| Cambodia & Vietnam Holiday |
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I have just recently spent 3.5 weeks travelling in Kuala Lumpur, Cambodia and Vietnam.
We got really cheap flights with Air Asia from the Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur. Basically, you get what you pay for with the flights!
Air Asia is like Jetstar and Virgin. You pay for meals, drinks and you even have to pay if you want a blanket!
We spent 3 nights (2 full days) in Kuala Lumpur at the Melia Hotel. The Melia was fine. It is very central. The rooms were a decent size and the staff were quiet nice.
Kuala Lumpur is very polluted and busy, I suppose I’m not a big fan of cities!
We went to Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur which was great shopping for perfume, designer handbags etc.
Go to Chinatown during the day though, around 1pm, it gets way to busy at night time and you can hardly move!
It's a bit like Bali, 1/3 the price they ask for and then barter with them but don’t pay any more than 1/2 of what they ask!
If you are really good at bargaining you can do even better than thcamat.
We went to Time Square where there is a theme park and rollercoaster in the shopping centre.
That was cool! We also went to Batu Caves which is about a 40 minute drive from Kuala Lumpur. This had been recommended by a few people.
What a disappointment! At the bottom of the cave is this awesome gold like statue that is huge and there is about 270 steps up to the caves.
It looked impressive, but when we walked up all of those steps to the cave which is supposed to be very spiritual, the cave was a mess!
Rubbish everywhere and the cave was disappointing to! Don’t recommend this to your clients!
 We then flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Siem Reap, as most Asian countries, is very poor.
We went to Angkor Wat Temples which were amazing. A lot of people will go to the temples for 2 or 3 days.
We thought 1 day was enough. They all look pretty much the same. We had an elephant ride around one of the temples which was pretty cool.
We also went by tuk-tuk to the floating markets. It is amazing how the people live on their boats. The water is so dirty, but they swim, shower and drink this water!
I’m not a big tour group person so we would go into travel agencies and suss tours and prices out and then go and barter with a moped driver or a tuk tuk for a better price.
This way you can explore more and you don’t have to wait for a big group, you can do what you want!
A lot of the roads are dirt in Siem Reap which is interesting when you are on the back of a moped for 2 hours!
We were sooo dirty! We went up to the mountains to see the giant buddha and the waterfall which appeared in the movie Tomb Raider. Again,
I would probably not suggest this tour to clients as it is a long trip and not a lot to see at the end.
However, we enjoyed our day as we hired moped drivers which made the trip very exciting and a bit scary being on the back of a bike riding up the winding mountain roads!
The food is great in Cambodia and the people are beautiful! We stayed at Mekong Angor Palace which was only a 5 minute walk into the centre of town. Siem Reap is not very big.
We paid USD$37.00 a night twin share and there was a swimming pool which was fantastic at the end of a hot day trekking around! The bathrooms are terrible though.
You can not have a shower without flooding the whole bathroom!
There are a lot of bigger hotels in Siem Reap, however they are out of town and it is about a 30 minute walk into the main centre of Siem Reap from a lot of these hotels.
 We also hired push bikes for the day (USD$1.50 per person) and cycled out to the villages.
This was great as we got to get amongst the people and get out and explore the villages. We were in Siem Reap for 7 days and absolutely loved it!
I definitely recommend Siem Reap! Our tuk tuk drivers name was Mr Synon Korng, he was great!
Good prices and very knowledge. I can arrange Synon to meet you when you arrrive.
We then flew to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), Vietnam. One word for Ho Chi Minh is 'crazy'!
Just trying to walk across the road takes guts! There does not seem to be any road rules apart from using the horn!
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh and got dropped off in the backpacker district and my sister and I wandered around looking for accommodation while our other two travel partners looked after the luggage.
We found accommodation in a guest house for USD$20.00 a night, twin share. So cheap! We even had air-con and free internet! The guesthouse was called Thao Nhi Hotel.
In Ho Chi Minh, we went to Chu Chi Tunnels where the Vietcong survived in the war in tunnels under the ground. I definitely recommend this tour!
Our guide was very informative and it was amazing to see how the Vietnamese survived.
We even got to go through a tunnel which I would not recommend to people who don't like getting dirty, are scared of the dark, or caustrophobic!
There are markets that you can go to in Ho Chi Minh. They have everything there like jewellery, food, clothes, homewares etc.
We then booked a Mekong Delta 2 day tour. It was only USD$21.00 per person.
It was a cheap way to get on the Mekong Delta and also to get closer to Phu Quoc Island which is where we wanted to go next.
There is a lot of travelling over the 2 days however! We went to villagers and on a boat down the Mekong Delta, held snakes and visited the floating markets.
The tour dragged on to much on the second day though. We went to two floating markets when one was really enough, we think they were just trying to fill up time!
You can book these tours at any travel agency in Vietnam.
We left our main luggage at Thao Nhi Hotel in Ho Chi Minh and just took a backpack as it was easier to do this than to carry all our luggage around for the next week. Another handy tip!
 Some people booked a three day tour, however we left on the second day and had a crazy bus ride to a town called Rai-G'ia.
They drive like madmen in Vietnam, it can be a bit scary! We stayed the night here as there was no ferry to Phu Quoc Island until the next day.
There was not much happening in Rai-G'ia. It was even hard to find a restaurant! However, it was a cheap way to get to Phu Quoc and a great way to see some sights on the way.
The next morning we got the ferry to Phu Quoc Island. The ferry was better than Air Asia! More comfortable seats and better food! Phu Quoc was beautiful!
Very quiet with beautiful beaches and villas very close to the beach. We stayed at Hiep Thanh Resort as the Tropicana was booked out.
We paid USD$40.00 a night, twin share. The villa was very close to the beach and you get free internet access at the computer next to reception.
You can get cheap massages on the beach for about USD$4.00 for one hour. We went on a day cruise to the islands off the bottom of Phu Quoc and had a great day snorkelling and being on the boat.
You can book this tour at the hotel, it was approximately AUD$6.00 per person.
Accomm on Phu Quoc (These were the best accomm options we checked out):
- Tropicana Resort, The beach villas are only about USD$50-60 a night, twin share.
- Seastar Resort, The beach villas are only about USD$50-60 a night, twin share.
- Hiep Thanh Resort, The beach villas are only about USD$40-45 a night, twin share.
We spent 4 days relaxing in Phu Quoc and then got a flight from Phu Quoc to Ho Chi Minh which was USD$52.00 one way, per person.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh at about 12.30pm and arranged a sleeper train from Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang.
This was an interesting trip! We had to share with another two Vietnamese guys as the train was booked. There were 3 beds on either side of the cabin.
In Nha Trang we again wandered around looking for accommodation. We found accomm with a sea view for USD$10.00 a night, twin share.
The place was clean and only a few minutes walk from town and to the beach. Nha Trang was great! Quiet clean compared to Ho Chi Minh and the beach was lovely.
The markets are great in Nha Trang. They are about a 15 minute drive from town which only costs USD$2.00.
A lovely young Vietnamese girl showed us around the markets and took us to the shops we were looking for.
I don't think we would have found half of what we were after otherwise!
We gave her some money for her help.
After a few hours at the markets I had a headache, you get bombarded with people trying to sell you everything! It's pretty crazy!
 On Easter Sunday we went to VinPearl waterslide and amusement park which was on an island not far from Nha Trang centre.
This cost about AUD$16.00 per person. It was a fun way to spend Easter as Easter is not celebrated in these countries. There were a heap of waterslides and rides.
We again hired push bikes in Nha Trang and went exploring.
We did not realise how big Nha Trang was till we took off on our bikes.
Again, the traffic outside the centre was crazy and we got stuck a few times at roundabouts as it was so busy and we were freaking out about how we were going to get across the roundabout.
After 4 nights in Nha Trang, we then had a really long train trip back to Ho Chi Minh, flight to Kuala Lumpur and then Air Asia flight home to the Gold Coast.
I have rambled on for way to long, but you start to think of all the great memories and the people and the totally different culture you experience in these countries and it's hard not to write about it.
Safe Travels!
Kath Maher for Go Tours Travel
If you would like to book a tour like this Kath can arrange it all, please email her at kath@gotours.com.au.
This is not your normal every day group tour, it's designed for individuals that want to get off the beaten track. You will have to pay some hotels etc direct but we'll arrange it all.
We charge a $120 itinerary planning fee to arrange these type of trips, please enquire.
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