rec.travel.asia

In article , Walt Bilofsky
says...

> Have things changed a lot? Is Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City worth
> spending time in? Would we be comfortable on our own in Saigon, Hanoi
> and/or Hue? Would we still be hounded by children and vendors?

I spent 10 days in Vietnam last December:
/travelogues/Vietnam/2006/

Was on my own and wasn't harassed by anybody. No vendors, no begging
children, nobody caring about me. Vietnam's economy is rapidly
developing and locals have discovered that there is more money to make
by working than by harassing tourists.

I had mixed feelings about Saigon, because there is not that much to do.
One day is enough for the historic centre, then there are some temples
spread around and that's it. Tay Ninh and the Cao Dai ceremony are cute
and photogenic. I didn't visit the Mekong delta, because I've already
seen enough of the Mekong elsewhere.

In Hue and Hoi An I had my own car+driver, which made it easy to visit a
good number of places in a short time. Many things to see in Hue, but it
rained on that day. Hoi An is cute, very cute but gets boring after a
day or two.

Hanoi is kind of interesting, has many colonial era buildings, several
palaces, monuments, but is not really jaw-dropping. The Halong bay is
very nice if the weather is good.

I'm in the process of uploading all my Vietnam photos. You can see the
intermediate result here:
/galleries/Vietnam/
--

Alfred Molon
- Photos of Asia, Africa and Europe