretched arms whose hands clasp a cross. Unfortunately the church is often locked, but if you can get inside check out the numerous tiny portals that shed light on the dim-lit interior, illuminating gilt Stations of the Cross, and another giant pair of hands over the altar, clutching a globe.
At the other end of Nguyen Hué, you’ll find the dragon-stalked roofs of the grandest building in town, the My Phuoc Communal Hall, which has carved pillars and embroidered banners in its temple-like interior. Nearby is a very large statue of a meek-looking Ton Duc Thang: born locally, he was successor to Ho Chi Minh as president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, giving the town its main claim to fame. You can visit his birthplace and childhood home at My Hoa Hung Village on Tiger Island, accessible by ferry (2000đ) from the eastern end of Nguyen Hué. Here you will find the Ton Duc Thang Exhibition House (daily 7–11am & 1–5pm; free), which displays well-presented photos and memorabilia such as the leg irons he wore in Con Dao prison, the prime-ministerial bicycle and the plane that took him from Hanoi to Saigon in 1975 to celebrate victory. The island is very tranquil and unspoilt, and home-stays here can be arranged through An Giang Tourist (see "Practicalities").
Also worth a look, particularly for its display of Oc Eo relics (see "Oc Eo and the Funan Empire"), is the An Giang Museum (Tues–Sun 7.30–11am & 1.30–5pm; about 15,000đ) housed in a grand edifice at 11 Ton Duc Thang on the corner of Ly Thuong Kiet in the northern part of town. On the first floor the focus is on the different religions practised in the region – Catholicism, Buddhism and Hoa Hao. On the second floor is a treasure trove of remnants of Oc Eo culture. Among the exhibits are a large lingam and a wooden Buddha that is so decayed it is now almost unrecognizable, as well as delicate items of gold jewellery. Other displays focus on minority culture, particularly the Cham, and the inevitable documenting of the local revolutionary movement and battles against the French and Americans. Unfortunately, there are no signs in English.
South of Long Xuyen is one of the Mekong Delta’s best stork sanctuaries, the Bang Lang Stork Garden (daily 6am–6pm; 6000đ), with thousands of birds wheeling, swooping and squabbling over nesting places. Wearing a hat might help as the site is smothered with their droppings. To get there, head about 15km along Highway 91 towards Can Tho, then just before a small bridge, take a lane on the right marked “Ap Van Hoa Thoi An”, which leads through a few kilometres of idyllic countryside to the sanctuary: a xe om from Long Xuyen will cost around 80,000–100,000đ for the round-trip.
A few kilometres north of Long Xuyen on Highway 91 to Chau Doc, look out for the incense factories, where the sticks are spread out to dry along the roadside, often arranged in photogenic circles.
Practicalities
Most buses stop on Tran Hung Dao about a kilometre to the south of town, though local buses, including some from Chau Doc, pull up at the bus station about 2km to the north of town, also on Tran Hung Dao. Travelling to and from Cao Lanh by ferry, you’ll come via Choi Moi Isle – to the east – and the An Hoa Ferry terminal, at the end of Ly Thai To in the centre of town.
The main office of An Giang Tourist is at 17 Nguyen Van Cung (daily 7–11am & 1–5pm; 076/384 1036, [email protected]), and the staff are helpful with local information. Vietnam Airlines’ office is located in the Dong Xuyen hotel, which also has an ATM. Vietinbank, just north of the Long Xuyen hotel on Luong Van Cu, can exchange money and also has an ATM. There is internet access at 81 Nguyen Hué, though the entrance is round the corner on Luong Van Cu. Long Xuyen’s post office (daily 6am–10pm) is at 106 Tran Hung Dao, to the north of the centre. The town’s hospital is also north of the centre on Le Loi.
Accommodation
The fanciest-looking place to stay is the Dong Xuyen (076/394 2260, [email protected]; US$21–50), at 9a Luong Van Cu. It occupies almost an entire block and boasts sauna, jacuzzi and carpeted rooms with all facilities, though the service is rather sloppy. A reasonable alternative, at 5–9 Thi Sach, is the Kim Anh Hotel (076/394 2551, [email protected]; US$11–20), an eight-storey block with comfy rooms and a palatial suite on the top floor. There are cheaper, well-maintained rooms in the ageing Long Xuyen, 19 Nguyen Van Cung (076/384 1927, [email protected]; US$11–20), and even cheaper ones (some with fan) at the Thai Binh 2, 4–8 Nguyen Hué (076/384 1859, 076/384 6451; US$10 and under–20), but try not to get put near the karaoke rooms here.
Eating
The most reliable restaurant in town is at the Long Xuyen hotel, which serves specialities such as snake, turtle, pigeon and eel, as well as more familiar items like chicken and pork. On Nguyen Trai, Tien Com Huynh Loi, at no. 252/1, has delicious, cheap, rice dishes and bun bo Hué served in clean surroundings. Round the corner, at 242/4 Luong Van Cu, the smart Hong Phat has tasty Chinese and Vietnamese fish and meat dishes.
Oc Eo and the Funan Empire
Between the first and sixth centuries AD, the western side of the Mekong Delta, southern Cambodia and much of the Gulf of Siam’s seaboard came under the sway of the Indianized Funan Empire, an early forerunner of the great Angkor civilization. The heavily romanticized annals of contemporary Chinese diplomats describe how the Funan Empire was forged when an Indian Brahmin visiting the region married the daughter of a local serpent-god, and how the serpent rendered the region suitable for cultivation by drinking down the waters of the flood plains. Such fables are grounded in truth: Indian traders would have halted here to pick up victuals en route from India to China, and would have disseminated not only their Hindu beliefs, but also their advanced irrigation and wet-rice cultivation methods.
One of Funan’s major trading ports, Oc Eo, was located between Long Xuyen and Rach Gia. In common with other Funan cities, Oc Eo was ringed by a moat and consisted of wooden dwellings raised off the ground on piles. Given the discovery of Persian, Egyptian, Indian and Chinese artefacts (and even a gold coin depicting the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius) at Oc Eo sites, the port must have played host to a fair number of traders from around the world. The ancient ruins of Oc Eo lie about 30km southwest of Long Xuyen, but there’s nothing left to see there: even the provincial tourist office advises against visiting the site, but if you are really determined, contact An Giang Tourist (see "Practicalities"). To view artefacts from the site, visit the museums at Long Xuyen and Rach Gia, or the Fine Arts Museum in Ho Chi Minh City (see "South of Ben Thanh").
The Funan Empire finally disappeared in the seventh century, when it was absorbed into the adjacent Chen La Empire (see "Some history").
Chau Doc and around
Since the opening of the border to Cambodia a few kilometres north of town, CHAU DOC has boomed in popularity, and is the only place apart from Can Tho where you are likely to see foreigners in any numbers. Snuggled against the west bank of the Hau Giang River, the town came under Cambodian rule until it was awarded to the Nguyen lords in the mid-eighteenth century for their help in putting down a localized rebellion. The area sustains a large Khmer community, which combines with local Cham and Chinese to form a diverse social melting pot. Just as diverse is Chau Doc’s religious make-up: as well as Buddhists, Catholics and Muslims, the region supports an estimated 1.5 million devotees of the indigenous Hoa Hao religion (see "The Hoa Hao religion"). Forays by Pol Pot’s genocidal Khmer Rouge into this corner of the delta led to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978.
Arrival, information and town transport
Buses offload 2km southeast of town at the bus station on Le Loi, from where xe om run into town (about 10,000đ). Chau Giang is reached by ferry from the jetty opposite the church on Le Loi.
The state-run An Giang Tourist does not have an office in Chau Doc, but most hotel and guesthouse owners can help out with local information, as well as arrange local excursions and onward travel, including boat services to and from Phnom Penh. Both Mekong Tours (076/386 8222, www.mekongvietnam.com), 14 Nguyen Huu Canh, and Delta Adventure (076/356 3810, www.deltaadventuretours.com) at 53 Le Loi offer half-day trips to a fish farm and Cham village (about $12 per person), and day-trips to Tuc Dup (about $25 per person). They also sell minibus tickets to Ho Chi Minh City ($10) or Can Tho ($6), as does the tour desk at Vinh Phuoc hotel, another useful source of local information.
Accommodation
As one of the Delta’s most popular destinations, Chau Doc has a range of accommodation ranging from windowless hovels up to luxury quarters with river views, air-conditioning and TV. It’s even possible to sleep on the river at the Delta Floating Hotel.
The Hoa Hao religion
Sited 20km east of Chau Doc, the diminutive village of Hoa Hao lent its name to a unique religious movement at the end of the 1930s. The Hoa Hao Buddhist sect was founded by the village’s most famous son, Huynh Phu So. A sickly child, Huynh was placed in the care of a hermitic monk under whom he explored both conventional Buddhism and more arcane spiritual disciplines. In 1939, at the age of 20, a new brand of Buddhism was revealed to him in a trance. Upon waking, Huynh found he was cured of his congenital illness, and began publicly to expound his breakaway theories, which advocated purging worship of all the clutter of votives, priests and pagodas, and paring it down to simple unmediated communication betwen the individual and the Supreme Being. The faith has a fairly strong ascetic element, with alcohol, drugs and gambling all discouraged. Peasants were drawn to the simplicity of the sect, and by rumours that Huynh was a faith healer in possession of prophetic powers.
Almost immediately, the Hoa Hao developed a political agenda, and established a militia to uphold its fervently nationalist, anti-French and anti-Communist beliefs. The Japanese army of occupation, happy to keep the puppet French administration it had allowed to remain nominally in charge of Vietnam on its toes, provided the sect with arms. For themselves, the French regarded the Hoa Hao with suspicion: Huynh they labelled the “Mad Monk”, imprisoning him in 1941 and subsequently confining him to a psychiatric hospital – where he promptly converted his doctor. By the time of his eventual release in 1945, the sect’s uneasy alliance with the Viet Minh, which had been forged during World War II in recognition of their common anti-colonial objectives, was souring, and two years later Viet Minh agents assassinated him. The sect battled on until the mid-Fifties when Diem’s purge of dissident groups took hold; its guerrilla commander, Ba Cut, was captured and beheaded in 1956, and by the end of the decade most members had been driven underground. Though in the early Sixties some of these resurfaced in the Viet Cong, the Hoa Hao never regained its early dynamism, and any lingering military or political presence was erased by the Communists after 1975.
Today there are thought to be somewhere approaching 1.5 million Hoa Hao worshippers in Vietnam, concentrated mostly around Chau Doc and Long Xuyen. Some male devotees still sport the distinctive long beards and hair tied in a bun that traditionally distinguished a Hoa Hao adherent.
The Town
The obvious place to begin an exploration of Chau Doc is at its covered market, where the overspill of stalls and street vendors spreads from Quang Trung to Tran Hung Dao, and from Doc Phu Thu to Nguyen Van Thoai. This is one of the delta’s biggest markets and is packed with a phenomenal range of produce, much of which is unfamiliar to Western eyes. Even if you have explored other markets in the region, it’s well worth picking your way through the rows of neatly stacked stalls of fresh produce, household goods, fish and flowers.
To the east of the covered market, stalls are crammed into narrow alleyways which run towards the river, where you’re greeted by a multitude of bobbing boats and waterside activities. On Doc Phu Thu and a few other streets in town, colonial relics are still evident, but their grand shophouse terraces, flaunting arched upper-floor windows and awnings propped up by decorous wrought-iron struts, are interspersed with characterless new edifices.
A four-tiered gateway deep in the belly of the open market announces Quan Cong Temple. Beyond the courtyard, two rooftop dragons oversee its entrance and the outer walls’ vivid murals. Inside the temple is the red visage of Quan Cong, sporting green robe and bejewelled crown, and surrounded by a sequin-studded red velvet canopy. A few steps southeast through the market stalls along Tran Hung Dao, the lofty chambers of Chau Phu Temple offer a cool respite from the heat outside, and fans of gilt woodwork will find much to divert them. From this temple down to the Victoria Chau Doc, a narrow park borders the river. It features a tall statue celebrating the local catfish, and makes a pleasant place for a breezy stroll in the morning or evening. Just south of the Victoria is the tourist jetty where most boat tours leave from, and about 1km beyond on the opposite side of Le Loi, is St Laurence’s Church, built over the site of its previous namesake, which was established by a French missionary in the late nineteenth century. A small statue of the saint stands in the garden, while a bust of him peers out from behind a glass panel set in the spire, and statues of two local Catholic martyrs oversee the courtyard.
Eating
Chau Doc has more places to eat than most Mekong Delta towns, with a further selection of places at the base of Sam Mountain (see "Around Chau Doc"), though none is particularly outstanding and their prices are over the odds. A snack at one of the food stalls around the market, particularly on Tran Hung Dao, Chi Lang and Le Cong Thanh, is a good option if you’re strapped for cash.
Bay Bong 22 Thuong Dang Le. Delicious pork cooked in a clay pot and sweet-and-sour fish at reasonable prices.Listings
Around Chau Doc
There are a few places of interest to visit in the area around Chau Doc, including a Cham community and the brooding Sam Mountain with its kitsch pagodas.
Khmer cyclists near Chau Doc
Con Tien Island and Chau Giang District
Two settlements a stone’s throw away from Chau Doc across the Hau Giang River are worth venturing out to, and most people visit both on a half-day tour ((see "Chau Doc and around") for details). One is the cluster of fish-farm houses floating on the river next to Con Tien Island, above cages of catfish that are fed through a hatch in the floor. Fish farming is big business in the delta, and some of these cages can be over 1000 cubic metres in size.
The other settlement is a Cham community in Chau Giang District, which you can visit independently via a ferry from a jetty south of the tourist jetty on Le Loi. Here you’ll discover kampung-style wooden houses, sarongs and white prayer caps that betray the influence of Islam, as do the twin domes and pretty white minaret of the Mubarak Mosque.
Sam Mountain
Arid, brooding Sam Mountain rises dramatically from an ocean of paddy fields 5km southwest of Chau Doc. It’s known as Nui Sam to Vietnamese tourists, who flock here in their thousands to worship at its clutch of pagodas and shrines. There are lots of hotels near the base of the mountain, of which the Long Chau Resort on Sam Mountain Road, about 4km from Chau Doc (076/386 1249, [email protected]; US$10 and under–20) is a cosy option, with small, brick and thatch rooms with fan or air conditioning around a central pond with good views of the mountain. Many Western visitors, however, find the temples here distinctly tacky, and prefer to be based in Chau Doc itself, just hiring a motorbike or xe om (about $5) to ride to the top of the hill.
At the foot of the mountain the first pagoda you’ll see is kitsch, 1847-built Tay An Pagoda, the pick of the bunch, its frontage awash with portrait photographers, beggars, incense-stick vendors and bird-sellers (releasing one from captivity accrues merit). Guarding the pagoda are two elephants, one black, one white, and a shaven-headed Quan Am Thi Kinh. The number of gaudy statues inside exceeds two hundred: most are of deities and Buddhas, but an alarmingly lifelike rendering of an honoured monk sits at one of the highly varnished tables in the rear chamber. To the right of this room an annexe houses a goddess with a thousand eyes and a thousand hands, on whose mound of heads teeters a tiny Quan Am.
Chua Xu Temple, 50m to the right beyond Tay An, honours Her Holiness Lady of the Country, a stone statue said to have been found on Sam’s slopes in the early nineteenth century, though the present building, with its four-tiered, glazed green-tile roof, dates only from 1972. Inside, the Lady sits in state in a marbled chamber, resplendent in colourful gown and headdress. Glass cases in corridors either side of her are crammed to bursting with splendid garb and other offerings from worshippers, who flood here between the 23rd and 25th of the fourth lunar month, to see her ceremonially bathed and dressed. Shops in front of the temple sell colourful baskets of fruit that locals buy to offer to Her Holiness. Multi-storey Chua Hang (Cave Pagoda), a few hundred metres further along, is a popular stopping-off point for local tourists, although the tiny grotto after which the pagoda is named is rather a let-down after the sweaty ascent.
Even if the temples don’t appeal, it’s fun to walk (approx 30min) or take a xe om up the mountain itself. Turn left at the base of the mountain, then take the first turning on the right after about 300m. As you climb, you’ll pass massive boulders that seem embedded in the hillside, as well as some plaster statues of rhinos, elephants, zebras and a Tyrannosaurus rex near the top. From the top, the view of the surrounding, pancake-flat terrain is breath-taking, though the hill is, in fact, only 230 metres high. In the rainy season, the view is particularly spectacular, with lush paddy fields scored by hundreds of waterways, though in the dry season the barren landscape is hazy and less inspiring. There’s a tiny military outpost at the summit, from where you can gaze into Cambodia, and from the other side you can also look back over Chau Doc. A small refreshment stall at the top sells cool drinks in case you forgot to bring water.
Southwest to Ba Chuc and Tup Duc
With your own transport, by joining a tour (about $25; (see "Chau Doc and around")) or by hiring the services of a xe om driver (about $15–20), it’s possible to explore both Ba Chuc and Tup Duc, located in a sweep of staggeringly beautiful countryside southwest of Chau Doc. Refugees fleeing Pol Pot’s Cambodia boosted the Khmer population here in the late 1970s, and pursuit by the Khmer Rouge ended in numerous indiscriminate massacres; a grisly memorial to one of these, at the village of Ba Chuc (see "Southwest to Ba Chuc and Tup Duc"), lends a tragic focus to a trip through the region. It’s about 40km from Chau Doc to Tri Ton and another 10km or so to Ba Chuc.
After rounding Sam Mountain, the road is raised up above paddy fields that are etched by an intricate canal system. Beyond a left fork at Nha Bang, the variable road chicanes through gently sloping hills. There’s a timeless grandeur to the scenery here: distant waterways are lined by spiky thot not (sugar palm) trees, whose fronds are clustered like firework flashes, and whose fruits, reminiscent of coconuts roasted in a fire, yield a handful of translucent, edible seeds. What transport there is consists of cattle- and pony-drawn carts as well as cars and trucks. On the right the road passes a turning for Cam Mountain, the highest peak in the region at 716m. In this area, darker skins, red-and-white checked turbans and horned temples indicate you’re in Khmer territory. As you hit TRI TON, a road to your right just past the bus station signals the way to Ba Chuc.
You’ll know you’re upon BA CHUC when you pass beneath graceful glades of bamboo flanking the road. Bear right, and you’ll quickly spot the memorial to the thousands massacred in twelve days in April 1978. An unattractive concrete canopy fails to lessen the impact of the eight-sided memorial: behind its glass enclosure, the bleached skulls of the dead of Vietnam’s own “killing fields” are piled in ghoulish heaps, grouped according to age to highlight the youth and innocence of many of the dead.
Beside the memorial is a small room, where a horrific set of black-and-white photos taken just after the massacre shows buckled, abused corpses scattered around the countryside. Some of the images on display are extremely disturbing and you should not enter if you are a sensitive type. There are also a few food stalls set up to cater to visitors to the site.
Another possible side-trip from Tri Ton is to visit the former Viet Cong base at TUP DUC (daily 6am–5pm; 7000đ), a 10km drive from Tri Ton – take the right turn at the end of town. During the American war, Tup Duc gained the rather ignominious moniker “Two Million Dollar Hill”, a reference to the amount the US military is said to have spent trying to dislodge the enemy from its slopes.
Now the Vietnamese government has ploughed in money of its own in an attempt to turn it into a tourist resort, by installing pedal boats on a lake, an ostrich-breeding farm, a flower garden, a shooting range, a restaurant and refreshment kiosks at the foot of the boulder-strewn hill. There is also a small museum here, an electronic mock-up of the battle (daily 7–11am & 1–5pm) and dummies in a cave on the hill, re-creating a Viet Cong briefing scene. Kids will probably latch onto you and lead you up a stairway past the massive boulders that provided such effective cover to the Viet Cong. Squeezing through the narrow passageways formed by the jumble of boulders, it is easy to see how it made such a perfect hide-out.
It is possible to head on from here to the coast, by taking a turn to the left just before re-entering Tri Ton. The road follows a canal for about 30km with views of rice paddies and eucalyptus plantations. After crossing a big new bridge at Vam Ray, the route joins Highway 80, the main coast road, from where it is about 47km northwest to Ha Tien, or the same distance southeast to Rach Gia.
Ha Tien and around
Of all the Delta towns, HA TIEN, at the extreme northwest on the border with Cambodia, is changing the fastest: where once it received only a trickle of visitors, it now buzzes with Western travellers. In addition to the ongoing construction boom, two major factors have caused this: first, is the opening of the border to foreigners at Xa Xia, just north of Ha Tien, meaning that it’s now possible to head directly to Cambodia’s coastal towns of Kep and Sihanoukville without passing through Phnom Penh; and the second factor is the beginning of hydrofoil services to Phu Quoc, offering a shorter and cheaper route to the island than from Rach Gia. Thus this town, which until recently had an end-of-the-line feel, is coming to terms with its newfound popularity.
Arrival and information
Buses terminate at the new bus station on Highway 80 a couple of kilometres north of town and just a few kilometres from the Cambodian border post at Xa Xia: to get into town from here take a xe om (about 10,000đ). Hydrofoils to and from Ham Ninh on Phu Quoc’s east coast (1hr 30min) dock on the south bank of the To Chau River, and tickets (190,000đ) can be bought at the office at 11 Tran Hau (077/395 9060). For local information, you’ll have to rely on staff at your hotel, most of whom should have at least a smattering of English. The post office (daily 6.30am–9pm) is on To Chau a short walk north of the river and has internet access, as does the shop at 54 Tran Hau. The Vietcombank at 4 Phuong Thanh can exchange cash or traveller’s cheques, and also has an ATM. If you’re heading onto Cambodia, visas are available at the border at Xa Xia ($25), but it’s better to get one in Ho Chi Minh City to avoid any overcharging, which is a common occurrence.
Accommodation
As part of Ha Tien’s construction boom, several new hotels have opened recently, giving visitors plenty of options.
The Town
Founded by Chinese immigrant Mac Cuu in 1674, with the permission of the local Cambodian lords, Ha Tien thrived thanks to its position facing the Gulf of Thailand and astride the trade route between India and China. By the close of the seventeenth century, Siam (later Thailand) had begun to eye the settlement covetously, and Mac Cuu was forced to petition Hué for support. The resulting alliance, forged with Emperor Minh Vuong in 1708, ensured Vietnamese military backup, and the town continued to prosper. Mac Cuu died in 1735, but the familial fiefdom continued for seven generations, until the French took over in 1867. Subsequently, the town became a resistance flash-point, with Viet Minh holing up in the surrounding hills, and even sniping at French troops from the To Chau Mountain, to the south.
Central Ha Tien still has a few quaint, shuttered, colonial buildings in its backstreets, though the original market, now moved west along the riverbank, has been razed to make way for a new riverside park. The riverside is now an enjoyable place to stroll, watching fishing boats unloading along the banks, and by following Tran Hau eastwards and then continuing north on Dong Ho, you can enjoy pleasant views and often an agreeable breeze blowing off the so-called East Lake (Dong Ho). In fact, it is not a lake but a large inlet where the To Chau River flows out to the sea.
Alternatively, take a walk up Mac Thien Tich and west along Mac Cuu, to where a temple dedicated to Mac Cuu stands at the foot of the hill where he and his relatives lie buried in semicircular Chinese graves. Inside the temple, electric “incense” sticks glow constantly before Mac Cuu’s funerary tablet, keeping the memory of Ha Tien’s founding father alive. Mac Cuu’s actual grave is uppermost on the hill, guarded by two swordsmen, a white tiger and a blue dragon. From this vantage point, there are good views from the hill over the mop-tops of the coconut trees below and down to the sea.
Further up Mac Thien Tich is the colourful Tam Bao Pagoda, set in tree-lined grounds dominated by an attractive lotus pond, a huge statue of Quan Am and a large reclining Buddha. Out the back of the pagoda, said to have been founded by Mac Cuu himself, is a pretty garden tended by the resident nuns, its colourful flowers interspersed with tombs. In the rear chamber of the pagoda, a statue of the goddess with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes sits on a lurid pink lotus, while behind her are photos and funerary tablets remembering the local dead.
Eating
The waterfront Hai Van, at 4 Tran Hau, is a good choice for eating: run by the hotel of the same name, it serves up decent breakfasts and an extensive menu of Vietnamese dishes. Further along the front at 20 Tran Hau, the Xuan Thanh serves cheap Vietnamese dishes in clean surroundings, and is often busy; try the stir-fried squid with pineapple or the fried fish with lemon. For something a bit classier, the Giang Thanh, in front of the Ha Tien Hotel, serves Vietnamese and Chinese dishes in a traditional, open-sided building. Conveniently located for people-watching, the Thuy Tien, a café right by the pontoon bridge, offers coffee, soft drinks and snacks. In the evening, a night market sets up along Tran Hau, some stalls selling souvenirs and others selling seafood, attracting crowds of locals and visitors alike.
Around Ha Tien
A pleasant half or full day can be spent exploring the countryside around Ha Tien, with a convenient circular route northwest of town meaning you won’t need to backtrack. This makes an ideal bike ride and, though nowhere officially rents vehicles, most hotels can help out. Rates should be around $3 for a bike and $8 for a motorbike. Failing that, hire the services of a xe om (about 150,000đ for a half-day trip).
Strike off west along Lam Son. At the end of the road, turn left and continue straight at a small roundabout. Endless rice fields and coconut groves border the road as it kinks gently around low-lying hills towards the Cambodian border. A war cemetery serves as a landmark on the right 2.5km from town, and from here it’s another 1.5km to a left turn to Mui Nai – “Stag’s Head Peninsula” – though you’d be hard-pressed to see the silhouette of a stag’s head in of any of the surrounding hills. Take this turning, follow it to the coast and along a winding stretch of road with some beautiful views until you reach the entrance to the beach (2000đ).
A pleasant – if not idyllic – four-hundred-metre curve of sand, shaded by coconut palms and backed by lush green hills, Mui Nai beach offers reasonable swimming in clean, shallow waters. The beach is very popular among Vietnamese, and there’s even a small resort here, the Hai Dang (077/385 2878; US$11–20), with reasonable air-conditioned rooms and a restaurant too. There are a few other restaurants and beachside cafés, so you can kick back and crack open a few crabs while enjoying a fresh coconut juice or a refreshing slice of watermelon.
On leaving the beach, turn left and continue up the coast. You’ll see the 48-metre-high granite outcrop housing Thach Dong, or Stone Cave, long before you reach it; 3–4km past Mui Nai the road reaches a junction, where a left turn leads to the Cambodian border. Turn right at this junction and very shortly the road passes a cluster of food stalls that mark the entrance to the cave. A monument shaped like a defiant clenched fist stands as a memorial to 130 people killed by Khmer Rouge forces near here in 1978. Beyond this, steps lead up to a cave pagoda that’s home to a colony of bats. Its shrines to Quan Am and Buddha are unremarkable, but balconies hewn from the side of the rock afford great views over the hills, paddy fields and sea below. Look to your right and you’re peering into Cambodia. From here, continue along the circular road which brings you after a few kilometres back into Ha Tien.
Hon Chong Peninsula
Just 30km south of Ha Tien lies the Hon Chong Peninsula. A string of offshore isles has earned this region the moniker “mini-Ha Long”, but it’s as a coastal resort that it draws throngs of Vietnamese and a smattering of foreigners. The approach to the peninsula is blighted by unsightly cement factories belching out clouds of smoke, and while Hon Chong has yet to suffer any significant environmental degradation as a result of these factories, their ugly presence looms over the area and certainly detracts from its appeal. For the moment, Hon Chong’s calm waters and beaches fringed with palms and casuarinas remain among the most attractive in the delta, though they cannot compare with the beaches on Phu Quoc.
The sweep of beach in front of most of the resorts is fine for sunbathing and enjoys a decidedly unspoilt feel with few signs of tourist trappings, but is too shallow and spongy for swimming. Things are better nearer the Hon Trem Resort(see "Practicalities"), though the most picturesque beach, Bai Duong (admission 2000đ), lies 1.5km further south. After passing pandanus, tamarind and sugar-palm trees, the coastal track ends at a towering cliff, in front of which stands Sea and Mountain Pagoda (“Chua Hai Son”) and a cluster of souvenir and food stalls. After passing through the temple grounds, an opening in the rock leads into Cave Pagoda (“Chua Hong”). A low doorway leads from its outer chamber to a grotto in the cliff’s belly, where statues of Quan Am and several Buddhas are lit by coloured lights. The cramped stone corridor that runs on from here makes as romantic an approach to a beach as you could imagine, though the stench of the resident bats somewhat spoils the atmosphere.
As you hit the sand, the rugged rocks out to sea in front of you constitute Father and Son Isle (“Hon Phu Tu”), though it is now rather a misnomer as “Father”, the biggger of the two pillars of rock, fell crashing in to the sea in 2006. The beach here is reasonably attractive, though still too shallow for swimming. For a small fee (9000đ) you can join a short (45min) boat tour out to Hon Phu Tu and the nearby Hang Tien Grotto, which has some attractive stalactites and stalagmites. Nguyen Anh (later to become Gia Long) hid here while on the run after the Tay Son Rebellion, and locals have dubbed its stone plateaux as his throne, sofa, bed and so on. If there’s no-one else around, you can rent the entire boat for about 180,000đ for this short trip.
For a more luxurious boat trip around local islands, the Hon Trem Resort(See "Practicalities") can organize a full day-trip, including fishing and lunch as well as a visit to Nghe Island and the Ba Lua Archipelago, for about $150 per person.
Practicalities
Irregular buses ply the route between Hon Chong and Rach Gia (about 30,000đ). Check with Kien Giang Tourist (see "Arrival and information") for times. Coming from Ha Tien, you’ll have to take a Rach Gia-bound bus and get off at Ba Hon, then take a xe om (about 100,000đ) the last few kilometres.
All the accommodation at Hon Chong is a few steps from the beach, though the shallow bays make them unsuitable for swimming. Perched on the hillside at the top end of the strip, the friendly Green Hill Guesthouse (077/385 4369; US$11–30) lives up to its billing, its handful of beautifully furnished rooms all commanding sweeping views of the bay and probably representing the best deal around here. Alternatively, the An Hai Son (077/375 9226; US$11–20) and the My Lan (077/375 9044; US$11–20) are both well-managed and have smart rooms with air-conditioning, TVs and fridges, as well as decent restaurants. The Binh An Hotel (077/385 4332; US$10 and under–20) has dingy fan rooms in billet-style quarters for just 80,000đ and much smarter air-conditioned doubles in a newer wing, while the Hon Trem Resort (077/385 4331; US$31–75) boasts a prime location with all its compact villas enjoying great views from a steep hillside, as well as all facilities.
Even if you choose not to stay here, it’s worth visiting the Hon Trem Resort’s smart restaurant, both for its fantastic view of the islands in the bay and for its wide range of dishes priced at 60,000–80,000đ each. For something simpler, the Tan Phat, at the southern end of Binh An Village, about half a kilometre north of the Green Hill Guesthouse, serves up tasty seafood dishes on a deck overlooking a fishing harbour.
Rach Gia and around
About 100km southwest of Ha Tien, though also easily accessible from Long Xuyen, Can Tho or Ca Mau, the thriving port of RACH GIA teeters precariously over the Gulf of Thailand. The capital of Kien Giang Province, it’s home to a community of nearly 200,000 people, who eke out a living through rice cultivation in the surrounding fields, or by tapping the gulf’s rich vein of seafood. A small islet in the mouth of the Cai Lon River forms the hub of the town, but the urban sprawl spills over bridges to the north and south of it and onto the mainland. The town has little in the way of historical and cultural attractions, and for most foreign visitors it is simply a place to overnight en route to Phu Quoc Island.
Arrival and information
Buses from points north pull up 500m above town, at Rach Gia’s local bus station on Nguyen Binh Kiem. Arrivals from Long Xuyen and Can Tho hit the coast at Rach Soi, 7km southeast of Rach Gia. Arriving at the airport (flights from Ho Chi Minh City or Phu Quoc), call a taxi (077/391 9191). Arriving boats dock at the same jetties used for departures (see "Moving on from Rach Gia"), where you can pick up a xe om into town.
Kien Giang Tourist at 137 Nguyen Hung Son (7.30–11.30am & 1–5pm; 077/386 2103) can arrange boat rental and tours around Kien Giang Province. You can exchange traveller’s cheques and cash at Vietcombank, which also has an ATM, north of the river on Mac Cuu. Just north of here on Mau Than is the post office (daily 6.30am–10pm), which also has internet access The hospital is at 46 Le Loi, and there’s a pharmacy, north of the centre, at 14a Tran Phu.
Accommodation
As far as accommodation goes, there’s nowhere outstanding, nor any good budget options, but few people spend more than a night here, anyway, on their way to or from Phu Quoc Island. Probably the most convenient is the centrally-located Kim Co (077/387 9610, 077/387 9611; US$11–20) at 141 Nguyen Hung Son, where the good-sized rooms come with cable TV and wi-fi. Overlooking the northern branch of the Cai Lon River at 19 Tran Quang Dieu, the Wild Rose (Tam Xuan) (077/392 0325; US$11–20) is also worth considering for its well-equipped rooms. A short way north of the centre, the Hong Yen (077/387 9095; US$11–20) at 259–261 Mac Cuu is a reliable choice with all basic facilities, while, near the bus station, the Hong Nam (077/387 3090; US$11–20) at Block B1, Ly Thai To, has clean, tiled rooms with cable TV and wi-fi.
The Town
Once you’ve seen the whale skeleton, wartime souvenirs and Oc Eo relics – shards of pottery, coins and bones – of the museum at 27 Nguyen Van Troi (Mon–Wed & Sat 7–11am & 1–5pm; free), housed in a restored colonial building, there are not many other sights in Rach Gia. However, it’s worth taking a walk along Bach Dang and Tran Hung Dao to watch the activity on the boats of all sizes that clutter the port. Men and women darn and fold nets, charcoal-sellers hawk their wares to ships’ captains and roadside cafés heave with fishermen – many of whom have seen the bottoms of a few beer bottles – awaiting the next tide.
Nguyen Trung Truc Temple
Of Rach Gia’s handful of pagodas, only the Nguyen Trung Truc Temple, at 18 Nguyen Cong Tru, is really worth making an effort to see. It’s also conveniently located right next to the jetty from which hydrofoils leave to Phu Quoc, so if you arrive early, you can take a quick look before leaving town. From 1861 to 1868, Nguyen Trung Truc spearheaded anti-French guerrilla activities in the western region of the delta: a statue in the centre of Rach Gia depicts him preparing to unsheathe his sword and harvest a French head. In 1861, he masterminded the attack that culminated in the firing of the French warship Esperance; as a wanted man, he was forced to retreat to Phu Quoc, from where he continued to oversee the campaign. Only after the French took his mother hostage in 1868 did he turn himself in, and in October of the same year he was executed by a firing squad in the centre of Rach Gia. Defiant to the last, his final words could have been lifted from a Ho Chi Minh speech: “So long as grass still grows on the soil of this land, people will continue to resist the invaders.”
The temple roof, with its red and green tiles stalked by dragons made of porcelain shards, is plainly visible from a distance. In front of the temple is a statue of the hero drawing his sword. Inside, a portrait of Nguyen in black robe and hat provides the main chamber with its centrepiece. Up at the main altar, a brass urn labelled “Anh hung dan toc Nguyen Trung Truc” and flanked by slender storks standing on turtles, is said to hold the ashes of Nguyen Trung Truc himself.
Moving on from Rach Gia
Most buses leave from Rach Soi though some destinations, such as Hon Chong and Ha Tien, are served by buses from Nguyen Binh Khiem: a taxi or xe om from the town centre to Rach Soi costs about 50,000–80,000đ, and about 10,000–20,000đ to Nguyen Binh Khiem.
Boats out of Rach Gia depart from one of two sites. Several companies operate express boats to Phu Quoc Island (see "Phu Quoc Island"), at around 8am and 1pm (2hr 30min; $13-15) from Phu Quoc quay, 200m west of the Nguyen Trung Truc Temple. It’s better to buy a ticket for the speedboat in advance; the Superdong office at 14 Tu Do (077/387 7742, 077/387 7741) is just round the corner from the pier. From Rach Meo quay, 5km south of town on Ngo Quyen, express boats and regular boats leave for Ca Mau and other destinations in the delta.
If you’re heading to Phu Quoc, it’s worth considering the daily flight (9.30am; about $36), which saves the journey from Vong Beach to Duong Dong on the island, as well as a bumpy trip when the weather is rough. The same flight continues to Ho Chi Minh City ($36). For tickets or information, contact Vietnam Airlines at 16 Nguyen Trung Truc (077/392 4320). A taxi or xe om to the airport costs 50,000–80,000đ.
Eating
When it’s time to eat, seafood is the obvious choice in this bustling port. However, there are no outstanding restaurants. The best of the bunch is probably the Hai Au, 2 Nguyen Trung Truc, which serves steamboat and fish specialities in a prime open-terraced riverside location, just across the bridge to the southeast of town. Also facing the river, at 31 Tran Hung Dao, is the Vinh Hong, where the staples of its seafood dishes eye you warily from tanks mounted on the walls. In the town centre, a couple of reasonable places stand opposite each other on Nguyen Du: the Tay Ho, at no. 6, and the Hung Phat, no. 7, both have English menus and are popular with locals, though the surroundings are none too inspiring. The Ao Dai Moi, 26 Ly Tu Trong, has a few cheap and tasty dishes, but closes at 1pm, while the stylish bar/café Valentine, at 35–39 Hung Vuong, serves a good range of food, as well as coffee and beer, and the staff speak some English.
Phu Quoc Island
Located just 15km off the coast of Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand, PHU QUOC ISLAND rises from its slender southern tip like a genie released from a bottle. Virtually unknown by outsiders a decade ago, it has now cast a spell on enough visitors, with its soft-sand beaches, swaying palms and limpid waters, to challenge Nha Trang as Vietnam’s top beach destination. Spanning 46km from north to south, it’s Vietnam’s largest offshore island (593 square kilometres), though Cambodia also claims Phu Quoc, calling it Ko Tral. Phu Quoc is just 45km from Ha Tien, and a little under 120km from Rach Gia.
The topography and vegetation are quite unlike the rest of the delta, and give the place a totally different feel. Phu Quoc’s isolation made it an attractive hiding place for two of the more famous figures from Vietnam’s past. Nguyen Anh holed up here while on the run from the Tay Son brothers in the late eighteenth century (see "The Tay Son rebellion"), and so too, in the 1860s, did Nguyen Trung Truc(see "Nguyen Trung Truc Temple"). Today, over 80,000 people – and a sizeable population of indigenous dogs (recognizable by a line of hair running up the spine instead of down) – dwell on the island, famous throughout Vietnam for its black pepper and its fish sauce (nuoc mam), which is graded like olive oil.
Until the turn of the century, Phu Quoc had almost no facilities for tourists, but now development is in full swing and visitors are spoiled for choice of accommodation, restaurants and activities, such as snorkelling and diving. There are a few corals just off Ong Lang Beach, but the best locations are around the An Thoi Islands to the south or Turtle Island off the northwest coast, both of which can be visited by boat trip from Phu Quoc. At these reefs – the former of which is rated by some as the best dive site in Vietnam – you can float above brain and fan corals, watching parrot fish, scorpion fish, butterfly fish, huge sea urchins and a host of other marine life.
Like Mui Ne, Phu Quoc is a favourite bolt-hole for expats living in Ho Chi Minh City and, with work already begun on an international airport in the centre of the island, its future looks rosy. Yet while resorts and bars are springing up fast, for the moment Phu Quoc retains a pioneer outpost feel. Many places can only be reached via dirt tracks and the beaches are largely free of vendors. In the rainy season (May–Oct) Phu Quoc is relatively quiet, and room rates become more easily negotiable, though in peak season (Dec–Jan), accommodation prices can increase sharply and advance booking is necessary.
Arrival
Whether you arrive by air or by sea, you will be besieged by touts trying to drag you off to their favoured hotel or guesthouse, so it’s a good idea to have somewhere in mind before arrival. If you have made a prior booking, you will be met and will save yourself a lot of hassle and expense.
Flights from Ho Chi Minh City (several daily; 1hr) land at Phu Quoc Airport, on the edge of Duong Dong town, from where it is a short trip to the resorts on Long Beach, or a seven-kilometre ride to those at Ong Lang Beach.
Speedboats from Rach Gia (several daily; 2hr 30min) dock at Vong Beach, while those from Ha Tien (1 daily; 1hr 30min) dock at Ham Ninh, a little further north. There is currently no organized bus service so you’ll have to take a taxi or xe om to your chosen resort. Be prepared for some hard bargaining, as some drivers take new arrivals to the cleaners. From both ports, a taxi to Long Beach should cost no more than 100,000đ and around 200,000đ to Ong Lang Beach, while a xe om should be about half these prices.
Information, tours and trips
The Vietcombank at 20, 30 Thang 4 in Duong Dong will exchange money and cash traveller’s cheques; it also has an ATM. The post office (6.30am–9pm) is also on 30 Thang 4, where internet access is available. There is a hospital towards the eastern end of 30 Thang 4, and there are pharmacies along Ngo Quyen beside the market.
Most resorts and guesthouses can provide local information and rent motorbikes (around $7–10 a day, with discounts for longer rentals). Check the bike over carefully, as many of these machines are falling apart, and if you’re not happy with what they offer, try PhuQuocSun, 42 Tran Hung Dao, 077/399 4266), who also rent out bicycles and jeeps, with a free delivery and pick-up service. Most resorts and guest houses can also arrange boat tours, including visits to the local pearl farm on Long Beach (Bai Truong) or an evening’s cuttlefish fishing, using coloured plastic shrimps as bait.
Most resorts can sort out snorkelling trips to the offshore islands (see "Information, tours and trips"), charging around $20 per person (depending on number in the group), which includes snorkelling, fishing and lunch. The well-organized Rainbow Divers (091/340 0964, www.divevietnam.com) at 11 Tran Hung Dao runs diving trips from the Saigon Phu Quoc Resort at about 7.30am on most days during the diving season (early Nov–late May), charging $30 for snorkelling, $50 for one dive, $75 for two dives or $100 for three dives, and including all equipment and lunch or fruit. It also offers PADI courses in open-sea and advanced diving. Other reliable outfits include Searama (077/329 1679) at 14 Tran Hung Dao and Tony Travel (077/399 6277) at 100 Tran Hung Dao.
Accommodation
Accommodation options are expanding fast and many new places were under construction at the time of writing. Not all mid-range places include air conditioning, TV and fridge, so check before booking if these are important. While resorts on Ong Lang Beach are quieter, they are separated from each other by headlands, so there’s no choice when it comes to eating, as there is on Long Beach. Bear in mind that during the rainy season (May–Oct), many small places close for several months and those that are open reduce their prices. By contrast, it can be difficult to get a room in some places in the high season, so advance booking is advised for more upmarket places.
Long Beach (Bai Truong)
Beach Club 077/398 0998, www.beachclubvietnam.com. Under English management, this small, well-run place offers simple but pleasant rooms and bungalows, some with hot water, in one of the most tranquil spots on Long Beach. US$11–30Ong Lang Beach (Bai Ong Lang)
Mango Bay 0903/382207, www.mangobayphuquoc.com. This place enjoys a lovely tranquil location and offers spacious, stylish bungalows, made with local soil using eco-friendly techniques, with fans and large verandas (no a/c or TV). The coast is rocky in front but there are deserted sandy bays on each side. US$51–150Duong Dong
Though you’ll probably want at some time to go into the main town of Duong Dong, the island’s only settlement of any size, for the post office, internet or to buy supplies in the market, there’s not a lot else to see. There is a small lighthouse and temple (Dinh Cau) situated on a promontory at the entrance to the harbour, which is of no great consequence but does provide good views up and down the coast. The town’s market, on Ngo Quyen, to the left across the bridge in the centre of town, is always bustling and photogenic with its displays of fruit and flowers, and it’s well worth joining the throng of shoppers, especially early in the morning. There’s also a night market that sets up each evening along Vo Thi Sau near the lighthouse, where you can pick up a few souvenirs and check out the good value Vietnamese food stalls. Alternatively, you could visit one of the fish sauce factories in town. Phu Quoc is famed throughout the country for producing top-quality fish sauce – a key ingredient in many Vietnamese dishes. Hung Thanh factory (daily 8–11am & 1–5pm; free), located on Nguyen Van Troi, to the left just beyond the market, welcomes visitors, though you might need a peg for your nose as the aroma is rather pungent.
The west coast
The main attraction of Phu Quoc is its fabulous beaches, and the west coast has some of the best. The majority of resorts and guesthouses are strung out to the south of Duong Dong, on Long Beach (Bai Truong) – an appropriate name, as it stretches almost to the southern tip of the island some 20km away. Most resorts have fine stretches of soft yellow sand and swaying coconut palms right in front, and the beach is ideal for sunbathing, sunset-watching and swimming. Beyond the first few kilometres south of town the beach is completely deserted, and the road which runs behind the palm trees provides some classic tropical beach views. About halfway down the beach, the Phu Quoc Pearl Farm (daily 8am–5pm) is worth a look to see how pearls are cultured or to pick up a souvenir. If you’re here for rest and relaxation, you need do nothing more than saunter back and forth between your room, the resort’s restaurant and the beach. If you get restless, you can always rent a motorbike to explore the island or sign up for a boat trip.
The west coast north of town is a bit more rugged, but the beautiful bays tucked along Ong Lang Beach (Bai Ong Lang) are certainly worth visiting, and a few cosy resorts offer the chance to really get away from it all. Ong Lang Beach is much quieter than Long Beach, and has the added attraction of coral reefs teeming with tropical fish just off the coast, which makes it good for snorkelling. North of Ong Lang, there are a few more attractive beaches called Cua Can, Vung Bao and Dai. They have basic restaurants and can be reached by motorbike on a dirt road that follows the coast to the northwest corner.
The east coast
The east coast is, so far, largely undeveloped, though it does have a good surfaced road behind it that makes a pleasant change from the constant dust kicked up off the dirt roads around the rest of the island. The most impressive beach here is Star Beach (Bai Sao), which is signposted just north of the T-junction where the road from Duong Dong meets the road up the east coast. Its dazzling white sand and pale blue water are a great attraction for local people at weekends, and a couple of beach restaurants, the My Lan and Ai Xim, do a healthy trade. A little south of Bai Sao, Ice Cream Beach (Bai Kem) is also a blinding white colour, but there is no shade, the beach is full of rubbish washed in by the tide, and in any case, the military generally prohibit entry to foreigners.
Inland Phu Quoc
Inland Phu Quoc is the kind of island that is ideal for exploration, and there is very little traffic, making it easy to ride a motorbike around, though until the roads are surfaced, you are likely to return at the end of day covered in a film of red dust. Wearing a helmet is compulsory and a face-mask is a good idea too. Over seventy percent of the island is forested at present, and the hills of the north are particularly verdant.
All over the island, and especially in the north, you will pass by pepper plantations, the plants easily identifiable as climbers on three-metre-high poles – at places like Khu Tuong, they welcome visitors to look around. There are also two cleansing streams in the centre of Phu Quoc: Suoi Da Ban and Suoi Tranh. A walk beside them reveals moss-covered boulders, tangled vines and small cascades, though they tend to dry up between January and May, when the trip is not worth it.
In the south of the island, two unusual attractions are located almost opposite each other, the war memorial and the former prison (Nha Tu Phu Quoc; Tues–Sun 7.30–11am & 1.30–5pm; 3000đ). The war memorial, perched on a slight rise beside the main road, consists of three abstract forms, in one of which is cut the shape of a human form, while the prison’s small museum chronicles its use to detain enemies of the state, though there is no English signage.
Coracles on Phu Quoc island
Eating and drinking
Duong Dong’s night market(see "Duong Dong") is a great place to sample authentic Vietnamese dishes at very cheap prices. Not surprisingly, every beach resort, apart from the cheapest guesthouses, has its own restaurant; most have reasonable menus and some have sea views, but the quality is erratic and prices are often inflated. Bear in mind if you stay at Ong Lang Beach, you’ll be limited to the restaurant at your resort unless you have a rented motorbike. Long Beach may be busier, but you do get several choices in a small area. Most places listed below operate only as restaurants and bars, and they’re all on or around Long Beach.
Moving on from Phu Quoc
Speedboats to Rach Gia leave from the jetty at Vong Beach ($13–15, 2hr 30min), while those bound for Ha Tien ($11; 1hr 30min) leave from Ham Ninh. It’s certainly advisable to book in advance: either ask your hotel or guesthouse to help you, or visit the offices at the top of Tran Hung Dao, just behind the northern end of Long Beach.
Flights to Ho Chi Minh City (several daily; 1hr) leave from Phu Quoc Airport. Reservations can be made at the Vietnam Airlines office at 122 Nguyen Trung Truc (077/398 2320), in front of the airport gate, or at the branch office at the Saigon-Phu Quoc resort.
Travel details
Buses
Bus stations are gradually becoming more organized, with ticket desks and scheduled departures. However, it is still almost impossible to give the frequency with which buses run because of the large number of private minibuses that ply more popular routes, and depart only when they have enough passengers to make the journey worthwhile. Off the main highway, to be sure of a bus it’s advisable to start your journey early – most long-distance departures are between 5am and 9am, and few run after midday. Journey times can also vary; figures below show the normal length of time you can expect to take by public bus.
Ca Mau to: Bac Lieu (2hr); Can Tho (5hr); Ho Chi Minh City (7hr); Long Xuyen (6hr); Soc Trang (3hr).
Can Tho to: Bac Lieu (3hr); Ca Mau (5hr); Chau Doc (2hr 30min); Ha Tien (5hr); Ho Chi Minh City (4hr); Long Xuyen (1hr 30min); My Tho (2hr 30min).
Chau Doc to: Ca Mau (7hr); Can Tho (2hr 30min); Ha Tien (4hr); Ho Chi Minh City (6hr); Long Xuyen (1hr).
Ha Tien to: Can Tho (5hr); Chau Doc (4hr); Ho Chi Minh City (8hr); Long Xuyen (6hr); Rach Gia (2hr 30min).
Long Xuyen to: Ca Mau (5hr); Chau Doc (1hr); Ha Tien (6hr); Ho Chi Minh City (5hr).
My Tho to: Can Tho (2hr 30min); Cao Lanh (2hr); Ho Chi Minh City (2hr).
Vinh Long to: Sa Dec (50min); Tra Vinh (1hr 30min).
Boats
Ca Mau to: Rach Gia (daily; 3hr).
Can Tho to: Ho Chi Minh City (daily; 4hr)
Chau Doc to Phnom Penh (daily; 4hr).
Ha Tien to: Phu Quoc (daily; 1hr 30min)
Phu Quoc to: Ha Tien (daily; 1hr 30min); Rach Gia (several daily; 2hr 30min).
Rach Gia to: Ca Mau (daily; 3hr); Phu Quoc (several daily; 2hr 30min).
Flights
Ca Mau to: Ho Chi Minh City (daily; 1hr).
Phu Quoc to: Ho Chi Minh City (several daily; 1hr).
Rach Gia to: Ho Chi Minh City (daily; 2hr); Phu Quoc (daily; 25min).
The central highlands
Vietnam’s mountainous midriff isn’t the first region of the country that most tourists think to visit. And yet, after a hot and sticky stint labouring across the coastal plains, the central highlands, with their host of ethnic minorities, mist-laden mountains and thundering waterfalls, can provide an enjoyable contrast to the tropics. Getting around is at times a challenge: travel can be slow with some roads impassable after a downpour. In addition, local tourist authorities may raise a fuss about tourists travelling independently, and there are no really heart-stopping sights. But the highlands’ allure lies in such simple pleasures as inhaling their invigoratingly chill airs, and walking or cycling with a spray of mist on your face. And, cocooned in woolly jumpers, scarves and bobble hats, the highlanders exude a warmth unsurpassed elsewhere in the country, making a trip here doubly appealing.
Bounded to the west by the Cambodian border, and spreading out over the lofty peaks and broad plateaux of the Truong Son Mountains, the central highlands stretch from the base of Highway 1 right up to the bottleneck of land that squeezes past Da Nang towards Hanoi and the north. The region’s fertile red soils yield considerable natural resources – among them coffee, tea, rubber, silk and hardwood. Not all of the highlands, though, have been sacrificed to plantation-style economies of scale – pockets of primeval forest still thrive, where wildlife including elephants, bears and gibbons somehow survived the days when the region was a hunting ground for Saigon’s idle rich and Hué’s idle royalty.
For most visitors who ascend to these altitudes, the main target is Da Lat, an erstwhile French mountain retreat that can appear very romantic when the mists roll over its pine-crested hilltops, though some find it disappointing close-up, with its dreary architecture and tacky tourist trappings. Yet the city is not without its charms, among them a bracing climate, some beguiling colonial buildings, picturesque bike rides and a market overflowing with delectable fruits and vegetables.
It’s a picturesque journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Lat by road, though it takes about six hours and buses can be cramped, so it’s worth considering taking a plane. From Da Lat, it’s possible to drop down to the coast at Phan Rang or Nha Trang, or continue northwards over the hills, passing pretty Lak Lake on the way to a series of gritty highland towns whose reputations rest less on tourist sights than on the villages and open terrain that ring them. Sensitive to the minority rights issue, the Vietnamese authorities only opened this region to foreigners in 1993, and still few visitors venture to its main towns, Buon Ma Thuot, Plei Ku and Kon Tum. North of Buon Ma Thuot, Highway 14 makes a beeline across the Dac Lac Plateau to Plei Ku, and then continues to Kon Tum, a journey of less than an hour. Since restrictions on independent travel are less stringent in Kon Tum than around Plei Ku or Buon Ma Thuot, and as there are several nearby minority villages that feature towering rong where home-stays are possible, the town has started to attract adventurous travellers. From Kon Tum you can travel 80km northwest to Bo Y and cross the new international border to Laos, or head straight for the coast at Quang Ngai, or even go north along the route of the new Ho Chi Minh Highway.
Many of the highlands’ inhabitants belong to ethnic minorities who are struggling to maintain their identities in the face of persistent pressure from Hanoi to assimilate (for more on the background of the ethnic minorities, (see "Vietnam’s ethnic minorities")). Apart from around Kon Tum, visiting one of the highlands’ many minority villages independently can be difficult: in most cases you’ll need to go through a local tourist office (and pay handsomely for the privilege), but in each area it’s best to double-check the current regulations, especially concerning overnight stays in villages.
Your highland experience will vary enormously depending upon when you visit. The dry season runs from November through to April. To see the region at its atmospheric best, it’s better to go in the wet season, May to October, although at this time the rain can make some outlying villages inaccessible.
Highlights
Café in Buon Ma Thuot
Into the highlands
The route to the central highlands from Ho Chi Minh City follows Highway 1 for about 70km before branching northeast on Highway 20, which starts a steady climb. The rubber trees corralling its traffic occasionally reveal tantalizing views of the valleys below. Buses sometimes screech to a brief halt on the causeway traversing La Nga Lake, from where the houseboats cast adrift on its waters are only a zoom lens away. Locals use foot-powered rowing boats to access their homes, beneath which lie fish farms. East of La Nga, Highway 20 passes wooded slopes whose verdant greens are flecked occasionally by the red-tiled roofs of farmsteads and the roving figures of grazing cattle. Look out for unusual rock formations at the roadside in Dinh Quan, 112km from Ho Chi Minh City, where enormous smooth boulders are scattered beside the highway in the southern part of town, and volcanoes with symmetrical slopes and flat tops are visible from the road both south and north of town.
In time the hills yield to the tea, coffee and mulberry plantations of the Bao Loc Plateau. The town of Bao Loc is the best place for a pit stop between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat, and it’s also a jumping-off point for visits to nearby Cat Tien National Park and Dambri Waterfalls. Another 100km further northeast, Highway 20 switchbacks up the considerable climb to Da Lat at an altitude of just under 1500 metres.
Bao Loc and around
The undulating hills around BAO LOC provide fertile soil for the cultivation of tea and coffee, while locals also cultivate the mulberry bushes whose leaves silkworms eat. There are no sights of interest in the town itself, but it offers a convenient place to break the long journey between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat, and the surrounding countryside is very attractive.
Accommodation in Bao Loc is rather unexciting, with the Seri Bank Hotel (063/386 4150; US$31–50), set back from the main highway behind a small lake, being the most comfortable place in town. Of several smaller hotels on the main road (Highway 20), the Bao Loc (063/386 4107; US$10 and under–20), south of the town centre at 795 Tran Phu, has reasonable rooms; those at the back have nice views over the countryside. For a decent meal, try the Nam Hue, at 821 Tran Phu, a few steps away from the Bao Loc Hotel.
Cat Tien National Park
The area’s outstanding attraction is Cat Tien National Park (061/366 9228, www.cattienpark.com.vn; 50,000đ), a protected area situated 150km north of Ho Chi Minh City and about 50km west of Bao Loc, covering the largest lowland tropical rainforest in south Vietnam. The park hosts nearly 350 species of birds, over 450 species of butterflies and over 100 mammals, including wild cats, elephants, monkeys and the rare Javan rhinoceros. Don’t bank on seeing a rhino, though, as the few residing here are in a secluded reserve closed to visitors. If you’re coming by public transport, take a bus for Da Lat from Mien Dong station in Ho Chi Minh City; tell the driver you want “Vuon Quoc Gia Cat Tien” (Cat Tien National Park), and he will drop you at the km125 junction at Tan Phu town. From here, xe om (about 60,000đ) cover the final 24km to the park along a narrow surfaced road. If you’re arriving from the north, a signposted road (also surfaced) to the park branches right just before the small town of Madagui. You need to pay the entrance fee at a park office on stilts about 100m before the ferry across the Dong Nai River to park headquarters.
As the park can only accommodate about a hundred visitors at a time, it’s important to book ahead. Accommodation here (US$11–30) consists of simple rooms with air-conditioning, and a campsite with two-person tents for $8 a day. You can also hire vehicles and boats for travel to the park’s more remote areas, but there are few English-speaking guides. Though a dozen walking trails exist, the catch is that you need to hire a jeep or pick-up to get to the start of most of them($10–25), plus a guide to go with you ($15–25), so a day out can easily cost $40–50. There’s also a night safari ($10), though few people spot more than a flash of deer eyes before the panicked creatures flee. Some tour operators in Ho Chi Minh City (such as Sinhbalo tours; see "Tour agents") and Da Lat (such as Phat Tire Ventures; (see "Around Da Lat")) can organize tours that include a visit to the park.
Dambri Waterfalls and north to Da Lat
Another interesting attraction of the area is the impressive drop (about 80m) of Dambri Waterfalls (daily 7am–5pm; small entrance fee), some 18km north of Bao Loc; a xe om should cost around 100,000đ return. The road to the falls, which branches north from Highway 20 just east of Bao Loc, bisects rolling countryside carpeted by coffee, tea and pineapple plantations. Once you arrive, there are two paths leading to the falls. The main one to the right leads to the top of the falls, where some ugly fencing stands between you and a precipice over which a torrent tumbles in the rainy season. From here, you can descend to the base of the falls by steep steps, or if you’re feeling lazy, there’s a lift available for 5000đ. A second path, to the left by a restaurant, leads down a steep stairway among towering trees to a superb view of the falls from in front. The two paths are linked by a bridge over the river, where you’re likely to get drenched in spray even during the dry season. The path continues downstream to a smaller cascade, Dasara Falls, but the trail can be slippery after rain. Surrounded as they are by dense forest, Dambri Falls are much more attractive than any of those in the vicinity of Da Lat, and the only ones worth visiting in the dry season.
More hummocky tea plantations abound along the road around Di Linh, the biggest town between Bao Loc and Da Lat. From here, Highway 28 branches right and heads down to Phan Thiet. Around 25km beyond Di Linh on Highway 20, pine trees begin to feature in the landscape. At this point you’ll see signs for two more of the region’s most impressive waterfalls, Pongour to the left, and Gougah to the right. The former are about 7km to the left off the main road, but the latter are just 400m to the right of the road, and are well worth stopping for a look in the wet season, when a thundering torrent pours over them. From here it’s about 40km to Da Lat, of which the final ten-kilometre stretch cuts steeply through heavily wooded slopes.
Da Lat and around
Hinged by the Cam Ly River, and nestled at an elevation of just under 1500m among the pitching hills of the Lang Bian Plateau, the city of DA LAT is Vietnam’s premier hill station, a beguiling amalgam of squiggly streets, picturesque churches, bounteous vegetable gardens and crashing waterfalls, all suffused with the intoxicating scents of pine trees and wood-smoke.
It was Dr Alexander Yersin who first divined the therapeutic properties of Da Lat’s temperate climate on an exploratory mission into Vietnam’s southern highlands, in 1893. His subsequent report on the area must have struck a chord: four years later Governor-General Paul Doumer of Indochina ordered the founding of a convalescent hill station, where Saigon’s hot-under-the-collar colons could recharge their batteries, and perhaps even take part in a day’s game-hunting. The city’s Gallic contingent had to pack up their winter coats after 1954’s Treaty of Geneva, but by then the cathedral, train station, villas and hotels had been erected, and the French connection well and truly forged. By tacit agreement during the American War, both Hanoi and Saigon refrained from bombing the city and it remains much as it was half a century ago.
It’s important to come to Da Lat with no illusions, though. With a population of around 200,000, the city is anything but an idyllic backwater: sighting its forlorn architecture for the first time in the 1950s, Norman Lewis found the place “a drab little resort”, and today its colonial relics and pagodas stand cheek by jowl with some of the dingiest examples of East European construction anywhere in Vietnam. Moreover, attractions here pander to the domestic tourist’s predilection for swan-shaped pedal-boats and pony-trek guides in full cowboy gear, while at night the city can be as bleak as an off-season ski resort.
Despite all this, Da Lat remains a quaint colonial curio, and a welcome tonic to heat-worn tourists – all in all, a great place to chill out, literally and metaphorically. If the cool air gets you in the mood for action, you could try trekking to minority villages, mountain-biking or rock-climbing, but you’ll need a permit and a guide. Contact one of Da Lat’s tour operators for more details of what’s on offer (see "Listings"). Horticultural enthusiasts might like to time their visit to coincide with the annual Flower Festival, which takes place each December (see www.vietnamtourism.com for exact dates).
Arrival and information
Buses from Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang and elsewhere arrive at Da Lat bus station, located about a kilometre south of the city centre on 3 Thang 4, from where it is a short xe om or taxi ride into town (20,000–30,000đ). Modest Lien Khuong Airport (063/384 3373) is 29km south of the city, off the road to Ho Chi Minh City: Vietnam Airlines buses (20,000đ) shuttle from the airport to their offices in town (see ""), or you can take a xe om for about $3–5, or a taxi for around $10–12. The handful of tourist offices in Da Lat can all arrange guides, bus tickets, car hire and tours; the main one is Da Lat Travel Services, though Sinh Café and TM Brothers have offices here too. If you plan to go trekking to minority villages, you may need to get a permit from the police and be accompanied by a certified guide. You can skirt around the red tape by signing up for a tour of one or several days with one of Da Lat’s adventure sports operators which also offer mountain-biking, rock-climbing and abseiling outings. Phat Tire Ventures is a reliable outfit; (see "Listings"), for details.
City transport
Da Lat is too hilly for cyclo, and the horse-drawn carts that were once one of the city’s more attractive features are pretty much a thing of the past (apart from trots around the lake in high season), so for journeys of any distance you’ll have to rely on xe om and taxis. If you’re fit, you might consider renting a bicycle or tandem (about $2 a day), though with all the steep hills, a motorbike makes more sense (around $5–6 a day): both are available from hotels and tour operators. Renting a car and driver for the day (also easily arranged through hotels or tour operators) costs around $40. Alternatively, take a customized tour of the highlands or even the whole country with the Da Lat-based Easy Riders (www.dalat-easyrider.com.vn), who ride late-model big bikes and speak good English. The tours are highly recommended, with prices ranging from around $15 a day for a tour of the main sights in the city to around $75 a day for a longer trip, usually including accommodation and entrance fees to sights. Many hotels and tour operators offer ‘Easy Rider’ tours with inferior guides at inflated prices, so make sure you get the real thing by booking via their website or approaching them where they hang out in the early evening in front of the Hoa Binh I (Peace) Hotel. All riders wear blue jackets and waistcoats stamped with the group’s insignia, but to be doubly sure your rider is genuine, ask to see his badge with name and number, as well as his tour guide licence.
Accommodation
Enduringly popular with both Western and domestic tourists, Da Lat has a wide range of places to stay, from cheap, windowless rooms to luxury, international-standard hotels. However, if your visit coincides with a public holiday, especially Tet, be warned that prices increase by up to fifty percent, and you’ll need either to arrive early or book ahead.
The densest concentrations of budget hotels lie on Phan Dinh Phung; ask for a room at the back, as the main road can be noisy. Several classy hotels operate downtown, but there are many more out in the open spaces south and west of the city centre. Check that prices include hot water – a luxury in much of southern Vietnam, but a necessity in Da Lat. Air-conditioning is neither necessary nor usually provided in Da Lat.
Central Da Lat
The following are all marked on the map opposite.
Dreams 1 & 2 151 and 164b Phan Dinh Phung 063/383 3748, [email protected]. Superbly maintained mini-hotels; rooms are well equipped, clean, with modern bathrooms. Windows have double glazing and there’s free use of the jacuzzi and sauna; free internet access 7am–10pm, generous buffet breakfasts and extremely helpful staff. US$21–30
Outer Da Lat
The following are all marked on the map "Da Lat & Around".
Dinh II (Palace 2 Guest House) 12 Tran Hung Dao 063/382 2092. If you fancy living like a colonial but can’t afford the rates at the Dalat Palace or Ana Mandara, then this is your spot. The huge rooms in the main house, once home to the French governor, are beautifully furnished and the complex is surrounded by pines. US$21–75The City
Central Da Lat forms a rough crescent around the western side of man-made Lake Xuan Huong, created in 1919 when the Cam Ly River was dammed by the French, who named it the “Grand Lac”. The city escaped bomb damage, and a French influence is still evident in its central area, whose twisting streets and steps, lined with stone buildings rising to red-tiled roofs, cover a hillock located between the streets of Bui Thi Xuan and Phan Dinh Phung. Your first stop should be at the market, Cho Da Lat, which stands on top of the hill, a charmless reinforced-concrete structure housing a staggering range of fruit and vegetables. Strawberries, beetroot, fennel, artichokes, avocados, blackberries and cherries grown in the market gardens surrounding the city are all sold here, along with a riot of flowers. Artichoke teabags, with their diuretic properties, make quirky souvenirs, and candied Da Lat strawberries are also sold at many stalls. Montagnards carrying their chattels in backpacks are a fairly common sight at the market, especially early in the morning when they come to trade with stallholders.
Around Lake Xuan Huong
It’s a pleasant 7km cycle or walk around glassy Lake Xuan Huong, or if you’re feeling lazy, go by electric car from the western end of the lake (10,000đ). Head eastwards around the north side of the lake along Nguyen Thai Hoc, and you’ll soon leave the bustle of the city behind as you pass between the lake and the extensive grounds of Da Lat’s golf club. A small island in the lake and (usually) a cluster of minivans signals that you have reached Da Lat’s flower gardens (daily 7.30am–5pm; small entrance fee) on the left. Inside, paths lead you past hydrangeas, roses, orchids, poinsettia, topiary and a nursery. There’s nothing outstanding on display here, but at the weekend the place is packed with Vietnamese taking photos of each other posing in front of the flowerbeds. Besides bobble hats and some extremely tacky souvenirs on sale in the gardens, stalls outside the entrance sell knotted lumps of a golden fern fibre called cu ly, which is used to staunch bleeding.
Continue along Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, and trace its broad arc around the lake. As you double back, you’ll see the slate belfry of the Grand Lycée Yersin peeping out from the trees above and to your left. Where Ba Huyen Thanh Quan turns into Yersin, you can head one of two ways: west, and back into the city centre; or east up Nguyen Trai to Ga Da Lat, the city’s train station, built in 1938 and a real time capsule. Below its gently contoured red-tiled roof and behind the multicoloured Art Deco windows striping its front facade, its ticket booths are reminiscent of a provincial French station. Outside, the rail yard is in a charming state of dilapidation, with cattle grazing on the grass and flowers that grow among its tracks and ancient locomotives.
Trains ran on the rack railway linking Da Lat to Thap Cham (see "Phan Rang and around") and beyond from 1933 until the mid-Sixties, when Viet Cong attacks became too persistent a threat for them to continue. Nowadays two trains are kept operational, and enthusiasts may enjoy the shuttle service (daily at 7.45am, 9.50am, 11.55am, 2pm, 4.05pm; round trip 90min; 80,000đ) across horticultural land and market gardens to the village of Trai Mat, a few kilometres away; the train idles for thirty minutes – time enough to take a look at Linh Phuoc Pagoda(see "Thien Vuong and Linh Phong Pagodas") before returning to Da Lat.
Tran Phu and around
Running west to east just south of the city centre, Tran Phu, cradles two of the city’s most memorable French-era buildings. One is the splendidly restored 1920s Palace Hotel, the social heart of colonial-era Da Lat. Now owned by Sofitel, it has great views of Lake Xuan Huong, and enjoying a long, cool drink overlooking its manicured lawns is a luxury that’s worth the expense.
Across the road and a few steps west along Tran Phu, Da Lat’s dusty pink cathedral, consecrated in 1931 and completed eleven years later, is dedicated to St Nicholas, protector of the poor; a statue of him stands at the opposite end of the nave to the simple altar, with three tiny children loitering at his feet. Light streaming in from the cathedral’s seventy stained-glass windows, mostly crafted in Grenoble, teases a warm, sunny glow from the mellow pink of the interior walls, and picks out the flamboyant colours of the fresh-cut flowers adorning the nave. A tiny metal cockerel perched almost invisibly at the top of the steeple has earned the cathedral its rather unglamorous moniker, “Chicken Church”.
Bao Dai’s Summer Palace (Dinh III) and the Crazy House
The nautical portholes punched into its walls, and the mast-like pole sprouting from its roof, give Dinh III (daily 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–4.30pm; small admission fee), erstwhile summer palace of Emperor Bao Dai, the distinct look of a ship’s bridge. Reached by bearing left onto Le Hong Phong 500m west of the cathedral, the building is indeed palatial, though not in a traditional style. Erected between 1933 and 1938 to provide Bao Dai with a bolt-hole between elephant-slaughtering sessions, its mustard-coloured bulk, etched with stark white grouting, is set amid rose and pine gardens.
Inside Bao Dai’s Summer Palace
Past the two large blue metal lanterns flanking the front entrance, the first room to your right is Bao Dai’s working room, dominated by a bust of the man himself, and home both to the imperial motorbike helmet, and to a small book collection. Buffalo horns in the reception room come from animals bagged by Bao Dai himself on one of his hunting forays into the forests around Da Lat. His queen preferred more sedate pastimes, and would have tinkled on the piano here. The palace’s most elegant common room is its festivities room or dining room, though catching a whiff of furniture polish in this dark, echoing chamber, it’s hard to imagine the royal revelries that once went on here.
Royal ghosts are far easier to summon upstairs, where the musty imperial bedrooms seem just to have had the dustsheets whipped back for another royal season. Princes and princesses all had their quarters, as did the queen, whose chamber features a chaise longue that looks unnervingly like a dentist’s chair. But the finest room, predictably enough, went to Bao Dai, who enjoyed the luxury of a balcony for his “breeze-getting and his moon-watching”. Out on the landing, look out for a bizarre mini-sauna, labelled a Rouathermique. The place is surrounded by the usual attractions – pony rides and dressing up in minority costume, and the exit forces you to pass through a gauntlet of souvenir stalls.
On the way back into town at 3 Huynh Thuc Khang, Hang Nga’s Crazy House (small admission fee) is perennially popular with tourists, though the citizens of Da Lat are more divided over the merits of this unusual building, shaped to resemble the knotted trunks of huge trees. It functions as a guesthouse, but cannot be recommended as the experience is akin to paying to be an exhibit in a zoo. Day-visitors are welcome to look around any unoccupied rooms, most of which have entertaining Alice in Wonderland-style interiors with mirrors and mushrooms in abundance. A selection of photographs on the walls inside the entrance provide clues as to how such a bizarre construction got planning permission. As the daughter of former president Truong Chinh, its owner, Hang Nga, is above the usual planning constraints.
Lam Ty Ni Pagoda
Dropping in at Lam Ty Ni Pagoda, north of Le Hong Phong on Thien My, represents one of the oddest attractions of a stay in Da Lat. The focus of interest here is not the pagoda itself but its sole occupant. It is home to Vien Thuc, the so-called “mad monk” of Da Lat, who lives there with his dogs and paintings. You may find the gate locked on arrival, but if he is not away travelling he will sense your presence and admit you, though his moods vary from friendly to indifferent to aggressive, so be prepared for any kind of reception. Poet, gardener, builder and artist, Vien Thuc is a monk of all trades, but his proudest achievements are his paintings and poetry.
His normal outfit, a dark-brown monk’s habit with a pointed woolly hat, is often spattered with paint. His studio, a warren of lean-tos behind the pagoda, is stacked to the rafters with over 100,000 paintings, some in watercolour and others in oil; the paint of the latter is spread so thick on the canvas they look almost three-dimensional. The paintings have names like “Golden Dragon Swimming in the River Milky Way” and “Blue Music in the Bosom of a Human World”, though most are self-portraits, and all are for sale.
Tran Hung Dao and beyond
The movers and shakers who once maintained villas in Da Lat preferred to site their homes on a hill to the southeast of the city centre, rather than in the maw of its central area. The villas that they built along Tran Hung Dao survive today, some renovated and others in a sad state of disrepair, but they evoke the feel of the colonial era more than anywhere else in Da Lat.
Set on a hill beyond the eastern end of Tran Hung Dao near the beginning of Hung Vuong, the Lam Dong Museum, 4 Hung Vuong (Mon–Sat 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–4.30pm; small admission fee), is the best museum in the central highlands and well worth visiting. Located in a new building, the displays are thoughtfully laid out and give a tantalizing taste of the region’s rich history. Exhibits include Cham artefacts from recent archeological digs as well as a collection of rice jars, ceramics and jewellery found in tombs, and some vicious-looking spears. The museum also gives a thorough introduction to the lifestyles of the local minority groups such as the Ma, Koho and Churu, along with a map showing their distribution in the province and many of their handicrafts and household implements. There’s also a display covering the French and American Wars, though it is little different to similar displays around the rest of the country.
Continuing east along Hung Vuong, a small lane to the right leads to Dinh I, 1 Tran Quang Dieu (daily 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–4.30pm; small admission fee) one of Bao Dai’s many palaces in the region. If you visit Bao Dai’s Summer Palace, which features strongly on many tours of the city, you might want to give this a miss, as the layout and furnishings are rather similar. However, Dinh I enjoys better views over the city, is in a more peaceful setting and receives fewer visitors, so you can wander round without hordes of other tourists to disturb you. This building was used as Bao Dai’s workplace, and the conference room upstairs, with its large map of the country, has a business-like air to it. There are several interesting photos on the walls of the other rooms, including one of Bao Dai in a racing car, and another of his concubines. As at Dinh III, the furnishings are classic 1930s; other points of interest are a doorway to a secret tunnel and an archaic phone switchboard at the entrance to the building.
Thien Vuong and Linh Phong Pagodas
From Tran Hung Dao two roads wiggle south, offering pleasant detours out into the countryside. Khe Sanh branches south off Tran Hung Dao, opposite Pham Hong Thai, and further south leads back to Highway 20. The focus of this detour is Thien Vuong Pagoda, remarkable for its trio of four-metre-tall, sandalwood statues (Sakyamuni, in the centre, rubs shoulders with the Goddess of Mercy and the God of Power), imported from Hong Kong in 1958, and for the huge statue of Buddha seated on a lotus, 100m up the hill above the pagoda. Stalls in front of Thien Vuong hawk the usual candied strawberries, artichoke tea and cu ly to the Vietnamese tourists who flock here, many of whom are young girls who come from all over Vietnam to pray for good fortune and a successful marriage.
Further east, Hoang Hoa Tham leads to colourful Linh Phong Pagoda, which is fronted by a gateway bearing a fierce, panting dragon face with protruding eyes. Behind its gaudy yellow doors, the pagoda exudes a peaceful aura. Its resident nuns are very friendly, and the remote location affords peerless views of the cultivated and wooded valley below.
Eating, drinking and nightlife
Da Lat has a broad range of restaurants serving Vietnamese, Chinese and international cuisines, as well as abundant food stalls. Head to the central market for pho, com and the like, as well as one or two vegetarian stalls, signed as com chay. It’s also the place to make up a picnic of bread, cheese and cake, complemented by fresh local berries.
For most locals, nightlife means a cup of coffee in one of the city’s atmospheric cafés. For visitors, there’s not much more unless you fancy a game of pool or a dance at one of the hotel discos. All the places listed below are marked on the Central Da Lat map "Central Da Lat", unless otherwise stated.
Restaurants
Long Hoa 3 Thang 2. With a French-café ambience and attentive staff, Long Hoa serves tasty and filling Vietnamese dishes – kick off with a strawberry wine aperitif, while for dessert, the homemade yoghurt takes some beating. Two can dine for 150,000–200,000đ. 11am–9pm.V Cafe 1/1 Bui Thi Xuan. A bit removed from the budget hotel district, but worth tracking down for its cosy atmosphere and good cooking, including some great homemade pies and cakes, at affordable prices. 7am–10.30pm.Cafés, bars and discos
Listings
Around Da Lat
There is some spectacular scenery in the vicinity of Da Lat, which lends itself to challenging treks, bike rides and other adventure activities. None of the local waterfalls is worth visiting in the dry season (Dec–May), with the possible exception of Tiger Falls, though you might enjoy a boat ride on one of the local lakes or a cable-car ride from Robin Hill to Lake Tuyen Lam, where kayaks are available for rent. Another popular jaunt is by train to Trai Mat, taking time out to admire the adornments on the Linh Phuoc Pagoda. If you want to visit one of the few remaining traditional minority villages, that have yet to be assimilated into mainstream Vietnamese culture, contact Phat Tire Ventures (see "Listings"), and be prepared for some tough trekking.
North of Da Lat
Thung Lung Tinh Yeu, or the Valley of Love (daily 7am–5pm; small admission charge), located 5km north of town, offers typical kitsch diversions such as pony rides round the lake escorted by a cowboy. The valley’s still waters and wooded hills are actually quite enticing, though the music blasting from souvenir stalls and the buzzing of rented motorboats do not enhance the aura of romance. Bao Dai and his courtiers used to hunt here in the 1950s, though a dam project in 1972 flooded part of the valley and created Lake Da Thien.
Opposite the Valley of Love is the XQ Historical Village (daily 8am–5pm; small admission charge), where several traditional houses display the process and product of silk embroidery picture-making. You can watch the girls painstakingly producing images thread by thread, then walk through an exhibition of landscapes, still lifes, portraits and more surreal compositions, all woven from silk.
If you bother to travel up this way, you’ll be aware of the highest peak (2169m) of Lang Bian Mountain looming above you to the north. Inevitably, a schmaltzy legend has been concocted to explain the mountain’s formation. The story tells of two ill-starred lovers, a Lat man called Lang and a Chill girl named Bian, who were unable to marry because of tribal enmity. Broken-hearted, Bian passed away, and the peaks of Lang Bian are said to represent her breast heaving its dying breath. Bian’s death seems not to have been wholly in vain: so racked with guilt was her father, that he called a halt to tribal unrest by unifying all of the local factions into the Koho.
It’s possible to drive up to the canopy of pines on the lower peak of Lang Bian Mountain from where you can see the coast on a clear day. Alternatively, you can make the four-hour ascent on foot, beginning just beyond Lat Village, 14km north of Da Lat along Xo Viet Nghe Tinh. The village’s thatch-roofed bamboo stilthouses are occupied by Chill and Ma, but mostly Lat, groups of Koho peoples eking out a living growing rice, pulses and vegetables. The path is quite easy to follow so a guide is not essential, though one can be easily arranged through any of Da Lat’s tour operators. If you go it alone and hire a motorbike for the day, you could combine a visit to Lat Village with a jaunt out to Ankroet lakes and falls, signposted 8km along the road to Lat. The falls are more secluded and attractive than most in the area but there is little water during the dry season.
South of Da Lat
As you leave town to the south on Highway 20, a slip road to the right leads to the top of Robin Hill, crowned by a huge cable-car terminus. Cable-car rides (daily 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–5pm; 75,000đ return, children 50,000đ) are available here, and offer fantastic views over the pine-clad slopes around the city. The trip takes about twelve minutes to cover the 2km down to Lake Tuyen Lam, a placid and attractive expanse of water. There are a few refreshment kiosks on the shore of the lake, and boat trips ($10–20 per boat) round the lake are also possible. Just beside the cable-car terminal at the lake is Truc Lam Pagoda, a modern, Chinese-style temple that houses a meditation centre. The lake can also be approached by road; look for a turning to the right off Highway 20 about 5km from the centre of Da Lat as you go down the hill.
Just a couple of hundred metres further south is a turning for Datanla Falls (daily 7am–5pm; small entrance fee), signposted on the right of the road as “Thac Datanla”. In Koho, datanla means “water under leaves”, and that pretty much sums up the place: from the car park, it’s a steep fifteen-minute clamber down to the falls, probing some splendidly lush forest. The falls themselves are unthrilling, their muddy waters cascading onto a plateau spanned by a wooden footbridge that provides a hackneyed photo opportunity.
The Prenn Waterfall (daily 6.30am–5.30pm; small entrance fee) is about another 6km down Highway 20 on the left. A major attraction for Vietnamese tourists, the fall sees a convoy of buses roll into its car park, harried by a stampede of cigarette and chewing-gum vendors. Unlike Datanla, the attraction here is the waterfall itself, which thunders (or trickles, depending on the season) over a wide overhang and into a broad pool below. By following the path that circles the pool, you can walk right behind the fall. Surrounding Prenn Waterfall are a host of tacky diversions: mock-up rope bridges and tree houses, souvenir shops and the chance to take a photo with an elephant or camel. If you’re too lazy to walk down the few steps to the base of the falls, you can hop in a cable car for 5000đ. Back up at the car park, the Prenn Restaurant is on hand to cater for hungry visitors, overlooked by a modern, octagonal pagoda.
Chicken Village (ask for Lang Con Ga), 18km south of Da Lat and just west of Highway 20, is just like any other Vietnamese village, apart from the bizarre, five-metre-high cement cockerel that stands proudly on a plinth in the centre, its mouth open in mid-squawk. The local Koho women can be found weaving in many makeshift stalls around. Whether you’re a potential buyer of textiles or not, it’s interesting to take a look at the rudimentary looms that the women need to strap themselves into to operate. It’s also possible to go rambling through the nearby fields and foothills without a permit.
East of Da Lat
Seven kilometres east of Da Lat and accessible by road or by rail (see "Around Lake Xuan Huong"), the orbital village of TRAI MAT is ideally placed for a short excursion. The journey there takes you past a sweep of some of the region’s most splendid countryside. Terraced fields crammed full of crops and immaculately tended market gardens escort you for most of the way, and the elevated road provides an excellent vantage point.
The highlight of Trai Mat is Linh Phuoc Pagoda, an incredibly ornate building which showcases the art of tessellation, whereby small pieces of broken china or glass are painstakingly arranged in cement. The first thing to catch the eye is the huge dragon in the courtyard to the right of the main building, constructed from over 12,000 carefully broken beer bottles. Artwork inside the pagoda is more intricate, with mosaic dragons entwined around the main hall’s pillars, while stairs lead up on the left to colourfully inlaid galleries, shrines and good views. The main hall is very atmospheric, with the deep sound of bells rung by devotees resonating around.
About 4km beyond Trai Mat, a left turn points the way to Tiger Falls (daily 7.30am–5pm; small entrance fee), though you still need to descend a few more kilometres on a precarious switchback road to reach them. Above the falls are a couple of restaurants, as well as a statue of a primitive hunter and another of a huge hollow tiger, whose mouth you can climb into for a photo. A steep concrete stairway leads down to the base of the falls, which tumble from a great height and offer good photo opportunities. The falls are a very popular destination for Vietnamese, so you’re unlikely to be able to enjoy the place alone. Pools and boulders around the base of the falls make ideal spots for a picnic.
Through the highlands
North of Da Lat, the yawning plateaux of the central highlands are worth visiting for their scenery and minority peoples. After heading south from Da Lat on Highway 20 for about 20km turn right onto Highway 27, which snakes its way northwards over the hills. First stop is usually Lak Lake, an attractive body of water surrounded by minority villages, about 60km south of Buon Ma Thuot, which can also be approached directly from Ho Chi Minh City on Highway 14, bypassing Da Lat. The town itself is an unlovely place, but it is the gateway to E De longhouses, elephant-back rides and treks into Yok Don National Park.
From Buon Ma Thuot, Highway 14 probes further north to Plei Ku, where it’s possible (with a guide) to visit Jarai villages. From Plei Ku it’s little over an hour’s journey straight north on Highway 14 to the likeable town of Kon Tum, where you don’t need a permit to visit villages of minority groups like the Bahnar, with their towering tribal rong, or communal halls. From Kon Tum you can follow Highway 24 eastwards over a high pass to the coast at Quang Ngai, or get into high-adventure gear and continue north through the highlands along Highway 14, the Ho Chi Minh Highway. A further option is to head into Southern Laos via the new border crossing at Bo Y.
Lak Lake
Some 150km north of Da Lat, Highway 27 passes serene LAK LAKE, a charming spot that has become very popular with tourists, aided by the upgrading of the highway between Da Lat and Buon Ma Thuot. Emperor Bao Dai grabbed some of the best sites in southern Vietnam for his many palaces, so it comes as no surprise to learn that he had one here, in a prime spot on a small hill overlooking the lake. The palace is long gone, but the site is now home to a small hotel, the Bao Dai Residence (0500/385 6767; US$21–50), with a few well-equipped rooms enjoying fabulous views over the lake. With intriguing snaps of Vietnam’s last emperor adorning the walls and a decent restaurant, it’s far and away the best place to stay hereabouts. Alternatively, snuggled into a protected bay east of the hill, the Lak Resort (0500/358 6184; US$21–30) consists of smart, brick bungalows with air-conditioning, TV and fridge in the rooms, as well as two longhouses ($5) beneath a grove of tall, shady trees. There’s also a floating restaurant where the food is reasonable and Mnong staff wear traditional dress.
If you’re intent on getting the whole minority village experience, complete with grunting pigs and squawking chickens waking you in the morning, head on round to Jun Village, a thriving Mnong community on the west side of the hill, whose longhouses crowd together near the shore. Dak Lak Tourist (see "Arrival and information") has a branch office here (0500/358 6268) and a longhouse where it’s possible to overnight ($5, $7 including American breakfast); mosquito nets and mattresses are provided, and there are outside toilet facilities. They can also organize a show with gong-playing, dancing and rice-wine tasting ($60 per group); elephant rides around the lake ($30 for two for an hour); a dug-out canoe trip on the lake with one of the locals ($10 per hour for two); and guided treks into the surrounding forested hills.
Although Lak Lake is mostly geared towards organized tour groups, it’s possible to arrive here independently, either by xe om or by the local bus from Buon Ma Thuot. For bookings and enquiries, contact Dak Lak Tourist Office (0500/385 2108).
Buon Ma Thuot and around
The town of BUON MA THUOT itself has little to offer, its central sprawl of modern buildings being splayed across a grid of characterless streets. The main incentive to visit is the nearby minority villages and waterfalls, with longhouses and traditional minority communities – of which most around these parts comprise E De people – at Ako Dhong, on the northern outskirts of town, and in the surrounding countryside at Ban Don near Yok Don National Park. Although Dak Lak Province is fairly relaxed about visits to these villages, some, particularly those near the Cambodian border, are still theoretically off limits, while others are not permitted to take foreign overnight guests. Check with the Dak Lak or Dam San Tourist Office (see "Arrival and information"), before heading out.
Sited around 200km north of Da Lat and the same distance south of Plei Ku, Buon Ma Thuot is both administrative centre to Dak Lak Province, and the western highlands’ unofficial capital. During French colonial times, the town developed on the back of the coffee, tea, rubber and hardwood crops that grew in its fertile red soil, and was the focal point for the plantations that smothered the surrounding countryside: plantation-owners and other colons would amuse themselves by picking off the elephants, leopards and tigers once prevalent in the area. In later years Americans superseded the French, but they were long gone by the time the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) swept through in March 1975, making Buon Ma Thuot the first “domino” to fall in the Ho Chi Minh Campaign. More recently, natural resources and coffee in particular have made the town a comparatively affluent community, as evidenced by the number of building projects and flash cars that buzz around its streets.
Arrival and information
Buon Ma Thuot’s bus station (0500/387 6833) is 3km above town on Nguyen Tat Thanh; several air-conditioned express buses arrive daily from Nha Trang ($6–7) and from Ho Chi Minh City ($10–12). A private bus company, Rang Dong (0500/395 6956) offers hotel pick-up for rides to Ho Chi Minh City for 150,000đ. The airport is a few kilometres back off the road towards Da Lat, while Vietnam Airlines (0500/395 4442) is at 67 Nguyen Tat Thanh; a taxi into town costs around $7.
Dak Lak Tourist (0500/385 2108, www.daklaktourist.com.vn), temporarily based at 51 Ly Thuong Kiet, is very helpful and can arrange car rental, guides, visa extensions and tours. Dam San Tourist (0500/385 0123, [email protected]), a small, private tour operator based at the Dam San Hotel(see "Accommodation") is also good for local exploration, and rents out motorbikes at around $7 a day. Vietcombank, 6 Tran Hung Dao, changes traveller’s cheques and foreign currency and has an ATM – there are several more around the town centre. The post office (daily 7am–8.30pm) is on Le Duan just south of Victory Monument, and also has internet access, or try the cheap internet shop at 36 Ly Thuong Kiet.
Accommodation
There are plenty of places to stay in Buon Ma Thuot, catering for most budgets, though few of them have much character. Most of the cheaper places are clustered along Ly Thuong Kiet, while mid-range hotels are scattered around town.
Dam San Hotel 212–214 Nguyen Cong Tru 0500/385 1234, [email protected]. The best place to stay in town, though it is about a kilometre from the centre. Its smart rooms are furnished with tasteful local textiles and most have lovely views across a lush hillside. There’s also a pool and tennis courts. US$31–50The Town
Of central Buon Ma Thuot’s few sights, the Khai Doan Pagoda, built in 1951, is an interesting fusion of E De longhouse and Hué Imperial architecture. Located west of the centre on Phan Boi Chau, it stands on a slope beside a large bo tree, underneath which sits a Buddha image in meditation posture. The front of the building, approached by steps, is made of huge slabs of glossy, painted wood, with the approximate dimensions of a longhouse, but the ornate, double-layered roof is classic Hué architecture. Just below the roof at the front runs a frieze of gold-painted panels depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha. A more recent extension of brick and cement at the back houses the altar with several more Buddha images, while the bright pillars have dragons leaping off them. The pagoda was built to honour Emperor Khai Dinh’s wife, Hoang Thi Cuc, who was also mother of the last emperor, Bao Dai.
With a jeep protruding from its central column, the town’s dramatic Victory Monument on Le Duan is the hub from which all the town’s main roads radiate. About half a kilometre south of here, tucked away down a side street, the town’s former prison (daily 7–11am & 1.30–5pm; small admission fee) seems frozen in time, and the cells contain a few realistic models of prisoners and wardens. To find out more about the cultures of the local minority groups, check out the Ethnographic Museum (daily 7–11am & 1.30–5pm; small admission fee), which is set in a crumbling edifice in a peaceful garden to the south of the town centre. Among the exhibits are a waistcoat made of bark, traditional clothing of the various ethnic groups of the region, funerary statues of peacocks and tusks, and instruments for taming elephants, like vicious mahouts’ spikes and two thorny harnesses.
The tidy E De weaving village of Ako Dhong, on the town’s northern fringes, is also worth a visit. Follow Phan Chu Trinh towards the northeast, then turn left on Tran Nhat Duat, which leads you into the community. The sturdy longhouses on stilts with their tiled roofs spaced out evenly down the road, and the clean-swept yards and trim hedges give the feel of an affluent suburb. The tantalizing aroma of roasting coffee beans often fills the air, and the gentle clack-clack emanating from the buildings signals the weavers at work. The locals are welcoming and are likely to invite you in to watch the process and perhaps to buy a sample of their work, which is generally good quality.
If you’re in need of coolling down, head for Dak Lak Water Park (0500/395 0381; 30,000đ), 4km northeast of town on Nguyen Chi Thanh. Finally, if you’re in town in March, don’t miss the Elephant Race Festival, which takes place on the banks of the Serepok River near Ban Don: ask at Dak Lak Tourist for dates and details.
Eating and drinking
All the big hotels have restaurants, of which the Dam San is probably the best. The Thanh Van at 20 Ly Thuong Kiet is famed locally for its fine nem (spring rolls). Hai Ba Trung’s Bon Trieu cooks up tasty beef dishes that are perennially popular as well as a very passable cari de (goat curry), for around 25,000đ a dish. Although the food on display at Tu Tam Chay, 103 Quang Trang, looks meaty and fishy, all the dishes here are one hundred percent vegetarian; point, sit and eat. For a bit of ambience and some adventurous eating, head to the Quan Ngon at 72–74 Ba Trieu, where you’ll be greeted by a veritable zoo of animals floating in huge jars of exotic wine. Java mouse deer, weasel and conger eel all feature in various preparations, and if you’re having trouble deciding, try the grilled porcupine and pigeon rice soup, washed down with a BGI beer. Back in the centre of town, a big bakery called Banh Mi Hanoi at 123–127 Le Hong Phong can provide all your picnic needs.
Cafés
It would be a crime to visit the heart of Vietnam’s coffee industry without tasting the product itself, and there are plenty of opportunities in Buon Ma Thuot’s cafés. They’re scattered all over town, so you need never suffer from caffeine withdrawal, but there’s a particular concentration along the south end of Le Thanh Tong, known to locals as “Coffee Street”. These cafés are packed in the evenings and surrounded by a sea of motorbikes, whose owners sip their drinks in the dim-lit interiors. For the most atmospheric places, however, head north of town, where the Thung Lung Hong Café, Hem 153 Phan Chu Trinh, is snuggled at the base of a steep valley at the end of a sidestreet off Phan Chu Trinh. It’s hugely popular among locals and, given the dearth of nightlife in Buon Ma Thuot, a godsend for visitors too. Over at G26 Tran Khanh Du, the Polang Café has a striking facade, which resembles a longhouse entrance, and inside the decor utilizes minority patterns and motifs, while the bases of some tables and chairs are made of the gnarled stumps of coffee bushes – an inspired use of the plant. The menu includes coffee, tea and cocktails at very reasonable prices; there’s often live music here at the weekend.
Around Buon Ma Thuot
Once you’ve exhausted Buon Ma Thuot’s urban attractions, which doesn’t take long, it’s time to get out and explore the highlands. There are some impressive waterfalls southwest of town, while the northwest route out of town leads to Yok Don National Park and the touristy village of Ban Don.
The waterfalls
About 30km southwest of Buon Ma Thuot are several waterfalls (small admission and parking fee at each one) that are worth visiting, especially in the wet season, though unless you’re a real waterfall fan, there’s no real point in seeing them all. Dray Sap and Dray Nur, situated side by side, are the most impressive and most popular.
To get to the falls, follow Highway 14 for 20km southwest of town, then turn left at the village of Ea Ting. Just a kilometre down this road, a left turn leads to Trinh Nu Falls, a narrow chute of water approached by a steep path. At the top of the falls is a restaurant with small, inviting pavilions overlooking the river – a good spot to rest up for refreshment or lunch.
The crescent-shaped Dray Sap and neighbouring Dray Nur Falls are about 10km down the road from Ea Ting. After a short descent down steps from the car park, a wooden suspension bridge to the left leads to Dray Nur Falls, which, though not as wide as Dray Sap, carry more water in the dry season. On the other hand, at the end of the wet season, in September, water levels are usually too high for the short walk to the falls to be accessible. Almost 15m high and over 100m wide, Dray Sap doesn’t mean “waterfall of smoke” for nothing: a fug of invigorating spray sags the air around. The area round the falls can get very crowded at weekends and on public holidays, but midweek a trip here makes a pleasant outing for a half or full day. Just after passing the ticket office at the approach to Dray Sap Falls, a road branching to the right leads another 7km to Gia Long Falls, yet another waterfall in the region, where there’s also the chance of camping.
Yok Don National Park
Exit west out of Buon Ma Thuot along Phan Boi Chau, and 45km later you’ll arrive at the entrance to Vietnam’s largest wildlife preserve, the Yok Don National Park, whose 115,000 hectares lie nestled into the hinge of the Cambodian border and the Serepok River. The surfaced road to the park makes a pleasant journey, and if you start off early in the morning you might see the minority peoples leaving their split-bamboo thatch houses lined along the route for work in the fields, carrying their tools in raffia backpacks.
Over sixty species of animals, including tigers, leopards and bears, and more than 450 types of birds, from peacocks to hornbills, populate Yok Don Park. Most of them, however, reside deep in the park’s interior, which stretches to the Cambodian border. Of all its exotic animals, elephants are what the park is best known for. Elephant-hunters found rich pickings in the region’s lush forest for centuries, and today an elephant-back ride is the park’s main attraction, though the prices are a bit steep. For $30 for an hour (maybe cheaper if you haggle), two can lumber around the park’s eastern edge by elephant.
In the dry season, the park’s wildlife makes for Yok Don Mountain in search of food and water, and your chances of seeing something interesting improve. Longer safaris can be arranged by the park HQ. If you’re only here for the day, the park can arrange elephant trekking tours (around $60) or one-day walking tours (around $20) into the forest. There’s a handful of twin-bedded cabin-style rooms with attached bathrooms ($10), should you wish to overnight; for bookings, prices and enquiries, contact the park HQ (0500/378 3049). From Buon Ma Thuot, hourly public buses go to the park via Phan Boi Chau (about $1), or a xe om costs around $12–15.
Ban Don
The three sub-hamlets that comprise BAN DON lie a few kilometres beyond Yok Don’s park HQ on the bank of the crocodile-infested Serepok. Khmer, Thai, Lao, Jarai and Mnong live in the vicinity, though it’s the E De who are in the majority. They adhere to a matriarchal social system, whereby a groom takes his bride’s name, lives with her family and, should his wife die subsequently, marries one of her sisters so that her family retains a male workforce. Houses around the village, a few of which are longhouses, are built on stilts, and some are decorated with ornate woodwork.
Village life in Ban Don has become ridiculously commercial with the Ban Don Tourist Centre (0500/378 3019) organizing its residents into a tourist-welcoming taskforce. Though constantly visited by busloads of Vietnamese, the rampant consumerism and fees charged for low-grade attractions will make most Westerners want to turn round and get out straight away. If you linger, you can pay a dollar to walk on a rickety bamboo suspension bridge through a tangle of banyan roots, or to look around the village’s oldest house, which seems to be under constant repair. The village’s other attractions include expensive elephant rides and a glut of souvenir stalls.
Ban Don village has a long and distinguished tradition of elephant-taming; indeed, elephants were still caught and trained until recently, though dwindling numbers of wild elephants make it a vanishing art. (If you’re lucky you may get a chance to see the annual elephant festival in March). Beyond its final sub-hamlet stands an elephant trainers’ graveyard, which includes the tomb of the legendary Y Thu Knu (1850–1924), the greatest elephant-catcher of them all. His lifetime tally of 244 included an auspicious white elephant which he presented to the King of Siam, from whom he received the honorary title khusunop, meaning something like “great elephant catcher”. Y Thu Knu’s is the square tomb, and the pointed one in front is his nephew’s, also a prodigious elephant-hunter. Other tombs nearby are adorned with paintings of elephants and wooden carvings of peacocks standing on tusks – the latter being considered expensive items to take into the next life.
Most people visit Ban Don on an organized tour; to go it alone, take the bus to Yok Don National Park (see "Yok Don National Park"), then a xe om (about 30,000đ) for the last few kilometres.
Plei Ku and around
North of Buon Ma Thuot, Highway 14 rocks and rolls over the hills and plains of the Dak Lak Plateau, passing rubber plantations, hardwood forests and the corrugated leaves of coffee plants on its way to PLEI KU. The band of peaks to the west of the highway, and the rugged terrain buttressing them, constituted one of the American War’s major combat theatres. It was an NVA (North Vietnamese Army) attack on Plei Ku, in February 1965, that elicited the “Rolling Thunder” campaign (see "Operation Rolling Thunder"); the war’s first conventional battle of any size was fought in the Ia Drang Valley, southwest of Plei Ku, eight months later. Hundreds of Americans died at Ia Drang, but many times more Communists perished, spurring America to claim victory by dint of a higher body count. A decade later, in March 1975, Plei Ku was abandoned when NVA troops overran Buon Ma Thuot. As the South’s commanding officers flew by helicopter to safety, 200,000 Southern soldiers and civilians were left to make their own way down to the coast, hounded at every step by NVA shells.
So little of the town was left standing by the last days of the war that a near-total reconstruction was required. The 1980s reincarnation that you’ll see, stacked up the side of a gentle slope, lacks any charm. Indeed, you’d be hard-pushed to find any real reason for spending time here, as you need a permit and guide to visit the few minority villages that are open to foreigners, and there’s little to see in any case. If you’re keen to explore minority villages without a government chaperone, it makes sense to push on 50km north, just an hour’s journey, to Kon Tum, where there are fewer restrictions.
Barring an early morning stroll along central, east–west Tran Phu, where hawkers sell aubergines, shallots, parsnips and garlic, and into the adjacent town market, there’s little to do in Plei Ku. Should you get stalled by the weather, you could check out the two museums in town, though they are not always open. The Ho Chi Minh Museum (Mon–Fri 7.30–11am & 1–5pm; free), to the north of the town centre at 1 Phan Dinh Phuong, features swords, crossbows, bamboo xylophones, a weaving loom and a pair of Uncle Ho’s sandals, but no English signs. The Gia Lai Museum (Mon–Fri 7.30–11am & 1–5pm; small admission fee), at 28 Quang Trung, is a little better, with a gong and rice-wine jar collection in one gallery and, in another, replicas of a Bahnar grave and longhouse are displayed.
This far north in the highlands, the Jarai and, to a lesser extent, the Bahnar outnumber the E De, though many of them have been assimilated into mainstream Vietnamese culture. Also, Plei Ku’s tourist board, Gia Lai Tourist, is notoriously defensive of the region’s few remaining traditional settlements and doesn’t approve of individuals making forays into the wilds, insisting that you should always be with a licensed guide when visiting villages. If you try to by-pass this regulation and just turn up in villages, you’ll get little cooperation from the locals, who receive a cut from the fees for “official” visitors.
Practicalities
Plei Ku’s airport (059/382 5097) lies 7km northeast of the city, from where taxis (about 60,000đ) and xe om (about 40,000đ) make the journey to the centre; Vietnam Airlines, at 55 Quang Trung (Mon–Sat; 059/382 4680), can arrange onward flight reservations. From Plei Ku’s long-distance bus station, below the three-way crossroads 600m southeast of the centre, it’s a short xe om ride into the city along Hung Vuong, Plei Ku’s southern limit, from which its main roads shoot north.
The Vietcombank at 62 Phan Boi Chau can change traveller’s cheques and has an ATM. Gia Lai Tourist (059/387 4571, www.gialaitourist.com) is inside the Hung Vuong Hotel at 215 Hung Vuong, and can provide information as well as arrange expensive, tailor-made trekking and battlefield tours and overnight stays in minority villages. Internet access is available at many places in town, including the shop at 80 Nguyen Van Troi.
Accommodation
Accommodation in Plei Ku is decidedly uninspiring. The HAGL Hotel, about half a kilometre east of the town centre at 1 Phu Dong (059/371 8459, www.hagl.com.vn; US$31–50), is the most comfortable: its rooms are spacious and well-equipped with desks and bathtubs, and those on the upper floors have good views across the countryside. The best budget option is the Duc Long (059/387 6303, 059/387 6305; US$11–20) at 95–97 Hai Ba Trung, a couple of blocks west of the market, where the big, carpeted rooms with pine furnishings are good value.
Eating
There are no outstanding places to eat in Plei Ku, though the Acacia Restaurant at the HAGL Hotel serves up a good range of Vietnamese and a few Western dishes. The basic My Tam at 3 Quang Trung produces tasty staple rice dishes, though you’ll need your phrasebook, while the tiny Nem Ninh Hoa at 66 Nguyen Van Troi churns out delicious nem. Thien Thanh is a pleasant garden restaurant about a kilometre north of the town centre, at the end of a steep lane off Le Loi: look for the sign on the right. This attractive place has a landscaped garden with small ponds and sweeping views over rice fields, as well as a good range of Vietnamese food. For a decent coffee, the Café Tennis at 61 Quang Trang is a reasonable spot.
The Jarai and Bahnar villages
North of Plei Ku, Highway 14 probes the coffee, tea and rice crops that hem the road to Kon Tum. A right turning at a roundabout 7km north of town will take you after just 500m to Bien Ho, a volcanic lake which is also the town’s reservoir; it’s pretty enough viewed from the observation point, but doesn’t warrant much more than a five-minute stop. About 16km north of Plei Ku, a left turn leads through some pretty countryside and some Jarai villages and continues for 23km to the hydroelectric dam at Ialy.
To visit the Jarai village of PLEI PHUN, you’ll need to be with an official guide from Gia Lai Tourist, who will show you around the headman’s house, the local graveyard and village spring. The only real interest is in the graveyard, where roughly hewn hardwood statues depicting figures in a range of moods are placed around each family grave. In the past the Jarai would stick bamboo poles through the earth and into a fresh grave, through which to “feed” the dead, though now they tend to leave fruit and bowls of rice on top of the grave. If you’re interested in the workings of the hydroelectric dam, it’s possible to take a tour, lasting an hour and a half, for a small fee at the Ialy Hydro Electric Plant, which marks the end of the road. The reservoir created by the dam covers 650 hectares and produces 720 megawatts of electricity, making this the second-largest plant in the country (after Hoa Binh). It took nine years to build and was completed in 2001.
There’s also a group of four secluded but easily accessible Bahnar settlements, lying 38km east of Plei Ku, en route to Quy Nhon. The villages of DEK TU, DE COP, DE DOA and DEK ROL all rub shoulders with one another across a small area of forests and streams. Small split-bamboo and straw houses on stilts proliferate through these orderly communities, and each one boasts an impressive, steeply thatched rong, or communal house, where ceremonies are performed, local disputes are resolved and decisions taken.
At Dek Tu, there’s a good example of a Bahnar cemetery where the practice of feeding the dead is prevalent. Curiously, unlike the Jarai, each of the deceased has his own individual grave complete with a small sloping roof. Ladders made out of bamboo poles leaning against the graves will aid the journey to a new life. As at Plei Phun, you need to be accompanied by a guide, and it is also possible to arrange a home-stay in the largest village of the four, De Cop. Gia Lai Tourist have commandeered a house on stilts here, from where you can visit each village on a one-day hike. A two-day programme visiting both Plei Phun and these villages works out about $30–35 a head for a group of five people. Further afield, to the southeast of Plei Ku, there are even more remote settlements, such as AN KHE and AYUNPA, which can be incorporated into a longer trek.
Phu Phong and around
As recently as five decades ago, tigers stalked the upper reaches of Highway 19 from Plei Ku down to Quy Nhon, known as the Giang Pass. Norman Lewis, travelling here in the 1950s, found a French military outpost commanded by “a slap-happy sergeant from Perpignan, a cabaret-Provençal, who roared with laughter at the thought of his isolation, and poured us out half-tumblers of Chartreuse”. The fort may have gone, but scores of Bahnar settlements(see "Around Kon Tum") speckle the route, as it snakes its way through a majestic blister of hills and down to the coast.
For the most spectacular panoramas, you’ll need to wait until you’re 65km out of Plei Ku, when the countryside slowly begins to level out. Shortly after scruffy An Khe, a kink in the highway leads you to the An Khe Pass, from where you can see the coastal plain yawning magnificently below you, embroidered by the Ha Giao River. By the time you’ve passed through Vinh Son, and traversed the bridge that crosses to more sizeable PHU PHONG, 50km from Quy Nhon, you’re down in the paddy of the coastal plain.
Phu Phong lies under the jurisdiction of Tay Son District whose most famous sons, the Tay Son brothers, engineered a popular uprising that succeeded in unifying Vietnam for the first time in the 1770s. Sickened by the land-grabbing and hunger afflicting their countrymen, Nguyen Nhac, Nguyen Lu and Nguyen Hué in 1771 mustered a peasant army, in order more volubly to express their anger. The army exceeded all expectations: by 1788 it had defeated the Trinh dynasty to the north and the Nguyen dynasty to the south, and Nguyen Hué had proclaimed himself Emperor Quang Trung of Vietnam – a situation he buttressed further a year later when he booted the Chinese out of northern Vietnam at the battle of Dong Da. Quang Trung’s death in 1792 deprived the Tay Son dynasty of his charismatic leadership, and ten years later French-backed Nguyen Anh of the Nguyen dynasty snatched power once more. Despite its brevity, the Tay Son period is recalled as a prosperous one, when economic reforms were established and education encouraged.
The brothers’ escapades are celebrated at the Quang Trung Museum (Mon–Fri 8–11.30am & 1–4.30pm; small admission fee), a three-kilometre ride by xe om from Phu Phong. Its exhibits include costumes, weapons, gongs and drums, and there are often demonstrations of martial arts, which are very popular in this region.
Beyond Phu Phong, countless brick kilns pepper the landscape, their rippling roofs seeming to melt in the heat. Quy Nhon itself is covered in "Dai Lanh and north to Quy Nhon".
Kon Tum and the minority villages
Some 49km north of Plei Ku, Highway 14 crosses the Dakbla River and runs into KON TUM, a sleepy, friendly town which serves as a springboard for onward travel to Laos as well as jaunts to outlying villages of the Bahnar and other minority groups such as the Sedang, Gieh Trieng and Rongao. There are about 650 minority villages in the province, of which only a few have been visited by foreigners, so the scope for adventure here is broad indeed. Unlike other provinces in the central highlands, local authorities in Kon Tum do not insist that visitors obtain permits and guides to visit most minority villages, so you are more or less free to explore as you like. However, you’re strongly advised to discuss your travel plans with the local tourist office to check on their feasibility, especially if you plan to head west towards the Cambodian border, which is still considered a sensitive area.
Known here as Phan Dinh Phung, Highway 14 forms the western edge of Kon Tum; running east above the river is Nguyen Hué, and between these two axes lies the town centre. Just south of Nguyen Hué is an attractive riverside promenade, which makes for a pleasant stroll in the morning or evening. At the junction of Nguyen Hué and Tran Phu stands the grand bulk of Tan Huong Church, with colourful bas reliefs in pastel shades on its facade. Further east is the Wooden Church, built by the French in 1913, and frequently restored since then. A statue of Christ stands over the front entrance; below him, a stained-glass window neatly fuses the classic Christian symbol of the dove with images of local resonance – a Bahnar village and an elephant. In the grounds is a statue of the nineteenth-century French bishop who established the diocese of Kon Tum.
Behind the church, a Bahnar orphanage looks after children of all ages in spartan but well-cared-for surroundings. Visitors are welcome to look around. There is another branch of the orphanage tucked away down by the river off Ly Thai To, which receives fewer visitors, so you’re likely to get a warm welcome. At 56 Tran Hung Dao is a Catholic seminary and minorities museum (Mon–Fri 8–11am & 2–4pm; free) that is worth a look for its impressive architecture and small museum, which contains examples of minority wood carvings, work implements and clothes, as well as a history of Christianity in the hills of Vietnam. It doesn’t stick rigidly to its opening hours, so if you can’t find anyone around, contact staff at Kon Tum Tourist (see "Practicalities") to arrange a visit.
One good thing about Kon Tum is that you don’t have to go far to get a feel of a minority village, as there are a couple of Bahnar villages on the eastern fringe of town. Following Nguyen Hué to its eastern end brings you to Kon Tum Konam, while following Tran Hung Dao to the east takes you directly to Kon Tum Kopong, where there is a wonderful example of a rong, or communal house, which is such a striking feature of Bahnar villages. Built on sturdy stilts with a platform and entrance at either end (or in the middle, as is the case here); the interior is generally made of split bamboo and protected by a towering thatched roof, usually about 15m high. The rong is used as a venue for festivals and village meetings, and as a village court at which anyone found guilty of a tribal offence has to ritually kill a pig and a chicken, and must apologize in front of the village. Villagers at Kon Tum Kopong are big on basket-weaving, and you might chance upon locals cutting bamboo into thin strips and crafting them into sturdy baskets, which they sell very cheaply in the local market.
The Bahnar minority people live in villages around Kon Tum
Practicalities
Kon Tum’s bus station is to the northwest of town on Phan Dinh Phung. From here, it’s best to take a xe om to the town centre, which is about 3km away. Currency exchange is possible at the BIDV Bank at 1 Tran Phu, and there’s an ATM at the Agribank at 88 Tran Phu. The post office is at 205 Le Hong Phong. There are several places offering internet access, including an outlet at 202 Ba Trieu.
Kon Tum Tourist (060/386 2703, [email protected]) is at 2 Phan Dinh Phung, just north of the bridge over the river, on the ground floor of the Dakbla Hotel. They can organize a wide range of tours, including trekking, river trips and traditional dance performances, and offer information on new areas opening up in the surrounding region. Even if you don’t book a tour through them, they’re happy to give independent advice. Most hotels rent bicycles and motorbikes.
Accommodation
The town’s fanciest hotel is the Indochine (060/386 3334, 060/386 3961; US$31–75), at 30 Bach Dang, which enjoys a prime riverside location. The carpeted rooms are very cosy and those facing the river have great views. On a quiet street near the town centre, the Bich Lan, at 233 Tran Hung Dao (060/391 3913, www.hotelkontum.com; US$11–20), is a newish place that has good-sized, well-equipped rooms (some with computers) and friendly staff. Probably the best deal in town, however, is the Huu Nghi, 69 Ba Trieu (060/391 1560, 060/391 1556; US$11–20), whose huge rooms are fitted with beautiful furnishings, though breakfast is not included in the price. A good budget option is the Family Guest House ( & 060/386 5748; US$10 and under), which has two places, at 55 and 61 Tran Hung Dao: the rooms are clean and brightly decorated, there’s an attractive garden at number 61, and the friendly owners are very helpful.
Eating and drinking
There are several eating options along Nguyen Hué: the Hiep Thanh, at no. 129, specializes in chicken dishes but also serves up good sautéed beef and tasty soups. The Dakbla, at no. 168, is very popular with foreign visitors, offering a range of Vietnamese and Western dishes, as well as selling a selection of ethnic souvenirs. Next to the Indochine Hotel on Bach Dang, the huge Indochine Canteen can be a bit daunting when it’s empty, but serves a wide range of Vietnamese dishes in a prime riverfront location. The place to savour the excellent local coffee is the Eva Café, 1 Phan Chu Trinh, run by a local sculptor, whose work is also displayed here; the three-storey café has been built to resemble a stilthouse, and its surrounding garden yields fountains, wooden sculptures of distorted faces and a waterfall trickling down the back wall.
Around Kon Tum
There are dozens of Bahnar villages encircling Kon Tum. As most are free from the official restrictions that hang over Plei Ku, you’re at liberty to explore this area at will, although for overnight stays it’s best to check first with the local tourist office. West of Le Loi, the village of PLEI TONGHIA, just a kilometre away, and KON HONGO, a few kilometers further, are inhabited by members of the Rongao, one of the smaller minority groups in the region. Women are often busy weaving in the shade of their simple, wooden huts, ox carts trundle along the dusty road, and children splash about in the Dakbla River.
About 5km to the east of town is the most frequently visited of Bahnar villages, KON KOTU. Though now linked to Kon Tum by a surfaced road, it makes a pleasant walk to go there by country paths (contact the local tourist office for details) and it’s possible to overnight in the village rong. To get there by road, follow Tran Hung Dao east out of town for a couple of kilometres until you reach a suspension bridge over the river at KON KLOR. On the right here is a very impressive rong with attractive patterning along the peak of the roof. A couple of hundred metres beyond the bridge, turn left and follow the road to Kon Kotu. Most of the dwellings here are made of bamboo and secured with rattan string, although some houses now are made of timber and sport tiled or aluminium roofs, and the schoolhouse is built of brick. However, it’s the village’s immaculate rong that commands the most attention. No nails were used in the construction of the bamboo walls, floor, and the impossibly tall thatch roof of this lofty communal hall. It also doubles as an occasional overnight stop for local trekking tours organized by Kon Tum Tourist.
There are plenty of other villages of interest on the road northeast to KON PLONG, the only town of any size between Kon Tum and the coast at Quang Ngai. About 36km from Kon Tum, there’s a Sodra village on the left, while a kilometre further on the right is a Jolong village with a very different type of rong, without the towering roof favoured by other groups. Beyond Kon Plong, Highway 24 climbs up to the Mang Den Pass at 1200 metres, where there is a lovely stand of pine trees. This is also the starting point for one of the many treks organized by Kon Tum Tourist in the area.
About 17km southwest of Kon Tum is the village of Ya Chim, where there are a few Jarai cemeteries that can be visited, though it’s best to go with a guide from Kon Tum Tourist as they are tricky to find. Wooden posts, some of them carved in the form of mourning figures, surround the graves and personal possessions such as a bicycle or TV are placed inside. The graves are carefully tended for a period of three to five years after death and offerings are brought to the site daily. At the end of this period a buffalo is sacrificed to make a feast for the villagers and the grave is abandoned in the belief that the spirit of the deceased has now departed.
Moving on to Laos
The international border crossing from the central highlands to Laos, open at Bo Y 80km northwest of Kon Tum, provides access to the rarely-visited region of southern Laos. Heading on west it takes you to Isaan, in the forgotten northeast of Thailand. Though in theory you can obtain a fifteen-day Lao visa at the border ($30; two passport photos required), it’s best to get your visa in advance at the Lao consulate in either Ho Chi Minh City or Da Nang or their Hanoi embassy (see "Moving on from Ho Chi Minh City," "The northeast coast road" and "Planes" respectively), as border officials are notorious for extorting unscheduled payments from travellers in order to prevent administrative delays. There are irregular bus departures from Kon Tum to Attapeu and Pakse in Laos: check at the bus station for times.
North of Kon Tum
From Kon Tum, travellers have the choice of heading for the Laos border at Bo Y (see "Moving on to Laos"), down to the coast at Quang Ngai on Highway 24, or continuing north on the picturesque Highway 14, also know as the Ho Chi Minh Highway, which is a pleasure to travel on.
Around 42km north of Kon Tum is the district of DAK TO, which witnessed some of the most sustained fighting of the American War; to the west of the road to Dak To is Rocket Ridge, a brow of hills that earned its name from the heavy bombing – napalm and conventional – it received during this time. To the south of town is Charlie Hill, which was the scene of one of the fiercest battles of the war, ending in a VC victory over Southern troops. There’s a rong right in the middle of Dak To, where the inhabitants are mostly Sedang, and with a little exploration you should be able to find more Sedang longhouses in the settlements surrounding Dak To.
Heading north along the route from Dak To, the road passes through DAK GLEI, where there’s another spectacular rong. Directly east is virgin jungle surrounding Mount Ngoc Linh (2598m), the highest peak in the central highlands. Beyond here, the route takes you through wonderfully verdant and unpopulated countryside before Highway 14B branches off to the right at Nam Giang, taking you down to the coast at Hoi An or Da Nang.
Travel details
Trains
Da Lat to: Trai Mat (5 daily; 40min).
Buses
Bus stations are gradually becoming more organized, with ticket desks and scheduled departures. However, it is still almost impossible to give the frequency with which buses run because of the large number of private minibuses that ply more popular routes, and depart only when they have enough passengers to make the journey worthwhile. Off the main highway, to be sure of a bus it’s advisable to start your journey early – most long-distance departures are between 5am and 9am, and few run after midday. Journey times can also vary; figures below show the normal length of time you can expect to take by public bus.
Buon Ma Thuot to: Da Nang (12hr); Ho Chi Minh City (7hr); Nha Trang (4hr); Plei Ku (4hr).
Da Lat to: Buon Ma Thuot (4hr); Da Nang (16hr); Ho Chi Minh City (6hr); Nha Trang (3hr); Phan Rang (3hr).
Kon Tum to: Da Nang (5hr); Hanoi (20hr); Ho Chi Minh City (12hr); Attapeu, Laos (8hr).
Plei Ku to: Buon Ma Thuot (4hr); Da Nang (10hr); Kon Tum (1hr); Quy Nhon (4hr).
Flights
Buon Ma Thuot to: Da Nang (daily; 1hr 10min); Hanoi (daily; 2hr); Ho Chi Minh City (daily; 1hr).
Da Lat to: Hanoi (daily; 2hr 40min); Ho Chi Minh City (daily; 40min).
Plei Ku to: Da Nang (daily; 50min); Hanoi (daily; 5–7hr, via Danang or Ho Chi Minh City); Ho Chi Minh City (daily; 1hr 10min).
The south–central coast
Aside from Phu Quoc Island (see "Phu Quoc Island"), the south central Coast is the best region for good beaches in Vietnam. Nha Trang is still the country’s premier beach resort, though up-and-coming Mui Ne edges it out for trendiness and surfer cool. Besides these options, there are half a dozen other barely-developed beaches where you might actually get some rest, including Ho Coc, Ninh Chu, Ca Na and Doc Let.
Sea-fishing provides a living for a considerable percentage of the region’s population. Fleets of fishing boats jostle for space in the cramped ports and estuaries of the coastal towns, awaiting the turn of the tide; and fish and seafood drying along the road are a common sight. The fertile soil blesses the coastal plains with coconut palms, rice paddies, cashew orchards, sugar cane fields, vineyards and shrimp farms. One of the most commonly seen fruits here, especially around Phan Thiet, is the dragon fruit, which grows on plants with distinctive, octopus-like tentacles. Another striking sight is the blinding white rectangles of the salt flats that occasionally border the road.
Historically, this region of Vietnam was the domain of the Indianized trading empire of Champa. Courted in its prime by seafaring merchants from around the globe, Champa was steadily marginalized from the tenth century onwards by the march south of the Vietnamese. These days a few enclaves around Phan Thiet and Phan Rang are all that remain of the Cham people, but the remnants of the towers that punctuate the countryside – many of which have recently been restored – recall Champa’s former magnificence.
On leaving Ho Chi Minh City, there’s an early choice to be made: Highway 1 runs inland until it reaches Phan Thiet (near Mui Ne); while, from Bien Hoa, Highway 51drops down to the coast at Vung Tau, once a French seaside resort, and now a smart, oil-rich coastal town with average beaches, though much better beaches can be found further up the coast at places like Ho Coc. Few beaches in this region have been developed as yet, so with your own transport and an adventurous spirit, you’ll find somewhere to pace out a solitary set of footprints in the pristine sand. While in exploring mode, consider a trip to the former French prison islands of Con Dao, which can be reached by plane from Ho Chi Minh City or an irregular boat service from Vung Tau.
You’ll never be alone at Mui Ne, which is perhaps a sign of things to come for Vietnamese tourism – slick resorts rubbing shoulders along a fine sweep of soft sand, looking out over aquamarine waters. This tourist enclave attracts a steady stream of overseas visitors as well as expats from Ho Chi Minh City on a short break. Those for whom a day sunbathing is a day wasted will prefer to make a little more headway, and rest up around Phan Rang, site of the most impressive of the many tower complexes erected by the once-mighty empire of Champa(see "The kingdom of Champa"). The nearby beaches at Ninh Chu and Ca Na aren’t quite in the same league as Mui Ne, but both make appealing options for a bit of peace and quiet.
If you press on to Nha Trang, however, you can enjoy a combination of Cham towers, the attractive municipal beach and diving and snorkelling trips. Other, more secluded, beaches that warrant an expedition further north include Doc Let and Sa Huynh, while for a little more civilization, Quy Nhon makes a useful halt above Nha Trang. The scars of war tend not to intrude too much along this stretch of the country, though many visitors make time to visit Quang Ngai, where Vietnam’s south-central arc of coastline culminates, and view the sombre site of the notorious My Lai massacre perpetrated by US forces in 1968.
Highlights
Taking a mud bath at the Thap Ba Hot Springs
The Con Dao Archipelago
Cast adrift in the South China Sea some 185km south of Vung Tau, the sixteen islands of the Con Dao Archipelago are emerging as one of Vietnam’s hottest new destinations. Once home to the most feared prison in the country, Con Dao is now metamorphosing into a laidback island get-away with some striking colonial buildings, alluring beaches and challenging treks in the rugged hills of the national park. Since regular flights began to Con Son Island early this century, it has taken its first steps to welcoming tourists, and fortunately there is more to see than the abandoned prisons. Trekking in the national park, diving at the surrounding islands, watching sea turtles laying eggs and lounging on the uncrowded beaches are some of the alternative activities.
Con Son Island
Had the fortified outpost established here by the British East India Company in 1703 flourished, CON SON, by far the largest of the islands, could by now have been a more diminutive Hong Kong or Singapore, given its strategic position on the route to China. But within three years, the Bugis mercenaries (from Sulawesi) drafted in to construct and garrison the base had murdered their British commanders, putting paid to this early experiment in colonization. Known then as Poulo Condore, Con Son was still treading water when the American sailor John White spied its “lofty summits” a little over a century later, in 1819. White deemed it a decent natural harbour, though blighted by “noxious reptiles, and affording no good fresh water”.
The island finally found its calling when decades later the French chose it as the site of a penal colony for anti-colonial activists. Con Son’s savage regime soon earned it the nickname “Devil’s Island”. Prisoners languished in squalid pits called “tiger cages”, which featured metal grilles instead of roofs, from which guards sprinkled powdered lime and dirty water on the inmates. As the twentieth century progressed the colony developed into a sort of unofficial “revolutionary university”. Older hands instructed their greener cell-mates in the finer points of Marxist-Leninist theory, while the dire conditions they endured helped reinforce the lessons.
Arrival and information
The easiest way to visit Con Son is to take a Vietnam Air Services Company (VASCO; 08/3842 2790; www.vasco.com.vn) flight from Ho Chi Minh City, which takes just an hour (about $80 return). There’s at least one flight a day, sometimes more. You’ll arrive at the airport, about 15km northeast of town, and all hotels operate a pick-up service; the ride into town gives a tantalizing glimpse of the island’s rugged beauty and windswept, deserted beaches. For more of an adventure in getting to the archipelago, contact Vung Tau Tourist in Vung Tau (064/351 1043, [email protected]; see "Arrival, information and city transport") and ask about the irregular overnight ferries; they take 12–15 hours and cost about $25 per person.
There’s an ATM outside the Vietinbank at the junction of Le Duan and Le Van Viet, with internet access a few doors further up Le Duan. The post office is on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. Rainbow Divers (091/340 8146, www.divevietnam.com) organize dives in the area.
Con Son Town
The most popular activity in Con Son, particularly for Vietnamese visitors, is a tour of the island’s historic monuments. A 35,000đ ticket from the Revolutionary Museum (Mon–Sat 7–11.30am & 1.30–5pm), located directly behind Pier 914, allows entry to the prisons, the so-called “tiger cages” and the cemetery, with a guide. It’s all rather depressing, beginning with the poorly stuffed black squirrel, the island’s most distinctive animal, in the dingy museum. Emaciated statues in the prison show how the Vietnamese inmates spent their days shackled and crowded together, unless they were selected for the “tiger cages” or the “solariums”, where they were exposed to the elements in roofless rooms.
The unmarked graves in the Hang Duong Cemetery continue the tragic theme, though bright-coloured combs deposited on the grave of revolutionary heroine Vo Thi Sau add a poignant touch. She was the first woman to be executed here, in 1952, aged 19, and clearly loved combing her long black hair. If the morbid mood gets you, you could even visit the bovine manure enclosure, located just off Vo Thi Sau on the way to the national park headquarters. The prison warders used to march prisoners into this windowless room, then pump it full of manure as a form of torture or execution, depending on their whim. Oh, and if you’re wondering where Pier 914 got its name, that’s one estimate (others being 915, 917 & 871) of the number of prisoners who died during its construction.
Inland Con Son
A hike along one of the island’s many trails in the National Park may be more appealing than a tour of the prisons. Some trails, such as one heading straight north to Ong Dung Beach, are well marked and can be followed independently, while others, such as to Thanh Gia Mountain, the island’s highest peak at 577m, require the services of a guide. Birdwatchers might be lucky enough to spot rare species such as the Red-billed Tropicbird or the Pied Imperial Pigeon. Make sure to take plenty of water and food, as there is nothing available outside the town. The Con Dao National Park headquarters are located north of the town centre at 29 Vo Thi Sau, and are worth dropping by for information about hiking trails.
If trekking in the hills seems too much like hard work, a stroll along the seafront of Con Son Town is pleasant enough; on your way you can admire the huge gnarled trunks of the unusual malabar almond trees that line the promenade and watch the colourful fishing boats bobbing in the bay.
Beaches and islands
After visiting the historic monuments and trekking across the island you may want to focus on some serious relaxation. Lo Voi and An Hai beaches, which front the town, are not bad, though the bay is often cluttered with fishing boats. Other good beaches around the island are Dam Trau and Bai Ong Dung in the north and Bai Dat Doc to the east of town, but you’ll need to trek or rent a motorbike (ask your hotel; about 120,000đ per day) to get there. If you fancy a trip to the offshore islands, where there are plenty of deserted beaches and healthy coral reefs, try to get a group together as boats, available for hire through hotels or the national park, cost around four million dong a day. The best diving months are April and May, when visibility can be over twenty metres. From June to October it is possible to watch sea turtles laying eggs at night on nearby Bay Canh Island; less predictable are occasional sightings of dugongs, which are endearing mammals (also known as sea cows) that feed only on seagrass, grow up to three metres long and weigh up to four hundred kilos. There are a few basic rooms on Bay Canh Island operated by the national park.
Accommodation and eating
Accommodation options reflect strong confidence in the island’s potential as a slice of paradise, with the opening of one luxury resort and a smart new mid-range place in 2009. The new Six Senses Hideaway (www.sixsenses.com; US$151 and over) at Dat Doc Beach, a few minutes’ drive up the coast from Con Son Town, has super-modern, timber-framed villas, and a private butler to take care of guests’ every need. For those on a more moderate budget, the new Saigon – Con Dao Resort, 18–24 Ton Duc Thang (064/383 0336, www.saigoncondao.com; US$31–50), is the best of the rest, with a small pool and most rooms offering good views of the beach. The nearby Resort A, 16b Ton Duc Thang (064/383 0456, 064/383 0111; US$31–50), has a few rooms in thatched, wooden, stilt-houses and others in brick bungalows, though the bungalows are a bit cramped together. The Con Dao Resort (064/383 0939, www.condaoresort.vn; US$31–50), 8 Nguyen Duc Thuan, has a swimming pool and probably the best beach location in Con Son, plus they can arrange boat trips. The only budget option is the Phi Yen Hotel (064/383 0168, 064/383 0428; US$11–20) at 34 Ton Duc Thang, which has simple but clean rooms, all with hot water. All the resorts have restaurants, and there are a few basic eateries around the market, but you’ll need your phrase book.
Vung Tau and the coast road
From Bien Hoa, just outside Ho Chi Minh City, Highway 51 heads southward via modest Long Thanh (famed locally for its impressive fruit market) to Ba Ria. From there, a dog-legged road ventures out across the swampland and shrimp farms of the Vung Tau Peninsula to Vung Tau itself, home of the most southerly beaches on the eastern Vietnamese coast.
VUNG TAU, “The Bay of Boats”, is located some 125km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City on a hammerheaded spit of land jutting into the mouth of the Saigon River. Once a thriving riviera-style beach resort, the city’s offshore oil industry and steadily growing port have transformed it into a more business-oriented conurbation, though residents of Ho Chi Minh City still flock here on weekends, when hotel rates rise. However, despite a recent effort to clean them up, the town’s beaches – Bai Dau, Bai Truoc, Bai Dua and Bai Sau – are all second-rate.
Portuguese ships are thought to have exploited the city’s deep anchorage as early as the fifteenth century. By the turn of the twentieth, French expats, who knew the place as “Cap Saint-Jacques”, had adopted it as a retreat from the daily rigmarole of Saigon, and set to work carving colonial villas into the sides of Nui Lon and Nui Nho, two low hills near the coast. Shifts in Vietnam’s political sands duly replaced French visitors with American GIs. With them gone, and the Communist government in power, the city became a favoured launch pad for the vessels that spirited away the boat people(see "The “boat people”") in the late 1970s. These days, it’s become a weekend bolt-hole for the stressed-out inhabitants of Ho Chi Minh City.
Arrival, information and city transport
All buses terminate at the bus station at 192 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, where cyclo and xe om riders will be on hand to ferry you to a hotel. Hydrofoils from Ho Chi Minh City usually dock at the south end of Bai Truoc (“Front Beach”), though in bad weather they are forced to use a more sheltered location 12km away, from where free shuttle buses are provided. Once in Vung Tau, you can get around by cyclo, xe om or taxi. For more independence, you can rent a bicycle or motorbike through most hotels, though rates are a bit steep here (up to $5 a day for bicycles and $10 for motorbikes). Curiously, tandems are more common than regular bicycles.
For local maps and information, go to Vung Tau Tourist (064/385 7527, www.vungtautourist.com.vn) at 29 Tran Hung Dao, which is near the Vietnam Airlines office (064/385 6099) at 21 Tran Hung Dao, where you can book domestic or international flights. The post office (7am–8.30pm) is at 408 Le Hong Phong; several hotels have internet access and wi-fi, though for cheaper rates, try the shops on Bacu. Vietcombank, 27 Tran Hung Dao (Mon–Fri 7–11.30am & 1.30–4pm), changes traveller’s cheques and has a 24-hour ATM.
Accommodation
Most of Vung Tau’s mid-range hotels are located on Bai Sau, where a string of high-rise places offer comfortable facilities. The classier (and more expensive) places tend to be clustered around the town centre, while the town’s few budget places are mostly on Hoang Hoa Tram. Weekend rates are higher than weekdays, as the town is invaded by swarms of escapees from Ho Chi Minh City. Two of the swankier places downtown are Petro House, 63 Tran Hung Dao (064/385 2014, [email protected]; US$31–75), and the Grand, 2 Nguyen Du (064/385 6888, www.grand.oscvn.com; US$51–150), both of which have smart, attractive rooms, attentive staff and good facilities for business travellers. The Grand is right on the front and many of its rooms boast delightful sea views. The most appealing place in town, however, is the Binh Anh Village, a little further up the coast at 1 Tran Phu (064/351 0016, www.binhanvillage.com; US$76–US$151 and over), where ten individually furnished and decorated rooms enjoy fabulous sea views, and some have private gardens as well. Among the mid-range options on Bai Sau, the Dic Star, 169 Thuy Van (064/358 5537, [email protected]; US$76–150), has over a hundred smart rooms with good sea views from its top floors. A decent budget option is the Phuong Nhi at 46 Hoang Hoa Tham (064/352 4382; US$11–20), with clean rooms, air-conditioning and hot water, while the Thang Muoi, at 151 Thuy Van (064/385 2665, 064/385 9876; US$11–30), has ageing but smart rooms set in a quiet, single-storey compound opposite the beach.
The City
For Vung Tau’s most interesting sights and views, head for Nui Nho (“Small Mountain”), to the south of town. The town’s lighthouse, built in 1910, seems to have been based on a child’s sketch of a space-rocket, and is a popular place for locals to walk or jog to in the morning and evening. To get there, turn up a small lane called Hai Dang, just north of the hydrofoil jetty. The views from here out to sea and across town make for good photos, as do those from Vung Tau’s own little touch of Rio, the 28-metre-high Giant Jesus (daily 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–5pm; free), which sits on a lower peak a few hundred metres further south: it’s approached by a stairway from the southern end of Ha Long. Cherubs wielding harps and trumpets herald your approach to the outstretched arms of the city’s most famous landmark. Climb the steps inside the wind-buffeted statue and you can perch, parrot-like, on Jesus’s shoulder, from where you’ll enjoy giddying views of the surrounding seascape. A new cable car is currently being built on the slopes of Nui Lon, to the north of Nui Nho, which will take tourists to the top of Vung Tau’s highest peak for yet more sweeping views.
One of the few remaining colonial structures worth a look is the imposing Bach Dinh at 12 Tran Phu (daily 7am–5pm; small admission fee), peeping out from behind a vanguard of frangipani and bougainvillea. Built at the end of the nineteenth century, it served as a holiday home to Vietnam’s political players, hosting such luminaries as Paul Doumer, governor-general of Indochina (for whom it was originally erected), emperors Thanh Thai and Bao Dai, and President Thieu. Inside you can see the building’s collection of “valuable antique items”, excavated from a seventeenth-century shipwreck off Con Dao; among the exhibits are such unmissables as “dry burned fruits”, “beard-tweezers” and “pieces of stone in the ship”. Upstairs is a display of Cambodian Buddhist statuary and shards of old pottery, but they are eclipsed by the commanding views of the bay.
If swimming and sun-seeking brought you to Vung Tau, your best bet is to head for the sands of Bai Sau (“Back Beach”), far and away Vung Tau’s widest, longest (5km) and best, which is not saying much. Backed by high-rise hotels, it’s not exactly a tropical paradise, though on weekends, when it’s cluttered with kids, deckchairs and umbrellas, and the fruit- and seafood-vendors are out in force, it’s pleasant enough. Ocean Park (daily 6.30am-5.30pm; free), which occupies a seven-hundred-metre beach frontage, rents out watersports equipment, offers beach games, lifeguards, showers and a smart restaurant.
The views from Vung Tau’s Giant Jesus are stunning
Finally, if you enjoy a flutter and are in town on a Saturday night, head for the Lam Son Stadium at 15 Le Loi, Vietnam’s only venue for greyhound racing (daily 7am–10.30pm; admission 20,000đ).
Eating, drinking and nightlife
With a large number of resident expats, Vung Tau supports a more cosmopolitan span of restaurants than your average Vietnamese town; French cuisine weighs in heavily, but it’s also possible to find spaghetti and burgers as well as delicious Vietnamese seafood. In addition, there are a number of bars in the town centre catering to the expat community.
For something special, try the restaurant at Binh An Village, where you can enjoy seafood or steaks in a sumptuous setting for around $20, accompanied by live jazz on Saturday night and Sunday lunchtime. Just north of here, the Ganh Hao at 3 Tran Phu is Vung Tau’s top seafood restaurant, with dining tables looking out to sea. The area around the huge statue of Tran Hung Dao, at the southern end of the street with the same name, is peppered with appealing restaurants and bars, including Lan Rung at 2 Tran Hung Dao, a cavernous place specializing in seafood that is very popular with locals, as well as a branch of Good Morning Vietnam at 6 Hoang Hoa Tham, which serves up tasty pizzas and pasta. Also in this area, Whispers, 15 Nguyen Trai, is one of the most popular haunts for resident expats, with traditional roasts and good-quality Western fare, while Seasong, on the fourth floor of the flash new Imperial Shopping Mall at 163 Thuy Van, has a refined atmosphere and serves up dishes like wok-fried tiger prawn with hazelnut for around $6.
Several bars along Nguyen Trai, as well as in other streets around the Tran Hung Dao statue provide the epicentre of what nightlife exists in Vung Tao. While some are intent on persuading lonesome males to buy the hostesses drinks, others, like Blue Note on the corner of Tran Hung Dao and Truong Cong Dinh, simply provide an appealing ambience in which to enjoy a drink and chat.
The northeast coast road
As you move up the coast northeast of Vung Tau, the beaches gradually get more enticing. Since the region is near to Ho Chi Minh City, you have to go quite a way before you escape the hordes of domestic tourists who head for the area at weekends and on public holidays, though weekdays can be blissfully quiet. If you’re travelling by bus, you’ll need to backtrack to Ba Ria to get a connection, but if you have a rented vehicle, you can explore a new road that hugs the coast much of the way from Vung Tau to Mui Ne, throwing up glimpses of rural life as well as the salty tang of the nearby sea.
Long Hai and around
The first town along the coast, some 20km from Vung Tau, is LONG HAI, set below a wall of impressive mountains. It’s very popular with Vietnamese, many of who find its wide beach and fishing-village atmosphere more appealing than Vung Tau. Dunes fringe the town’s eastern extreme; to the west stands a fishing village, complete with a huge flotilla of fishing boats and assorted coracles sporting brightly coloured flags. Long Hai is served by buses from Ho Chi Minh City’s Mien Dong station; coming from Vung Tau, you’ll need to take a bus to Ba Ria and then change, or take a xe om direct for about $5. Few foreigners stay here, though there are some hotels, of which the best is probably the Military Guest House (064/386 8316; US$11–20), located at the end of the road that runs into the village. It has basic rooms with a choice of fan or air-conditioned rooms, and looks out over a wide expanse of beach shaded by casuarinas. There are a few food stalls by the road leading up to the guesthouse.
Most foreign visitors bypass the town altogether and head straight along to the resort area east of town, where the aptly named Anoasis Beach Resort (064/386 8227, www.anoasisresort.com.vn; US$76–150) is a lovingly restored former residence of Emperor Bao Dai overlooking a deserted coastline. The thatch-roofed individual bungalows discreetly set amongst pine-studded hills are very special, with gorgeous bamboo furnishings and fittings and huge bathtubs. Facilities also run to a business centre, swimming pool and charming open-air terraced restaurant. The resort has won many awards, and non-residents can enjoy its facilities for $10 a day at weekends or $6 a day on weekdays. Just east of here, the new Long Hai Beach Resort (064/366 1355, www.longhaibeachresort.com; US$51–150) has tastefully furnished rooms, a large swimming pool, a casino and fitness centre, but is mostly geared towards large groups. A little further along, the Thuy Duong Resort (064/886 215; 064/388 6180; US$31–75) is a good mid-range option, standing behind a fine beach lined with casuarinas: its accommodation ranges from pleasant beach huts to luxurious suites in the main hotel, and there’s a pool and tennis courts too.
Trace the road eastwards hugging the coast and just beyond Thuy Duong Resort you’ll find a signposted left turn that runs up to the elevated Minh Dam caves, a Communist bolt-hole from 1948, from where you can enjoy prodigious views of the rice fields that quilt the coastal plain stretching to the horizon to the northeast, and of the boulder-strewn coastline below. The caves are not much more than gaps between piled boulders, yet with a little imagination it’s still possible to picture Viet Minh and Viet Cong soldiers lounging, cooking and sleeping here. Bullets have left pockmarks on some of the rocks, and joss sticks are still lodged in crevices in memory of those who fell here. Since there are many forks in the path, however, you really need a guide to find your way around.
From here, the coast road continues eastwards through the village of Phuoc Hai, then after a couple of kilometres passes the brand-new Tropicana Beach Resort (064/367 8888, www.tropicanabeachresort.com; US$76–150), with a spa and pool, though its rooms hardly justify the high price tag. About 8km later, the road passes the isolated Loc An Resort (064/388 6377, www.locanresort.com; US$31–50), nestled beside a lagoon cut off from the sea by a line of sand dunes: it has cosy rooms with all facilities, and bicycles and tandems are available for guests’ use. The pick of the bunch on this remote stretch of beach, however, lies 4km west of Ho Tram, the Ho Tram Beach Resort (064/3781525, www.hotramresort.com; US$76–US$151 and over), where all the rooms ooze character with elegant furnishings and fittings. As all these resorts are just a couple of hours’ drive from Ho Chi Minh City, they are very popular with urbanites at the weekend when rates rise and reservations are often necessary.
Ho Coc Beach
The new road continues to wind along the coast, fringed by casuarinas and sand dunes, until it reaches Ho Coc Beach. Ho Coc is a spellbinding, five-kilometre stretch of wonderfully golden sand, dotted with coracles and large boulders, lapped by clear waters and backed by fine dunes. As with most places around here, it gets crowded with day-trippers at the weekend but is practically deserted during the week. There are a couple of decent accommodation choices here, including the Saigon-Ho Coc Resort (064/379 1036, 064/387 8175; US$76–150), on the beach itself, with good-sized and well-furnished brick bungalows; guests get free entry to the nearby Binh Chau Hot Springs. Set back from the beach, but better-value, the Ven Ven (064/379 1121, [email protected]; US$21–30) has so-so rooms in the main building, but the villas out back are good value, and there’s a cosy restaurant. Buses from Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau and Ba Ria trundle as far as Xuyen Moc, about 10km north of here, from where you’ll need to take a motorbike taxi.
Binh Chau Hot Springs
Binh Chau Hot Springs (064/387 1131, www.saigonbinhchauecoresort.com; 20,000đ) are 15km northeast of Ho Coc Beach, and the springs have been developed into a kind of theme park with the addition of a golf-driving range, tennis courts, sand volleyball court, billiards and ox-cart rides around the site. The sulphurous waters bubbling hellishly in the streams and wells here vary greatly in temperature. Old people soothe their aching limbs in the foot-soaking stream, while elsewhere visitors boil eggs sold on site to make up ad hoc picnics. For 30,000đ, you can bathe in the mineral waters of the “Dreaming Lake”, a communal swimming pool, but renting your own mini-pool (about 50,000đ per person per hour) is a more tempting option. There are also a sauna, massage and mud baths in the main complex, which features a range of accommodation (US$31–150) in villas and bungalows and a large restaurant. There’s no public transport to Binh Chau Hot Springs, but if you fancy spending a night or two there, call their Ho Chi Minh City office (08/3997 0677), and they will arrange a pick-up.
On to Mui Ne
Beyond Binh Chau, Highway 55 follows the windswept coast to Ham Tan, passing through cashew orchards with glimpses of huge sand dunes to your right. This route is so far off the beaten track that ox carts are almost as common as motorized vehicles. Occasional dirt tracks lead down to some fantastic stretches of deserted beach, where a few coracles pulled up beyond the tide level hint at human habitation. After passing Ham Tan, the coast road continues eastward; the landscape is beautiful, with remote fishing villages sheltered by coconut palms, and dragon-fruit orchards lining the road, which eventually veers away from the coast in the form of Highway 712 to join the unrelenting traffic of Highway 1 about 30km before Phan Thiet.
If you’re enjoying the coast road, however, it’s possible to branch off Highway 712 about 15km after Ham Tan and follow the coast all the way to Cape Ke Ga, where a lighthouse stands that was built by the French over 100 years ago. Tucked away in this unknown corner of the country, the Princess D’Annam (062/368 2222, www.princessannam.com; US$151 and over) comes as something of a surprise, with its fabulously-furnished villas and calming, minimalist decor: facilities include four pools, a spa, two restaurants and 24-hour butler service
Back on Highway 712, about 2km south of its junction with Highway 1 at Thuan Nam, is Ta Cu Mountain, home to Vietnam’s largest reclining Buddha (49m). It makes an interesting trek to climb the mountain, probably in the company of Buddhists on pilgrimage, though there is also a cable car (60,000đ return) that stops near the summit, leaving just a short climb. Resorts in Mui Ne can also arrange visits to the mountain.
The coastal road to Nha Trang
In reality, few travellers have time to meander along the beaches between Vung Tau and Mui Ne, and most hop straight on a bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne, taking just a few hours to whizz across the coastal plain with the Truong Song mountain range looming on the left. By this route, the first whiff of the seaside comes at Phan Thiet, where brightly-painted fishing boats bob on the Ca Ty River, and from here it’s just 20km to the sands of Mui Ne, one of the country’s fastest-growing beach resorts. There’s another chance to take a dip in the South China Sea a little further north at Ca Na, and some superb Cham towers, the impressive Po Klong Garai Towers, near Phan Rang, where you can also enjoy a long sweep of often-deserted beach at Ninh Chu. North of Phan Rang, Highway 1 ploughs through sugar-cane plantations, salt flats and shrimp farms on its way into Nha Trang.
Phan Thiet
The unassuming capital of Binh Thuan Province, PHAN THIET has little of interest for foreigners, though the reasonably attractive Doi Duong beach just east of town is very popular with the Vietnamese. In the centre of town, Highway 1 crosses Tran Hung Dao Bridge, beside which lies a fleet of fishing boats looking like they come straight off a postcard. Turn left off the bridge’s southwestern end and stroll along Trung Trac, and you’ll soon plunge into the thick of things at the wharfside fish market. In the other direction, Trung Trac skirts the city centre en route to the sedate riverside Ho Chi Minh Museum (Tues–Sun 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–4.30pm; small admission fee). Currently undergoing renovation, its exhibits include memorabilia of Ho’s life from his early days abroad up to his death in 1969, such as his white tunic, walking stick, sandals and metal helmet. The rows of varnished wooden desks and tables in the evocative Duc Thanh School (same hours) next door have remained unchanged since Ho’s brief spell as a teacher here, and effortlessly conjure up another age.
Over Tran Hung Dao Bridge, beside the Victory Monument, Nguyen That Thanh strikes off to the right and to the city beach. The scruffy patch of sand it hits first doesn’t look too promising, but 700m northeast it opens out into a more wholesome casuarina-shaded spot, backed up by some smart hotels. There’s also a string of restaurants and bars along here that do a good trade at the weekend.
Practicalities
The bus station is a couple of kilometres north of the centre on Tu Van Tu, while Binh Thuan Tourist, 82 Trung Truc (062/381 6821, www.binhthuan-tourist.com), can provide information and a map of the region around Phan Thiet. There’s an ATM at the Vietinbank on Nguyen Tat Thanh, with the post office a few steps further down the same road, while several places offer internet access along Tran Hung Dao.
There are plenty of places to stay in Phan Thiet, though there’s nothing exciting about any of them. The best place in town is the ageing Phan Thiet at 364 Tran Hung Dao (062/381 5830; US$11–20), where the spacious rooms are reasonable value. Down on the beach are a few fancier places, including the Doi Duong (062/382 1579, 062/382 5858; US$21–50), a smart high-rise that has over seventy well-equipped rooms, a swimming pool, tennis courts and two restaurants. Bigger still is the mammoth Novotel Ocean Dunes Resort (062/382 2393, www.novotel.com; US$76–US$151 and over), a little further along, which has an eighteen-hole golf course, two swimming pools and free use of bicycles.
There are few appealing eating options in town, though on the southwestern side of the square below the city’s central bridge, the Nam Thanh Lau, at 5 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, has great seafood and the generous portions are good value. Upmarket dining can be found at the Sea Horse, at the Novotel Ocean Dunes Resort, where dishes such as stuffed prawn with crab meat and sesame seeds cost around $10.
Mui Ne
From being a sleepy backwater ignored by domestic and international tourists alike, MUI NE has become the country’s hottest beach destination, thanks largely to an eclipse of the sun in the mid-1990s that had its optimum viewing spot at this pretty beach. Now it’s popular as a weekend retreat for expats living in Ho Chi Minh City as well as a favourite with upmarket visitors happy to pay $50–100 a day to lounge around in a luxurious resort.
The village of Mui Ne lies just 22km east along the coast road from Phan Thiet, and most resorts are located along the 10km crescent of sand that leads up to it. After about 8km, a turning on the right leads to the Po Shanu Towers (daily 7am–5pm; small admission fee), which date from the eighth century. While they can’t compare with monuments like Po Klong Garai near Phan Rang (see "The Town"), they are worth a look as the two big towers and one small one are in reasonable repair, and the site occupies a pretty hilltop location with good views. As the road dips down to the coast, it passes the entrance to a massive new development, the Sealinks Golf and Country Club (www.sealinksvietnam.com), which sprawls across the hills with fabulous ocean views, a challenging 72-par golf course (green fees around $50), 300 villas and a five-star hotel.
Arrival and information
Daily open-tour buses operated by companies such as Sinh Café and Hanh Café arrive at their offices in central Mui Ne from Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City, usually at around lunchtime. For getting around, the best bet is to rent a bicycle (about $2 a day) or motorbike ($6–7 a day) from your resort or guesthouse, but first check details like the brakes to avoid unnecessary accidents. Alternatively, there’s a shuttle bus that trundles back and forth between Mui Ne and Phan Thiet, supposedly every 15 minutes (8000đ). Internet access and wi-fi is available at many resorts, though rates can be high: try the Coco Café, at 121 Nguyen Dinh Chu, which currently charges 7000đ per hour. There are several ATMs along the strip, including in front of the big resorts.
With a seemingly-captive audience sprawled on the beach and lounging in cafes, local tour operators offer day tours of the region taking in the sand dunes, Fairy Spring, the Po Shanu Towers, and Ta Cu Mountain (see "On to Mui Ne"). However, it has to be said that Mui Ne’s local attractions are limited, and these tours often include missable destinations such as the guide’s uncle’s dragon fruit orchard. For more in-depth information on the local area, visit www.muinebeach.net.
Accommodation
Since the main activity in Mui Ne is lazing on the beach, choosing where to stay is the biggest decision to make while here. Budget options are limited, as the resort’s upmarket image means that many places which previously offered cheap rooms have now upgraded their facilities and prices, though this means more choice in the moderate and expensive categories. Bear in mind that many places bump their prices up at weekends. Not all places along the beach have street numbers; in these cases places are identified by kilometre distance along the road from Phan Thiet.
Budget
Moderate
Expensive
Mui Ne Sailing Club 24 Nguyen Dinh Chieu 062/384 7440, www.sailingclubvietnam.com/scmuine.php. Delightfully landscaped resort, featuring rooms and bungalows with thatched roofs and mustard-coloured walls, plus imaginative interiors with good use of local textiles. Swimming pool, popular bar and restaurant too. US$76–US$151 and overThe village
Much of the land in this region is barren and arid in the dry season, but as the road approaches Mui Ne, coconut palms form a shady avenue that passes behind the resorts and gives occasional glimpses of golden sands lapped by clear waters. After several kilometres of shoulder-to-shoulder resorts, the road reaches the small village and harbour of Mui Ne, where hundreds of fishing boats cluster together. On the left (north) side of the road just before the village are several small fish sauce plants, where you might like to nose around the pungent vats. Among these plants, a small lane beside 63b Huynh Thuc Khang (a few metres from a small bridge) leads to Fairy Spring, which is in fact a narrow stream running through a psychedelic landscape of white and red sand dunes, which are also accessible via a left turn at the village of Mui Ne. The softness of the sand makes the dunes difficult to climb, but the resulting views are ample reward. The sand can also get very hot, so it makes sense to go early or late in the day.
Though the number one activity at Mui Ne is relaxing on the beach, the place also attracts wind- and kitesurfers when the wind is up between August and April, and Mui Ne even hosts an event in the Asian Windsurf Tour each February. If you’d like a crack at windsurfing or kitesurfing, head on down to Jibes, more or less at the centre of the bay at 90 Nguyen Dinh Chieu, or to Storm (www.stormkiteboarding.com), based at the Mui Ne Sailing Club, where an hour’s instruction costs around $40 for windsurfing and around $60 for kitesurfing.
There’s no doubt that its laidback atmosphere is one of its best features, but Mui Ne is also something of a tourist enclave, separated as it is from any Vietnamese community. If you’re just here to chill out on the beach, that probably won’t bother you, but if you crave interaction with locals or dancing at night, you’d be better off heading on up to Nha Trang. Another potential problem at Mui Ne is that the strong winds and surf tend to erode parts of the beach from August to December, so you might just find the waves lapping onto the garden of your chosen resort. However, there are always good stretches of soft sand along most of this enormous bay.
Sunset on Mui Ne beach
Eating, drinking and nightlife
Whilst budget restaurants are thin on the ground in Mui Ne, gourmets will find plenty of variety. As well as the resorts and hotels, all of which have their own restaurants, there’s no shortage of independent eating joints and bars along the strip, so what Mui Ne lacks in terms of cultural attractions, it makes up for with gastronomic diversity. Nightlife is also improving in direct proportion to the number of visitors looking for action, with a surfing crowd at Jibes, 90 Nguyen Dinh Chieu, where spontaneous parties have been known to happen. Gecko and Guava, located almost next to each other at 53b and 53 Nguyen Dinh Chieu, are also cool places to hang out: both offer food and have super-comfortable lounging areas and a huge menu of cocktails. Another popular spot is Pogo, at 138 Nguyen Dinh Chieu, an atmospheric bar with seats on the sand, a pool table and cool sounds. DJ Station, at 120c Nguyen Dinh Chieu, provides food, drink and dancing under one roof, while a more sedate yachting crowd gathers round the bar at the Mui Ne Sailing Club.
Restaurants
Ca Na
Highway 1 ducks inland above Phan Thiet, which is how Mui Ne remained a secret so long. Now, however, a new road cuts up the coast from Mui Ne, rejoining Highway 1 near Phan Ri. By the time you coast down into CA NA, a little over 100km northeast of Phan Thiet as the crow flies, you’re tightly sandwiched between hills and the choppy, turquoise waters of the South China Sea. Hardly more than a wide spot in the road, Ca Na is nevertheless reasonably well equipped for feeding and watering passing tourists and, with time in hand, you might consider an overnight stay in this area. Given its proximity to the highway, Ca Na is a more relaxing place than it has any right to be. Beyond the coracles parked along the beach the water is invitingly clear, and snorkelling is a possibility, though you’d be wise to ask locals where to wade in as the coral here is razor sharp. If you crave a little more solitude, a spine of decent dunes back up another good stretch of sand a couple of kilometres south; a fifteen-minute walk north of the resort area is Ca Na village itself, characterized by the blue fishing boats typical of coastal Vietnam. Just 3km before reaching the town, on the right, the Korean-operated Vietnam Scuba (062/385 3917, 062/385 3918) offers dive trips for $100 to join a day’s dive, with all equipment provided. It also has smart, well-equipped bungalows with balconies looking over the sea and jetty, plus two pools (US$51–150): a package of room, diving and all meals costs $170 per day.
There are a few other places to stay at Ca Na, with the best being the Hon Co Ca Na Motel, right beside Highway 1 (068/386 0999, [email protected]; US$31–50), where small but smartly furnished rooms with balconies are scattered across a promontory: its facilities include internet access, karaoke, massage, billiards and a large restaurant. A little south of here, the Hai Son (068/376 1322; US$11–20) is showing signs of age, but has clean and simple air conditioned rooms with doors straight onto the beach. The Ca Na (068/376 1320; US$10 and under–20), between the two, is very run-down and best avoided. All these places have their own restaurants, and there’s a smart new eatery, the Mai Linh, just south of town where, unsurprisingly, fresh seafood is the order of the day.
Phan Rang and around
The numerous vine trellises that abut the highway are the biggest surprise of the journey between Ca Na and Phan Rang. Grapes are a speciality of Ninh Thuan Province (of which Phan Rang is the capital) and the vineyards in which they grow lend the area a faintly Mediterranean tang. PHAN RANG itself is an unlovely place, with the main thoroughfare, Thong Nhat, dissecting the centre of town. Its western limits have fused with the neighbouring town of THAP CHAM, whose name, meaning “Cham Towers”, gives a clue to the real reason for stopping here. This region of Vietnam once comprised the Cham kingdom of Panduranga, and of the nearby Cham remnants none is better preserved than those at Po Klong Garai. Another nearby attraction is Ninh Chu Beach, a glorious sweep of wide sand that is sometimes deliciously quiet on weekdays, but often overrun with Vietnamese at weekends. There are a few resorts along the beach, which make better accommodation alternatives than staying in Phan Rang’s drab hotels, though they are mostly geared towards Vietnamese visitors. Even if beaches and Cham ruins aren’t on your agenda, you may have to overnight in the area if you’re heading into the hills around Da Lat (see "Da Lat and around").
Arrival, information and accommodation
Arriving in Phan Rang by bus you’ll be dropped at the bus station 300m north of the town centre; trains pull in 7km northwest of town at Ga Thap Cham. The Agribank at 540–544 Thong Nhat exchanges foreign currency. The post office is at the northern end of town at 217a Thong Nhat, where there is also internet access.
Accommodation in Phan Rang itself is limited; your best bet is the Huu Nghi (068/392 0434, [email protected]; US$11–30) at 398 Thong Nhat, which has smartly furnished, carpeted rooms with bathtubs, and excellent value suites. Alternatively, try the Ho Phong (068/392 0333, [email protected]), south of the town centre at 363 Ngo Gia Tu, with surprisingly stylish high-ceilinged rooms.
However, you’re better off avoiding the town completely and heading for Ninh Chu Beach, where the options are much more appealing. At the far north, quieter, end of the bay, the new Saigon-Ninh Chu (068/387 6000, www.saigonninhchuhotel.com.vn; US$76–US$151 and over) has beautifully furnished, thick-carpeted, spacious rooms, and the executive suites even have beach views from the bath: there’s also a big pool, tennis courts and a classy restaurant. In the centre of the beach, the Den Gion Resort (068/387 4047-8, www.dengion-resort.com; US$21–30) draws heavily on the region’s Cham heritage for its design, and the rooms are smartly decorated if rather small. Next door, the Hoang Cau (068/389 0600, www.hoancautourist.com.vn; US$11–30) is rather bizarre with rooms made to look like old tree stumps, and though they’re ugly and cramped together, inside they are spacious and good value, and very popular with the Vietnamese. The resort also features life-size statues of Snow White and the seven dwarfs as well as traditional Vietnamese characters.
The Town
There’s really nothing of interest in Phan Rang itself, unless you fancy wandering round the 150-year-old Quan Cong Temple, situated in the centre of town on Thong Nhat. Its faded, pink-wash walls rise to three consecutive roofs, each draped upon huge red wooden piles imported from China, and laden with fanciful figurines and dragons. Quan Cong is at the head of the third and final chamber, framed by ornate gilt woodwork and rows of pikes. Cham people sometimes come to shop at the market immediately below the pagoda, but for closer encounters you’ll need to venture out to Tuan Tu (see "The Cham towers and Tuan Tu Village").
The Cham towers and Tuan Tu Village
Elevated with fitting grandeur on a granite mound known as Trau Hill, the Po Klong Garai Cham towers (daily 7.30am–6pm; small admission fee) are far worthier of your time than anything in the town centre. Dating back to around 1400 and the rule of King Jaya Simharvarman III, the complex comprises a kalan, or sanctuary, a smaller gate tower and a repository, under whose boat-shaped roof offerings would have been placed. It’s the 25-metre-high kalan, though, that’s of most interest. From a distance its stippled body impresses; up close, you see a bas-relief of six-armed Shiva cavorting above doorposts etched with Cham inscriptions and ringed by arches crackling with stonework flames, while other gods sit cross-legged in niches elsewhere around the exterior walls. Push deeper into the kalan’s belly and there’s a mukha lingam fashioned in a likeness of the Cham king, Po Klong Garai, after whom the complex is named. In days gone by, the statue of Shiva’s bull (Nandi) that stands in the vestibule would have been “fed” by farmers wishing for good harvests; nowadays it gets a feed only at the annual Kate Festival (the Cham New Year), a great spectacle if you’re here around October. On the eve of the festival, there’s traditional Cham music and dance at the complex, followed, the next morning, by a lively procession bearing the king’s raiment to the tower.
To reach the complex, take the road to Da Lat for 7km, then veer north for a further 500m (about $5 return by xe om from Phan Rang). Even if you don’t plan to visit the towers, you may find yourself taking a break here, as all open-tour buses pull in for a short stop.
If Po Klong Garai inspires further interest in Cham towers, you could make the trickier journey out to Po Re Me Tower. Like its near-neighbour, the tower (which draws its name from the last Cham king) enjoys a fine hilltop location, though its four storeys tapering to a lingam are sturdier and less finished than Po Klong Garai. Its high point is the splendid bas-relief in the kalan’s entrance, depicting Shiva manifest in the image of mustachioed King Po Re Me waggling his arms, and watched over by two Nandis. Po Re Me is also a focus of Cham festivities during the Kate Festival. To reach the tower, follow Highway 1 south for 8km and then bear west at Hau Sanh; the track is hard to find, so a xe om (about $6 return from Phan Rang) is a wise option.
There’s still a Cham presence around Phan Rang. Tuan Tu Village is home to more than a thousand Cham people, whom you’ll recognize by the headcloths that they favour over conical hats. Largely Muslim, they maintain an unpretentious, 1966-built mosque free of any trappings, not even a minaret. Tuan Tu is 3–4km along a track that veers east 350m below the bridge at the bottom of town; a xe om shouldn’t be more than 70,000đ for the round trip. Finally, about 15km north of Phan Rang, directly beside Highway 1, look out for two recently-restored Cham towers called Ho Lai.
The kingdom of Champa
The weathered but beguiling towers that punctuate the scenery upcountry from Phan Thiet to Da Nang are the only remaining legacy of Champa, an Indianized kingdom that ruled parts of central and southern Vietnam for over fourteen centuries. In 192 AD, Chinese annals reported that a man named Khu Lien (later to be titled King Sri Mara) had gathered a chain of coastal chiefdoms in the region around Quang Tri in defiance of the expansionism of the Han Chinese to the north, and established an independent state which the Chinese referred to as Lin Yi. Subsequently, Champa unified an elongated strip from Phan Thiet to Dong Hoi, and by the end of the fourth century Champa comprised four provinces: Amaravati, around Hué and Da Nang; Vijaya, centred around Quy Nhon; Kauthara, in the Nha Trang region; and Panduranga, which corresponds to present-day Phan Thiet and up to Phan Rang. The unified kingdom’s first capital, established in the fourth century in Amaravati, was Simhapura (“Lion City”); nearby, just outside present-day Hoi An, My Son, Champa’s holiest site, was established (see "My Son").
Concertinaed between the Khmers to the south and the clans of the Vietnamese (initially under Chinese rule) to the north, Champa’s history was characterized by consistent feuding with the neighbours. Between the third and fifth centuries, relations with the Chinese followed a cyclical pattern of antagonism and tribute, culminating in the 446 AD sacking of Simhapura when the Chinese made off with a fifty-tonne, solid gold Buddha statue. Wars raged with the Khmers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, one fateful retaliatory Cham offensive culminating in the destruction of Angkor. With the installation on Champa’s throne of warmongering Binasuor in 1361, three decades of Cham expansionism ensued; upon his death in 1390, though, the Viets regained all lost ground, and soon secured the region around Indrapura. In a decisive push south, the Viets, led by Le Thanh Tong, overran Vijaya in 1471; Champa shifted its capital south again, but by now it was becoming profoundly marginalized. For a few centuries more, the Cham kings still claimed nominal rule of the area around Phan Rang and Phan Thiet, but in 1697 the last independent Cham king died, and what little remained of the kingdom became a Vietnamese vassal state. Minh Mang dissolved even this in the 1820s, and the last Cham king fled to Cambodia. Most of the estimated 100,000 descendants of the Cham kingdom reside around Phan Rang and Phan Thiet, though there are also tiny pockets in Tay Ninh and Chau Doc.
Champa’s economy hinged around agriculture, wet-rice cultivation, fishing and maritime trade, which it carried out with Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Arabs through ports at Hoi An and Quy Nhon. Exposure to Indian traders in the fourth century had a particularly strong influence upon the kingdom’s culture, agriculture and religion. Though Buddhism flourished for a time in the ninth century, Hinduism was the dominant religion in Champa until Islam started to make inroads in the second half of the fourteenth century. Orthodox Hindu gods, and in particular Shiva, were fused with past kings, in accordance with the belief that kings were devaraja – reincarnations of deities.
To honour their gods, Cham kings sponsored the construction of the religious edifices that still stand today. The typical Cham temple complex is centred around the kalan, or sanctuary, normally pyramidal inside, and containing a lingam, or phallic representation of Shiva, set on a dais that was grooved to channel off water used in purification rituals. Having first cleansed themselves and prayed in the mandapa, or meditation hall, worshippers would then have proceeded under a gate tower and below the kalan’s (normally) east-facing vestibule into the sanctuary. Any ritual objects pertaining to worship were kept in a nearby repository room, which normally sported a boat-shaped roof.
Cham towers crop up at regular intervals all the way up the coast from Phan Thiet to Da Nang, and many of them have been restored in recent years. A handful of sites representing the highlights of what remains of Champa civilization would include: Po Klong Garai towers (see "The Cham towers and Tuan Tu Village"); Thap Doi towers (see "The city and beaches"); Po Re Me Tower (see "The Cham towers and Tuan Tu Village"); My Son (see "My Son"); Po Nagar towers (see "Po Nagar Cham towers").
Ninh Chu Beach
A more indolent alternative to trekking around Phan Rang’s Cham towers is to visit Ninh Chu Beach, a reasonably clean and wide crescent of sand that’s at least soft, if not exactly golden. Ninh Chu doesn’t have the same pulling power for foreigners as Mui Ne or Nha Trang, but its beach is good for swimming, sunbathing, beach games and jogging too. With several resorts located here, it’s worth considering as a place to rest up, particularly midweek, when it can be very quiet. If you’re here at a weekend, be prepared for crowds of noisy teenagers. To reach Ninh Chu, turn east onto 16 Thang 4 just south of the Huu Nghi Hotel and keep going straight for about 5km.
Eating and drinking
Eating out in Phan Rang is a bit tricky, as nowhere has an English menu: Quan 172 at 376 Thong Nhat serves cheap and tasty rice and noodle dishes, but you’ll need your phrasebook. Things are a bit easier on Ninh Chu Beach, as the restaurants at both the Saigon-Ninh Chu and the Den Gion Resort feature some Western as well as Vietnamese dishes on their menus, as well as offering good views out to sea.
Nha Trang and around
From Phan Rang, Highway 1 pushes on against a backdrop of first sugar-cane plantations, then toothpaste-white salt flats and shrimp farms around Cam Ranh Bay on its way to the city of NHA TRANG. Nestled below the bottom lip of the Cai River, some 260km north of Phan Thiet, Nha Trang has earned its place as Vietnam’s top beach destination, despite stiff competition from places like Phu Quoc and Mui Ne.
Much has changed here since the days when the Cham people knew the area as Eatrang, the “river of reeds”, and the city now supports a population of over 300,000. By the time the Nguyen lords wrested this patch of the country from Champa in the mid-seventeenth century, the intriguing Po Nagar Cham towers had already stood, stacked impressively on a hillside above the Cai, for over 700 years. They remain Nha Trang’s most famous image, yet it’s the coastline that brings tourists flocking: boasting the finest municipal beach in Vietnam, Nha Trang offers splendid scope for mellowing out on the sand, with hawkers on hand to supply paperbacks, fresh pineapple and massages. Scuba-diving classes and all kinds of water sports, such as windsurfing, kayaking and parasailing, are available here, and local companies offer popular day-trips to Nha Trang’s outlying islands that combine island visits and snorkelling with an onboard feast of seafood. Bear in mind that there is a rainy season in Nha Trang, around November and December, when the sea gets choppy and the beach loses its appeal.
Nha Trang is much more than a pretty strip of sand, however. The southern streets around Biet Thu are packed with great-value budget hotels and restaurants, plus some stylish boutiques and bars that are actually worth hanging out in. The downtown area, which swirls aound Cho Dam (“central market”), its colourful epicentre, heaves with life; while the route up to the Po Nagar towers escorts you past the city’s huge and photogenic fishing fleet.
Arrival and city transport
Nha Trang’s long-distance bus station (058/382 2192) sits 1km west of the city centre at 58, 23 Thang 10; the train station (ticket office daily 7.30–11am & 1.30–9pm; 058/382 2113) is a few hundred metres east along Thai Nguyen, a continuation of the same road. Flights into the city land at the airport (058/398 9918), at Cam Ranh, 35km south of the city. From here take a bus (25,000đ) or taxi (around 200,000đ, depending on where you’re staying) to Nha Trang, and enjoy the superb coastal views along the way.
Nha Trang isn’t a very large city, so walking may well be your means of covering the ground – especially if a daily pilgrimage to the municipal beach marks the extent of your travels. Should you plan to stray a little further afield, bicycle rental is the most efficient and enjoyable way to go. Bicycles are available for around 20,000đ per day at most of the city’s hotels, though less active souls will always find cyclo and xe om aplenty. Fully fledged car tours of the region (around $40–50 per day) can be arranged by tour operators (see "Listings"), who also offer day-trips to the islands off Nha Trang and minibus tours of the central highlands.
Accommodation
The fact that Nha Trang is chock-full of hotels doesn’t seem to be discouraging developers, and the city’s already wide choice of accommodation just keeps on growing. Beachfront monoliths are gradually blocking out any sea view from the mini-hotels on backstreets of the town. Even so, it’s worth bearing in mind that the city draws Vietnamese as well as foreign tourists, and that there can be difficulties finding a room over public holidays, when prices rise. The good news is that Nha Trang offers some of the best accommodation options outside Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi, with great deals hidden away in the backstreets. Budget travellers, in particular, should head straight for “Hotel Alley”, beside 64 Tran Phu, where a clutch of newish mini-hotels vie for custom.
Budget
Perfume Grass Inn 4a Biet Thu 058/352 4286, www.perfume-grass.com. This reasonably priced place has lots of character. All the rooms are tastefully furnished, some with wooden floors, others with reclining chairs and bathtubs. There’s also an attractive, cheap café downstairs and a relaxing rooftop terrace. Their second branch, with slightly cheaper prices, is on “Hotel Alley”, next to 64 Tran Phu. US$11–30Moderate
Expensive
Sunrise Beach Resort 12-14 Tran Phu 058/382 0999, www.sunrisenhatrang.com.vn. Enjoying a superb location towards the northern end of the beach, this is Nha Trang’s leading high-rise hotel, with a classical colonial design and every conceivable luxury, including sea-view jacuzzis on the balconies of top suites. US$151 and overThe city centre and beach
The disorienting knot of roads constituting central Nha Trang hugs the southern lip of the Cai River. Its beating heart is the hectic central market, semicircular Cho Dam, which stands on land reclaimed from the Cai; the market positively churns with life from morning to night. Most new arrivals in the city, however, make a beeline for its municipal beach, a grand six-kilometre scythe of soft yellow sand lapped by rolling waves, whose upper extent lies five minutes’ stroll east of the market. There’s a pleasant promenade running along behind the beach, with some very unusual modern sculptures and topiary set in trim lawns. The tourists who descend on the beach every day are promptly besieged by traders hawking massages, tropical fruits, t-shirts and paperbacks, though it’s possible to escape their clutches by wandering further north or south along the beach or at the pool at the Louisiane Brewhouse (free for customers or 25,000đ). There’s also a small but well-organized water park (daily 8.30am–5pm; 30,000đ, children 20,000đ) at the south end of Tran Phu. To avoid the midday sun, locals wait until the hour before dusk to do their bathing, at which time the surf is peppered with squealing, splashing kids.
The Alexandre Yersin Museum
A local sight well worth visiting is at the top of Tran Phu in the Pasteur Institute, where the Alexandre Yersin Museum (Mon–Fri 7.30–11am & 2–4.30pm; 26,000đ) profiles the life of the Swiss-French scientist who travelled to Southeast Asia in 1889 as a ship’s doctor. Yersin developed a great love of the country and learned to speak Vietnamese fluently. He was responsible for the founding of Da Lat (he recognized the beneficial effects of the climate there for Europeans), and settled in Nha Trang in 1893. By the time of his death in 1943, Yersin had become a local hero, thanks not to his greatest achievement – the discovery of a plague bacillus in Hong Kong in 1894 – but rather to his educational work in sanitation and agriculture, and to his ability to predict typhoons and thus save the lives of fishermen. Significantly, his name is still given to streets, not only in Nha Trang but around the country, sharing an honour generally only granted to Vietnamese heroes. Yersin’s desk is here, with his own French translations of Horace still slotted under its glass top; so too, are the barometers and telescope he used to forecast the weather, and a model boat presented to him by grateful fishermen. But it’s the doctor’s library, where French, English, Latin and Vietnamese tomes cover subjects from medicine to horticulture, astrology to bacteriology, that conveys most strongly Yersin’s thirst for knowledge. Guided tours are given regularly, and a short video on Yersin’s life is also available for viewing. The institute (which Yersin set up in 1895) is still active today, and you’ll see white-coated technicians buzzing about.
Along Thai Nguyen
Thread your way southwest from the Pasteur Institute, and after a few minutes you’ll hit Thai Nguyen, home to two of Nha Trang’s best-known sights. Presiding over the street’s eastern end, the stolid, grey-brick Nha Trang Cathedral, built in the 1930s, casts its shadow over the sloping cobbled track that winds round to its front doors from Nguyen Trai. Under the lofty, vaulted ceilings within the cathedral’s dowdy exterior, vivid stained-glass windows depict Christ, Mary, Joseph, Joan of Arc and St Theresa. If you feel as if you’re being watched as you climb up to the cathedral, it’s probably the huge white Buddha image seated on a hillside above Long Son Pagoda, 800m west along Thai Nguyen. Stone gateposts topped by lotus buds mark the entrance to the 1930s-built pagoda. An impressive bronze Buddha stands at the head of the altar, and there are the usual capering dragons on the eaves, but it’s the huge White Buddha, 152 steps up the hillside behind, that’s the pagoda’s greatest asset – and Nha Trang’s most recognizable landmark. Crafted in 1963 to symbolize the Buddhist struggle against the repressive Diem regime, around its lotus-shaped pedestal are carved images of the monks and nuns who set fire to themselves in protest, among them Thich Quang Duc (see "The self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc").
Scuba-diving and water sports
Nha Trang is the dive centre of Vietnam, as is well evidenced by the number of dive companies that operate here. It’s best avoided between October and December, when the waters can get stirred up and murky, but during the dry season (Jan–May) there are dive boats kitting out and casting off every day to one of over twenty dive sites in the region. A typical day out, including a couple of dives and lunch, costs around $50 for an experienced diver, more if you need instruction. Two reliable companies are Rainbow Divers (058/352 4351, www.divevietnam.com), which has a base at 90a Hung Vuong, and Sailing Club Divers (058/352 2788, www.sailingclubvietnam.com), with offices in front of the Nha Trang Sailing Club at 72–74 Tran Phu, Both offer PADI courses, including a Discover Scuba Diving course for beginners.
If you’d rather get your kicks above water, head on down to the stretch of beach beside the Louisiane Brewhouse, where watersports equipment can be rented. For a mere $20 you can scare the wits out of swimmers by zapping them with a jet-ski spray for fifteen minutes, but keep in mind that you will be held responsible for any injuries or damages. Less environmentally disastrous are the sports of parasailing, windsurfing and kayaking, with prices varying according to activity.
Eating and drinking
Finding a decent place to eat presents no problem in Nha Trang, with seafood its speciality. There is no particular district of town to head for, though the budget area around Biet Thu has a wide variety of places. You don’t need to leave the beach to eat during the day, as strolling vendors are on hand with their tempting snacks. There’s also a night market south of the water park with many cheap food stalls.
Restaurants and cafés
Louisiane Brewhouse Tran Phu Beach. This beachfront place has it all – an excellent range of Vietnamese and Western dishes, such as chicken escalope for 85,000đ, a sushi corner, a pizza corner, home-made cakes and pastries, delicious local beers, a swimming pool (free for customers), pool table and live music three nights a week. 7am–1am.Ngoc Suong 96 Tran Phu. Smart seafood restaurant to the south of the town centre, with prices according to weight – pick your choice from a fabulous fresh display and have it prepared in a variety of ways. Low-key live music gives the place a sophisticated ambience. 10am–11pm.Nightlife
Nha Trang has the advantage over Mui Ne when it comes to its buzzing nightlife. There are plenty of chillout and party places around the budget district and, while nightspots along the beachfront tend to be a bit pricier than ones located inland, all of them have generous happy hours, guaranteed to bring you back for more. Occasional crackdowns have the bars closing at midnight, but left to their own devices, most bar-owners will stay open till the wee hours.
Listings
Around Nha Trang
Several of Nha Trang’s attractions are just outside the city, including the Po Nagar Cham towers, Thap Ba Hot Springs and the National Oceanographic Institute. A short distance north of town lie several natural areas that are worth exploring, namely the Hon Chong Promontory, Monkey Island and Ba Ho Falls, which can be easily visited by renting a motorbike or xe om, or joining a tour. However, the most popular activity for most visitors is to take a boat trip to the islands that speckle the waters around Nha Trang (see "Boat trips to the islands").
Hon Tre Island
The biggest island in the bay, HON TRE can be reached by the impressive new cable car (daily 9am–10pm) that runs from Phu Quy pier, next to the harbour. Over three kilometres in length, it is the world’s longest cross-sea cable car: the journey takes around ten minutes and costs 100,000đ return. Once on the island, you can visit the Vinpearl Resort(see "Expensive") and the Vinpearl Land Amusement Park (058/359 0111, www.vinpearlland.com; 250,000đ, children 175,000đ), which includes a waterpark with slides and flumes, a mini-oceanarium, 4-D movies, a shopping mall, and some rides.
The National Oceanographic Institute
Located right beside Cau Da Wharf, 6km south of Nha Trang, the National Oceanographic Institute (daily 6am–6pm; 15,000đ), housed in a colonial mansion and established in 1923, is a veritable Frankenstein’s lab of pickling jars and glass cases yielding crustaceans, fish, seaweed and coral. In one room an eighteen-metre-long humpback whale skeleton is displayed, plus a hammerhead shark and bow-mouth guitarfish. If you’ve been out snorkelling you might spot some recent acquaintances in the aquarium’s twenty or so tanks of primary-coloured live fishes and sea horses. There are three large open ponds in the forecourt, home to horseshoe crabs, zebra sharks and various local species of fish.
Boat trips to the islands
Several companies in Nha Trang (see "Around Nha Trang") offer day-trips to a selection of islands, including a stop for snorkelling and a seafood lunch on board – all for around $6–8 per person. However, to fully enjoy the day, you’ll need to fork out for several extras if you don’t want to sit on the boat and wait till everyone comes back. All the companies offer similar tours, though each boat trip tends to cater to a specific crowd: if you’re after a peaceful, relaxing time you won’t want to be stuck with a group of party animals and loud music, as tends to be the case on Mama Linh’s trips. Con Se Tre (see "Listings") runs slightly more upmarket tours at around $25 per person, which include a visit to their resort on Hon Tre. It’s also worth contacting diving operators (see "Scuba-diving and water sports") who sometimes let people join them for snorkelling at a reduced daily rate: these trips can be great fun on a sunny day, but they are no fun at all in stormy weather.
On a typical island day tour, you’ll be picked up from your hotel, taken to Cau Da Wharf, 6km south of the town centre, and shuffled on to one of many boats jostling in the harbour. As the boat casts off at around 9.30am, you’ll pass beneath the cable car to Hon Tre (see "The National Oceanographic Institute"), then chug between islands for about half an hour to HON MUN (Black Island), named after the dark cliffs that rear up from it. There’s no beach to speak of on Hon Mun, but the island boasts one of the best places for snorkelling in the area, with some great coral. Boats hang around for an hour or so while people snorkel over the corals or sunbathe on the boat, and there are frequently diving groups here too. There’s a 40,000đ charge to snorkel in this “protected area”, though it’s not clear quite how it’s being protected.
After a break for lunch in the shelter of HON MOT, boats head for HON TAM, where there’s a small beach (10,000đ entry), and you get the chance to stretch on the sand or splash about in the sea for an hour before heading for the final destination, the Tri Nguyen Aquarium (25,000đ) on HON MIEU. The setting here is wonderfully kitsch: visitors approach the site through giant lobsters and past cement sharks, and the strange building that houses the aquarium looks like a galleon dragged up from the depths and draped in seaweed. Inside, the tanks feature black-tipped sharks, bug-eyed groupers, hawksbill turtles and colourful sea anemones. Finally the boat heads back to the mainland and visitors are whisked back to their hotels.
Po Nagar Cham towers
One of Nha Trang’s most popular sights is the Po Nagar Cham towers (daily 6am–6pm; small admission fee), 1.5km north of the city centre. Of the estimated ten towers, or kalan, constructed by the Hindu Cham people (see "The kingdom of Champa" for more on the Cham civilization) on Cu Lao Hill between the seventh and twelfth centuries, only four remain, their baked red bricks weathered so badly through the centuries that restoration work on the towers has been necessary. Despite the restoration, this complex of age-old towers manages to produce an evocative atmosphere, and represents big business for the gaggles of young postcard-sellers who counter rebuffs with a plaintive “Maybe later?”
Visitors to the complex approach the towers via a curling flight of steps that is often swarming with beggars, but Cham worshippers would have entered the mandapa, or meditation and offerings hall, whose stone pillars are still visible on the hillside; and from there they would have mounted a set of steep steps directly up to the main tower.
The complex’s largest and most impressive tower is the 25-metre-high northern tower, built in 817 by Harivarman I and dedicated to Yang Ino Po Nagar, tutelary Goddess Mother of the Kingdom and a manifestation of Uma, Shiva’s consort. Restored sections stand out for their lighter hue, but the lotus-petal and spearhead motifs that embellish the tower are original, as is the lintel over the outer door, on which a lithe four-armed Shiva dances, flanked by musicians, on the back of an ox. The two sandstone pillars supporting this lintel bear spidery Cham inscriptions.
Inside, a vestibule tapering to a pyramidal ceiling leads to the main chamber, where a fog of incense hangs in the air. The golden statue that originally stood in here was pilfered by the Khmer in the tenth century and replaced by the black stone statue of Uma still here today – albeit minus its head, which was plundered by the French, and now resides in a Parisian museum. The ten arms of cross-legged Uma are nowadays obscured by a gaudy yellow robe, and a doll-like face has been added. Yang Ino Po Nagar is still worshipped as the protectress of the city, and the statue is bathed during the Merian Festival each March.
Possessing neither the height nor the intricacy of the main kalan, the central tower, dating back to the seventh century, is dedicated to the god Cri Cambhu, and sees a steady flow of childless couples pass through to pray for fertility at its lingam. The southern tower is the smallest of the four, and also features a lingam inside. Beneath its boat-shaped roof, half-formed statues in relief are still visible at the northwest tower, and the frontal view of an elephant is just about discernible on the western facade, its serpentine trunk now blackened with age.
The Po Nagar Cham towers
Thap Ba Hot Springs
A side-road heading west just to the north of the Po Nagar Cham towers takes you through distant suburbs of Nha Trang to Thap Ba Hot Springs (daily 7am–7.30pm; 058/383 4939, www.thapbahotspring.com.vn; prices vary according to treatment chosen). There are many different options for pampering your body but if you believe, as the brochure claims, that “soaking in mineral mud is very interesting”, you can ooze down into a tub of the messy stuff for half an hour (about $5) and see what wonders it does for your skin. After allowing the mud to dry on the skin, take an invigorating shower, then a swim in the mineral-water pool or stand under a mineral waterfall. Finally, finish off with a water massage from a high-pressure spray. The waters here are rich in sodium silicate chloride, which has beneficial effects on stress, arthritis and rheumatism. The place also has a VIP spa and is well known by most hotels, who can arrange transport.
Hon Chong Promontory and Beach
Crossing Tran Phu Bridge at the north end of Tran Phu leads to the Hon Chong Promontory, a finger of granite boulders dashed by the sea. It’s quite possible to clamber down to the rocks, the largest of which is said to bear a handprint, left, if you believe the local folklore, by a clumsy giant who slipped and fell while ogling a bathing fairy. The headland above the rocks makes a refreshingly blustery venue for a fresh coconut bought at one of the stalls in the shantytown of cafés and souvenir stalls here. Looking northwest you’ll spot Nui Co Tien, or the Heavenly Maid Mountains, so called because their three ridges resemble the head, breasts and legs of a woman.
Immediately up the coast from the promontory is Hon Chong Beach, scruffier and shinglier than the city beach and not so clean, but more secluded. Cheap seafood restaurants proliferate at its far end. At night, the views from here across the bay to the central beach zone are very impressive.
Monkey Island
Following the main road running north from the Cham towers and over the Ru Ri Pass, after 14km you’ll see at Da Chung village a pair of dragons perched on a huge arch to the right of the road, which signals the jetty for departures to Hon Lao, or Monkey Island. Predictably enough, the island plays host to a colony of inquisitive monkeys, and a boat trip to see them is great fun – especially if you’ve got kids with you. The boat trip (daily 7.30am–4.45pm; 55,000đ per person return), is operated by Long Phu Tourist (058/383 9436; www.longphutourist.com), and takes an hour or so; boats depart every fifteen minutes or when there are six passengers, and the price includes a guide on the island. The tour includes a monkey show as well as dog and goat shows, which may not be to everybody’s taste.
The same company also offers day-trips (about $10 with hotel pick-up) to nearby Thi Island, which has a decent beach with good swimming, and Orchid Stream, further east on Hon Heo Peninsula, where there are picturesque waterfalls among dramatic cliffs and forests.
Ba Ho Falls
Therapeutic properties are attributed to the waters of the three pools at Ba Ho Falls, the turning for which is signposted to the left about 7km further up the highway. At the lowest of the falls, the water is beautifully clear, and ideal for a refreshing dip. From there, a steep track leads through lush forest to two more pools. To get there by public transport, take a bus headed for Ninh Hoa District from Nha Trang’s local station, and tell the driver your destination; a xe om from the turn-off should cost around 10,000đ.
North to Son My
Most tourists leapfrog the four-hundred-plus kilometres of coastline between Nha Trang and Hoi An on a tour bus, and it’s hard to fault their decision. Though swathes of splendid coastline do exist along this stretch of the country, few have been exploited to any great extent as yet. However, this is changing fast, and visitors to places like Doc Let, Whale Island and Bai Dai will find good accommodation options and uncrowded beaches in front of their resort. The next significant town north of Nha Trang is Quy Nhon, with good accommodation options, a reasonable beach and some Cham towers that are worth visiting.
About 100km north of Quy Nhon, shortly before reaching Quang Ngai, Highway 1 passes through Sa Huynh, which has a long, inviting beach that is often empty. The final “attraction” of the south-central coast is near Quang Ngai, at the eerily quiet Son My Village, site of one of the American War’s most horrific incidents, the My Lai massacre.
Hon Khoi Peninsula
At Ninh Hoa, about 33km north of Nha Trang, Highway 26 branches off left from Highway 1 to Buon Ma Thuot, then about 5km later, a signposted turning on the right leads 12km to splendid Doc Let Beach, along the Hon Khoi Peninsula. You’ll be keen to linger at Doc Let: its casuarinas and white sands are perfect for a day’s beach-bumming, although you do have to pay a small entrance fee for the privilege unless you are staying at one of the resorts here. If you want to stay overnight, there are a few choices. In a class of its own is the Ki-em Art House Resort (058/367 0952; www.ki-em.com; US$76–US$151 and over), a dreamy compound with a handful of individually decorated bungalows, a meditation room, art gallery and huge picnic tables in the garden. Run by an artist, this place is something special. It is located in the middle of the beach, next to Paradise Resort (058/367 0480, [email protected]; US$21–50), which has a few huge rooms and some simple bungalows, plus a shady terrace overlooking the beach. Rates at both these places include three meals a day. A reasonable budget alternative which mostly attracts Vietnamese, the Doc Let Beach Resort (058/384 9152, 058/384 9506; US$10 and under–20), at the south end of the beach, has pleasant huts with air-conditioning or fans, plus some cheaper fan rooms set back from the beach in a single concrete block. Just south of the Doc Let is the newest arrival on the scene, the White Sand Resort (058/367 0670, www.whitesandresort.com.vn; US$76–US$151 and over), an attractive low-rise development with beautifully-furnished rooms, all with balconies. The resort also has a spa, a pool, tennis courts and free wi-fi.
If the dazzling sands and empty spaces of the Hon Khoi Peninsula get you in the mood for adventure, consider a visit to Jungle Beach Resort (091/342 9144, [email protected]; US$21–30), one of the most secluded places to stay on the entire Vietnamese coast. Run by a Canadian-Vietnamese couple, Jungle Beach has basic rooms for rent in the house, plus some smart bungalows in the garden. All meals are included in the room price, and the food is excellent. There’s a glorious, deserted beach here and trails on the hillside behind are ripe for exploring. The enthusiastic owner, Sylvio, can arrange treks, and several guests have spent a week or two in the region. Finding the place is difficult – it’s at the far end of the road on the northeast coast of the peninsula, past the shipyards and shrimp-farming village of Ninh Phuoc. Phone before going, and staff there will guide you or your driver in. A taxi from Nha Trang costs about $20–25.
Hon Gom Peninsula and Hon Ong (Whale Island)
Another 50km or so north along Highway 1 from the Hon Khoi Peninsula, a road branches off to the right along the Hon Gom Peninsula, accessing the endless beaches on both sides of this swan’s neck of land. Though there is no accommodation on the peninsula as yet, if you have your own transport, it’s worth taking a drive down here just to look at the wild sand dunes and islands sitting in the bay. About 15km down the peninsula, the road reaches the Dam Mon jetty, from where it’s a five-minute hop by speedboat to Hon Ong (Whale Island) and the Whale Island Resort (058/384 0501, www.whaleislandresort.com; US$76–150). The place has a wonderfully relaxing feel, with simple but tasteful bungalows peeking out over dense vegetation at a fabulous view of the bay. However, you have to pay extra for transfers from Nha Trang and meals, which some guests have found below par. Humpback whales and whale sharks are often seen in the area from May to August. Rainbow Divers (see "Scuba-diving and water sports") runs dives from here, and the resort has catamarans, canoes and snorkelling equipment available for guests’ use for a nominal fee.
Dai Lanh and north to Quy Nhon
Back on Highway 1, the main road also passes some impressive but empty beaches. You can get a taster 83km from Nha Trang, just beyond the Hon Gom Peninsula at the tiny fishing village of DAI LANH, whose appeal lies in the fact that there’s absolutely nothing to do. With its patchwork of clay-tile roofs and modest fleet of blue fishing boats, the village lies at the northern end of the kilometre-long beach curving around Vung Ro Bay, a beach whose casuarinas and white sands are hemmed between the clear, turquoise waters of the South China Sea and a mantle of green mountains. The Thuy Tarestaurant at the southern end of the beach makes an ideal spot for a pit-stop between Nha Trang and Quy Nhon.
Beyond Dai Lanh, you’ll have to wait until just before Quy Nhon to get more glimpses of idyllic beaches. Highway 1D branches off to the right from Highway 1 about 30km south of town, and passes some sheltered pristine bays as it squiggles up the coast. About 15km south of town on Highway 1D, the Life Resort (056/384 0132, www.life-resorts.com; US$76–US$151 and over) on the attractive Bai Dai Beach has over sixty luxurious rooms and suites, and a fantastic spa: it’s a good place to relax and revive as they pump you up with health drinks and yoga practice.
Quy Nhon and around
A mid-sized seaport set on a narrow stake of land harpooning the South China Sea, QUY NHON attracts few foreign visitors, due to its beach being less dazzling than many others along this coast, and a bit shallow for swimming. For more adventurous travellers, however, the lack of foreigners only adds to the town’s intrigue, while the recently-restored Cham towers in the region and the friendly locals also add to its appeal.
Quy Nhon’s origins lie in the Cham migration south, at the start of the eleventh century, under pressure from the Vietnamese to the north. They named the empire they established in the area Vijaya (“Victory”); its epicentre was the citadel of Cha Ban (see "North to Quang Ngai"), and Quy Nhon – then known as Sri Bonai – developed into its thriving commercial centre. Centuries later, the Tay Son Rebellion boiled over in this neck of the woods. During the American War the city served as a US port and supply centre, and was engorged by refugees from the vicious bombing meted out to the surrounding countryside.
Arrival and information
Flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Quy Nhon touch down at Phu Cat Airport, 35km north of town. A Vietnam Airlines minibus shuttles passengers into and out of town (25,000đ), and the company has an office at 55 Le Hong Phong (056/382 5313). Buses pull up at Quy Nhon’s long-distance bus station, a short xe om ride west of the city centre, at the corner of Tay Son and Nguyen Thai Hoc (though open-tour buses by-pass the town). Quy Nhon’s branch-line train station is beside the Quang Trung statue at the north end of town, though service is irregular, so you’d be better off taking a taxi or xe om (around 50,000–60,000đ) to the nearby station at Dieu Tri for trains to Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi. The best place for local travel information and bicycle ($2 a day) or motorbike ($10 a day) rental is the Kiwi Café(see "Accommodation"). The Vietcombank, 152 Le Loi, will exchange dollars and has a 24-hour ATM. Many hotels offer free internet or wi-fi, and there’s also internet access at 2g Nguyen Hue.
Accommodation
While Quy Nhon does not have a great choice of hotels, things have improved noticeably in recent years and there are now rooms to suit most tastes and budgets.
The city and beaches
Quy Nhon is not packed with sights, though there are a few places worth checking out. Right in the middle of the city, the Long Khanh Pagoda, at 141 Tran Cao Van, is an imposing structure, its nine-tiered roof dominating the skyline. On either side of the main building stands a turret – one containing a drum, the other a giant bell. In the grounds, look out for the tall statue of Buddha, which is currently painted a rather sickly shade of green. At 28 Nguyen Hue, the Binh Dinh Museum (Mon–Fri 7–11am & 2–5pm; 15,000đ) is currently closed for restoration; when it re-opens it will doubtless display its collection which includes some superb examples of Cham masonry, ethnic dress worn by minority groups in Binh Dinh Province, and the usual war memorabilia.
The most accessible of Quy Nhon’s Cham monuments are the Thap Doi, or “Double Towers”, 2km west of town on Tran Hung Dao, which have been the subject of an extensive restoration in recent years. Their former shabby backstreet setting has been transformed into a small green park where the slender towers, framed by palms, command attention. Both date from around the end of the twelfth century, and embellishments such as sandstone pilasters, spearhead-shaped arches and the sandstone statues of winged Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu, give the buildings a spiritual aura.
The strand of beach in front of the Quy Nhon Hotel is the town’s most popular: fairly wide, and passably clean, it doesn’t see many tourists, so your presence might draw a curious crowd. From the central area, coastal Xuan Dieu slopes away southwest, passing a smart new promenade beside the beach. It then blends into An Duong Vuong, with agreeable stretches of beach behind the hotels, where locals come out in force each evening, when there’s often a fresh, salty breeze, to stroll beside the sea.
Eating and drinking
When it comes to eating, the two-storey Que Huong 2, 125 Tang Bat Ho, has a formidable local reputation and is regularly full to bursting in the early evenings: its sister branch is at 185 Le Hong Phong. Some of the dishes are fancifully-named, such as the “fried cracky noodle and roughly-fried snake head”, but everything tastes great. Alternatively, try the reliable, hole-in-the-wall restaurant named Thanh Minh at 151 Phan Boi Chau, where dirt-cheap, simple vegetarian fare is continuously doled out. Nem lovers should make for the Hoa at 124 Tang Bat Ho, while the Kiwi Café at the Lan Anh Hotel turns out cheap and cheerful backpacker staples. A couple of streets behind the seafront – Tran Doc and Nguyen Lac – house a few dedicated seafood restaurants, which score low on ambience but high on taste, with most dishes around 70,000–100,000đ. There are not too many places on the central seafront, but if you’re looking for somewhere to savour a sundowner with a view, try the Panorama Bar on the top floor of the Seagull Hotel.
North to Quang Ngai
Ten kilometres northwest along Quy Nhon’s feeder road, the throng of cafés and restaurants operating around Phu Tai Crossroads heralds your arrival at the junction with Highway 1. From here it’s another 9km north to Ba Di Bridge (Cau Ba Di), where Highways 1 and 19 meet. Clearly visible from Ba Di Bridge, the restored Banh It Cham towers, known locally as Thap Bac, cut a dash on a hilltop over the river, and can be accessed by a road off to the right above the bridge. Their site yields tremendous views of the surrounding countryside, enhanced by the giant white statue of a seated Buddha below.
North of Ba Di, Highway 1 rushes on towards Sa Huynh. If you are travelling under your own steam you could search for the last vestiges of Cha Ban Citadel, the erstwhile capital of Vijaya, a couple of kilometres west of the highway around 21km north of Quy Nhon – look out for a small lane on the left signposted Canh Tien. This site constituted the epicentre of Champa from the early eleventh century until 1471, when Le Thanh Ton finally seized it, killing 50,000 Cham people in the process. The Tay Son brothers renamed the site Hoang De and made it their base in the mid-1770s (see "The Tay Son rebellion"). After years of neglect, restoration began in 2008, but all that currently can be seen is the Canh Tien Tower, standing on a slight rise: its distinctive shape is visible from afar, a rectangular brick and sandstone edifice framed by sandstone pilasters.
After racing across terrain whose fertile soil supports huge coconut plantations and through Phu Cat, Phu My and Hoai Nhon, small towns that saw great suffering in the war, the highway nears the coast at SA HUYNH, a pleasing fishing backwater perched on a broad curve of palm-fringed, golden sand. Speckled with scores of blue fishing boats, sleepy Sa Huynh makes a convenient and relaxing staging post en route from Nha Trang to Hoi An, and the roaring of its excitable surf masks the noise of traffic from the road; open-tour buses often make a brief stop here. For a decent meal, pull into the Vinh restaurant, which serves up excellent seafood at low prices, and is just a little further north of the run-down Sa Huynh hotel building (currently being demolished and rebuilt) on the right.
Shrimp farms, salt flats and vast expanses of paddy characterize the countryside above Sa Huynh. Once past Duc Pho, an R&R base for the Viet Minh in the late 1940s, and the tobacco plantations of Mo Duc, you quickly hit Quang Ngai.
Quang Ngai and around
Slender QUANG NGAI, clinging to the south bank of the Tra Khuc River some 130km south of Da Nang, is about as pleasant as you could expect of a town skewered until recently by Vietnam’s main highway. Highway 1, which once ripped through town, now skirts it to the east, leaving the town in a state of shocked silence. The area’s long tradition of resistance against the French found further focus during American involvement, for which the reward was some of the most extensive bombing meted out during the war: by 1967, American journalist Jonathan Schell was able to report that seventy percent of villages in the town’s surrounding area had been destroyed. A year later, the Americans turned their focus upon Son My Village, site of the My Lai massacre (see "The My Lai massacre"). This workaday settlement is worth visiting for its moving memorial garden and museum, or the peaceful My Khe Beach, nearby: the best way to get there is by xe om (get your hotel owner to negotiate a fare).
The My Lai massacre
The massacre of civilians in the hamlets of Son My Village, the single most shameful chapter of America’s involvement in Vietnam, began at dawn on March 16, 1968. US Intelligence suggested that the 48th Local Forces Battalion of the NVA, which had taken part in the Tet Offensive on Quang Ngai a month earlier, was holed up in Son My. Within the task force assembled to flush them out was Charlie Company, whose First Platoon, led by Lieutenant William Calley, was assigned to sweep through My Lai 4 (known to locals as Tu Cung Hamlet). Recent arrivals in Vietnam, Charlie Company had suffered casualties and losses