NEARBY TREASURES
May 20th 2011 15:05
:
SOUTHEAST ASIA TRAVELS
Link: www.airasia.com
One of the many benefits of living in Penang, Malaysia is that many wonderful attractions of Southeast Asia and Asia in general are a short, inexpensive plane ride away. If you visit the AirAsia website, for instance, you can see a variety of exotic locations in Asia, for a very reasonable price. For people viewing various vacation packages from the US, keep in mind that unlike in the US the prices are for one way only. Sometimes the return trip is a little more expensive. I don't know why they don't use roundtrip prices. Maybe they don't think people will return!
Mind you there are many beautiful places in Malaysia to visit, which are a bus ride or car ride away, but this post will deal with a recent vacation to North Vietnam. Since Kevin only has a certain amount of vacation time each year, we have to choose wisely. We had heard many good things about Vietnam from friends, so we decided to check out some of the Vietnam travel websites for the best deals.Many years ago I had spent some time in South Vietnam, but never North Vietnam. We booked a week long tour of Hanoi and Halong Bay, on a website we found. The first day in Hanoi we had to take the mandatory tour of the Ho Chi Minh memorial and listen to an hour long propaganda spiel in the broiling hot sun. I can still remember being told that for the eigth year in a row Ho Chi Minh was voted the most beloved and popular leader in the world. I think I missed those votes.
Hanoi itself is a beautiful city, but very crowded and dirty. Our tour guide managed to stear clear of the poorer areas and did not encourage us to mingle too much with the locals. The people in the North, I found, were not as friendly as the people in the South. The only English they seemed to know was related to the US dollar. People did not give the cost in Vietnam Dong, but in dollars. Whenever we were in a touristy area they could tell I was American and I was swamped by people trying to sell me anything and everything. They even charged 1 dollar to take their photo. Kevin being Chinese, was basically ignored.
The last few days of the trip was in the area near Halong Bay. This area was absolutely beautiful. We took a rowboat ride on a small lake that went through various caves and lagoons. It was amazing that with Kevin and I and the lady rower on the boat, we stopped in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly a woman in a small boat approached us selling souvenirs, drinks and snacks. They absolutely would not let us leave until we bought something. We had no choice, if we wanted to see civilization again.
The last two nights were unforgetable. We spent that time on board a Vietnamese Junk. The food was amazingly excellent and was comprised of local seafood. We even had a bottle of wine produced in Vietnam. It was very good. There were 7 people aboard the junk, which made it a very cozy experince. The cabins were air conditioned and quite comfortable. After we had had a number of after dinner drinks the crew came out with the souvenirs to sell. Once again we had no choice. We glady bought a couple of items, as we knew this was the only way they can make a decent living. I would highly recommend a trip to Vietnam. The scenery is indescribable and the food is excellent.
This trip was the first vacation we had taken since I moved to Malaysia. In another post I will describe our trip to Phuket, Thailand. Hopefully there will be many more trips I can describe.
Mind you there are many beautiful places in Malaysia to visit, which are a bus ride or car ride away, but this post will deal with a recent vacation to North Vietnam. Since Kevin only has a certain amount of vacation time each year, we have to choose wisely. We had heard many good things about Vietnam from friends, so we decided to check out some of the Vietnam travel websites for the best deals.Many years ago I had spent some time in South Vietnam, but never North Vietnam. We booked a week long tour of Hanoi and Halong Bay, on a website we found. The first day in Hanoi we had to take the mandatory tour of the Ho Chi Minh memorial and listen to an hour long propaganda spiel in the broiling hot sun. I can still remember being told that for the eigth year in a row Ho Chi Minh was voted the most beloved and popular leader in the world. I think I missed those votes.
Hanoi itself is a beautiful city, but very crowded and dirty. Our tour guide managed to stear clear of the poorer areas and did not encourage us to mingle too much with the locals. The people in the North, I found, were not as friendly as the people in the South. The only English they seemed to know was related to the US dollar. People did not give the cost in Vietnam Dong, but in dollars. Whenever we were in a touristy area they could tell I was American and I was swamped by people trying to sell me anything and everything. They even charged 1 dollar to take their photo. Kevin being Chinese, was basically ignored.
The last few days of the trip was in the area near Halong Bay. This area was absolutely beautiful. We took a rowboat ride on a small lake that went through various caves and lagoons. It was amazing that with Kevin and I and the lady rower on the boat, we stopped in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly a woman in a small boat approached us selling souvenirs, drinks and snacks. They absolutely would not let us leave until we bought something. We had no choice, if we wanted to see civilization again.
The last two nights were unforgetable. We spent that time on board a Vietnamese Junk. The food was amazingly excellent and was comprised of local seafood. We even had a bottle of wine produced in Vietnam. It was very good. There were 7 people aboard the junk, which made it a very cozy experince. The cabins were air conditioned and quite comfortable. After we had had a number of after dinner drinks the crew came out with the souvenirs to sell. Once again we had no choice. We glady bought a couple of items, as we knew this was the only way they can make a decent living. I would highly recommend a trip to Vietnam. The scenery is indescribable and the food is excellent.
This trip was the first vacation we had taken since I moved to Malaysia. In another post I will describe our trip to Phuket, Thailand. Hopefully there will be many more trips I can describe.
Vietnam
Halong Bay
Halong Bay Junk
Halong Bay
| 21 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
