Tons and Tons of Tourist heading to Vietnam or traveling through Asia during summer so here are some tips for you
Tip 1:
Most people
would like to have cheap or unlimited Internet even they went out to the jungle
in Asia, it’s still always nice to keep contact with friends and family though.
So How
cheap it can be? I found a really cheap way to do so!
Try
to find this card, the operator is “Mobifone” their card have 50,000VND in
there even people told you there’s 100,000VND, it’s actually still 50,000VND
inside, it’s because they have 3 accounts in the card for incoming and outgoing….
Complicated but the Main account is most important. The other doesn’t count,
when you top up, it just top up the main account as well but give you extra
bonus in the others.
They will try to fool you by that.
Buying a SIM in Hanoi is way
cheaper then in Ho Chi Minh City as Hanoi is very competitive since SIM is
selling everywhere on the street. You will some small light box, they will have
SIM card and top up coupon there.
If you put in the SIM and just
use, it will be pay as you go and the credit can run out really quick with
Internet usage.
!!The trick is send a message DK
MIU to 999
then it will deduct 40,000VND in
your phone credit which provide you
30 Days Unlimited Network with
first 400Mb high speed up to 7.2Mb
Even it slow down afterwards it
still works fine.
Vietnam phone network is really
fast under 3G but rather slow with 2G.
The 3G coverage are mostly just
available in the city.
**People in Ho Chi Minh City will
try to trap you by selling the SIM way more expensive then it should, this card
I brought in Hanoi is just 65,000VND but in HCMC the first guy try to charge me
200,000VND then 100,000VND for some else but coz I brought this one very cheap
so I told them finally someone offer 80,000VND which is rather more reasonable
and actually not much that different in foreign currency.
P.S. 50USD is roughly equal to
1,000,000VND
25USD is roughly equal to 500,000VND
So you can have the card the card
that included the plan with less then 5USD.
Tip 2:
Never book a hotel in Airport,
it’s way more then expensive or just book a 1 night to get you to the busy area
so you can find hotel around which there’re a lot of them in the backpacker
area of HCMC and the city of Hanoi.
If you had booked a hotel in
advance in Hanoi, sometimes the taxi driver may drive you to some hotel that is
not the one you told. Beware of that and double check the name if you have
already booked online.
I had booked a hotel before in
the airport which cost 35USD and I need an extra night, the lady ask how much
is did the airport charge you, I said 30, she easily give me 20USD deal for you
for an extra night!
It
can be always cheaper if you having few nights, even two, ask for the price for
a night, in example they may say 30USD for a nice hotel then try to get it down
to 28 then ask for a several night discount so basically pushing down to limit,
it may be 25 or so at the end. If you are a budget backpacker that wants a
nicer room but not a dorm, it’s really nice to save few bucks for EVERY single
night and spend it on some cheap beer that can just be 1.5US per cup. Or a
street snacks which cost 20,000VND(1USD) only.
I have stayed in Bali Hotel in
District 1, 82Bui Vien Street, Pham Ngu Lao Ward. I am just there for a night,
they offer a double bed room or triple room with a same price, 30USD which is
really fine coz the triple room would have cost 40USD at normal and that room
is rather big. I have checked the double bed room it’s not really that cools as
triple one.
The hotel is
new as it just opened for about 1-2months, try to talk them down if you stay
there for a 2 nights or more and just saying, I don’t think it’s worth to have
the breakfast there so just tell them you don’t need the breakfast so it may be
even cheaper as it will cost 3USD if you get it on extra. On street snacks will
be way better as I don’t think you will want many fried food in the early
morning lol I am taking the flight next day so I don’t really have a choice but
you do!
Tip 3:
If you are
traveling on day trips or half day trip or so, the travel agent always raise
price of cause, beware of “Cu Cin Tunnel” as the half day trip or day trip
going there do NOT include entrance ticket to the venue so 4USD would be fine
for the ticket or even lower if you find it, sometimes they just go for 5 and
even 8 USD. For me 5 would be acceptable but 4 of cause more preferable: p
There’s an
travel agency which sell bus ticket and everything they have really cheap
ticket, I can even say they are the cheapest as they provide ticket from HCMC
to Mui Ne for just 7USD one way (it’s a 6-7hours bus when tunnel is just about
3 hours away return) and they agency have cheap open bus ticket form HCMC all
the way up to Hanoi as well, they have lots of different plans so you just have
to let them know what cities you want to stop and they will try to organize for
you.
Tip 4:
Which is not
really a tip as many people knows, don’t buy stuff on the break station which
the bus stop by within the day trip or so as the price there are way too
expensive! The only thing is reasonable are drinks but with their price they
have something in advance which is they have variety of choices for you as they
have lots of those hand made work even tho you can buy it somewhere else way
cheaper but Drinks are usually more reasonable price but not chocolate or other
snacks. Sometimes it can be just way too high.
Tip 5:
There’re two
kind of train in Vietnam that is traveler/tourist train and Government train.
Don’t take government train, as it’s really bad even tho it’s cheaper. Last
time my friend told me the travel agent just booked that for them and on their
way back they booked a cabin on tourist train, it was just too tough perhaps
lol
Tell me if you have some other tips also wanna share with others
