Saigon, Hanoi, and Chau Doc

This is the rest of my trip report, I decided to put the last  three cities that I visited all together since there is quite a bit of redundant information in them from my first two posts, Nha Trang and Halong City. There  aren't any pictures of the babes in this one, it is strictly a travelog so  if you are looking for them you can skip this one. Sorry for the long download  but I decided to put too many pics in here to better convey the sights and  sounds of Vietnam.

I had been in Phnom Penh exactly one month and my Cambodia visa  was running out and most of my friends had long departed so for me it was  time to get with the program and head over to Vietnam. The tours through the  Mekong delta region of Vietnam are very popular in Saigon so I thought that this might be a good time for me to explore a region of Vietnam that I hadn't seen before as well as avoid the rough ten-hour bus trip from Phnom Penh to  Saigon. I still didn't want to be part of a tour so I bought a combination bus/ferry transportation ticket at the Capitol Guest House in Phnom Penh for $6, paid $28 for a thirty day Vietnamese visa at the Paris Hotel and I was  ready to go. I had a very enjoyable month in Phnom Penh, I have a lot of good friends there that I always enjoy seeing, but I was ready to hit the road  again.

The photo above is of the Capitol ferry that goes down the Mekong  River to Chau Doc. First we went on the Capitol bus for two hours from Phnom  Penh down to an immigration point on the Mekong River, then boarded the Capitol  ferry for another three and one-half hours for the trip down to Chau Doc.  The ferry was very, very slow, about the speed of a fast walk. It was nothing like the ferries that I had taken before in Cambodia and that I would take later from Saigon to Vung Tau. No AC but there were only six people on the whole boat and it was a comfortable trip and because of the speed, we had  an excellent view of life along the Mekong. With all of the nets and fishing  along the river, I'm surprised that any fish ever gets larger than a minnow.

The photo on the left is from the ferry as we arrived at the docks in Chau Doc, the one on the right is of a Chau Doc street in the middle of town. I didn't find much in Chau Doc of interest so I was glad to leave and head for Saigon the next morning. I stayed in the Tranh Tra Hotel and  had problems bringing Yim, the Vietnamese babe that I had met in Phnom Penh, back to the room. The manager did agree to let us have an afternoon delight  after I paid $5 extra but said that there was no way she could spend the night. This kind of attitude is typical of what you find all over Vietnam and is  the main reason most guys on a babe safari opt for Thailand or Cambodia, it  is just so much easier in those countries.

The next day I was on my way to Saigon and I was happy to be leaving Chau Doc. The Mekong Delta was interesting but it wasn't one of those  places that I would want to visit on a regular basis. I took the Sinh Cafe bus from Chau Doc to Saigon and had a comfortable trip with a lunch stop in  Cantho. The price was $8 and we left Chau Doc at 8AM and arrived in Saigon  at 6PM, stopping a couple of times for sightseeing along the way.

There are two main tourist areas in Saigon, the Pham Ngu Lao area and the Dong Khoi area, both are located in District One. It is very  convenient since there are dozens of hotels and restaurants in both areas  within easy walking distance as well as an Internet cafe on every corner. Of the two areas the Pham Ngu Lao area is the most reasonable and this area is where I stayed and am the most familiar with. The advantage to staying in the Dong Khoi area is that is where most of the bars with working girls  are located. There is plenty of P4P action in Saigon but after having been in Phnom Penh for a month, I thought the quality wasn't there and the price  was way higher than I was used to. Most in the girls in the major bars like  Apocalypse Now and Speed want at least $50 for ST and the taxi girls on the street $30. Add to that the $10 extra that my hotel charged and you are getting  in rarefied atmosphere indeed for most of SE Asia.

I always stay at the Duna Hotel in the Pham Ngu Lao area of  Saigon. They have rooms from $10 for a small room with no AC to $20 for a  large room with a balcony and AC, phone, fridge, HW, satellite TV, etc. Very comfortable and you can't beat the location. The hotel didn't mind me bringing  a girl back but like many hotels in Vietnam, they did make me pay $10 extra  for a room for the girl.

The photo on the left is of my room at the Duna Hotel and the  one on the right is a shot of downtown Saigon. In Saigon the people were friendly for the most part and with most of the hotels and restaurants in two main areas, it is very easy to get around in. Since the adult entertainment available  wasn't up to the standards that I have come to expect, I usually made a trip  each day to one of the many sauna/massage clubs in town. My favorite was one  that was right up from the New World Hotel and the Ben Thanh Market on D. Lei Loi. It is in conjunction with a fairly large hotel. I had the name and  exact address on a business card that I brought back from Vietnam but now I've lost the cards. So much for a good idea. Anyway a sauna and massage was  80,000 dong ($5) and a BBBJ was usually 150,000 dong tip ($10) and full service was 300,000 dong tip ($20). The girls were very attractive and gave a great massage besides the extras so that was my favorite place in Saigon to let  off a little of the pressure that builds up from time to time.

One afternoon I headed down to Vung Tau to check out the action  there and I was pleasantly surprised. At the suggestion of a moto taxi driver  I took the minibus down for four dollars, supposedly a savings of six dollars  over the hydrofoil ferry, wrong decision. The minibus took over three hours  and we picked up many passengers along the way so we were packed like sardines  in a can by the time we reached Vung Tau. The picture on the left is of the Vung Tau fishing docks, you can see the hydrofoil at the left of the photo.  The right photo is of Back Beach in Vung Tau, the best beach. All I can say  about the Vung Tau beaches are that they make Pattaya's beaches look nice :-)

There is a lively P4P scene in Vung Tau. There are several brothels  located on a street near Back Beach, any cyclo or taxi driver can take you  there. I had a couple of nice afternoon delights there for $20 and that included  the room. Needless to say the rooms are a little shabby but they did suffice.  After my ride down on the minibus there wasn't any way I was taking it back  again so I took the hydrofoil back for $10. The ferries in Cambodia advertise  that they are hydrofoils but they aren't but this ferry was the genuine article  and we rocketed along the water to Saigon, an hour and fifteen minute trip  in very nice, air conditioned cabin areas. I definitely recommend a visit to Vung Tau and be sure and take the hydrofoil. I stayed at the Beautiful Hotel, $20 including breakfast and they had an adjoining massage parlor but I didn't get a chance to try it out. For those travelers who aren't as budget-conscious  as myself I would recommend Sammy Hotel, a glitzy new high-rise and I heard  that they would let you bring the massage girls back to your room at the hotel.  I did inquire about the price and was quoted $40 for the cheapest room.

I've already posted my Nha Trang report, my plans were to take the Reunification Express to Hanoi but since the trains were closed four days  before and four days after Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, they were full on  the fifth, the day I left so I ended up taking the plane. The train was $45  for an air-conditioned sleeper and the plane was $92. The train took twenty-four  hours and the plane two so I guess it wasn't that bad a trade off. Photo of  the Vietnamese Airlines plane at the Nha Trang airport is below.

I spent a week in Hanoi and Halong City and while it was nice  to see some of northern Vietnam, I do like Southern Vietnam much better. The people are much friendlier and it just seemed easier to get around there plus  the food is much better in Saigon and southern Vietnam. The girls were prettier  in the north though, as a rule they were taller, lighter skinned, and had a much better figure. There is a much more European feel to Hanoi than Saigon, the architecture definitely has a European flair. The only bar I visited in Hanoi was the Apocalypse Now but it was a week night and there weren't many people there so again I turned to the massage parlors. Like I've said many times before I'm usually not that big a fan but in Vietnam with its problems bringing the girls back to the hotel sometimes it seemed the best solution. My favorite massage parlor in Hanoi was the Hoa Binh. Contrary to what is  in the Lonely Planet guide, everything was on the menu up to full service. The massage was $5 and the girls seemed to be happy with $10-15 for full service.

In Hanoi I stayed at the Lucky Hotel in the Old Quarter which  is the main tourist district. The room and the hotel staff were very nice  and I enjoyed my stay there. The cost of the room was $25 per day and that  included breakfast. Although I didn't find the food in Hanoi as good as what  is generally available in Saigon, I did find one restaurant that I thoroughly enjoyed, the Rendezvous on Dinh-Tien Hoang, the lakeside street, and it was  located right down from the ANZ Bank just a short walk from the Lucky Hotel..

The photo on the left is of Hoan Kiem Lake with the Hanoi skyline  in the background. This area of Hanoi is known as the Old Quarter and this  is where most of the tourist hotels and restaurants are located. The photo  on the right is the Ho Chi Minh Museum, truly an impressive structure. Entrance  is free and there were more visitors there than any other tourist site that  I visited in Hanoi. Unfortunately Ho's mausoleum was closed because of his body being in Moscow for his yearly maintenance visit.

The photo on the left is of Saint Joseph Cathedral showing the European influence in the Hanoi architecture. On the right is the infamous Hanoi Hilton, where many of the American POWs were held. They still have John  McCain's flight suit on display as well as a placard saying how well they  treated the American prisoners even though they were trying to wipe them (the  north Vietnamese) off the face of the earth. I think that some of the prisoners  might disagree with that statement.

It was nice to visit Hanoi but like I said before, I enjoyed Saigon much better and Saigon probably has four to five times as many tourists, maybe more, so most people would probably agree with my thinking. I'm sorry that I didn't take more photos of the girls, it is always good to know what  to expect when you arrive at a destination, but most of the girls that I was with in Saigon and Hanoi worked in massage parlors and the situation didn't lend itself to many photos. The camera was in the locker and it was just too much trouble to run and get it in the middle of things plus I don't know how it would have gone over with the management as well. Vietnam is still one of my favorite destinations and I'm looking forward to visiting there again in the next few months.

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