Vietnam / Cambodia - March 2005

Temple in Vietnam

This was our first trip together to Asia and the beginning of many more trips to the Far East.  On this trip, we spent two weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia, visiting Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong Delta and Siem Reap.  The trip was truly amazing with gorgeous scenery and the people were very nice and welcoming.

Accommodations:

Hilton Hanoi Opera (Hanoi) - A nice hotel in the French Quarter district and within walking distance of most of the major attractions.

Junk (Halong Bay) - We stayed on a wooden boat for a couple of nights booked through a tour company (see below).  Accommodation was comfortable and the food reasonably good.

Furama Resort (China Beach) - A beautiful resort right on the beach with a nice pool and lush grounds.

Renaissance Riverside Hotel (Ho Chi Minh City) - A nice hotel overlooking the river.

Mekong Delta - We stayed in a couple of non-descript hotels (can't remember the names) booked through the tour company (see below) that we used to tour the Delta.

Angkor Village Hotel (Siem Reap) - A unique resort hotel in town with wooden houses nestled among tropical ponds and gardens.

Activities:

Hanoi
We arrived late in the evening into Hanoi after flying for way too many hours.  We checked into our hotel and crashed for the evening.

Temple in Vietnam

While in Hanoi, we toured the beautiful city by walking around to the major sights.  Crossing a major intersection in this city is like gambling for your life as you dodge the thousands of scooters on the road.  We walked around the narrow alleys of the Old Quarter where each street specializes in some type of ware - such as a street solely dedicated to silk or musical instruments or spices.  We also visited the historical Dong Xuan Market in the Old Quarter which was rebuilt after a fire in 1994.  Of course, we also saw many temples and pagodas including the Ngoc Son Temple on an island in Hoan Kiem Lake (which is quite beautiful and peaceful) and the Temple of Literature which was built to honor men of literary accomplishment and was the site of Vietnam's first university.  Lastly, we visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex which includes the final resting place of Ho Chi Minh and the Presidential Palace.

Halong Bay
We took a two night boat trip along Halong Bay with the tour company Handspan.  The specific tour we took was the Halong Bay Cruise (3 days). The tour office is in Hanoi from which they drove us via shuttle to Halong Bay.  Once there, we boarded the wooden junk which was quite comfortable - the bedroom was a bit larger than we expected but the bathroom was the size of a matchbox!  While on the boat, we saw a floating fishing village, kayaked, swam and relaxed on a beach and visited a famous cave.  After the tour, we returned to Hanoi for one more night.

Junk on Halong Bay

China Beach (Da Nang)
We flew early in the morning to Da Nang and checked into our hotel which is a resort on the beach.  Very close to our hotel was one of the old US Army bases - we stumbled upon it as we were walking along the beach.  One of the Vietnamese military guards (who didn't seem happy to see us) rushed us off of the grounds rather quickly.  There was not much remaining but it was cool to see the rubble that was left behind.

Japanese Covered Bridge

We stayed a couple of nights here and used it as a jumping point to see the towns of Hoi An and Hue.  Hoi An is a picturesque riverside town 30km south of Danang.  We took a day trip here and walked around the town seeing the market, pagodas, temples, congregation halls, old French-colonial houses and the famous Japanese Covered Bridge.  We also took a day trip to Hue where we visited the Citadel, The Imperial Enclosure and the Thien Mu Pagoda.

Ho Chi Minh City
We flew here from Da Nang and arrived late in the evening.  The following day, we toured around the city seeing the War Remnants Museum (which used to be called the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes - good that they changed the name), the Reunification Palace (a modern atrocity) and various pagodas and temples throughout the city.

Mekong Delta

Mekong Delta

The following morning we were picked up by our driver for a three day / two night tour of the Mekong Delta that we booked through Ann Tours.  While in the Delta, we went to My Tho where we saw a pagoda and a family who made rice noodles.  We also took a boat tour down one of the small canals where the soldiers during the Vietnam war would hide.  We stayed overnight in Chau Doc where we walked up the Nui Sam Mountain and took a boat trip to see a floating fish farm where catfish were raised under the floating houses.  We stayed the second night in Cantho.  The following day, we took a boat trip to see the floating produce market (where many fruit and vegetables are traded) before we drove back to Ho Chi Minh City.  While it was cool to see the Delta, we felt like we spent too much time in a car on this tour so would recommend that you explore other options if you are interested in seeing the Delta. 

Cambodia - Siem Reap
We flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap where we spent three days and two nights seeing the Temples of Angkor.  The ruins of Angkor are like no other - it is incredible how vast the place is and how well preserved some of the temples are.

Ta Prohm Temple in Angkor

While here, we used a tour guide to take us around which we would highly recommend.  The main temples that we explored included Angkor Wat (the largest and most stunning of the temples), Angkor Thom, Bangteay Srei and Ta Prohm famed for its appearance in the movie Tomb Raider - it is really cool as it is not preserved so you see the roots of the trees overtaking the ruins.

For more photos of this trip: