Hi Hao,
Please see below for some of the thoughts about our wonderful trip to your country, as well as Cambodia and Laos.
Saigon – all great, including the hotel.
We were a little sorry that we were not able to get to the main War museum, and we had no time in the itinerary to get to it by ourselves.
Cu Chi tunnels and Cao Dai temple – all very interesting / good.
Sampan boat ride – we really liked the boat itself. The scenery was less interesting. The water in the river felt grey and muddy (not beautiful). The Cai Rang floating market seemed a bit sad and poor (we understand that this is the local way of life, of course).
The guide that we had during the sampan trip (I think her name is Su-yen??) was 100% lovely and she speaks excellent English, though we had a strong impression that her life is very, very hard. But, overall, we really enjoyed the sampan boat trip.
Hotel Victoria in Can Tho was really lovely. Top marks.
Tra Su nature reserve is nice but it felt a bit too ‘touristy’. But no problem with that.
The Champo Muslim village was not a pleasant stop at all. The villagers seemed completely uninterested in us – the village is clearly very poor, and the abundance of litter on the ground was really upsetting ☹
Victoria Hotel in Chau Doc was fine. Nothing special but ok.
Boat from Chau Doc to Phnom Penh was good / interesting and fun.
Pavillion Hotel in PP was excellent. Really lovely.
The guide we had in PP was excellent. Very knowledgeable and with terrible/tragic personal history of the killings in Cambodia. He was very good.
Sambor Prei Kuk – very interesting to see this. The local guide there was also very good, spoke good English, knowledgeable and friendly.
Hotel Treeline Urban Resort in Siem Reap was nice and a great location in SR. But it felt maybe a little ‘too’ modern, but no complaint there.
Angkor Wat is excellent (of course) and the other temple that we visited the same day.
We did not like so much the Apsara Dance Show. It felt like every tourist in Siem Reap was there. Too commercialised.
The guide who was with us for 3 (?) days in SR and then in Battambang was excellent. Very good English and interesting.
Apopo Visitor Center was ok – interesting to learn about the de-mining efforts.
Tonle Sap Great Lake was nice.
Bannon Hill / temple was really good. Very beautiful to see it.
The bamboo train felt very touristy – but actually we really enjoyed it!
The Battambang Resort Hotel was ok – quite nice but not so special.
Battambang itself, including the colonial houses, didn’t feel so interesting to us.
But Wat Ek Phnom was interesting to see.
The elephant experience in Luang Phrabang was great! We love the elephants and hope that they are being well treated.
Maison Dalabua Hotel was really lovely. Highly recommended.
We enjoyed the early morning alm giving in LP.
And we enjoyed the walking tour of LP including Phousi Mount and Wat Mai. All really lovely and interesting.
And the Khouangsi Waterfall is really spectacular. We were very pleased to visit it.
By the way, our guide in Luang Phrabang and Nong Khiaw (I think he is called Anong) was our #1 favourite guide. He is such a nice person, his English is excellent and we really enjoyed being with him during those few days together.
Hotel Maison de Nong Khiaw was very nice (considering that it feels very remote in Laos). The grounds are lovely and a great view of the nearby mountains.
Nice boat ride and visit to Muang Ngoi on the Nam Ou River.
Next morning it was a nice climb up for the scenic view of the river in Nong Khiaw.
Pak Ou cave was fun to see and interesting.
Vang Vieng – train ride was fine.
You were right that VV is really more for younger people but it was still interesting to see it.
The Riverside Boutique Resort in VV is really nice so we were happy to be there.
Tham Chang Cave was fun and worth seeing.
Pha Ngern View Point was a HARD hike up and down but we really liked it. Great view from the top.
The Blue Lagoon was overcrowded with teenagers and we stayed 5 minutes and then went back to the hotel to relax there until the train ride to Vientiane.
Vientiane was nice. We were only there one short night so didn’t really have a strong impression of the Salana Boutique Hotel.
We enjoyed the city tour of Vientiane, including the Patuxay Monument, Wat Sisaket, Wat Pra Keo and Buddha Park.
Hanoi Jeep Tour was fun / worthwhile but the weather was a bit cold, cloudy and windy. We really liked Train Street ! The guide ‘Fred’ on the jeep tour was a very friendly lady.
Avana Retreat in Mai Chau Valley was beautiful. We loved it there.
Ninh Binh was nice to walk around. But the Emeralda Hotel was not a 5*. It was ok though and very well located in the town.
The Thai Vi temple on the bikes was fun. The boat ride on the river around Tam Coc was great too.
Ha Long Bay – the weather in northern Vietnam had not been so good (sadly), so we were VERY lucky that the first day/evening of our trip in Ha Long Bay was beautiful weather. The scenery in the nice weather was really spectacular.
And the ship that we were on (the Indochine Grand?) was a new boat – and we had a really lovely room. The staff on the boat were all really lovely too.
The boat trip to the Dark and Bright Cave was nice too.
Unfortunately, the next day the weather had turned bad again (very rainy and cloudy), so we felt even luckier that we had seen it when the weather was nice! So we did not bother to do the excursion on that day as we were happy to stay on the boat and relax.
The visit to Trung Trang Cave was fun.
The dinner at O’Gallery Premier restaurant in Hanoi was very nice/tasty – thank you for that 😊
Chay Lap Farmstay in Phong Nha was NOT good ☹
We understand that it is the best accommodation in the area, but really it was not suitable for people in the 60’s (like us) unless they are adventurous hikers etc. The food choice was also very limited and I am not sure if the vegetarian food was 100% vegetarian. I don’t know…
Honestly, we were glad to leave that farmhouse.
However, we DID do a short walk over two bridges and over a very beautifully blue river. That was very nice.
We did not manage to get to see the famous caves in the area – we didn’t really know how to do that.
Please note - It would have been good if a trip to a big cave had been arranged for us beforehand….
But Hue was … fun. Though the weather was still not really so good. The Pilgrimage Village Resort was really nice and we enjoyed being here – especially after the Chay Lap Farmstay!
The lady guide we had (I have forgotten her name) was very nice and we enjoyed visiting all the palaces and temples in Hue (even in the bad weather).
And Hoi An, of course, is really lovely. Again we had a lady guide who was great, spoke very good English and showed us around the centre of Hoi An.
The hotel La Siesta Hoi An is really beautiful and we were very happy to stay there.
The vespa tour was fun though we decided not to visit all of the local crafts locations (I think we were just too tired!).
Bana Hill & Golden Bridge
Part of it was interesting, and we were glad that we bought the additional ‘fast pass’, but overall, it was actually quite disappointing. The lady guide was nice, but the weather was very cloudy, and there were too many people on the Golden Bridge itself.
It was my request to visit this location – but I think it was a bit of a mistake!
I think that that is more or less all there is for me to report back.
Overall summary
-Generally EXCELLENT guides with good English and very nice people
-Generally very good hotels (not all). Some of them were really excellent such as the Avana Retreat, Pilgrimage Village La Siesta Hoi An, Pavillion in Phnom Penh, Victoria Can Tho etc
-Generally a very interesting itinerary but certain things probably better to miss such as the Cham village in southern Vietnam and the Bana Hill trip.
-The weather is very important to me. Mostly it was good but not in northern and central Vietnam, unfortunately.
-The people we met everywhere on the trip were very, very nice and friendly.
-The three countries are very beautiful - but I was sad to see so much litter everywhere. Of course, I understand that people have more important considerations in their daily life, but it is still sad to see it….
Please feel free to ask me any additional questions about it all.
We really appreciate all your hard work in making the itinerary for us!
All the best and good luck in the future.
Russell and Stephanie from UK