Friday, December 5, 2008
Travelling Tips: Wallet
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Money Changer
336 Smith Street #01-304
New Bridge Centre
S(050336)
This is recommended by flowerpod. But we will probably scout the entire place for good rates.
Monday, December 1, 2008
How to Pack
LAGs
for those who are not checking in their luggage i.e. bringing onto the plane, please take note of the 100ml rule for all your toiletries and stuff.
You might find the following links useful.
Guidelines for Liquids, Aerosols and Gels in Hand-Carry Luggage
FAQs: Acceptable 100ml containers and re-sealable transparent plastic bags
Backpacks: Some Tips
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Ha Long Itenary
Day 1 (L-D):
Pick up at your hotel. Leave Ha Noi at
There will be plenty of time for swimming and sunbathing (If weather permitted) after the boat anchors at a clean calm sea. Enjoy a wonderful sunset dinner in our beautiful restaurant before retiring to the comfort of your cabin. Dinner and overnight in Imperial Junk Boat. Go fishing.
Day 2: (B-L-D) Ha
A.M: Breakfast on boat. After that, start cruising toward Cat Ba Island. Stop at Van Gia village and transfer to another boat for your cruising to Viet Hai village which belongs to Cat Ba National Park. Cycle from Viet Hai primitive forest, trek through the forest up to the Navy Peak where you are overwhelmed by the beauty of Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba National Park. Cycle back to the boat and BBQ lunch on a white sandy beach.
PM: Kayaking around Lan Ha Bay with full of exploration. Relaxing and swimming and spectacularly you have time to visit CatDua beach (
Possible options :
Go camping at the beach : Dinner at the beach. Overnight in a camp. (CatDua beach -
Stay at bungalow (CatDua beach - Monkey island)
Stay at Holiday View Hotel in Catba town
Day 3: (B – L) Cat Ba – Ha Long - Ha Noi
Breakfast at
Includes:
• Transport, boat trip.
• English speaking Tour guide
• 3 lunches + 2 dinners + 2 breakfasts
• Double/ twin – sharing room at Imperial Air-condition Boat and one night at hotel/ camp/ bungalow/resort.
• Entrance fees
Excludes: Drink and private service.
(Single Supplement – Boat : U$ 15/ per - Hotel : U$ 15/ per).
Email from Hanoi Phoenix
What are differences on tour prices between Standard, Superior, Deluxe?
There are some main differences on the boat/junk types as the following;
The prices includes with everything (train 2 ways ,bus 2
ways ,hotel ,meals ,guide,car ,entrance fee ...).
+ There some kinds of cabin :
The first :Economy (6 people in one cabin ,hard sleeper ,government runs ...),the total cost tour for this from 80 $ to 85$.
The second : Standard (4 people in one cabin,soft sleeper ,made of
steel,government runs ) ,the total cost for this from 95$ to 100$.
The third : Superior ((4 people in one cabin,soft sleeper ,made of
wood ,private own company runs ) ,the total cost for this from 108$ to 116$.
Above all the information for reference .
If you need any information ,Please do not hesitate to contact us .
We are looking forward to hearing from you asap.
After booking ,please provide us your flight number ,and arrival time and date for pick up service .
Thanks for choosing our hotel.
Kind regards.
Jimmy .
Manager .
Monday, October 6, 2008
Updates!
I'm proud to announce our following updates:
Flights there and Back have been booked for the main party.
We will delay our Sapa leg to give Kekekeong some time to catchup with us in Hanoi, and at the same time let Jerry send Huili off.
By this time next week we should be down with the hotels in Hanoi, and maybe Sapa. I'm thinking if it is cheaper we can try booking there instead.
Cheerio!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Finalising.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Blue River Hotel
Double Room = 24USD per night
Airport Transfer = 35USD for 7 persons
Total payable:(40*2) + (24*2*2)+ (35) = 211USD
I was thinking we might as well pay an extra 1 USD. Faster, easier, safer.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Hanoi Hotel Details
Room choices for Phoenix Hotel:
1 double bed 16.57
2 single beds 15.06
3 single beds 15.06
4 single beds 15.06
All are private en suite. So you will have your own bathrooms.
So if you wanna save money and have more people in your room for the more 'backpackerly' feel, you can choose the 4 beds one.
For the nights if I'm not around, then can split into two 3 beds one.
My assumption is the couples want a double room to themselves.
Another thing is, whether you all wanna return to the same hotel, or want to try a different one when you return from Sapa.
Updates 13/09/08
Itenary Confirmed.
Travel from HCMC to Hanoi - By train, a/c sleeper 4 to a room.
HCMC Hotel - Blue River Hotel
Hanoi Hotel - Phoenix Hotel
Sapa Hotel - Sapa Rooms Boutique Hotel
Flight to HCMC - Booked.
Flight from Hanoi - Pending confirmation.
Ha Long and Sapa Tours - Booked there, will get quotes from relevant hotels.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Sapa and Ha Long Itenary
I am lady tour guide working for Footstep Hanoi Travel Agency. I have general information of Halong Bay and Sapa as follows:
Halong Bay is with its 1969 limestone islands and 23 grottoes, this natural marvel has twice been proclaimed a national heritage site, thus remaining under the watchful eye of UNESCO.
Dau go and Thien cung in Halong bay
Dau go cave
The grotto is on Driftwood Island. Seen from afar, the entrance to the grotto appears to be blue, and has a shape similar to that of a jellyfish. After 90 steps up the island, the entrance is reached. The ceiling of the
grotto is about 25 m. Hundreds of stalactites falling down from the roof of the grotto look like a waterfall
Thien cung CaveIt is situated on the south-west side the bay, 4 km from the wharf outside of Ha Long City. The way to Thiên Cung is a perilous one, covered on both sides by thick forest. After entering a narrow gate, the grotto’s
130-meter-long girth opens up. Getting in we are more astonished in front of the very animated and splendid beauty which is made from stalactite. On the east wall of the grotto, there is a grandiose and imposing picture with characters of tales.
Going out of the Thiên Cung Grotto, we have a sensation of just watching a unique, meticulous, interesting fine-art museum which is made by nature, get out of the imagine, ability and intellect of man.
This grotto is recently discovered, one of the most beautiful grottoes in Ha Long Bay
This largest eastern island in Ha Long Bay, Cat Ba, is located 60 km from Hai Phong. Cat Ba is also the name of the archipelago of 336 different islands. The main and largest one, named Cat Ba, is 100 km2 in width. Cat Ba Island offers some of the most beautiful terrain and diverse ecosystems in Vietnam, including primeval forest, coastal mangroves, waterfalls, limestone lakes, freshwater swamps, and hot springs. Cat Ba national park is 15,200 hectares in area, 9,800 of which hectares is forest, and the other 4,200 hectares sea. The limestone mountain boasts with many interesting caves is lined with lots of fine white beaches. The mild, cool and pure climate on Cat Ba island is very conducive for resting.
Cat Ba is also home to Ha Long cultural relics, the relics of an ancient Vietnamese culture and many archaeological relics from the new stone-age period that were found on Cat Ba.
Cat Ba is now a national park, and its primeval tropical forest ecosystem is being preserved. The island's abundant fauna includes 20 animal, 69 bird and 20 reptile and amphibian species. Animal such as boars, wild cats, porcupines, deer, and monkeys may be seen on the island.
SAPA
At an altitude of 1650m, on the side of Hoang Lien Son range, Sapa is home to several minority tribes, such as Black Hmong (Miao) and Red Dzao. Discover the natural beauty of valleys, mountains, streams, waterfalls, and the warm welcome of the ethnic people.
Trek to Cat Cat and Sin Chai villages of H'mong tribe. Enjoy the waterfall in Cat Cat and beautiful scenery along the way. Visit the first village of the black H'mong (Catcat), walk around visiting people in the village. Have lunch, then visit the hydroelectric power station built by the French in the old days. Take the paths along the valleys between mountains to get to Lao chai village. Enjoy the overall pictures of the villages among terraces. Visit the H'mong living in wooden and bamboo houses. Continue going to Ta Van village to visit the Dzay minority.
Visit Ham Rong Mountain- the Heaven of flowers. In the evening, enjoy the romantic night in Sapa- Famous Love Fair. Bus trip to visit BacHa Market. Discover BacHa Market where many different ethnic groups go shopping(every Sunday).
Next day take the road to GiangTaChai village of the Red Dzao minority via the paths between terraces and through bamboo forests. Visit silver waterfall and suspension Rattan Bridge, visit the people in the village and then cross MuongHoa River up to the mountain to visit the last village of the trek - Supan village of the H'mong. Get back to Sapa by jeep. On the way back, enjoy visiting the ancient stone circle where stones are decorated with ancient carvings.
I am a lady tour guide for Hanoi and please contact me at vinh401@gmail.com for your itinerary interest.
http://www.flowerpod.com.sg/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t1965-350.html
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Hanoi Accommodation
Some places you can go to make your choices:
http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/vietnam/hanoi/
http://www.hostelworld.com/findabed.php
trip advisor
Some hotels that seem to be quite good:
Rising Dragon Hotel
Hanoi Elegance 1, 2 and 3
Phoenix Hotel
Updates
This sat we meetup again to confirm final details and all quirks.
Now we need to find the Hanoi hotels. :p
Sapa and Ha Long, I will find as much details as I can from this side, but it will be highly likely that we will have to settle it when we are there. Probably cheaper.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Blue River Hotel
They have available rooms for the dates we want.
Official Website
24USD for a room with no windows
28USD for a room with big windows or small balcony
Airport pickup service 35USD for 15 seater
All rooms with aircon, cable tv, wifi, fridge, private bathroom and hot water shower
There are no lifts
According to many places, this hotel is highly recommended. The lady Thuy speaks good English also. We don't have to worry about nasty taxi drivers trying to trick us of our money since they have airport pickup services that can be arranged.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Alternative to Train HCMC to Hanoi
Check this out!
Bus trips from HCMC to Da Lat to Nha Trang to Hoi Anh to Hue to Hanoi.
Mmmmmmm.
Minimum Time Damage: 2 nights sleeping overnight on bus. One Night in Dalat.
But fun factor much better than 24 hour train ride ya?
Ha-Long Bay
Near the end, there is a section:
Halong Bay-Cat Ba island
About tours:
Halong Bay-Cat Ba island 3 days 2 nights is quite alright
I went with the travel agent Ocean Tours for US$65 (booked thru the hostel). For this package, there is a limit to max 16 travellers for the group. I was lucky that my group in total had only 6 travellers... so the junk was like a private junk to us... not crowded at all. What i heard is that the other cheaper package has no limit to the no. of pax travelling in the group and they would visit only 1 cave instead of 2 caves.
We stayed 1 night on junk and another night in a hotel (yup, this is a proper hotel room if you are wondering) at Cat Ba Island. 1st night was to visit the 2 caves - Sung Sot and Me Cung Caves and sleep over in the junk. (there would be women rowing their little boats trying to sell you some food and drinks, it would be much cheaper to buy then from them, e.g. dalat wine for 1 big bottle is around 30,000 dong. Interesting right, vietnam also produce red and white wine and vodka too If I remember correctly. Btw, the tour package exclude drinks, so pls remember to pack some drinks for yourself 1st as the drink on board is really expensive!
I would say the promised seafood lunch and dinner for the 1st night was dissappointing. It was like sotong balls, fish, french fries, cucumber salad, vegetables (you call that seafood).
the 2nd day was much better, it was really seafood food bbq on a mini beach after kayaking. however it was only 1 portion for each - 1 big prawn, 1 mini lobster alike, bbq pork, salad, 1 shellfish (cant figure what type of shellfish is it, not mussels.. but nice). The food was bbq but the boat captain, who incidently is the chef.
btw, there is an option between kayaking and trekking. Kayaking was really good. There were 2 travellers who took the trekking say there was nothing much. They had to walk 5 Km, trek 5Km and walk back 5Km. That was really tiring and not much sightings.
Kayaking was much more fun, when we get to kayak thru caves and around the islands. The water was pretty calm too so it was quite alright.. although kayaking was like 4hours long.. (still tiring though it could be made worst if its choppy water)
After which, we head to Cat Ba Island. It was already near sun setting. So we only had the time to take a good shower and head straight for dinner. Seafood Dinner was good too.
There wasn't much for us to see around Cat Ba Island as it was already nightfall. If you have a little more time, maybe you could extend 1 more day there and explore. One of the travellers in our group decided to extend 1 more day, and our group was down to 5 travellers the next day when we depart.
Day 3 was really a cruise back to halong city. there was suppose to be a swimming stop enroute, but i suppose the guide saw that none of us were really interested and decided to cruise all the way back.
Updates - A Summary
8 of us so far. Can increase, best in groups of 4 or 2.
What?
Vietnam Trip with the Guys, 2 years delayed.
Where?
Ho Chi Minh City (3d2n), HCMC to Hanoi Sleeper Train (2d1n), Ha Long Bay (3d2n), Sapa (2d1n), Hanoi (2d1n).
When?
14th Dec to 25th Dec (full trip).
14th Dec to 21st Dec (Leave after Ha Long)
Why?
Why not?
Accommodation for first 2 nights in HCM
I have narrowed it down to three places:
1. Blue River Hotel (link)
2. Du Vuong Hotel (link)
3. Luan Vu Guest House (link)
My initial choice was Bich Duyen Hotel. Wonderful reviews, but no more vacancies!
All three others are with quite good reviews and probably less than 2o SGD per night. Links bring you to Trip Advisor. You can do your own mini research to see which one you prefer :)
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Update - Train from Hanoi to HCMC
http://www.seat61.com/Vietnam.htm
Cheapest train ticket from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City will cost abt SGD50, 2D1N train, direct.
More Links - Vietnam Info
http://wikitravel.org/en/Hanoi
http://wikitravel.org/en/Ho_Chi_Minh_City
http://wikitravel.org/en/Ha_Long_Bay
I don't know about you guys, i wanna head down ha long long time!!!
Friday, July 25, 2008
More info on possible trips in vietnam (Driving)
Update - Flight Costs Hanoi to Hanoi
Sun, 07 Dec 08 Flight TR 308 |
|
Thu, 25 Dec 08 Flight TR 309 |
|
Total Cost of Flight (Excluding Luggage Allowance) | | 1,199.92 SGD |
2,000 or so kilometres....
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0005/ccintro.htm
Update - SG license driving in Vietnam
"The International Driving Permit (IDP) is recognised worldwide as a valuable document identifying motorists as legally-licensed drivers.
Although the Singapore driving licence is recognised in many countries, the IDP could prevent any inconveniences when renting a car or when driving in a country where English is not commonly spoken. In such situations, drivers may find themselves handicapped by language barriers.
The IDP contains translations of driving terms used in various languages and can help drivers communicate with car rental companies and other authorities. The IDP is also a useful form of identification as it contains a photograph of the driver."
How to Apply
- The IDP can be issued on the spot and you may walk-in to any of our two locations at AA Centre (336 River Valley Road Level 1) OR AA Branch Office (No. 2 Kung Chong Road)
- To apply for an IDP, please submit a copy of the IDP application form, bring along your Singapore driving licence (NRIC or passport for foreigners) and two recent passport-size photographs. The processing fee is S$20.00 (non-GST chargeable).
- The IDP can also be applied by mail. To apply, mail us a completed IDP application form, photocopy of applicant's Singapore driving licence and NRIC (or passport for foreigners), two recent passport-size photographs and a cheque payment of S$20.00 for the processing fee.
- For applicants who are currently overseas, please include S$6.00 for AR registered mail charges in your payment. Other courier charges apply upon request. Please make your cheque payable to the "Automobile Association of Singapore".
- To re-apply for a new IDP when your current one expires, please follow the steps above to apply for a new one.
Update - Flight Costs HCMC to HCMC
Tue, 09 Dec 08 Flight TR 326 |
|
Wed, 24 Dec 08 Flight TR 329 |
|
Total Cost of Flight (Excluding Luggage Allowance) | | 799.92 SGD |
Whats the big idea?
1. Take budget flight to Hanoi/Ho Chin Minh City
2. Explore area
3. Rent vehicle
4. Road trip around the rest of Vietnam
5. End at Hanoi/Ho Chin Minh City
6. Go Home!
Est. time taken - 15 days
Est budget - SGD1000 for everything.
More info to come.