Vietnam

[foxer77]

how many days is reasonable to tour da nang and hoi an

4 days more than enough

 

[foxer77]

Hi guys. My very first trip to HCMC in few days time. Just changed VND and the money changer give me a lot of 500k notes and if I take grab and pay using 500k notes , will the grab driver refuse my 500k?

Don't use cash. U might be short change.. use apk to pay

 

[BiG_FisH]

just got back from HCMC, here are some things which may be useful.

Airport
[Immigration]
I landed on Sunday, approx 11am Vietnam time. The crowd was crazy. I was lucky that the officers on duty diverted us to another area where there was almost no queue and it took me around 20mins to clear immigration. Based on the crowd, I estimate that it would have taken me >1.5hours if it wasn't for the diversion.

Returning to SG on a Thursday evening (1940), I arrived at airport with just 1hour-ish away from boarding time. Traffic back to airport was slow with lots of motorcycles clusterf**king the road. No rush from checking in at counter to immigration clearance to boarding, ended up having to wait approx another 15-20mins from the stipulated boarding time.

Tourist SIM
average from 200k VND to 370k VND, personally I took the 350k VND (Viettel) from a random booth at the airport. In hindsight, I would recommend you to pre-purchase via Klook and pickup at airport, hassle free and cheaper.

Transport
[Grab]
I didn't use any cash as most of the drivers will just say they don't have change. I just top up my Revolut and charge my Grab rides to it. Do pay attention that vehicle number display on Grab app matches your vehicle before you board, especially at airport as some touts will either pretend to be your driver or coerce you to take their vehicle instead.

Weather
Exactly the same as Singapore, hot and humid.

Traffic
What you see on YT videos are realistic, cars/motorcycles do not care about pedestrain crossing and will continue to move along regardless of traffic light. Try to cross with others, and move in a steady speed (i.e. no sprinting, sudden brake, U-turn) and almost all drivers will move to avoid you.

Cash/Credit/Debit
It really depends on your itinerary. If you are mostly on visiting restaurants/bars/clubs, credit/debit cards are not an issue. If you intend to patronize the roadside stalls, then cash is king. I changed my VND in SG and was only given 500k (S$26.50) notes, and I just get change by buying small items (e.g. mineral water, sweet) from convenience stall.

I withdrew from VPBank using both my YouTrip and Revolut, no fees charged by VPBank and max I withdrew was 10M VND in 1 transaction (2% charge by YouTrip/Revolut on amount exceeding the free limit).

 

[sellbuyboy]

just got back from HCMC, here are some things which may be useful.

Airport
[Immigration]
I landed on Sunday, approx 11am Vietnam time. The crowd was crazy. I was lucky that the officers on duty diverted us to another area where there was almost no queue and it took me around 20mins to clear immigration. Based on the crowd, I estimate that it would have taken me >1.5hours if it wasn't for the diversion.

Returning to SG on a Thursday evening (1940), I arrived at airport with just 1hour-ish away from boarding time. Traffic back to airport was slow with lots of motorcycles clusterf**king the road. No rush from checking in at counter to immigration clearance to boarding, ended up having to wait approx another 15-20mins from the stipulated boarding time.

Tourist SIM
average from 200k VND to 370k VND, personally I took the 350k VND (Viettel) from a random booth at the airport. In hindsight, I would recommend you to pre-purchase via Klook and pickup at airport, hassle free and cheaper.

Transport
[Grab]
I didn't use any cash as most of the drivers will just say they don't have change. I just top up my Revolut and charge my Grab rides to it. Do pay attention that vehicle number display on Grab app matches your vehicle before you board, especially at airport as some touts will either pretend to be your driver or coerce you to take their vehicle instead.

Weather
Exactly the same as Singapore, hot and humid.

Traffic
What you see on YT videos are realistic, cars/motorcycles do not care about pedestrain crossing and will continue to move along regardless of traffic light. Try to cross with others, and move in a steady speed (i.e. no sprinting, sudden brake, U-turn) and almost all drivers will move to avoid you.

Cash/Credit/Debit
It really depends on your itinerary. If you are mostly on visiting restaurants/bars/clubs, credit/debit cards are not an issue. If you intend to patronize the roadside stalls, then cash is king. I changed my VND in SG and was only given 500k (S$26.50) notes, and I just get change by buying small items (e.g. mineral water, sweet) from convenience stall.

I withdrew from VPBank using both my YouTrip and Revolut, no fees charged by VPBank and max I withdrew was 10M VND in 1 transaction (2% charge by YouTrip/Revolut on amount exceeding the free limit).

Hi. Thanks for the insightful details. May I check if 1 GB of data from SIMBA is enough for a 3D2N trip? Also, do you have any experience claiming tax refunds? An acquaintance told me to reach the airport 3.5 hours before flight time is enough to make all these claims.

Btw, is the rate of withdrawal from YouTrip/Revolut comparable to what we can get if we choose to exchange in SG? The rate now is roughly at VND18700:SGD$1.

Thank you.

 

[BiG_FisH]

Hi. Thanks for the insightful details. May I check if 1 GB of data from SIMBA is enough for a 3D2N trip? Also, do you have any experience claiming tax refunds? An acquaintance told me to reach the airport 3.5 hours before flight time is enough to make all these claims.

Btw, is the rate of withdrawal from YouTrip/Revolut comparable to what we can get if we choose to exchange in SG? The rate now is roughly at VND18700:SGD$1.

Thank you.

personally I do not think 1GB is sufficient for my use for 3D2N, I will think 1GB per day will be a good guage. If you wanna go for 1GB for 3D2N, I'll suggest you monitor your data consumption (i.e. no video streaming etc).

No, I did not claim any tax refunds thus wasn't paying much attention to the VAT refund queue.

I did reach the airport approx 1hr from my boarding time (I know, I was cutting it close. Darn peak hour traffic), and luckily managed to get my boarding pass over the counter, check in my baggage, strolled to boarding gate and still ended up waiting for >20mins before actual boarding.

In my case, changing VND in Singapore is better than both YouTrip/Revolut but I would say the difference is negligible unless you are talking about huge amount. I still ended up withdrawing from both YouTrip/Revolut

 

[sellbuyboy]

personally I do not think 1GB is sufficient for my use for 3D2N, I will think 1GB per day will be a good guage. If you wanna go for 1GB for 3D2N, I'll suggest you monitor your data consumption (i.e. no video streaming etc).

No, I did not claim any tax refunds thus wasn't paying much attention to the VAT refund queue.

I did reach the airport approx 1hr from my boarding time (I know, I was cutting it close. Darn peak hour traffic), and luckily managed to get my boarding pass over the counter, check in my baggage, strolled to boarding gate and still ended up waiting for >20mins before actual boarding.

In my case, changing VND in Singapore is better than both YouTrip/Revolut but I would say the difference is negligible unless you are talking about huge amount. I still ended up withdrawing from both YouTrip/Revolut

Appreciate your response.

 

[tewem]

not so bad la bro

i went up in jan with a bunch of sacredy cold weakling friends, all of them in the end enjoy it thoroughly and say wan to go back again in winter., dun mind the 6 hrs bus ride up

they are the type, even in SG shopping mall also can wear jacket one.

but in sapa, they enjoy the 0C night temp, and day time around 10C. it is actually very comfortable

for me i like cold so it is not cold enough for me, i like -10C type like in hokkaido.

in sapa, i only wear one tshirt with a down jacket, thats all. afternoon still need take off my jacket, cause to me anything 10C and above is no jacket needed.

Hi bro,

How many days in Sapa is enough?
Will be visiting Cat cat village, Fansipan etc . . .
Any advice?