A new year, and again lots of exploration to see where to go to over the two long school vacation breaks in June and December. We were reasonably set to re-visit Japan at the end of this 2023 year, but we were less certain for the mid-year. What we had to work with was an approximately 9-10 day duration, and we wanted to visit somewhere reasonably near to keep the overall trip costs low. Places in the early consideration included
Langkawi – but got dropped as there isn’t enough to do for the span of time we’ve got.
Penang – much more to see and do than Langkawi but also again a drawer itinerary from 2020 that I refreshed revealed again that we’d be have barely enough activities to fill a week long itinerary.
Still, we were initially decided on Penang – they have some lovely Peranakan mansions to stay in Georgetown – and to take it easy over the slightly over the week we’d have. But after giving it a bit more thought, we asked ourselves why not Vietnam? That country has never been in our radar much, since – at least for myself – the mentioning of Vietnam immediately brings about my mental association of it being a country tragically the site of several regional and violent wars. I was aware of course that the country has changed dramatically and developed in the last 20 years, but never quite got round to finding out more. Well, after a week of reading up and exploring the possible regions we could visit, alongside general flight, accommodation and activity costs, we decided to go for it.
Broadly speaking, there seems to be two regions tourists go to: north – the cultural heart of the country, and also Halong Bay; enough said. And south – where fabulous beaches await, the Mekong, and the cosmopolitan city of Ho Chi Minh City. It was a no-brainer for us: we already live in an urban jungle and where possible would really not want to spend more time than necessary in another!
We considered also whether to cover both the north and south regions in the same trip, but decided not to. We’d just center our activities around north Vietnam for this June first trip to the country, and really take our time to explore Hanoi city.
There are numerous flights that depart from Singapore to Hanoi, with some pretty budget options. We opted for Singapore Air and paid the usual premium prices for their fares. In turn, we’d be getting arrival and departure timings that would maximize the vacation time we have in the country: i.e. we arrive before noon, and leave in the early evening.
Important points of consideration when we were deciding to visit Vietnam and what parts: easy access to public transportation, and mobile connectivity. The former was especially coming out of our that not terrifically pleasant experience in Bali where we were temporarily stranded on the roadside in Ubud when our Grab rides were repeatedly cancelled by drivers after acceptance. Grab thankfully is widely used in Hanoi, which gave us some assurance that we would likely be able to get from point to point when we explored the city on our own – and unlike Bali, the service seems far more reliable. Likewise for connectivity: mobile data SIM cards are easily available and at low cost too, which in turn meant that we’d stay connected and I can continue to blog during the trip.
There is a wide range of accommodation in Hanoi, or specifically the Old Quarter where we decided to stay at. And many of the very highly rated albeit small properties are affordably priced. Traveler reviews likewise are invariably positive, with many praising the great customer service and that the Old Quarter is a bustling and lively section of the city. Like in other trips, we had to find a property with a family or adjourning rooms that would be suitable for the four of us, since our two kids still aren’t old enough to be in their own room unsupervised. So, we opted for the Lucien Hanoi Hotel in the Old Quarter – currently rated #6 on Tripadvisor for properties in the city, and got a pretty good rate for two interconnecting rooms at the time of our booking in early February.
The currency will certainly take some getting used to! Like the Indonesian Rupiah, the Vietnamese Dong is used in large denominations, with 1SGD the approximate equivalent of 17,500VND. The latter isn’t a nice whole number for us to do quick mental divisions!
Next post: our draft itinerary!