Dan's Adventure

After spending the last two months in India and China where the vast majority of tourists are domestic, it felt a bit strange to encounter so many foreigners when I arrived in Sapa, and even more in Hanoi. At times travelling in India and China was challenging, but in Vietnam I don’t think it could have been any easier.

Assuming you are travelling either from Hanoi to Saigon or vice versa and going to the typical tourist destinations, everything is laid out for you. You arrive in Hanoi and every hostel and hotel offers tours to the obvious places like Halong Bay and Sapa, and in Saigon you get tours to the Mekong Delta. Every travel agency seems to run its own bus service in both directions too, stopping off at Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Mui Ne and Dalat in between Hanoi and Saigon. The service which is known as an Open Tour is a hop on, hop off service which makes it extremely easy to reach these popular destinations. For around $40 you get air conditioned coaches with beds, mostly travelling through the night, and you can stop at each of the destinations I listed previously. Since my time in Vietnam was limited and I had a deadline to reach Saigon by, I decided that it would be a good move.

For the most part, the Open Tour is a great way to travel in Vietnam. You meet a lot of people on the way and its very convenient, you almost don’t need to think. Its all good as long as you aren’t tall or wide. Like China, the average height in Vietnam isn’t that tall, so for someone like myself, the beds are a bit of a tight fit. They are also very narrow. Add on to that the crazy driving which often sees you rolling from side to side as the bus swerves and overtakes constantly, and you can see why it can be difficult to sleep. I just couldn’t get comfortable and ended up having to resort to sleeping pills to make the journeys bearable.

Crazy driving is to be expected everywhere in Vietnam, but the highways are definitely the worst. I lost count of the number of accidents I saw and bodies lying by the side of the road. Fortunately the only accident I have been in was when the bus from Hanoi to Hue hit a motorcyclist. The motorcyclist appeared to be ok as he got up and rode away despite his head bleeding. This was on the journey from hell where we were delayed by 8 hours because after the crash the driver kept pulling over and stopping during the night.

When the bus arrives in each city it always stops at a hotel, usually the bus company that you are using has its office based inside, and in general the hotels are pretty cheap and decent. When you arrive late and can’t be bothered finding anywhere else, they do the job nicely. For each leg of the journey the ticket needs to be reconfirmed so that your seat is reserved for you and after that everything goes like clockwork. You get picked up from your hotel anywhere from 10-30 minutes later than expected and arrive at your destination at roughly the time estimated. If you’re on a budget, bus is definitely the best way to go.

If I had more time in Vietnam I don’t think I would have bought an Open Tour ticket as its itinerary was very limited. There is an extensive public bus service that has services to far more destinations, it just wasn’t as convenient for this trip.