So we’ve been in Vietnam about four days and just got back from the Ha Long Bay boat tour. Stopping in a quality hostel called Hanoi Backpackers which is where all the cool kids hang out. If anybody comes you gotta stay here. The end of Laos was okay the capital Vientiane isn’t that great but we did Kayak there which was fun though we did still spend four hours on a tuk tuk which aren’t the most comfy things to ride in. I’m down my first camera got, it got stolen from the bucket bar in Vang Vieng after I was trying to help some Canadian kid out of a spot of bother! You try and do a good thing hey! Reported it to the police who charged me for the report…corrupt! Also lost my sunglasses today so not the best of weeks for me losing things. Got a new camera now so that’s good. We got a flight to Hanoi from Laos with Lao airlines which we found out after booking don’t have the safest reputation and it was the smallest plane I’ve ever been on but we got here okay. Better than a 26hr bus journey anyway.
Archive for December, 2008
Da Lat is more inland than we’ve seen so far. It took us a good few hours to get there over all these twisty mountain roads and bumpy surfaces. We’d had a few the night before so this was a bit of a trial. The view was spectacular, however, even if it was difficult to enjoy.
Arrived Hue (pronounced Hooe`) on the 18th Nov and today is our second full day here. It has not stopped raining since arrival with different degrees of drizzle and monsoon type rain. Needless to say this has put a damper on our plans here. We have not been out and about enjoying the city very much. However, we have managed to get out (thank god we have our rain macks which saved us) and see the Citadel which is an imperial city within a city that all the royal and ministers lived in around the 17th Century. I thought it might be a little like Pompeii, but it is not nearly as nice. Nothing is maintained, the walls although you expect them to be old, you do not expect to to be covered in mould. The grounds are not well kept and all the grass and plant are wild and un-ruley. Inside of the building also really un-impressive.!!
We left Hong Kong this lunch time and arrived Hanoi around 4.00 pm. The drive from Hanoi airport to the city was amazing. I have never seen so many motor bikes on the road. Cars and bikes are driven in a carzy way and all traffic lights are ignored completely. Crossing the road is a life and death risk. We ventured out to have dinner tonight and crossing the roads was quite a challenge.
From July 7-15, households in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province are allowed to host travellers. According to the local authorities, this is a measure to reduce the overload on hotels and guest houses in the city during the Miss Universe 2008 pageant.
Families must meet conditions in terms of room area, equipment, hygiene, security, fire safety etc. to welcome tourists. The local government has also set fixed fares for home-stay services: VND180,000-250,000/double room and VND100-150,000/single room (with air conditioner or not).
A 19-kilometre expressway linking Duc Trong town with Prenn Mountain Pass in Da Lat was opened to traffic last Sunday.
Work on the eight-lane, VND993 billion (US$59.8 million) highway began in April 2004.
The contractor, 7/5 Company belonging to Military Zone 7, has built it in the build-operate-transfer (BOT) form. It will operate the highway for over 24 years.
The road reduces the distance from Lien Khuong terminal to Da Lat and ease traffic flowing from HCM City to Da Lat at the Prenn Pass bottleneck.
The RoK carrier’s first flight on the route landed at Da Nang international airport on the night of July 5, carrying 141 passengers, mostly RoK tourists, to central provinces .
ASIANA Airlines Chairman Kang Joo An said the carrier plans to operate two weekly flights to Da Nang on Tuesday and Saturday until August 23.
Hanoi welcomed 3.8 million visitors, including 655,700 foreigners in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 12.4 percent.
The number of holiday-makers from China , Thailand , the US and Australia increased sharply, leading to the shortage of hotel rooms.
The city is expected to welcome 7.6 million visitors with 1.4 million foreign tourists by the end of this year.
Ho Chi Minh City in the period welcomed around 1.5 million foreign tourists, seeing a year-on-year increase of 16 percent.
Budget carrier Thai AirAsia on Monday opened its first booking office in Ho Chi Minh City to meet increasing demand since the company started its HCMC-Bangkok service this April.
The office is located at 254 De Tham Street in District 1, in the middle of the backpackers’ area.
So far, the no-frills carrier has recorded an average occupancy rate of 87 percent on its HCMC-Bangkok route with four flights per week, said AirAsia’s chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld.
Vietnam Tourism Association presented prizes Top Ten Hotels and Travel Agents 2007 and two prizes of the voting on website in the afternoon 5 July 2008.
In the scope of the award ceremony, the organizing board granted cups to 10 Travel agents and 10 Hotels due to their ranking: