Tom Zhou

Friendly staff. Food options good. Rooms were clean and had good character. Definitely best part of the trip including visit to caves, beach and kayaking activities.

Within walking distance to the ancient town. Good breakfast options especially the Vietnamese coffee. Friendly staff gives good restaurant recommendations

On the old side. Tiny, slow elevators. Tub with shower affixed to it was awkward. Bed is firm. Located in a busy area so not relaxing.

Good breakfast options. Friendly staff. Location within walking distance to street markets.

Good location. Clean. Not much of a view. Breakfast options ok. Elevator touch buttons hard to activate

The morning visit to Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and residence was a highlight. You have to get in 2 lines before entering the mausoleum. Once inside, you get to see the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh in a glass case. It’s a little cold inside so wear long sleeve shirt if possible. In another part of the park, you get to see where Ho Chi Minh resided. No outlandish buildings but modest and simple structures. We also visited a museum which introduced us to the mixed ethnicity of people occupying the area in the past. Outside the museum, you get to enter in replicas of structures (mostly bamboo?) that local villagers lived or gathered in. The visit to Hanoi Hilton prison was also interesting. You get up close to the difficult conditions the prisoners were in. The puppet show towards the end of the tour was ok since there was no translation available. Finally the rickshaw tour of the old town was neat. It gives you a front row view of how to navigate through people, motor bikes, and cars all at once. The locals will tell you the rickshaw drivers will try to rip off tourists, so you feel obliged to tip them (it’s a hard way to earn a living..)

The stop to the government priced souvenir store was good. It gave you a chance to buy stuff without the haggling. The stop to the pearl store seemed unnecessary.

In the morning, you can join the Tai Chi exercises on the upper deck. The exercises are quite refreshing with the surrounding. Following that, we visited one of the large caves in the bay. This requires you to go up and down a number of stairs, but nothing strenuous. Most of the caves are well lit so you get to see a lot of the structure and colors.

After a long drive, you see references to the King Kong movie shot around the area, so right off you can expect a touristy area. After checking in and a short wait, we are escorted to the cruise where the staff greet you warmly. Once onboard, you check into the rooms which have a unique charm to them. You can hang out in the patio area of your room or wander around the different decks of the boat. The views of Ha Long Bay are spectacular as the boat travels through the various shaped rocks. During the afternoon, you get to spend a few hours kayaking and/or hanging out on a small beach in the bay. There’s some amount of garbage in the waters, but not too bad, The preset dinner on the third deck was good. At night the ship anchors in the peaceful calm waters. If the weather is good you can get nice sunsets or sunrises.

The tour takes you to old ruins of Hindu temples in the morning. After a drive, you hop onboard an open seat electric cart that has several rows of seats. The ride itself is swift and has a theme park feel to it before you get to the remnants of ruins that survived the bombings (you get to walk by one of the bomb craters). There are several different sites but each show the same symbolism (Lingam and yoni mainly). In the main site, you can walk inside and around the ruins before joining a regularly scheduled cultural dance show. There is a museum on the way back from the returning cart ride that has some interesting displays worth checking out. Back to Hoi An, you get to walk around the ancient town. There you can see a 17th century Japanese bridge still intact. You can also see old Chinese merchant houses. The lunch there featured some good Vietnamese cuisine. At night the town lights up with red and other colored lanterns along the river and not to be missed. The street market becomes very vibrant as well.

Ok, maybe it is not surprising that there is a theme park in Vietnam. But this park has some historical context. The morning drive takes you through a few local towns until you reach the foothills. After winding up the hills you reach a large parking area leading to the park. There you pass through a large gate and line up to enter the park. The resort is at the top of the hills so you take the cable cars up. The first stop takes you to the golden bridge where giant stone hands seemingly hold up a pedestrian bridge. Then you pass through a French village, complete with wine cellars. The buildings were built during French occupation of Vietnam. We ate at a buffet restaurant which served a wide range of Asian food. The next cable car takes you to Buddhist temples and other resort buildings (you can see construction for further expansion). This is the highest point on the mountain so on a good day you can see Hoi An/ Da Nang and the ocean. On the return trip there is a drive though the city and a stop at one of Da Nang’s beaches.

After arriving to Saigon, Mr Victor took us several blocks to the van. Mr Victor then played a pre-recorded tape of how not to get in trouble in Saigon. The level of anxiety surely increased unnecessarily. After checking in the hotel, we were taken through a hot building with a bunch of merchants and street vendors. Not the greatest environment to shop around. In the evening we had free time to check out the local cuisine (and try not to get run over)

The drive out of Saigon didn’t show anything worth remembering. Mr Victor gave a pretty thorough background of Vietnam and the Mekong delta in his presentation. After arriving at the port, we boarded a motorized boat and shuffled through fairly strong currents of the river. We were then taken through a family owned coconut candy shop. Next we found another local willing to give us a ride on a horse drawn cart. This led us to a family restaurant that served us various local fruits and even performed some traditional music and dance. Finally, we were led to a stream where a lady and her daughter tried rowing us to the delta to our original motor boat (she and her daughter ditched that boat and took a motorized version back). We travelled further along the delta to a restaurant for seafood lunch. After lunch we took the same motor boat back to the original port and drove back to Saigon.

The tour gives you a first hand look at the Vietnam (or American) war. You can actually fire some live ammunition for a fee. There is about an hour or two drive to the site where the Vietcong dug an elaborate maze of tunnels. The site consists of bomb craters, damaged tanks and armored vehicles, and various carved out areas of underground tunnels and rooms and traps. If you don’t mind the sweat and darkness, you can walk through short tunnel segments. After returning to Saigon, after lunch the tour takes you through a war museum. The effects of the war are in full display with unique photos.

We visit a palace where the south president gets overthrown by the communist north. We also get to see other historical buildings (mainly French influenced)

Malaysia is a strong contrast to Vietnam. There’s more order on the streets despite the much larger population. We get to drive through the city to see various historical sites which can be seen for free. The main highlight is the Petronas tower which requires a fee to take the elevator to the viewing areas like the tower bridge and near the top floor. The view at the top is not part of the tour so we had change the original lunch plan, but the tour guide was accommodating. We chose to eat in the food court area in the towers where there is a wide selection to choose from.

It is fairly lengthy ride to Malacca, but definitely worth it. There is a pit stop midway to the ancient city. Once in Malacca we visited ruins of an old church, then proceeded to the old town. There we entered or passed by local shops and various historical buildings (mainly Chinese)

The sights are gorgeous

We were able to change plans and go to the Petronas twin towers observation deck