| Submitted by: David , United States |
| Submission Date: 04 February 2005 |
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Although the trip lasted from June 15 to July 21 (1992) and included stays in the Pacific (Truk, Guam, & Hawaii), Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, and Thailand, I am only going to comment on the segments in Vietnam and Cambodia as I believe they are of the most interest.
We (Greg and I) initially applied for our visas by writing to:
Permanent Mission to the United Nations of the Vietnamese People's Socialist Republic
20 Waterside Plaza
New York, New York 10010
tel: (212) 685-8001
We received from them a photocopy of an application form with the instructions to submit two completed applications, three photos, two photocopies of our passport, and USD 90 each. These materials were sent to them 3 months in advance of our departure from the United States. 6 weeks later Greg received a 6am (9am NY time) phone call in which he was informed that our entry port to Vietnam at Lao Bao, overland from Laos, was not permissable. I then told them that we would change our schedule such that we would arrive by plane at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi. Everything seemed to be OK until I returned from my trip to Italy and found that the visa had still not arrived. I phoned the Mission in New York and was informed that it would take a little longer, too long in fact for us to receive the visas before we were to leave for Truk. I then asked them if they could send the visas to the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok where we would pick them up in person. For some unexplained reason I was informed that this was not possible. Not having an idea of where we were going to be staying in Bangkok I told them to send the visas to the United States Embassy (which is only 100 yards down the road from the Vietnamese Embassy) and we would pick it up from our fellow Americans. This seemed to them to be satisfactory and we set off across the Pacific thinking we would have our visas all ready and waiting upon our arrival in Thailand. And just to be sure, I phoned the US Embassy in Bangkok before we left California to tell them that we were going to be having a package sent to us care of the Embassy that we would pick up once in Bangkok.
Upon arrival in Bangkok we hurriedly (it was a Friday afternoon and the Embassy would soon be closing until Monday morning) made our way through the exhaust choked streets to the US Embassy. Although greeted politely by Thai's at the front desk they seemed to be somewhat confused by our request to see if the mail room had received the `important documents' that we were expecting. The limited command of spoken english from the mail room caused me to wonder if they had received the visas and either thrown them away or filed them in the `do not understand' cabinet. We decided to wait until Monday and see if the package would arrive or they would find it during the weekend.
We spent the weekend in Bangkok staying in the Khao Son Road area where we met other travelers who had just returned from Vietnam. After one 45 minute conversation with a couple that had just spent some time in Vietnam - in which most of our talk was spent highlighting the difficult aspects of travel in the country - Greg decided not to go. Realizing the likely possibility of the US Embassy not receiving the visas I delayed my flight from Bangkok to Hanoi from Wed July 1 to Sat July 4 in order that I could apply for another visa.
On Monday, a drop by the US Embassy proved unfruitful as they had still not received the visas. I walked to a travel agency just down the street and ordered the visa there. I got the visa for Vietnam from :
M.K. Ways (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
57/11 Witthayu (Wireless) Rd.,
Bangkok 10300
Tel. 254-4765, 255-2892, 252-8214
Fax. (662) 254-5583
Telex. 21975 MKWAYS TH
This place is right at the corner of Wireless and Phloen Chit and is just a few hundred yards from the US embassy which is at 95 Wireless.
I dropped off my passport on Monday June 29th and picked it up Friday (July 3rd) afternoon. The cost was USD 80. If you want it in two days they will do it for USD 125. If for some reason you think a Vietnamese Visa stamped in your passport will cause you problems you can have the visa issued on a separate piece of paper. This also enables you to not have to leave your passport with them for 5 days. I had no problems returning to the USA with the Vietnamese or the Cambodian visa stamped in my passport. In fact they didn't even look and if they did I doubt they would have known what they were looking at. I told the immigration in both Guam and Hawaii that I had been to these countries and they just searched my bags a little more carefully but nothing more than that.
I flew on Saturday July 4th from Bangkok to Hanoi on Thai Airways for USD 178. Greg flew home from Bangkok to San Francisco on Sunday the 5th, a full 18 days sooner than our itinerary called for. Upon arrival in Hanoi the officials asked what tour I was booked with and knowing that one is not required I told them I had none. Conveniently, a representative from some agency `happened' to be right there and said he would sign my arrival card if I booked a tour with him. Having no choice (I could not leave the airport without the arrival card being signed), I agreed. They snagged about 10 other Western tourists from my flight with this same scam. So we all piled into a minivan (with AC thankfully) and took the 45 minute ride into downtown Hanoi. The drive itself was very interesting. The trip down the narrow road lined with rice fields on this sunny day contrasted with the independence day fireworks I knew were going on back home.
A number of the people in the van (particularly the two French travelers) were quite angry at this blatant rip off but the driver insisted that we needed to get this paper work taken care of and since he had our passports we had to go along. Well as soon as the minivan stopped in front of their office and the driver got out he made the mistake of leaving our passports on the dash. I promptly grabbed mine and to the astonishment of the `we-must-always-follow-the-rules-Germans' I took off down the road, ducked into the first side street and paid some kid a dollar (an outrageous sum I later found out) to take me on his motorcycle to the hotel I had decided I wanted to go to. I stayed at the Sophia Hotel which is just south of Hoan Kiem Lake for USD 12 a night. Although this was the most I ever paid for a hotel in Vietnam it was also the nicest room (AC, bathroom, large bed, desk, etc).
I rented a moped from the people at the hotel for USD 5 a day and cruised around for two days. The place I thought was the most intesting in terms of a tourist sight was Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. After registering at the gate and dropping off my camera a group of us were led single file with hats off, sunglasses off, no gum, and hands out of pockets, into the large concrete air conditioned structure that houses Ho's body as it lay there in a glass case. Other intesting sights included the much bombed, yet still servicable Long Bien Bridge over the Red River, the `Hanoi Hilton' prison, and an Army museum (with captured US equipment). I don't want to get into sight seeing too much as all this info can be found in the Lonely Planet Vietnam, Laos \& Cambodia book (The LP series of guides has over 80 titles for independent travelers, people which they `assume know how to get their luggage off the carousel').
My general impressions of Hanoi are two: brown and bicycles. There are a few green trees there (I have pictures to prove it) but my mental picture of Hanoi is of the uniformly drab buildings, sidewalks, and streets. The other impression is the ubiquitous presence of bicycles. Mopeds are also in use but not to the extent of bicycles. Cars are virtually nonexistant. As I walked down the streets the hum of gears and derailers provided a welcome change in the background noise from Bangkok's mayhem. The people were quite friendly although shy when compared to those I would meet as I traveled south. They are genuinely happy to meet tourists - even Americans. I do want to recommend the Cha Ca Restaurant which is located at 14 Cha Ca St a few blocks north of Hoan Kiem Lake. Although Cha Ca means fried fish in vietnamese I was able to get a vegetarian dish here consisting of stir fried noodles and vegetables. A skillet on top of a clay pot filled with burning embers is placed on your table and you mix and cook the ingredients yourself. Total cost including a can of beer and a 1 liter bottle of mineral water was about USD 2.
The one bureacratic thing that needs to be taken care of within 48 hours of ones arrival in Vietnam is to register ones presence. I did this with:
Oscan Enterprises Ltd.
60 Nguyen Du Street
Hanoi
Tel. 84-42-52690, 84-42-65859
Fax. 84-42-57634
They also took care of the paper work for my internal travel permit which I needed in order to travel outside Hanoi. They did both of these things for USD 18 with same day service. Vietnam Tourism, TOSERCO, Vietcochamber, and the Immigration Police Office all said it would take at least two days and cost 50% more. I had Oscan write down over 20 places on my internal travel permit because I was not sure where I wanted to stay on my trip south. As it turned out this document was only checked when I left the country and the exact locations where I spent each of my nights was not verified. In fact the only unpleasant experience I had with government/police officials thoughout the entire trip was the arrival incident at Noi Bai Airport. Throughout the trip I did not get the feeling of being in a police state at all. In fact I never saw any soldiers and most of the police were armed with only a billy club.
Monday morning I bought a ticket to leave Hanoi at 4pm by train to Dong Ha. The train station has a special place where foreigners have to go to purchase tickets which are 5 times the rate that Vietnamese pay for the same class (there is nothing you can do about it). The alternatives are to take a bus or rent a car (USD 30 a day with driver). The buses are as slow as the trains and don't offer the freedom of being able to walk around so I did most of my traveling by train. If I would have been with another person and definitely if there are three of you in the party the rental car is the way to go. I met all sorts of people doing this and believe me, compared to the trains/buses that I rode the rental car would have been a dream. The driver will take you anywhere you want to go and they pay for their own meals/lodging. The ticket to Dong Ha on the hard seat (cheapest possible fare) was USD 17. At 3:55pm I was still sitting in the offices of Oscan as we waited for their employee to return with my passport and documents. He burst in at 3:57 and raced me on the back of his scooter to the train station whereupon I caught my train with one minute and thirty seconds to spare.
As far as I could tell I was the only westerner on the train as well as the only one who spoke english. I did meet one Vietnamese guy who like many others had spent some time in the former East Germany and the combination of two less than fluent German speakers enabled us to `communicate' for a while till it got to be too much effort and our conversation degenerated into staring out the window. Which brings me to my most vivid impression of Vietnam - the landscape. Of the 30 or so countries I have been to Vietnam is easily the most beautiful. I saw more shades of green then I knew existed. Rice fields manually tended from dawn to dusk were always in view as were forest covered mountains. I also frequently caught glimpses of pristine deserted beaches from the train window as we made our way along the coast.
Inside the trains was a zoo. The third class coach I was in had a center aisle with benches on both sides arranged to face each other at a distance that allowed the knees of Vietnamese travelers to just miss each other. I relied on sitting on the edge of the bench in order to have my longer legs jutting out into the aisle where I could stretch them out so as not to be bumping up against the person sitting across from me. |
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