Showing posts with label HCMC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HCMC. Show all posts

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Travel Tips to Vietnam


Tons and Tons of Tourist heading to Vietnam or traveling through Asia during summer so here are some tips for you


Tip 1:


Most people would like to have cheap or unlimited Internet even they went out to the jungle in Asia, it’s still always nice to keep contact with friends and family though.

            So How cheap it can be? I found a really cheap way to do so!
            Try to find this card, the operator is “Mobifone” their card have 50,000VND in there even people told you there’s 100,000VND, it’s actually still 50,000VND inside, it’s because they have 3 accounts in the card for incoming and outgoing…. Complicated but the Main account is most important. The other doesn’t count, when you top up, it just top up the main account as well but give you extra bonus in the others.
They will try to fool you by that.

Buying a SIM in Hanoi is way cheaper then in Ho Chi Minh City as Hanoi is very competitive since SIM is selling everywhere on the street. You will some small light box, they will have SIM card and top up coupon there.

If you put in the SIM and just use, it will be pay as you go and the credit can run out really quick with Internet usage.

!!The trick is send a message DK MIU to 999
then it will deduct 40,000VND in your phone credit which provide you
30 Days Unlimited Network with first 400Mb high speed up to 7.2Mb
Even it slow down afterwards it still works fine.

Vietnam phone network is really fast under 3G but rather slow with 2G.
The 3G coverage are mostly just available in the city.

**People in Ho Chi Minh City will try to trap you by selling the SIM way more expensive then it should, this card I brought in Hanoi is just 65,000VND but in HCMC the first guy try to charge me 200,000VND then 100,000VND for some else but coz I brought this one very cheap so I told them finally someone offer 80,000VND which is rather more reasonable and actually not much that different in foreign currency.

P.S. 50USD is roughly equal to 1,000,000VND
        25USD is roughly equal to    500,000VND
So you can have the card the card that included the plan with less then 5USD.

Tip 2:


Never book a hotel in Airport, it’s way more then expensive or just book a 1 night to get you to the busy area so you can find hotel around which there’re a lot of them in the backpacker area of HCMC and the city of Hanoi.

If you had booked a hotel in advance in Hanoi, sometimes the taxi driver may drive you to some hotel that is not the one you told. Beware of that and double check the name if you have already booked online.
I had booked a hotel before in the airport which cost 35USD and I need an extra night, the lady ask how much is did the airport charge you, I said 30, she easily give me 20USD deal for you for an extra night!
            It can be always cheaper if you having few nights, even two, ask for the price for a night, in example they may say 30USD for a nice hotel then try to get it down to 28 then ask for a several night discount so basically pushing down to limit, it may be 25 or so at the end. If you are a budget backpacker that wants a nicer room but not a dorm, it’s really nice to save few bucks for EVERY single night and spend it on some cheap beer that can just be 1.5US per cup. Or a street snacks which cost 20,000VND(1USD) only.

I have stayed in Bali Hotel in District 1, 82Bui Vien Street, Pham Ngu Lao Ward. I am just there for a night, they offer a double bed room or triple room with a same price, 30USD which is really fine coz the triple room would have cost 40USD at normal and that room is rather big. I have checked the double bed room it’s not really that cools as triple one.
The hotel is new as it just opened for about 1-2months, try to talk them down if you stay there for a 2 nights or more and just saying, I don’t think it’s worth to have the breakfast there so just tell them you don’t need the breakfast so it may be even cheaper as it will cost 3USD if you get it on extra. On street snacks will be way better as I don’t think you will want many fried food in the early morning lol I am taking the flight next day so I don’t really have a choice but you do!

Tip 3:


If you are traveling on day trips or half day trip or so, the travel agent always raise price of cause, beware of “Cu Cin Tunnel” as the half day trip or day trip going there do NOT include entrance ticket to the venue so 4USD would be fine for the ticket or even lower if you find it, sometimes they just go for 5 and even 8 USD. For me 5 would be acceptable but 4 of cause more preferable: p

There’s an travel agency which sell bus ticket and everything they have really cheap ticket, I can even say they are the cheapest as they provide ticket from HCMC to Mui Ne for just 7USD one way (it’s a 6-7hours bus when tunnel is just about 3 hours away return) and they agency have cheap open bus ticket form HCMC all the way up to Hanoi as well, they have lots of different plans so you just have to let them know what cities you want to stop and they will try to organize for you.

Tip 4:


Which is not really a tip as many people knows, don’t buy stuff on the break station which the bus stop by within the day trip or so as the price there are way too expensive! The only thing is reasonable are drinks but with their price they have something in advance which is they have variety of choices for you as they have lots of those hand made work even tho you can buy it somewhere else way cheaper but Drinks are usually more reasonable price but not chocolate or other snacks. Sometimes it can be just way too high.

Tip 5:

            

There’re two kind of train in Vietnam that is traveler/tourist train and Government train. Don’t take government train, as it’s really bad even tho it’s cheaper. Last time my friend told me the travel agent just booked that for them and on their way back they booked a cabin on tourist train, it was just too tough perhaps lol


Tell me if you have some other tips also wanna share with others