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How to Travel to Vietnam

By John Zutz

John served in Vietnam '69-70', and has returned to Vietnam twice as a member of delegations sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Inc. Dec. '91 was the first time a national veterans group went with their wives.

It has become easy to travel to Vietnam. Guide books and language courses are available. Flights and tours can now be booked form the U.S., and the Vietnamese have made it considerably easier to travel to, and within Vietnam.

Group tours may be booked in Bangkok, but individual tours are available for small groups, as are rental cars and English speaking guides, in Vietnam.

When traveling through the country, passes and documentation are necessary and should be pre-arranged to help save time (this is where a tour agency helps). Most hotels will hold your passports for identification, and to ensure that you pay your bill.

On the other hand the people are genuinely pleased to see travelers. The local grapevine works quickly and crowds as many as five deep will gather to watch you eat, or drink a beer. Children especially will make you feel like the Pied Piper, following along trying to touch clothing or skin. Some children will break out laughing spontaneously, and even adults will point and smile as you walk by. We started calling ourselves the Circus Parade and jokingly thought of charging admission.

After deciding to travel to Vietnam you will want to study a little about the people, their history, and their language. I found I learned more in two weeks of travel than I learned in the whole year I lived there.

As an introduction, and even if in the end you decide you can't afford the trip, I recommend Vietnam, Opening doors to the World by Rick Graetz, published in 1988 by American Geographic Publishing of Helena, Montana. It is a well-done color picture book, suitable for the coffee table, showing the beauty and variety of Vietnam. It answers the most asked question from Americans, "Why would you want to go there?"

A good basic cassette language course, which may have been developed by the US Foreign Service Institute, is available from Educational Services Corp., 1725 K. St. NW, Suite 408, Wash. DC 20006. The short course is about $30 and should get you through a couple of weeks in country.

This is not strictly necessary. Sign language can get you by. It helps to have a guide or interpreter to order food and hotel rooms. Many Vietnamese speak English, and are eager to practice on an American. No matter how deep into the bush you go, some kid will cruise by on his bike and yell, "Hello, how are you?" Still it's courteous to be able to say "Hello (Chow Ong)" or "Thank you (Com onh)" etc., and even the attempt to speak with them will garner a few smiles form your hosts.

Two good guide books are available, The Vietnam Guidebook by Barbara Cohen (be sure to get the newest edition), is published by Harper and Row of New York. Lonely Planet also publishes an excellent guide book. They each give a brief study of the country from a historical perspective, a city by city rundown, and have some rudimentary language translations.

Other guide books, and maps, are available from street vendors in Vietnam. Though you may be able to buy them from the local post office a bit cheaper. A guide book of Hanoi, purchased on the street in '91, was printed in English the year before by the Foreign Languages Publishing House. It gave a concise listing of the tourist attractions, and was graced by a color photo of the pagoda and arching rainbow bridge built on the Lake of the Returned Sword.

Since the US still doesn't have diplomatic relations with Vietnam, be prepared to spend up to three days getting a visa in another country that has a Vietnamese embassy. Typical choices are Manila, Bangkok, or Paris. Our choice was Bangkok. So get some up-to-date guide books on whichever you choice may be, and spend a little time sight seeing there too.

I suggest writing head of time to the Vietnamese Embassy of your choice, telling them when you will be coming to apply for a visa. It helps to have a sponsoring organization, which could be a person, or a tourist agency ( see below). In Bangkok the address is: Vietnam Embassy, 83/1 Wireless Road, Bangkok, 10500. Give them all of the information on your passport, as well as your employment, whom you will be traveling with, purpose of travel to Vietnam, dates of desired travel into and out of Vietnam, itinerary within the country, and include a photo. Each person you are traveling with should do the same, and include all the information in one envelope. This courtesy to the Embassy may speed up your visa, or it may not.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok had two excellent reference books for sale. This is Vietnam, a digest and directory for the business traveler published twice a year by Beca investments Ltd., #3201 Bank of America Building, Harcourt Road, Central, Hong Kong, includes a few upbeat stories, information about what investments are needed, a few maps, travel tips such as, "city water supplies are sterilized-he Finns have been helping run Hanoi's water supply system for years," and some simple vocabulary, "Tram phan tram (bottoms up-slightly impolite)." It also includes a business directory and business tips.

The Vietnam Executive Diary, published by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, gives information about how to invest, banking and immigration information, and practical information like, "Vietnam has a tropical monsoon climate, with two distinct seasons: rainy and dry," and that foreigners may only lease land.

One of the most interesting tourist agencies I ran into is named CCB tour, and is based in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). This agency is made up of the members of the Vietnam Association of War Veterans an in its brochure promises a "travel programed to former battlefields." It claims that is serves "visitors who were ex-combatants (and their friends)" from : 1st Infantry, 25th Infantry, 173rd Airborne, 196th Light Infantry, 11th Armored Cav., 9th Infantry, 101st Airborne, 100th Infantry, 1st Air Cav., 4th Infantry, 1st Marines, and 4th Marines. It also lists Australian, Korean and Thai, as well as the French Expeditionary Corps units.

CCB offers guides who were "Field Generals, Commanding officers, Heroes of people's armed forces, Men and women guerrillas, Fighter pilots, Economic Experts." The agency "will offer you the opportunity to" Hold talks about the past war on military strategies, operations and tactics; make trips to any co-ordinates of the old battlefields you want, in remembrance of your life span in the war; Make reference to historical war documents; Get up to date economic information for marketing, investments and economic co-operation."

It goes on to offer: "accommodation at hotels in Ho Chi Minh City at your choice,"; "stay overnight at former battlefields 'with adequate services of soldier,'"; drive yourself a jeep or command car to chosen spots in a prearranged schedule,"; enjoy a "hobby such as fishing or hunting."

The back page of the brochure mentions the Gia Dinh Manufacturing and Business Corporation that includes industrial manufacturing, agricultural and sea products processing, trading services, and tourism. It says that CCB Tour "collects remembrances of the past and present, photographs, handicraft products...by Vietnamese traditional artists and craftsmen."

It says that, "CCB Tour serves you; to make friends with Vietnamese people and veterans; to find true sentiments of reconciliation; to span a bridge of mutual understanding for durable friendship and co-operation." They promise that your tour will be arranged within 15 days of your fax request. Their liaison office is a 29 Nguyen Thong Street, 3rd district. Phone:22728, Fax: Saigon Fax 84-8-98540.

I did not try CCB's tours, nor do I know their rates. I did, however meet a number of the ex-generals and colonels. They all seem eager to have tourists visit. Next time I go I suspect I'll give them a jingle.

The main tourist organization, a quasi-governmental corporation, is Vietnam tourism, 30 Ly Thuong Kiet Str., Hanoi. Phone: 425552, 4264148 or 4256916. Telex: 411272 TCDL-VT. Fax: (84) 457538. Anything that is available to be seen in the country can be arranged through them.