One of the places I
had been yearning to go to was Asia and I finally got to tick it off my
‘bucket’ list this year in November. My choice of destination was Cambodia and Vietnam,
so read on to see my tips on how to do these countries in 17 days…
Cambodia
Stop 1. Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh was the
starting point for my taste of Asia and as the capital of the country it
certainly was a more modern take on Cambodian culture, well as modern as you
get.
With only one night in
the capital, we didn’t waste any time and as soon as we landed in the city, and
of course checked into our hotel, we went to visit the Killing Fields and subsequently the Russian Market. You will find that there are plenty of tuk tuk drivers
who are eager to take you to your destination of choice. I would recommend
bargaining on the price and approaching a tuk tuk driver on the street as it
will work out so much cheaper than using the hotel’s services.
It cost around $20 for
a round trip to the Killing Fields
and then the Russian market (note the driver will wait for you while you
explore the various shops). The Russian market was full of stalls, upon stalls
of souvenirs and designer rips offs – something you will get used to as you
travel through the country, I actually don’t know how they get away with
selling these – I’m not a fan! Make sure you negotiate on prices; it’s the norm
here so they will be expecting you to do this. Another thing you will get used
to are people coming up to you harassing you to buy things; at first it’s like
ok whatever but after a while this does get a bit much. You have to give a
stern no otherwise they will follow you around until you buy something!
How many nights: 1
How we got there: We
flew from London Gatwick to Phnom Penh via Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific
(highly recommend this airline!).
Where we stayed: The
Mou Hotel.
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| Views from The Russian Market |
Stop 2. Siem Reap
Flying from Phnom Penh
to Siem Reap, we spent our first day visiting a Floating Village. There are quite a few floating villages and we
ended up going to one our tuk tuk driver took us to, simple as really. It took
about 30 minutes and cost approximately $12 for the round trip.
Chong Kneas is very touristy and looking at trip advisor now I can see it doesn’t
have the best of reviews so probably best you check out the other ones. It’s
mainly because this floating village is very touristy so you will get harassed
to make additional purchases as you travel through the floating village; the
boat ride through the floating villages (takes around 2 hours) was $20. You
will then end up getting politely forced to go on a canoe trip through a
mangrove area, which is an additional $15 (you also get asked to tip on top of
this). A crocodile farm forms the next stop – this is a small area where you
can get off the boat and see shops and crocodiles kept in a crammed area. I
literally refused to leave the boat at this point as a) I don’t like crocodiles
and b) kids walk around with snakes on their necks trying to get you to take a
picture – I have a massive phobia of snakes so the last thing I wanted was one
being put in my face.
After this you make
your way back, going past more of the floating village, including an orphanage
where you can stop at for an additional cost. We didn’t end up doing this.
We ended up having a
personal tour guide who did do a good job of explaining everything about the
floating village so it turned out to be ok. When you have an afternoon to spare
it does form for an interesting experience allowing you to see how resourceful
people can be when they live on water!
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| Floating Village |
Day 2. Angkor Wat
The main reason anyone
goes to Siem Reap is to see the temples in Angkor Wat. It forms one of the most
important archaeological sites in the world so it certainly is somewhere you
have to go at least once in your life.
With a variety of
passes available ranging from 1 day to 7 days I recommend the 1 day pass
because most Tuk Tuk drivers will only take you to certain temples and after
you’ve seen the main five they pretty much start to all look the same. I guess
though it depends on your interest in temples, the people I was travelling with
got tired by the afternoon so we didn’t see anymore – I was quite happy to make
the most of the whole day.
You can pretty much
walk out of your hotel and find a tuk tuk driver that will take you to purchase
your pass to visit the temples and then take you on your journey. We opted to
get up early to catch the sunrise but unfortunately it was cloudy so we didn’t
get to see it!
Siem Reap has more
than a thousand temples so it’s best to plan out which temples you want to see,
although the tuk tuk driver you choose will usually map this out for you.
One temple you HAVE to
see is Angkor Wat - it was out of this world and can take several hours to
explore due to the size. To be honest this is the first temple tuk tuk drivers
take you especially if you want to catch the sunrise.
Other temples to visit
include The Bayon, The Baphuon, Thommanon, Ta Prohm (this was where Tomb Raider
was filmed so it’s very popular), Ta Keo, Chau Say Tevoda and Banteay Kdei.
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| A monk praying in Angkor Wat Temple |
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| Views of Angkor Wat's 5 Pillars |
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| Temple ruins |
Day 3. Siem Reap
This day was spent
exploring the town of Siem Reap, with plenty of shops, stalls and restaurants
you can actually spend the whole day doing this! The main area of Siem Reap,
namely Pub Street, comes alive at
night and is pretty much were every tourist ends up. One tip to note is if you are planning on visiting Vietnam
after your trip to Cambodia I would recommend saving your shopping for when you
are in Vietnam, it’s cheaper and you get a better selection of items.
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| Pub Street |
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| Streets of Siem Reap |
How many nights: 3
How we got there: We
flew via Bassaka Air.
Where we stayed: Sok
San Street Boutique – with only a 5 minute walk from Pub Street it worked as a
great location.
Other things to note: If
you take US Dollars then ensure you take small amounts so $1, $5, $10 notes as
they won’t give you change in dollars, they only give it in the Cambodian
currency, which is pretty useless once you leave.
Wifi is everywhere and
really good.
Vietnam
The rest of our trip
was spent exploring Vietnam and it made for a pleasant change from Cambodia,
which to be honest I wasn’t mega on. Vietnam however was amazing!
Stop 3. Ho Chi Min City.
Ho Chi Min city was my
welcome to Vietnam and boy was it a fabulous way to be welcomed to a country. HCMC
reminded me of New York x 10 – it’s crazy busy, there are scooters everywhere
and it’s very Americanised, which I loved.
We utilised our first
day to go to the Cu Chi tunnels, which are a must go as it will allow you to
understand the Vietnam War. You can book the tour via your hotel, which worked
out as approx $11 – it includes transport to the tunnels and a guided tour. It
takes a good few hours to get to the tunnels from HCMC.
The afternoon was
spent exploring the city – Ben Thanh
market was a recommendation but to be honest I wasn’t a fan.
If like myself you
love green tea and match green tea you are going to love HCMC – my favourite
place was Yamamoto Matcha Café,
located on 84 Trần Hưng Đạo, it serves a selection of matcha-based foods and deserts. I highy
recommend the matcha green tea ice cream – yum!
From there we found
one of my favourite places – The View
Rooftop Bar, the view and food was delicious. It’s on Bui Vien Street,
which is the street where all the tourists go and it certainly does come alive
at night.
We also made time to
see a water puppet show at The Golden
Dragon Water Puppet Theatre – this is certainly something you need to do
whether in HCMC or another area of Vietnam.
With plenty of high-rise
buildings there are plenty of rooftop bars available to allow for a fabulous
view of this cosmopolitan city. We ended up going to the tallest building in
the city – EON51, which is located on
the 52nd floor of the Bitexco Financial Tower. It’s quite pricey but
the views are pretty cool and it’s in a shopping centre with a really cool
Adidas store! Priorities…!
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| Views from The View Rooftop Bar |
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| Water puppet show |
How many nights: 2
How we got there: We
flew via Vietnam Airlines
Where we stayed: Eden
Garden Hotel – this was a 2 minute walk from Bui Vien Street so made for a good
location. The tours they operate are cheap too!
Stop 4. Sapa
Our next stop was
Sapa, which is situated close to the Chinese boarder in the northernmost part
of Vietnam. It’s known for it’s vast valley of green rice terraces, rural
minority villages and Hmong women. Most people go to Sapa to hike through the
vast fields so if hiking isn’t your thing you are probably not going to enjoy
this region.
We arrived midday,
explored some of Hanoi and then got the 8 hour night train to Sapa, arriving to
Lao Cai railway station for approx 6am.
Sapa is a 1 hour drive
from Lao Cai - you can either get a mini bus (there are plenty of drivers
waiting for you as you exit the station trying to get you on their bus – if you
agree to one of these the bus won’t leave until it’s full, so be ready to wait
a good 30 minutes for your bus to fill up) or a taxi.
Once we arrived in Sapa
we got ready hike through the vast landscape of Sapa – unfortunately the
weather didn’t hold up so ended up hiking in the rain and the views were quite
restricted due to the cold weather. Depending on when you go brace yourself for
a colder climate. HCMC was 30 degrees and Sapa was 5 degrees, just to give you
an idea of how much of a change it is.
A lady from the local
tribe led the 6-hour hike and it certainly made for an unforgettable experience
– you get to see how people live in the mountainous landscapes, which is a
completely different world. When
you hear what they have to go through, how they get married of at a young age
it certainly will make you appreciate life back on the UK.
The actual town of Sapa
isn’t that great, there isn’t a lot to do once you have hiked so I wouldn’t
recommend staying here for more than 1 night, unless of course you want to do a
homestay.
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| Local tribes ladies |
How many nights: 1
How we got there:
Night train from Hanoi – this was organised by our hotel in Hanoi.
Where we stayed: London
Sapa Hotel. I highly recommend this hotel as the staff went out of their way to
ensure we had a comfortable stay – they organised our hike for us and provided
us with wellies, which certainly came in handy!
Stop 5. Hanoi
We arrived back from Sapa
to Hanoi, which is the capital of Vietnam. It’s a pretty area but there isn’t a
lot to do here so I wouldn’t recommend staying more than 2 nights. It basically
makes for a good stopping point for travel to Sapa and Halong Bay.
For things to do I
recommend visiting the old quarter, the Hoan
Kiem Lake, Apricot Hotel (more so
for the pool and views of the city) and just exploring the surrounding areas.
Our hotel was located
in close proximity to all the areas (it was a 10 minute walk to the shops
situated around Hoan Kiem Lake) and the staffs there were extremely helpful in
booking our additional travels. Further to this we met a really nice American
who had been staying in the area for several months on business so he
recommended (and gave us a fab tour) of all the places you wouldn’t know unless
you lived there! One place I really liked was the Moose and Roo Smokehouse – I know what you are thinking, why go to
Vietnam and have American food but after days of eating the local cuisine it
was a welcome change to have some American food! It’s really good.
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| A selection of items you can get in the vast markets of Hanoi |
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| Hoan Kiem Lake |
How many nights: 1
How we got there: Flew
to Hanoi via HCMC via Vietnam airlines.
Where we stayed: Hanoi
Holiday Centre Hotel
Stop 6. Halong Bay
This was by far my
favourite part of my trip –mainly because we met a fab group of people, similar
to our age and on the same wavelength. It meant we really got to make the most
of the cruise and enjoy ourselves!
Our hotel in Hanoi
booked the cruise, which included a 3-hour coach trip to Halong Bay and then a
1 night stay on a cruise ship. We actually were fortunate enough to get
upgraded to the 4* cruise ship, which turned out to be fab!
The moment you leave
the hotel everything is organised by the tour guide so all you need to do is
just turn up for things when they tell you to, if you want!
You would think 1 day
isn’t enough but the tour guide fits plenty of activities into the day – this
includes a mini hike on one of the islands in Halong Bay, kayaking through
Halong Bay, a swim in the middle of the bay, a tour of the local caves, tai
chi, fishing, a cooking lesson and plenty of fabulous meals. As someone who is
vegetarian and has a gluten allergy I have to say I was really impressed with
the food the chef made for me! It was delicious.
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| Views from Halong Bay |
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| Our cruise ship |
How many nights: 1
How we got there: Tour
organised by the Hanoi Holiday Centre
Where we stayed: Silversea
4* Cruise
Stop 7. Hoi An
Our final part of the
trip was Hoi An and it made for the perfect ending to an unforgettable trip.
Hoi An is known for it’s lantern filled streets and is pretty much where you go
if you want your tailoring done. It also makes for a pleasant change from the
hustle and bustle of cities such as Hanoi and HCMC – it’s very quiet. It
certainly went above and beyond my expectations.
Our hotel provided
free bicycle rental and we certainly made the most of this. We cycled through a
picturesque route to get to An Bang beach, which I wouldn’t exactly say is my
favourite beach in the world but it’s still worth a visit if you want to catch
a tan.
Other things to do
include exploring the old town, visiting the Japanese Covered Bridge, exploring
the traditional Buddhist temples and of course getting your tailoring done – as
someone who has a fashion design background it certainly was great to find a
tailor who could make up my designs in a few hours at a really low cost! I
highly recommend you visit T. Hung Thinh
tailoring shop.
Further to this I also
got some sandals made – this is something you have to do, it’s cheap and they
are really good quality and are made to measure!
Another highlight of
Hoi An was experiencing the full moon lantern festival. It fell on the last
night of our stay and even though it was raining like crazy it actually was a fab
experience to see the lake full of floating lanterns!
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| The entrance to a traditional Buddhist Temple. So peaceful |
How many nights: 4
How we got there: Flew
into Da Nang airport via Vietnam Airlines.
Where we stayed: Hoi
An Rose Garden – with only a 15 minute walk to the old town and a 15 minute
cycle to An Bang Beach it made for the perfect location. The breakfast was also
AMAZING!
Tailors: T. Hung Thinh,
26 Tran Hung Dao St, Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Provice.
So yeah that’s pretty
much my first experience of Asia, and hopefully not my last! Whilst I wouldn’t
rush back to Cambodia I certainly would go to Vietnam again, namely because I
still have to explore the south of the country! The people in Vietnam were so welcoming
and I had some memorable and life changing experiences, not to mention I got to
witness a fab culture first hand!
XxX
