Here now on day 1! Since the report I saw here was from a different time of year and over five years ago, I thought it might be worth revisiting though little has changed.
Our guides are Doug and Tony which I’m happy about! We had Doug on our Arctic trip a couple summers ago. Tony seems very nice also.
Our schedule is going to be a little different due to Tết on January 29th. I had wanted to do a full day tour on what should have been a light day on the 26th, but now it will be jammed packed as our flight into Laos will be a little later than normal and some activities were moved back a day.
Any questions hit me up, otherwise I’ll just keep moving it along as we go and I have time.
We got in late last night and were welcomed by a representative holding an ABD logo sign prior to going through passport control. He was able to fast track us down the crew lane which saved us time, just to lose it waiting for our luggage to actually pop out. The conveyer kept getting jammed up on endless cardboard boxes folks had used to ship items, and eventually broke all together for 5-10 min. Once we were able to nab our two bags we were led outside the airport and waited at the curb until our driver arrived, then were handed off. It was a quick 15 min or so to the Park Hyatt Saigon, and I was surprised to see many Christmas decorations still up! The Notre Dame of Saigon is covered in lights and even though it was around 11:30 at this point hundreds of people were sitting on picnic blankets in front of and around it.
We were given a very nice room up on the 8th floor overlooking the opera house. The front desk staff didn’t give us the paper that should have told us when to meet the guides the next day but they did not… After a quick shower we finally hit the hay around 12:30.
I'd be curious as to how much some of the step on guides can talk about when it comes to the history of the country. I recall on our ABD China trip that they were very cautious about what they said.
I'd be curious as to how much some of the step on guides can talk about when it comes to the history of the country. I recall on our ABD China trip that they were very cautious about what they said.
So far Tony has been very open about his past and recent changes in the government, at least as far as I can tell. The folks in front of me on the bus were also chatting about how they were not allowed to ask questions on the buses in China. The guide requested they wait until later on that one, but even though the government has required cameras on all the buses in vietnam Tony didn’t ask us to hold back or anything. I’m not sure they listen as well though - they just mentioned they can’t walk around as they used to. Police scan the footage as they make a whopping 85% commission on any tickets handed out for infractions so there is high motivation! Traffic violations are under tight scrutiny at the moment - tickets are up 5-10x what they had been so drivers are being much more careful at lights and such. Travel times to get everywhere have skyrocketed! It used to only take 1.5 hours to get to the Mekong boats but today it will take 2 hours or so. Tony mentioned tomorrow will be much more history heavy so we’ll see. He has mentioned it’s called the American War here and not the Vietnam War. I think that he really is hoping everyone goes to the prison and tunnels, or at least seemed happy I said we absolutely would be.
We were in Vietnam last year, and China was 18 years ago, but Vietnam felt much less controlled over all. It is really this weird combo of capitalism and communism. Rules, and lines, and oversight, but also freewheeling commerce. It felt the strictest when we went to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. Lots of rules and lines there.
The prison and the War Museum were both highlights for me. I'm not a huge war buff, but my dad was there in a military hospital and it's always interesting to hear the other side of the story.
Please comment on internal carry on luggage policy. We will have only carry on and want to know if they measure or weigh them when traveling with ABD. What airlines did they use? Also is there access to laundry? Thank you.
We did not get any vaccinations, no. We traveled to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
I have started taking an pepto bismol tablet with every meal when I travel, since I seem to get every GI bug known to man. It seems to have helped, as I haven't gotten sick since starting that.
We did, yes. We always contact our travel clinic with Kaiser (our insurer) and they make recommendations for us. We’ve at this point had almost every vaccine you can think of, but I did specifically ask about Japanese encephalitis as I know that has been one in the past for some folk. Since we aren’t staying out overnight in the country they said we do t need it. The risk is just too small and it’s not covered by our insurance so it would have been something like $350-400 per person to get the series of shots. They did fill prescriptions for malaria pills and an antibiotic in case we get severe food poisoning that over the counter meds can’t resolve.
Please comment on internal carry on luggage policy. We will have only carry on and want to know if they measure or weigh them when traveling with ABD. What airlines did they use? Also is there access to laundry? Thank you.
So far we have only had one of four flights - it was on Vietnam airlines and was your standard one carry on and one personal item. They did not weigh any bags for that one. They did switch planes on us last minute though so folks got shuffled around and not everyone was sitting with their group. Luckily I was with my husband as I am not a good flyer….
Day one our only task was meeting up with our guides. They were available in a conference room on the second level until about 1:30, though they said if we needed to meet later they could accommodate that too.
The breakfast buffet at the Park Hyatt was available in two different places - depending on your group they’ll send you to one or the other. They are identical as far as offerings and there are a TON of things to eat! They also can make things for you ala carte via a menu. I had congee two of the mornings but they had egg dishes, French toast, pho, all kinds of things.
After breakfast we walked down to Ben Thanh Market as my husband decided he wanted a smaller backpack for his camera, and to exchange cash at a jewelry store which I guess is a totally normal thing to do. He spent forever haggling and ended up saving $2. I don’t know how a bag that retails for $150 was $8, but it really does seem legit, so yay?
From there we also went to a camera shop as he decided he brought the wrong lens for his camera too… no such deal to be had on that one! I needed a restroom so we also popped into our first coffee shop to use the facilities and try Vietnamese coffee.
The view from their balcony was pretty nice! Somehow it was already closing in on noon so we headed back to the hotel to meet up and make our afternoon tea I’d booked for 2pm.
Doug and Tony went over some Trip logistics and yes, we had to preorder three different meals immediately! The menus were much longer than I would have thought which made it kind of hard… those tasks accomplished we were set free the rest of the day and had earned our first pin.
We quickly changed and went down to tea, which was classic in the scone (plain and raisin with jam and cream) and dessert department, but very different in the savory side from what I’m used to! It was very seafood heavy, and also had steak tartar. The black balls were some kind of cracker around lobster, and the little baguettes had some kind of crab filling. The puffs had eggplant and we never did figure out what the macrons were supposed to be.
We ended up taking half the desserts back to the room, we were stuffed!
Still having more hours in the day we took a Grab (uber/lyft) to the Skyview tower and back again.
There wasn’t much up there aside from the view - we could have paid more to do a VR experience and have our photo taken but we declined. You can also go a little higher outside if you put on a harness and walk in circle path with it attached but we skipped that too.
From there we came back to the hotel the same way and walked across the street for a showing of Ao in the opera house, which is billed as a Bamboo Circus. It was kind of confusing and odd if I’m honest… and short at only an hour, but was still fun and pretty cheap at something like $30.
From there we walked a short distance to “Wrap&Roll” which is in a mall’s basement. I wanted Vietnamese food on our first night and it had great reviews so we thought why not. It was good, quick, and very affordable. 2 entrees and 2 juices were $12. My only complaint would be for my sensitive American stomach turning a little bit as the ship was shell on, but it honestly wasn’t bad eating as is. I did end up leaving about half of it though and insisted it was because I just wasn’t THAT hungry… for a do nothing day we did kind of a lot and managed to stay up until 10pm without a nap, which is a win in my book!
Sorry, don't mean to hijack your trip report. I'm just excited to relive our trip. It was DH's idea to go, but I found I really enjoyed the area more than I thought I would. Hope you did too!
OK, I'm willing to admit I have no idea what "turning a little bit as the ship was shell on" means. I'm assuming it's either a colloquialism I'm unfamiliar with, or a victim of autocorrect.
OK, I'm willing to admit I have no idea what "turning a little bit as the ship was shell on" means. I'm assuming it's either a colloquialism I'm unfamiliar with, or a victim of autocorrect.
Well I ended up so busy from this go go go go go tour and after days that I never had time to try and type another out on my phone anyway! Whoops! ^^;
Day Two - Melodic Mekong
Another reason I delayed is probably because this was actually our least favorite day, and that makes writing tough for me. Which is sad, as I was really looking forward to it. I envisioned something like this as it is one of the featured pics, but we never were on a boat that looked anything like this, and never rowed through anything like this at any point on the trip either.
From it I assumed there might be something akin to floating markets but there were not... the description says "Mekong River Cruise: Sail past the villages that make up the landscape of life on this mighty river." The river is so massive you really don't notice the villages on either side as they are quite far away. We also made a big mistake by sitting in the back of the motorized touring boat - we were too close to the engine and couldn't hear anything even with our whisper devices. I eventually gave up and put in earplugs as my watch proved it was over 90 decibels the whole time.
I'm getting ahead of myself though... at our initial greeting the day before Doug told us to eat breakfast prior and then meet back up in the same room at 7:45am for intros and overall schedule of the trip. We were on an adult only departure, and the group definitely skewed older with us being on the young side in our early 40s. There was a honeymooning couple and one daughter with her mother, but otherwise everyone was in their 50s to 70s. We did have a couple gentlemen with mobility and stamina troubles, but the guides did as best as they could keeping them comfortable and involved in as many activities as possible.
After our intros we had time to run back up to the room before heading to the bus. We were told the drive is usually about an hour and a half, but we should expect about two. Recent changes in the government had led to an overhaul of some traffic laws, meaning folks had to actually, you know.. STOP at red lights, yes, even on scooters. The fines for infractions also went up 5-10x, which people really can't afford. Folk thus erred on the side of caution, stopping sooner than they even had to in order to make certain they wouldn't go through on a red. They also made it so you can't walk around on the bus, so our guides had to stay seated. There are cameras on the buses, and there is big incentive for police to review footage as they get an 85% commission on finding infractions. They did not mess around! On top of all this everyone was getting ready for Lunar New Year (Tết) on the 29th so traffic was a little heavier than usual getting out of the city to start with, even though it was only the 21st at this point. At some point during the drive there was police activity going the other direction, and Tony explained that it is unfortunately seen by many truck drivers as better to go through with a collision with a motorbike and pay them off than it is to hit the brakes and risk destroying their haul. It's a couple thousand in medical and repair costs versus sometimes hundreds of thousands in merchandise so... that was sobering.
We met in the lobby at 8:15 and bus rolled out at 8:30 and... we did not get to the rest stop until 10:15. Oof. After using the facilities we were gifted
folding fans and Nón lá (grass hats/ the conical iconic hat). Doug admitted very few of these ever make it home, but its fun to see who ends up putting in the effort and watch them dwindle as time wore on.
. They also handed out the whisper devices which we kept at hand for the rest of the trip.
After a little longer we made it to the river and boarded the motorized boat around 11:20am.... even longer than they had feared. We took a group picture with our gifted items and enjoyed a massive amount of flowers on the short walk to the pier. It was next to this hotel:
Onboard there was a spread of fresh coconut and various other fruits that we were plied with to try. You could of course refuse anything you wanted, but there were some I'd never had, so I tried a bit of everything.
During the cruise there was narration but as I mentioned earlier I couldn't hear any of it due to the engine...so I unfortunately can't comment on it. I am sad I missed it, as Tony had several more monologues during the trip and they were all very interesting! It may have made this more enjoyable... I should also mention we've done a few very similar rides on the Amazon as well, so a certain bit of wow factor might have been lessened. The boats around us were... definitely unique!
We cruised a little ways down the river before our first stop at a little farm that had bees and served honey tea and snacks at around noon. We then cruised a little further yet and then debarked for a bit. At this stop we had a demonstration of how to husk and harvest a coconut. They then also served tea and gave us a taste of freshly made and still warm coconut taffy. We then walked a little further to a community run area with lots of folk husking coconuts together and then boarded tuktuks to take us to the smaller paddle canoes.
Here things had changed and we were made to wear lifevests which some guests were unhappy about... as well as the fact they needed three guests per boat and most of us were couples. The trip was only about 7-10 minutes before we met back up with the motorized canoe so Kyle and I volunteered to be split up, as did a few others. The route was jungly on both sides - no buidings or anything but it was very pretty and serene... just too short. We were horribly behind schedule by now; lunch should have been at 1, but it ended up being at 2, so I don't know if we might have gone further if we had more time? I feel like probably not, but there is no way to know for sure.
From here we traveled by the motorized boat further to our lunch spot and debarked again for the final time. We sat overlooking the river and were told beer would be included at meals on our adult only departure as it was the same price as the soda anyway. This made a lot of folks happy! Our lunch was soup, fried banana flowers, whole prawns, DIY elephant fish salad rolls, and pineapple for dessert.
Lunch lasted about an hour, then we wandered a short distance back and boarded the bus around 3pm. Please remember dear reader that beer was included... we were told the drive back would be another couple of hours. As we approached the two hour mark Doug came on the speaker to ask if anyone needed a restroom urgently, as they really wanted to skip it and keep driving to get back to the hotel. A few of us had..concerns... but no one wanted to be 'that guy' and trusted that it would not be too much longer... but at 6pm we were... uh.. still driving. Things were getting dire with 30 min left to go according to google maps on my phone. In the end it took close to four full hours - one poor woman begged everyone to let her get off the bus first as she was fit to pop! We really should have asked to take that bathrooom break!
Speaking with the guides about this day later they aren't sure what can be done...there isn't anywhere closer to get onto the Mekong so either they drop it or hope traffic gets better now that Tet is over and folk get used to the new traffic rules. Cuz six+ hours on a bus for this is... not a great use of time.
We then had a little time to change and freshen up before heading out to our welcome dinner at Vietnam House. It was close by, but we still took the bus... perhaps for the gentlemen who couldn't walk long distances.
Everything here was tasty, and this was one of the few places that allowed me to have tea free of charge instead of soda (I don't drink it) or beer (which I rarely drink). This got rather annoying as I had assumed tea would flow like water but I was mistaken. Most meals I just had water or sometimes juice if that was included... often it was not. After dinner we chose to walk back to the hotel.
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