Visiting Vietnam

I've just spent one month in Vietnam to celebrate the Lunar New Year with my relatives and make a long  trip from the south to the north of Vietnam. It was the first time that I came back to Vietnam after 24 years living abroad. So everything looked new and impressive for me. This trip was a kind of exploration of my mother country with the following itinary:

1/Sài Gòn (I hate Ho Chi Minh name)- Mekong Delta- Saigon

2/Walking around Saigon

3/Saigon - Phan Thiết, Mũi Né

4/Mũi Né- Nha Trang

5/Nha Trang- Hội An

6/Hội An-Huế

7/ Huế- Hà Nội

8/ Hà Nội- Hoa Lư, Tam Cốc- Hà Nội

9/Hà Nội- Hạ Long bay- Hà Nội

10/ Hà Nội- Sapa

11/ Hà Nội City tour.

Usually, this 18 days  itinary is proposed by The Sinh Tourist travel agency, one of the most famous tour operator located in Vietnam. As this is a long tour, this operator tries to put  individual with tours that may be organized by other operators. Therefore, sometime the quality of service is not very good. I will talk about this wickness later.

Meanwile, here are some information that you should know about Vietnam before departure:

a/Visa:

All foreign visitors have to apply for visa. One can do it at the vietnamese ambassy or other travel agencies, visa servicces etc.... .In France, touristic visa with single entry costs 75 Euros for 3 months stay and takes about 15 days to be delivered.

Vietnamese people living abroad can aplly for the exemption of visa with multiple entries during 5 years for 17 Euros. Delivering time is also 15 days unless you wish to get the visa 20 minutes after the application, then you have to pay from 10 to 20 euros more.

b/ Transporation:

People drive like crazy despite low speed. As streets are often crowded with motobikes, cars, mini vans, buses and pedestrians, everybody tries to steal empty spaces in honking.