Travel tales and tips for shopping in Vietnam by asiahotels.com

Traveller's Tales: Shopping suggestions in Vietnam

M James	26 November 2001
Stayed at Green Park Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
Hanoi - Be prepared for an assault on the ears, it is noisy and then a bit more noisy. The sheer volume of motorbikes and scooters overwhelms the city. Crossing the road is an exercise is survival. Hanoi is an interesting break for a couple of days, but has limited points of interest for an extended stay. The Old quarter is a fascinating day alone, but the sheer volume of tourism has created an extremely inflated rip off economy, leave the tourist areas and go into a supermarket to buy most of the same products for a third of the price. Hanoi is not a child friendly city in any respect, the danger of traffic and volume of motorbikes means that you cannot walk on the footpath. There are no obvious child friendly destinations within Hanoi.
J Le boa tam	23 November 2001
Stayed at Rex Hotel Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
THIS WAS MY FIRST TRIP TO VIETNAM. AFTER READING THE INFORMATION ON THE HOTELS IN HO CHI MINH CITY I DECIDED ON THE REX HOTEL. MY PLANS WERE TO BE ON SIAGON 2 DAYS THEN TRAVEL TO TAY NINH THEN RETURN TO SIAGON. THE STAFF OF THE REX HOTEL WERE VERY HELPFUL ON MY NEEDS AND SHOPPING. I WAS RECOMENDED TO A TAXI SERVICE THAT I ENDED UP USING 1 TAXI DRIVER FOR 7 DAYS . HE WAS WITH ME EVERY SECOND TO DRIVE, TRANSLATE AND HELP. THE RESTAURANTS ARE FIRST CLASS. I HAD A FRIEND JOIN ME AND HER NEEDS WERE MET WITH CARE. I THINK THE REX HOTEL IS ONE THE FINEST HOTEL I HAVE STAYED AT. EXAMPLE- I NEEDED A SUIT FOR A SPECIAL OCCASION A CLOTHING BAG WAS STILL BEING HIPPED TO MY HOTEL. I NOTIFIED THE FRONT DESK AT THE REX HOTEL OF MY SITUATION. THEY TOLD ME NOT TO WORRY AND COME TO THE FRONT DESK. THERE WAS A CAR WAITING TO TAKE ME TO A [ TAYLOR ]MEN SUIT SHOP. UPON ARRIVING AT THE SHOP I FOUND THEY WERE AWARE OF MY NEEDS AND MY SIZE. THE SUIT WAS PERFECT FOR MY OCCASION. THE REX HOTEL SERVICE IS PERFECT. I RECOMEND THIS HOTEL HIGHLY .
S Knox	19 November 2001
Stayed at De Syloia Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
This is my third visit to Hanoi it is a very atmospheric city with fabulous people and great food. The city gets very noisy and polluted in the early evening with all the motor bikes. A small price to pay for some of the best shopping in Asia.
S Curral	18 November 2001
Stayed at De Syloia Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
The hotel is 4 blocks away from the old quarter where the most shops and restaurants are located. We did not take any tours outside of Hanoi, and found 2-3 days enough to see the city.
J Beressi	17 November 2001
Stayed at Caravelle Hotel - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
Vietnam is a truly wounderful country, the people both inside and outside the main cities are extremely friendly . The countryside is magnificent but I would avoid Dalat as this is now too commercialised and one is plagued by street vendors.
M Tan	16 November 2001
Stayed at Hanoi Horison Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
KOTO: know one teach one restaurant has excellent western cuisine. a very good cause, the owner retrains street youth to work in restaurant service. Craft Link: not-for-profit store with excellent variety of crafts/weavings/souvenirs from all over vietnam, both are located across from Museum of Literature.
T Ruotsalainen	15 November 2001
Stayed at Guoman Hanoi Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
Since we live in Vietnam on the country site, this is the place to take a city weekend off. On the other side of the street there is a nice Thai restaurant. Actually there are two quite near each others. If you spend one week in Hanoi, take your favourite photo (girlfriend, scenery etc) and have it painted to a real oil painting by one of the many galleries. Costs nothing and is good.
C Whelan	12 November 2001
Stayed at Rex Hotel Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
I travelled around Vietnam for a couple of weeks, starting off in Ho Chi Minh. I used the Sinh Cafe to arrange tours to Cu Chi tunnels and the Mekong Delta. Both were very good, and excellent value for money. Sinh Cafe is very cheap to eat in, but the food is quite good. A lovely Thai restaurant is The Lemongrass - superb food and not too expensive. Diethelm Travel arranged my internal flights - HCM to Danang, Danang to Hanoi and Hanoi to HCM. I went to Hoi An after Danang and stayed in Cuai Dai hotel for a few nights (nice enough but not brilliant) and then moved to Vingh Hung 1 (nice hotel, very central and good value for money). Hoi An is a lovely place to go, but is inundated with street hawkers which gets a bit much after a while. The worst place for them, in my experience, is at the beach. The one time you want time-out and peace and quiet and all they do in interrupt you trying to get you to buy anything from pineapple to beaded bracelets. A nice Italian restuarant is Good Morning Vietnam - the owner can usually be found on the premises, the staff are very efficient, and the quality is good. A very good bar is Tam Tam Cafe - the food is also good. Hanoi was a nice city, completely different to Ho Chi Minh. I travelled to Halong Bay from there, on a day trip which was fabulous and I would recommend to anyone. A lovely restaurant in Hanoi is Three Mountains Cafe, which does very good Vietnamese food. The water puppet show is a must in Hanoi.
D Astley	12 November 2001
Stayed at De Syloia Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
The much publicised day tour down to the Perfume Pagoda is well worth taking, but don't expect too much when you get to the top of the mountain. It is the river journey that is the highlight of the trip. The shrine at the top of the mountain is in a big cave and is nothing spectacular, but the walk up the mountain is quite interesting (just over an hour for a reasonably fit person). On the way, you'll be hassled by drink vendors, but if you carry a water bottle and say you've just bought one, most will leave you alone. Some will ask you to buy a drink on your way back. Don't say 'yes' or even 'maybe' otherwise you will really be hassled on the way down - they will remember you! The young women who row the boats to the bottom of the mountain are amazing. They row non-stop for one and a half hours each way. They'll expect a tip of US$8 per boat for the round trip (two or four persons) which you can't begrudge them for the effort that they put in. The boat ticket price is only about 50 US cents per person, so they obviously don't get paid much from that. En route to the mountain, the scenery along the waterways is spectacular. It is very quiet and peaceful, and we didn't get hassled by any of the sounvenir sellers that many of the guidebooks talk about (only two women in a boat wanting to take souvenir photographs for US$1 each). I've posted a couple of pictures taken along the river under the 'Vietnam' album on my photo website at http://communities.msn.com/DavidsAsiaPix - have a look at them if you'd like to see what the area is like before deciding to take a day trip down there.
P Fisher	08 November 2001
Stayed at Oscar Saigon Hotel - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
Enjoyed Saigon. Took hotel's great half-day tour of couple of museums, China Town, etc. Shopping: there are bargains galore in clothes, & other items, but compare before you buy. Good inexpensive restaurants. We were amazed & overwhelmed at number of beggers, everywhere we walked. We plan to return in 6 months to purchase more bargains & maybe take outside city tour.

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