Andre and Wendy: Off to Vietnam & Cambodia

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Off to Vietnam & Cambodia

March 6th, 2023

Finally departure date has arrived. After countless hours of reading trip reports, reviewing questions being answered on the forum, and a couple of guide books our plans are all in place and we are off. First off thanks so much to those that answer questions and post trip reports on here. The same questions being asked over and over, you are so generous with your time and expertise. Those of you that are on here all the time will definitely recognize some of our stops as we go along. We are off!

A few comments/concerns

Leaving Moncton New Brunswick Canada Departure 5AM (wake up 3AM!) arrival SGN 00:15 + 2 days. We've never been to Japan, unfortunately our 2 hour connection in Tokyo will do nothing about that. Hotel in Saigon does not arrange pick ups after 10PM, our first 'adventure' will be to find Vinasun(white) or Mai Linh (green) taxi for ride to hotel. Turn left outside (yes I have taken pages and pages of notes!)

Visas, yep I at least have to put that word in here at least once. We have our Visas. Wonder where or if they will be checked on departure. Moncton is a tiny airport, will we depart from gate 1 or 2? Oh, yes you also educated us on we could only stay in Vietnam for 30 days, so we leave for Cambodia for a week in the middle of our Vietnam vacation and then back to Vietnam for the balance. We applied and received both Visas already for entrance to Vietnam, just noticed the second Visa for coming back from Cambodia is for a day before we actually are leaving Cambodia, that is OK right?

Average temp here last week was about -10, I see Saigon is about +38, no need to elaborate on that concern

Those tiny chairs. Yes, we had those chairs for our grandchildren until they were about 8 and outgrew them. Will see how much we enjoy them, will save a lot of $ on deck furniture if we like them.

Beverages, husband is a beer lover, he is going to love this trip. Me, I only like beer if it is really hot outside and the beer is really cold. From what I read pretty sure 50% of my beer preferences will be covered, rest will be hit and miss

Language- 0 Vietnamese. All intentions were to learn at least one helpful word a week before we left. Plans were to start learning a couple of months ago, resulting in at least 8 helpful words known. Total accomplished 0. We are very embarrassing tourists representing Canada. Maybe we can use a little of our French somewhere along the way? We will rectify this somewhat over our 50 days of visiting I assure you.

Over planning-Guilty. We are doing carry on luggage only, I think my notes will be half of the weight of my carry on!

5 AM flight, arhhh!

March 07 Ho Chi Minh Akoya Saigon Central Hotel

March 09 Mekong Delta tour

March 12 Ho Chi Minh Akoya Saigon Central Hotel

March 13 Mui Ne Mui Ne bay resort

March 16 Da Lat Mr Rot's secret hotel

March 19 Nha Trang Azura Gold Hotel

March 22 Whale Island Whale Island resort

March 25 Quy Nhon The King hotel

March 28 Hoi An Lantana Boutique

March 31 Da Nang Pavilion Hotel