Ways to save money when travelling Vietnam

Visitors to VietNam often screw up planning by assuming travel over a given distance will be the same as at home.

Ha Noi and HCMC are 1,800 kilometres apart and by road or rail it takes between 30-40 hours non-stop.

Most of the buses and their drivers are totally unsafe, never have enough sleep (or even wash) and the routes are for their benefit to collect bribes from restaurants they stoup at.

There are only two trustworthy bus lines that cover this route and they are MAI LINH and HOANG LONG. All the rest are cowboys. The worst are T.M. Brothers and Camel.

Mai Linh has always used automatic trip loggers so they can monitor drivers. They also switch drivers, as in leaving the bus and getting a room, at regular points along the route.

Sleeper buses have dirty bedding and are mobile bed bug breeding facilities. How do I know> Because I wait at the terminal points at Ha Noi, Hue, Nha Trang and HCMC and film what they do as part of an annual bus survey

The Camel, and other cheap bus lines, leave Ha Noi around 18.00H and drive throughout the night to Hue at 09.00H, where passengers disembark and the buses are parked at the arena and the drivers sleep above the Camel office until 18.00H when they get ready to leave at 18.00H for Ha Noi. 7 days a week.

Don't believe the buses are rough? Check the tires/tyres for cuts, wear and tare, etc.

The only way to travel between these two cities is by rail (Soft Sleeper Air-Con) where you can walk around, they give you three food packs + water and a newspaper each day. They also have wash-rooms.

Flying is, of course the best, costs a little over VND1,000,000 each way and has a miserably low baggage limit. In Ha Noi you grab ONLY the VN Airlines shuttle bus to Hoan Kiem Lake - near the Old Quarter.

If you are centred in HCMC places within easy reach are Can Tho (floating market - you have too stay overnight to get up early enough to see the market), Da Lat (6 hour bus ride - VN's market garden). Da Lat is about 4,000 feet above sea level and the weather is cool (my home town is over the hill in Ban Me Thuot - coffee and  tea along with pepper and rubber) Phan Thiet's Mui Ne (sand dunes and partying - 5 hours) and Nha Trang (6 hours by a special express train -this means it goes as fast as 70 kilometres an hour).

Da Nang and Hoi An are 12 hours north of Nha Trang by bus.

South of HCMC are Con Dao Islands (fights from HCMC) and Phu Quoc Island (several flights daily from HCMC). There is also Vung Tau - 90 minutes each way on the flying fish hydrofoils.

Dictated and transcribed using Nuance on my Android