Beyond the Packing Checklist....

With thanks to the Internet, there are now hundreds of packing checklists, even packing apps that are readily available for download and use.

 

My goal is to share some pre-planning for any trip, beyond the standard checklist. In fact, if you are leaving tomorrow, most of the advice in this post is probably a bit late - maybe bookmark it for next time =)

 

Etiquette

I have found that as the world continues to westernise and the amount of unchartered grounds have diminished, I have become less concerned about culture and etiquette. This shouldn't be the case, just because there is a H&M store in the city that you are visiting, doesn't mean that there aren't layers of cultural sensitivity underneath. A quick search on the etiquette of the country you are visiting will put you in good stead. This applies to both social settings and dress code.

 

Whilst it is perfectly acceptable to walk around America in your sneakers, I found myself severely underdressed in a city like Paris. In more conservative countries, you may be required to wear shorts/skirts that reach the knee or have covered shoulders (i.e. no singlets), irrespective of how hot the weather is. Whilst there's no law (in some places) against you wearing a singlet and shorts, you may find yourself being denied entry into certain tourist sites such as temples or just being a walking spectacle as you walk down the street...(if that's the angle you were going for).

 

One more finishing comment about clothing - perhaps consider the need to dress down. Is it really appropriate to be wearing your full jewellery and Rolex whilst in SE Asia? Dressing down will lessen the attention your draw to yourself and furthermore, ease the stress of you worrying about your possessions.

 

Weather 

Yes yes, most people know to check the weather of their destination. It's a little bit more than just 'long sleeve' vs. 'short sleeve' and weather you should bring a jumper though. I find that I most often get caught out with shoes! If you are travelling somewhere during wet season, are you sure your leather loafers are the most appropriate choice? If you plan to visit national parks, are you sure you should be wearing kitten heels? (<-- I want it noted that I have seen kitten heels at Taroko gorge, I am not making this up!)

 

Arrival Time

It is potentially a bit late to be talking about arrival time if you have stumbled on this site and you're already packing your bags - but for next time, place more weight on the time that you are arriving than the time that you are departing. If you're a young female, travelling alone, do you really want to arrive in a foreign city at night? Aren't you better off leaving your home city at night and arriving in daylight?

 

Smaller Denominations of Currencies

On one of my first trips to Singapore, I was carrying two $1000 SGD notes in my wallet. When I told my colleague, she laughed and said she didn't even know that they existed and another had said she had 'heard of them' but had never seen one. Clearly common sense hadn't prevailed and carrying denominations of ~$820 US is probably going to be difficult for change (and apparently equivalent to carrying two Lochness monsters in my pocket). So much so, that when I tried to purchase clothing from a shop (not a drink from 7-Eleven!), they refused to accept it and told me to swap it at a currency counter. Upon speaking to a man at a currency counter, he laughed and directed us to the bank! To this day I still look fondly at Standard Chartered who converted my semi folklore $1000 notes for free, even though I wasn't a customer. When you change your money, be sure to ask for smaller denominations! 

 

The first leg

Upon reflection, the most hectic beginning-of-trips that I have had are those where I have not sorted out my 'first leg' (if I can shamelessly borrow an Amazing Race reference). This includes both accommodation on the first night and the trip from the airport to the accommodation.

 

I know some people don't even book their accommodation (I'm not one of them) but on the other hand, whilst I do like to have an idea of what I'd like to see, I rarely schedule the days. I like an element of immersing yourself in the city without having to adhere to a timetable. Leave this creativity till you have checked in!!!

 

Many cities have airport websites that detail how you can make your way from the airport to the city centre. From this, you can make a balanced decision based on your budget and time. Also work out how to get from the city centre to your accommodation - you don't want to be just shifting the problem.

 

Don't do what I did, which is try to 'wing it' from KLCC to the city centre, only to discover the much talked about airport train leaves from KL airport and not KLCC. I caught a local bus from KLCC (after pushing through a sea of people trying to thrust pamphlets into my hands) to KL airport, before changing to a monorail. Much chaos ensued as the monorail station didn't have a lift or an escalator to the platform - Oh yeah, and then to find out that taxis are cheap in KL, so I should have just taken a cab straight from KLCC. Wonderful. 

 

Local Map

This probably fits quite nicely with the paragraph above about the first leg, but it occurred to me, that trying to find tourist information (presuming a city has one) will be difficult if you, well, can't find tourist information. Print a map of your hotel and mark the tourist information before you go. Don't rely on wifi because it won't always be around (most likely won't be around when you need it most).

 

Check What's On

I love enjoying local festivities when I'm abroad. I'm not talking Full Moon party in Thailand or La Tomatina in Spain. When I was in Vietnam, it coincided with an annual 'Flavours of the world' festival. It was a fantastic way to immerse yourself with the locals and really enjoy the festivities. My rule of thumb is, the festivities should have more locals than tourists to be of real credibilty!

 

Another cool tip is to subscribe to local newsletters a few months before your trip or group buying sites such as Groupon so you can access some good local deals!

 

Hotel Cards

Essential in countries that don't speak English and you plan to get around in cabs. I had my first encounter with a hotel card in Macau and now can't believe I ever travelled without one. I was going to say that this is particularly relevant if you're not staying in one of the most popular hotels, but in Macau, even saying 'Mandarin Oriental' wasn't prompting any knowing nods. I even started writing down the address of places I wanted to see and handing that to the driver, rather than saying 'Museum'. There are a lot of museums around town you know!

 

Research Local Foods

Food is a quintessential part of the travel experience and it's always nice to know when you're eating food from its origin - and it doesn't need to be the scorpion on the skewer. In Saigon, it turns out that the South of Vietnam is known for its Banh Xeo (Pancakes) and the high profile Pho is actually from the North of Vietnam (Hanoi). Not to say you can't get good Pho in Saigon, but it certainly pays off to do some food research.

 

iPhone Translator App

With thanks to the iPhone, you no longer need to haul around a phrase book. Ensure you download a translator (that can be used offline) to help you decipher street signs and menus.

 

Keep the Change Xx

A Spin in Saigon

We have just returned from a 5 day trip in the hustle and bustle of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)! Thought I should share some of my insights whilst they're fresh in my mind.

Tourist Information

It appears that the Vietnamese government have not quite embraced and commercialised the tourism industry. As such, don't expect to find non-affiliated 'Tourist information' stands in the city, as you would in a city like Melbourne, Australia.

 

Travel agencies have taken to calling themselves 'tourist information' which I suppose they are (but with a commercial intent!). Having said this, our free STA map was sufficient for us to plot tailors, food locations and navigate district 1.

Food

Not unlike Singapore, serviettes/tissues are not widely available in dining institutions. As such, be prepared and have a packet of pocket tissues with you.

Vietnamese eateries often supply wet wipes, sealed in a packet - These are optional to use and cost extra e.g. 2000 VND (~10c USD) in case you wonder about the miscellaneous items on your bill.

 

The advice I kept receiving from my mother prior to my trip, was to avoid uncooked foods and local drinking water. Sounded good in theory, but in practice it was almost unavoidable - Particularly if you drink cold drinks. Whilst you may opt to drink a beer or a soda that is bottled, they are often not chilled and thus served with a glass of ice cubes - presumably made with tap water. Also, if you are interested in delving into the Vietnamese cuisine, you will discover they love their salads! Spring rolls, Banh Xeos are served with a plate of lettuce leaves for you to wrap your parcel of goodies and dip in fish sauce. I don't have a solution (except maybe pack gastrostop?!) but thought you should know!

Travel Insurance

Speaking of food and gastrostop, I had a severe bout of food poisoning on my trip and ended up with $US 600 of medical bills. It's not a bank-breaking amount but it is certainly a reality check when you consider a Vietnam trip would cost you less than that. 

 

As I actually had to make a claim- I was actually compelled to read the terms & conditions, which states that you are not covered for scooter/motorbike hire. As
we saw a few tourists hire motorbikes whilst in Saigon, it did make me wonder how many people thought they would be covered but are not?!  Buyer beware!

Souvenirs

I wanted to make a special mention about the touristy t-shirts that we bought in Vietnam. You know the type, with 'iPho' on the front, a faux 'Starbucks' logo or 'Ho Chi Minh' on the front. They were quoting circa 130K VND at Ben Thanh market but we paid 40VND from a little old lady on Bui Vien (parallel to Pham Ngu Lao/Backpacker st). I'm not hating on people who are strong negotiators and can achieve that price at Ben Thanh but I'd say 40VND as a fixed price is fairly effortless.

 

By the way, all the shops at the airport are priced in USD and will cost you two to three times Ben Thanh markets. Make sure you make all your purchases before you get to the airport!

 

Money

It is really important to have small notes coming into Vietnam. Quite often, taxi drivers would claim not to have enough change and therefore round up. Which is fine if you intend to tip them, but less so if it's not your choice. I overheard on one of our tours that this happened to tourists whilst paying for food bills also. When I say small notes, I mean 1000 and 2000 VNDs.

 

A handy tip that I read and prepared for my Saigon trip was a currency conversion card. As my 22 timetables (the conversion rate VND to AUD) are not particularly strong, I found it incredibly handy to have a small table of conversions to refer to. Particularly when negotiating in the markets!

 

My friend gave me a hot tip to carry some USD to Vietnam to avoid having to withdraw too much VND. I found this incredibly helpful for larger purchases such as booking tours and paying for tailors. Just be mindful not everyone will be able to give you change in USD. As at Dec 2012, the accepted conversion was either 20,000 VND to 1USD  or 21,000 VND to 1USD. Be sure to exchange all your Dong before you leave Vietnam, it is virtually worthless outside the country.

Tourist Sites

• Notre Dame Cathedral

I read on some Lonely planet website that this cathedral can be scaled- it can't. We specifically came back the following day to this site during visiting hours and it wasn't worth it. You're not really allowed far into the church and whilst the inside is interesting, it wasn't worth catering for the visiting hours which was ?am-11am and randomly 3-4pm on weekdays.

• Cu Chi Tunnels

We went with STA travel which was a group of ~20 (mainly Aussies). We also enquired with Sinh tourist but their group sizes were a staggering 40 people! I believe we got ripped off as we paid a $2 USD premium per person for a small group, when reality, I think the groups are roughly that size. Just book a normal 'large' group or enquire about the group size at the time of booking. I also overheard that some people negotiated the rates, which leads me to believe that everything is negotiable! We paid $US15  per person. The tour guide also asked for a tip at the end of the tour but this is optional.

 

By the way, you will make an unnamed stop en route to the tunnels at a 'Victims of Agent Orange' Wood Lacquer Crafts factory masked as a bathroom stop. The bathroom, quote my lovely fiance was "worse than a football stadium at half time". The toilets at the Cu Chi tunnels are cleaner.

 

There's already plenty of details about the gun shooting range online...but don't forget there is a minimum purchase of 10 bullets at a time. So be prepared to sink at least $US 10 if you want to try a gun out. 

• War Remnants Museum/Reunification Palace

Coffee, baking and architecture are not the only things that the Vietnamese inherited from France. They have also adopted "closing at lunchtime" which can be frustrating for tourists.

 

Be sure to check on the opening times of key tourist sites as both the War Remnants museum and Reunification palace close for ~90 minutes during lunchtime. I read on a website that the 'ticket window' closed at 12.00 so we arrived at 11.30am thinking that we could buy tickets and wander the museum during lunch time. This is not the case, the entire site is closed - not just the ticket window.

 

Keep the Change! Xx