But, as is sadly so often the case in Vietnam & other developing countries, the rush to make money out of Halong Bay’s charms is having a negative effect on its appeal to visitors, and too many tourists are coming away disappointed with their experience there. I recently spent a weekend in Halong (my second trip there) checking out various new boat products and enjoying (mostly) a luxury overnight cruise. Here are my suggestions for how the Halong Bay visitor experience can be improved…

Our booth was positioned right opposite the Vietnam stand which was a lot quieter than usual, despite being the best designed stand Vietnam has ever come up with – they even had traditional Vietnamese musicians performing every day this time (though I’m not sure when the Mac Probook became a traditional Vietnamese instrument).

Busiest stand this time round was Myanmar which seems to be this year’s hot destination. The tiny Laos booth was also popular, though I suspect this was more due to the free Beer Lao than anything else – like many stands, it turned into a bar every day from about 5pm onwards, making ITB a real paradise for freeloading boozers like me.

As usual I took along some branded conical hats, which went like hot cakes, with people even trying to pull the decorative ones off the front of our stand, & looking nonplussed when I asked them if they wanted to take the coffee machine while they were at it.

Outside the trade show, my Berlin visit was typically enjoyable. Plenty of good (and generously-served) food at the wonderful House of 100 Beers (Berlin’s food, and its restaurant prices, put Saigon’s overpriced dining scene to shame); plenty of draught Guinness at the Harp Irish bar; wonderful currywurst & hospitality at Didi’s Curry Point (opposite Charlottenburg station); an amazing Tindersticks gig at the Volksbuhne Theatre; and very enjoyable walks around Charlottenburg Palace and the Tiergarten. A truly wonderful city with really friendly, welcoming locals.

Sounds good right? Well, it does, except, there isn’t one hotline. There are seven. Oh, and they aren’t hotlines, they’ve just made the phone numbers of various local officials available to the public. Here’s the lowdown:

The hotlines include Le Thi Thu Hanh – deputy director of Department of Foreign Affairs 0905.113.038; and Nguyen Thi Phuong Nga, deputy head of the department’s Consular and Viet Kieu Desk 01669.597.120. 

Hotlines for the police department’s immigration service include Dang Trung Thinh at 0905.475.762 and 05113.743.791; and Ho Thi Thanh Ha at 0905.010.586 and 05113.743.791. 

Foreigners can also report crimes and other complaints in person to the Da Nang Immigration Office at 78 Le Loi Street in Hai Chau District or call 05113.860.247.

Good luck calling the deputy director of the department of foreign affairs at 3am when you’ve just left your camera in the back of a Hoi An taxi!

1. Top Gear Vietnam Special

Personally I can’t stand Top Gear & its three smug presenters, but the Vietnam episode did more to promote the country as a tourist destination than anyone else has ever managed and should be required viewing for anyone thinking about paying us a visit!

2. Anthony Bourdain in Saigon

Chef & food writer Anthony Bourdain LOVES Vietnam; in fact he loves it so much he even came to live here for a while. He’s a great ambassador for Vietnamese food and Vietnam in general, and in this clip he checks out the food scene in Saigon:

3. Andrew Zimmern in Vietnam

More food this time with Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern, connoisseur of the world’s most weird & wonderful cuisine and the man responsible for my policy of trying everything that’s put in front of me. As usual with Zimmern’s show, this clip is not for the squeamish:

4. Saigon in 1945

My favourite clip on this list – wonderfully evocative footage of colonial Saigon in 1945, and a very bittersweet clip in that it shows how beautiful this city was until very recently, before the developers and their wrecking balls moved in. Watch and weep:

5. Saigon traffic time-lapse

Time-lapse photography is all the rage at the moment and Vietnam’s crazy traffic is the perfect subject. This amazing clip takes a look at Saigon’s insane traffic on both road and river:

6. 226 Days in Vietnam

This Lonely Planet video is a great overview of the country, warts & all, for anyone planning a visit:

7. Haiphong market walk

Well-known Vietnam-based blogger, filmmaker & travel expert Mark Bowyer takes us on a fascinating wander around Haiphong Market and deals with a few personal questions:

8. Danang & Hoi An

An entertaining & informative look at what Danang & Hoi An have to offer visitors, from the Travel Channel:

9. BBC Halong Bay report

The BBC recently filmed a report on the current safety situation in Halong Bay, following the fatal accident there in 2010. As well as putting visitors’ minds at ease, it’s also a good look at what Halong Bay has to offer as a visitor experience:

10. Vietnam win 2008 AFF Cup

Finally one of my own videos! The Vietnamese are crazy about football, and when the national team won their first AFF Cup in 2008, Saigon went stark staring mental. I was out on the streets in the middle of it and filmed this footage:

Found any other Vietnam gems on YouTube? Please share them in the Comments section! And if these clips have whetted your appetite, visit our website or email me on tim@comeandgovietnam.com to start planning your trip.

It’s a really good point. As the world’s biggest social network, Facebook has become pretty much the default channel for travellers wishing to share updates, anecdotes, photos & videos with their friends & family while they travel. It’s quicker, easier & less intrusive than email, more versatile than Twitter, and a lot less hassle (and less likely to be abandoned after a few days) than a travel blog. And Vietnam has free WiFi everywhere – in the cities, and increasingly in the countryside, virtually every bar, cafe and restaurant is offering free WiFi.

BUT, Vietnam still insists on blocking Facebook (not, as many think, for political reasons, but economic ones – to save bandwidth for, and encourage take up of, domestic social networks), and in doing so, it is blocking a potentially highly effective, and free, channel for word-of-mouth advertising. Instead of logging into Facebook and telling their friends how great Vietnam is, and showing off their photos, tourists are complaining that they can’t access Facebook. This is not a good thing.

The VOV scribe was fortunate enough to bump into Mr Johnson near Hoan Kiem Lake, where he was bargaining (and most definitely not being overcharged) for souvenirs. And like any other Australian male backpacker, Johnson was filling up his backpack with traditional women’s dresses and ceramics.

Johnson has clearly been in Vietnam so long, and adapted to his new surroundings so well, he has forgotten how to speak gramatically correct English, forgetting to pluralise his words (“beef noodle”, “chicken noodle” etc), and coining a new expression, “to buy things at first sight”.  A fine example of cultural assimilation.

He has also become an expert on Hanoi traffic and is keen to share his expertise with visitors to Vietnam’s capital. ‘ ”It’s dangerous to cross the road. Please wait for the green light and use the zebra crossing as quick as you can, and keep your eyes wide open,” he said.’ Thank you Thomas!

And having seen all there is to see in Hanoi, Thomas is now planning to head south to visit Ho Chi Minh City. But it’s not enough for him to say “I’m looking forward to visiting Ho Chi Minh City”, oh no. For Thomas it’s almost a pilgrimage. ‘“I’ve heard a lot about the great leader of Vietnam and wish to visit the city named after him to explore the southern part of Vietnam,” he said.‘ I’m sure he did.

Thomas is so typical, nay, stereotypical of the Vietnamese authorities’ dream tourist – shopping for traditional goods, stuffing his face with pho, and paying homage to Uncle Ho, rather than doing weird stuff like sunbathing, motorbiking or watersports – that readers of a much more cynical bent than myself have suggested this article may be fake. Shame on you I say! Mr Johnson I salute you, and look forward to welcoming you to Ho Chi Minh City and selling you some more ao dai & conical hats. If there’s any space left in that backpack of yours, obviously.

The Hidden Charms

The idea of tourism ambassadors is a good thing, provided that ambassador has some sort of fame or renown in the market in which they are working. However as usual, Vietnam’s authorities can only think domestically, and whilst the comely Ms Nha Ky may be a household name here in VN (though a quick vox pop in my household confirmed that noone here knew who she was, but then as my household consists solely of a 4-yr old girl and a Filipina housemaid, it may not be a particularly representative sample), it’s highly unlikely that anyone outside Vietnam is aware of her existence – which kind of makes her pretty useless as an ambassador.

When picking a tourism ambassador you can go down one of two routes – you can either pick someone from your own country who is internationally famous (for example, Victoria Beckham was recently named British tourism ambassador), or you can use foreign nationals who are well known in their own local markets to help market your destination, such as Indian actor/producer Akshay Kumar, who promotes Canada in his native country.

Sadly Ly Nha Ky doesn’t fit either description. I recently had lunch with celebrity chef Bobby Chinn at his new Saigon restaurant, and he told me he’d offered to do a bit of ambassadorial work for Vietnam, promoting the country via his hugely popular World Cafe Asia TV show. He got no response. At a 2010 trade show I asked a VNAT official why they didn’t approach someone like Anthony Bourdain, a huge Vietnamophile and a well known figure in the US, Australia & Europe, to help market Vietnam in those territories. The official had no idea who Bourdain was, nor what I was talking about.

To judge the effectiveness of foreign tourism ambassadors, look at the 2008 Top Gear Vietnam special. Now personally I hate Top Gear with a passion, especially Jeremy Clarkson, whom I would only like to see as an ambassador for the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, offering his own first-hand testimonial regarding its facilities and efficiency, but the show gave Vietnam’s tourism a HUGE boost. I lost count of the number of people who watched it & then emailed me or called me saying things like wow, you’re so lucky to live there, it looks amazing, I never realised it was so beautiful etc. And yet the authorities here continue to make it difficult for foreign film crews to work here.

So whilst Ly Nha Ky may be easy on the eye and is a fine example of Vietnamese womanhood, as a tourism ambassador her effectiveness is limited. Far more effective to appoint a foreigner who knows and loves Vietnam – after all, when you’re working in tourism, foreigners are your target market.

Thankfully the blog has attracted a lot of coverage in the Vietnamese media and led to a lot of self-analysis and soul-searching, rare activities in a country whose citizens often consider themselves above reproach. The mistreatment of tourists is no longer the elephant in the room and is now being widely discussed, and I hope that this new awareness will lead to a much-needed change in attitude.

Personally I’ve written about this topic countless times and my views on the subject are well-known. Time, I feel, to push the negativity to one side and look at the positive side of Vietnam – with over 6 million tourist visitors  a year and a growing, and mostly happy expat community, there must be one, right? Via the power of Facebook, I harvested the opinions of local residents, both expats & Vietnamese, to find out what they like most about Vietnam. Here are a few random thoughts…

• Nice weather, less tax, good people (Quentin)
• The Vietnamese are endlessly optimistic. Sometimes it can be infuriating, but 99 times out of 100 it’s not. The Vietnamese are, at the end of the day, incredibly tolerant. They can bear almost anything and continue to belive tomorrow will be a better day. And finally, the greatest thing I can say about them, is that they’re also forgiving. I imagine, if the tables were turned, and the Vietnamese had come to America and dropped more bombs than on any other country in history, and then 25, 30 years later tried to come over for a summer holiday, or to see if they could find a job, how would they be treated? The fact that the war still exists in living memories, and yet I still not only feel welcome, but often feel like people like me specifically because I’m western/american is mind blowing. (Jake)
• The FOOD! (Jase)
• Love the food, good, friendly and warm people, pretty country with lots of history, and is full of business opportunities (Ravi)
• Positive people make me more positive and the Vietnamese are generally a happy entrepreneurial bunch, good business opportunities, great weather, affordable to eat out and enjoy life outside my apartment. (Anders)
• Ca phe sua da (iced coffee with milk) (Mike)
• Its never, ever boring. The endless people watching opportunities. Low cost of living, the tailors of Hoi An, the fact that different parts of the country are so very different from each other. The fact that you can have absolutely anything delivered to your house. Every single day you’d come home and have at least one story that started ‘you’ll never guess what I saw today…’ Cheap beauty treatments, the smell of the those waffley things they cook on the street, the excellent cheesecake (we actually had a blog dedicated to it!), the fact that when you’re not on the tourist trail the people are actually incredibly warm and funny. The fact that, no matter how you feel about the place (and I’ll be the first to admit there were times I was less than enamoured), the majority of foreigners living there experience a quality of life that is better than in their own country. (Rachel)
• Their ability to STOP work or what ever to have a coffee break and relax for how ever long they like. No such thing as “Time is money” in Nam. The job will be finished when it’s done! So envious of that attitude and way of life. Wish more western countries were like that. (Chad)
• You can order anything to be delivered to your house. (Linh)
• You’ll never have to talk to an answering machine here. (Tim)
• When asked “why Vietnam?” I refer to the wonderful optimism, it rubs off on me and I love it. Tomorrow will be better than today, that is the paradigm and I hope it does not fade away too quickly as the country develops. (Adam)
• The absolutely amazing, high energy vibrant street life, positives and negatives to that, but mostly positive! No matter how many times you witness something and say “now I’ve seen everything”, there always comes a time, usually very quickly, that you witness something and can say again “NOW I’ve….”! (Robert)
• Girls…lets be honest guys! (Soren)
• Free WiFi everywhere. Only realised how great it is until I went home for Christmas. (Dani)
• After 17 years, I still love and am amazed at the smiles, the free smiles, the real smiles, how easily they come. (Tom)
• Being welcomed anywhere. I’ve shown up unannounced at people’s houses, at funerals, in pagodas and been welcomed in and fed well. (Helen)
• Optimism, friendliness, generosity – I’ve come to the conclusion that all the good things about the people here seem to be underpinned by a very deep sense of pride. For thousands of years foreigners have been trying to control this part of the world and the Viets have seen them all off thanks to plain old hard work in the face of the most atrocious and formidable conditions. Now for the first time this generation is able to live the life that virtually all of their ancestors dreamed of, independent, free, and happily, and the result is the warmth, friendliness and generosity that all of us here have experienced from the average Vietnamese. That’s what I appreciate the most about the place. (Paul)

How about you? If you’re a tourist, what did you like about your visit to Vietnam? If you live here, what things do you enjoy the most?

Saigon street seller

Personally I love street photography and there are few things I enjoy more than taking my camera out for a wander around Saigon, and Saigon-based professional photographer Adam Martin wholeheartedly agrees with me.

“For street photography Vietnam has it all – everything except sex happens on the street!” says Adam. “Life is on the street, so you can watch things that normally are hidden from view taking place in public. Repairmen of all sorts reworking something that in the west would be thrown away, people eating on little plastic stools, buying chicken’s feet or pig’s ears etc. It all happens!”

And this lack of privacy, and the very public nature of Vietnamese life, means photographers have a lot more freedom than they would in the west.

“You can see virtually every aspect of Vietnamese life on display by just walking around a place” Adam tells me. “You can stroll into temples and pagodas and take photographs without being hassled. Most businesses find it a novelty to be visited by a camera-toting tourist and if you go about things the right way no one seems to mind you taking their picture.”

This was certainly true on a recent visit to Mo Cai in the Mekong Delta, where I came across a group of women

Coconut husk workers, Mo Cai

processing coconut husks. Not only did they not object to me wandering into their yard to photograph them, they insisted on posing for pictures and seeing the results, and I spent a very enjoyable half hour chatting with them & taking pictures.

Which brings us onto the real thorny issue – when taking photographs of people, do I ask for their permission or not? Personally I’m in two minds about this – asking for permission, and getting a no, can mean missing out on a good shot, however I can feel a bit intrusive & rude taking pictures of people without asking first. The man in this shot got pretty shirty when he saw me taking his picture. For beginners it can be a lot safer & more comfortable to use a long lens & take pictures from a distance, though the results can lack the intimacy that comes from a subject feeling comfortable with having their picture taken & looking directly into the lens, as in my favourite picture of the Lao villager & her baby. Adam is equally undecided.

“Permission is always good but then there are times when that just isn’t going to work” he tells me. “I like to sit and watch a scene from a distance and if I can, I use a long lens to capture it without the subject being aware and behaving in a natural fashion. I often prefer this. However if you want to get right amongst things and take portraits than it is important to seek some kind of permission from your subject. But often then the subject ‘poses’ for the camera. Make sure you keep shooting after the initial shot when the person becomes themselves again and wherever possible show the image to the subject. In the end the best shots are usually natural, showing people going about day to day life, doing their normal stuff and street photography is about capturing that moment in time and the pictures tell the story.”

Ethnic minority kids, Mai Chau

Very good advice, and easily executed in a country where people, especially younger ones, love having their pictures taken & seeing the results. Certainly in rural areas where people may not have seen a digital camera before, photographers quickly become the centre of attention and the locals will end up queuing to have their pictures taken. I also find that simply smiling at everyone puts them at ease & makes them more receptive to being photographed.

Adam also has good advice about the best locations for street photography in Vietnam.

“My favorite places are older neighborhoods and street markets” he says. “Also boats that have come up from the Mekong and tie up in canals around Saigon. Parks are great for early risers as they are quiet places to be and there may be all manner of stuff going on from Tai Chi through to sword and fan dancing.”

He also advises looking at cities from different angles, both high up and low down on the street. “There are quite a lot

Saigon lottery ticket seller

of buildings in HCMC that have great views from rooftops or viewing platforms which give another way of seeing the metropolis. And if you are really willing to get amongst life on the street then it is imperative that you spend time on the back of a motorbike getting around and being one with the locals.”

As for equipment, personally I find my newly-purchased 50mm lens is perfect for street photography & for getting up close to subjects, and indeed since I bought it I’ve hardly used my other lenses. But for Adam, equipment isn’t a big issue.

“Any equipment is good equipment if you have an idea how to use and understand it” he says . “Photography is all about capturing light and using it, and the other major part of it is composition. Think about how the final shot will look to the viewer, the person who wasn’t there. I have seen great shots from everything from disposable cameras to iPhones and with all the latest trickery in many cameras no one should be getting dull shots!”

Adam’s love of street photography in HCMC comes with one minor caveat – the increasing amount of thefts in the main tourist areas of the city, with cameras being a prime target for the motorbike ‘cowboys’. “In Saigon snatch & go theft is common and that makes taking pictures in this city a little trickier but this really only applies to the District 1 areas, where tourists are. So, you do have to be aware of your surroundings.”

Personally I always make sure my camera strap is around my neck and that I’m not standing right on the edge of the pavement to take shots, which would make me an easy target for thieves. So far I’ve been safe, and indeed HCMC is way, way safer than most western cities, but taking the usual precautions doesn’t hurt.

So whether you’re using a top-of-the-range DSLR, a little point & shoot camera or just your phone, take Adam’s advice and get out there on the street & try to capture some of this country’s bustling, varied & crazy street life. Whatever the results, they’re unlikely to be boring!

Thanks to Adam Martin for his help with this piece. When he’s not taking photographs for his Asian Images site, Adam can be found running off-the-beaten-track motorbike tours for Saigon Unseen, and assisting visiting film crews at Asia Film Fixer. Contact him on asianimages_adammartin@yahoo.com. 

In order to get an accurate, on-the-ground (or on-the-water) view of the current situation in Halong, I spoke to Armand Cheveux, Business Development Manager of Bhaya Cruises, one of Halong’s best known & most reputable cruise operators. Armand told me that whilst visitor numbers to Vietnam as a whole went up by 16% in 2011, overnight tours in Halong Bay only grew by 8%, and it is as yet unclear as to whether this slower level of growth was due to safety fears or due to people cutting their costs & doing day tours instead. In my opinion it may also reflect the fact that that 16% figure is not entirely made up of tourists, but as the landing card with its useful demographic information has now been scrapped, we may never know!

Certainly safety is a big concern for tourists visiting the Bay. “We receive more questions related to safety, for charter groups or private boats” says Armand. “On board as well, most of the guests pay more attention than before to our safety briefing, and ask questions about the accident and the general situation in the Bay.”

Armand tells me that since the accident, stringent safety measures have been put in place to make Halong a safer place for tourists to visit. All boats have been checked and only allowed to set sail again once required safety modifications have been made, and the authorities have also issued a list of regulations for all boats to follow, a copy of which is displayed on the boats at all times. Combined with regular harbour checks and a new satellite tracking system (www.halongtracker.com), boats are now more tightly controlled, so hopefully the days of unlicenced boats straying off their regular itineraries are now over.

I also asked Armand about the New Seven Wonders controversy, and whether it was greeted with the same cynicism in Halong as it was elsewhere. As a Halong Bay operator, Armand is actually quite positive about the issue.

“We haven’t felt the controversy here” he says.  “Everybody has been really excited about this challenge and of course the opportunity to bring the light on the bay in a good way after the bad publicity brought by the accident in February and difficult weather conditions in general.” For Armand and his Halong Bay colleagues, it’s all good publicity. “Halong Bay deserves to be in any selection of natural wonders” he says,”even if the group realising the selection or organising it might be subject to controversy.”

Whilst the vast majority of tourists love their trip to Halong Bay, one regular complaint is that the Bay itself is polluted, with garbage floating in the water a far too common sight. Armand admits that much still needs to be done to improve the environment of the Bay and to educate both tourists and locals on how to keep the Bay clean, and that measures are already in place to achieve this.

“All operators can do improvements in the way they deal with water sewage and implement new systems to clean/filter the water being pumped out to the Bay” says Armand. “It is a huge investment for most companies, but there are systems being developed to help clean the water such as chemical pools & chemical toilets, and these systems will be mandatory for all new boats put in the water in the years to come.”

Armand also informs me that a limit has been imposed on the number of boats operating in the Bay, and that new boats can only be launched as replacements for old ones to ensure the number of boats does not increase. Finally, he tells me, operators need to work closely with the inhabitants of the Bay’s many floating villages to ensure that they are all singing from the same hymn sheet in terms of garbage disposal & recycling.

“The operators should include in the contracts they have with local floating villages and service providers in Halong Bay an ethical statement on the behaviour to adopt towards the environment, the necessity of cleaning the Bay, and the necessity of developing clean ways to deal with water sewage and garbage” he says. “The operators should also include garbage selection to facilitate recycling.”

So after a controversial few months, it seems that, white paint notwithstanding, the awareness of the need to keep Halong Bay clean & safe is finally hitting home with authorities, residents and boat operators alike. Halong Bay is arguably the jewel in Vietnam’s tourism crown, so let’s hope that its beauty and reputation are maintained and that it continues to enchant visitors for years to come.

Thanks to Armand Cheveux of Bhaya Cruises for his help with this piece. To find out more about Bhaya, visit www.bhayacruises.com or email Armand on cma@bhayacruises.com.