Most visitors to Vietnam will need a valid visa in order to enter Vietnam except citizens of Japan, South Korea, Scandinavian countries, and certain ASEAN countries. It is now easy to get your visa either by visiting Vietnamese embassy in your country or applying for a convenient visa on arrival. Check my vietnam visa for details.
Check www.vn.embassyinformation.com for a list of Vietnam embassies. A few locations follow.
Australia (tel 02-6290-1549; www.au.vnembassy.org; 6 Timbarra Crescent, O’Maley, ACT 2606)Canada (tel 613-236-0772; www.vietnamembassy-canada.ca; 470 Wilbrod St, Ottawa)UK (tel 171-937-1912; vp@dsqvnlondon.demon.co.uk; Victoria Rd 12-14, London W8 5RD)USA (tel 202-861-0737; www.vietnamembassy-usa.org; 1233 20 St NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Vietnam visa information
Money and costs
The currency of Vietnam is the “Dong” issued in the following denominations:
• 200d• 500d• 1000d• 2000d• 5000d• 10,000d• 20,000d• 50,000d• 100,000d• 500,000d.Recommended Currency for Spending
Vietnamese Dong. Spending in other currencies, including the USD, often results in “rounding off” to your disadvantage.
Exchange Rates
Please go to http://www.oanda.com for current Dong exchange rates. At the moment of this printing 1USD = 16,800d, and 1 EUR = 23,800d.
Convertible Currencies
All major currencies including the sterling, the Yen, the Canadian dollar, the Euro and the U.S. dollar are convertible. It is recommend you exchange your currency at hotel for better exchange rate, especially at big hotels.
Credit Cards
Major credit cards (Visa, MasterCharge and to a lesser extent American Express) are finally beginning to find wider usage in Vietnam as more and more establishments accept them; in major cities nearly all major and mid-level hotels, restaurants and major tourist shops now accept credit cards. Except for the higher end hotels most establishments charge a three-percent transaction fee; some establishments charge a five-percent surcharge.ATM Machines
ATM machines have arrived in Vietnam. ATMs are located in many places in Hanoi and HCMC, for ANZ visa ATMS: 14 Le Thai To Street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi and 11 Me Linh Square in HCMC.
Traveler’s Checks
Traveler’s checks denominated in most major currencies are accepted in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City but USD is the preferred currency. Traveler’s checks issued by Visa, MasterCharge and American Express are the most widely accepted. Outside of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City it is often difficult to redeem traveler’s checks. The purchase receipt and the traveler’s check numbers should be kept separately from the traveler’s checks in the event of loss. A redemption fee of up to four-percent is charged. Passport ID is required for redemption.
Price Guide
bottled water: 0.3 US$A bowl of pho: 3.00 US$local beer or Bia Hoi : 0.3 US$internet access 0.5 US$ per hourshort taxi ride 5.00 US$restaurant meal: US$ 3.00-10.00internet access per hour: US$ 0.20-0.50short cyclo ride: US$ 0.50
Getting to and from Vietnam
Most tourists land in Vietnam in either Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City or Danang and then make their way up or down the coast, with the choice of travel method depending both on budgets and the amount of time.
By plane
Vietnam has three international airports at Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang. Most of flights to Vietnam are non-direct and transit via Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Taipei.
Airlines flying to Vietnam includes:
Aeroflot (Hanoi)Air Asia (Hanoi)Air China (Ho Chi Minh City)Air France (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)ANA (Ho Chi Minh City)Asiana (Ho Chi Minh City)Bangkok Airways (Ho Chi Minh City)Cathay Pacific (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)China Airlines (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)China Eastern (Ho Chi Minh City)China Southern (Hanoi)Delta Airlines from late 2007 (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)EVA Air (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)Hong Kong Airlines (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)JAL (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)Jetstar (Ho Chi Minh City)Korean Air (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)Lao Airlines (Hanoi)Lufthansa (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)Malaysia Airlines (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)PB Air (Da Nang)Philippine Airlines (Ho Chi Minh City)Qantas (Ho Chi Minh City)Qatar Airlines (Ho Chi Minh City)Royal Brunei Airlines (Ho Chi Minh City)Silk Air (Da Nang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)Singapore Airlines (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)THAI (Da Nang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)Tiger Airways (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)Transaero (Ho Chi Minh City)United (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City)Vladivostok Air (Hanoi)
By train
From Beijing and Kunming, visitors can catch a train to Hanoi crossing the border at Dong Dang. Due to landslides, the train between Kunming – Hanoi has been termintated for safety.
Border crossings from
Cambodia via the following borders
* Bavet – Moc Bai * Kaam Samnor – Vinh Xuong (in some guidebooks as Tonle Mekong. Near Chau Doc in Vietnam) * Phnom Den – Tinh Bien * Xa Xia, Vietnam/Prek Chak, Cambodia (Ha Tien crossing, Cambodian Visas not available)
China via the following borders
* Dongxing – Mong Cai (by road; onward travel Mong Cai to Ha Long by sea or by road) * Hekou – Lao Cai (by road and/or rail, but no international passenger train services) * Youyi Guan – Huu Nghi Quan (Friendship Pass – by road and/or rail)
Laos via the following borders
* Donsavanh – Lao Bao * Kaew Neua – Cau Treo (Keo Nua Pass) * Nam Can * Tay Trang
Special food in the South
Xoi chien phong (Bloating fried sticky rice)
A round plate of Xoi chien phong, placed next to a plate of buttery roasted chicken, is always attractive to anyone. A lump of sticky rice will become a plate of Xoi chien phong as big as a grape-fruit by talent chefs. In the past, Xoi chien phong was offered only in the Binh Duong Restaurant, Dong Nai Province. At present, you can taste the dish in star classified hotels in Ho Chi Minh City.
Lau mam (Mixed vegetable and meat hot pot)
At present, Lau mam folk dish in the past hundred years – become a luxurious specialty in the South. Chau Doc fish sauce made from fresh-water fish, a kind of sweet- smelling and greasy fish, which must be as required to have a delicious Lau mam dish.
Substances to prepare for Lau mam, including fresh food-stuffs such as snake-head fish, “keo” fish, pork, peeled shrimps, eel, beef, and so on, accompanied with at least 10 kinds of vegetable, sometime amounting to 24 kinds of vegetable. They include water-lily, egg-plant, balsam-apple, straw mushroom, bean sprouts, chilly, etc.
When boiled, the flavors of the sauce, which is mixed with citronella, chilly, vegetables, fish, shrimp and meat, are very sweet-smelling. Lau mam roam is scoop out into bowls and served with soft noodle soup, simply but deliciously.
Goi Buoi (Salad of shaddock)
Goi buoi is available at the majority of famous restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City. The major substances to prepare for the dish include shaddocks mixed with fresh shrimps, pork, and dry cuttle-fish. The dish is originated in Miet Buoi, Bien Hoa City.
Goi buoi dish is especially flavored with slightly sour, sweet, peppery-hot and buttery tastes. It is also added with spice vegetable, white sesames, coconut and dry cuttle-fish. Therefore, the dish will be appeared on dining table as a fresh colorful picture and attractive to customers.
Ca tai tuong chien xu (“Tai tuong” bloating fried fish)
”Tai tuong” fish is classified as a kind of luxurious food-stuffs.
The fish is as white as chicken, delicious and sweet smelling but not crushed. There are two ways to prepare for the dish: Boiled down or bloating fried.
In bloating fried way, pour plenty of oil into pan, wait for the oil to boil before placing the fish in. In boiled oil, fish scabs would be raised up as porcupine’s feathers. As serving, place the fish on to the plate, arrange boiled quail eggs around with, fried potato, fresh onion and tomato slices at the edge, season with chilly.
Finally, pour soup and sprinkle fried peanuts and crashed onion on to the fish. The dish is served with sour and sweet sauce of fish. Ca tai tuong chien xu is an unique and luxurious specialty in the South.
Ca nuong trui (Bare fried fish)
The Southern villagers in countryside areas usually have fried fish in the field. They a bamboo piece to cross through the fish. Pitch the head side to ground, pile up rice straws at the wind-swept place to smoke fish.
As serving, hand to remove the burned fish scabs. Fish will become as white as chicken. Place the hot fish on a lotus leaf, take up each piece of fish and dip it in peppery salt, squeeze with some lemon s. Ca nuong trui is a dish that accompanies drinking. It is popular and exciting.
Ca kho to (Dry-boiled catfish)
Fish, which used to prepare for the dish, can be catfish, anabas or snake-head fish. Necessary spices include dry garlic, fresh lemon, onion, chilly, sugar, glutamate, fish sauce, grease, and a spoon of pepper and wine.
Although Ca kho to is a popular dish in the South, it is also a cheap specialty. As serving, pick up fish to other bowl, boil the bowl of fish on a low fire and sprinkle some peppers to have sweet-smelling: Keep fire when serving, Ca kho to can be served with such boiled vegetables as shallot, white cabbage, spinach to dip in Ca kho to sauce. It is more convenient to serve it with pickles such as vinegary beet or green pineapple.
Cua rang muoi (Fried salted crabs)
The Westerners, especially those in land-locked countries, usually appreciate the dish as soon as they firstly experience it.
At parties, a plate of bright red Cua rang muoi is usually acted as aperitif. Customers suddenly feel sweet-smelling of spices and delicious buttery flavor of crab at the same time. Highly qualified chefs in Vung Tau coastal area usually much meat and liver-pancreas. A delicious crab dish also depends on the soup, added to frying crabs in pans, including star aniseed, cinnamon, cardamom.
The connoisseurs immediately experience the dish as it is still very hot, mixed with some lemon drops.
Special food in the Centre
Banh beo xu Hue (Hue bloating fren-shaped cake)
Banh beo is a specialty and indispensable in Hue City. Banh beo is delicious with its core stuffed with small shrimps and sauce made from a mixture of fish sauce, sugar, garlic, chilly and fresh small shrimps, watery grease. Therefore, it offers customers with sweet, buttery and smelling flavors. Without delicious sauce, the cake would become worthless. When serving, it is required to a tool called Que Cheo (bamboo folk) to pass through the cake, cut into pieces, prick and eat. Customers would be impressed forever with having Banh beo in a green garden while listening to Hue folk song coming from the Perfume River.
Bun bo gio heo (Beef and fork soft noodle soup)
Preparing Bun bo gio heo is very skillful. Pig leg is clean-shaved, chopped into even slices with adequate bone, meat and skin, mixed with lean beefs, and soaked with salt, pepper, fish sauce, dry onion and spices.
Bun bo gio heo is proper with all appetites. Even diet people could enjoy the sweet-smelling of beef with less fat of pig leg so as not to be fed up with as serving. Bun bo gio heo is delicious anytime you have it. You could enjoy this specialty of the Central region on Hue City.
Banh la cha tom (Grilled rice cake with Cray fish)
Anyone who used to experience the dish would never forget such simple cake made from grilled rice cake and Cray fish only.
The cake must be as thin as a leaf but flexible enough. Cray fish must be brittle and sweet. Serving with long jawed anchovy sauce.
Banh la cha tom does not as heavily smell as the majority of the other dishes but gentle, elegant and attractive to customers
Com hen song Huong (Perfume River mussel cooked rice)
Com hen has a sweet-smelling flavor of rice, onion, and grease, as well as strange tastes of sweet, buttery, salty, sour, bitter, and peppery-hot. You have to arrive to Hen river-islet in the Perfume River to have the original Com hen. However, you can find out the dish on some streets in Hue City. It requires 15 different raw materials to prepare for the dish, including mussel, fried grease, watery grease, peanuts, white sesames, dry pancake, salted shredded meat, chilly sauce, banana flower, banana trunk, sour carambola, spice vegetables, peppermint, salad, etc.
Com hen is always attractive to many customers becait is tasty and, at the same time, economic to anybody.
Cao lau Hoi An (Hoi An vermicelli)
Cao lau as a dish has its “own kingdom”, therefore, customers are likely to be served with it only in Hoi An.
Cao lau noodles are carefully made from local new rice not stocked one. Water used to soak rice must be taken from wells in the Ba Le Village; noodles thus will be soft, enduring and flavored with special sweet-smelling. In addition, meat used to prepare for Cao lau must be loin or trotter.
Dry pancakes used must be thick and have much sesame. Greasy coconut quintessence and bitter green cabbage are also indispensable. The so-called genuine Cao lau Hoi An must satisfy all above requirements.
Banh trang cuon thit heo (Dry pancake roll with pork)
Coming to the Central region, you are offered with the service of Banh trang cuon thịt heo.
A big plate of fresh vegetables with a peppery-hot red chilly, a plate of boiled lean and fat meat, a bowl of fish sauce, and a plate of dry pancakes are displayed on the dining table. Customers have to serve themselves with all of the 10 substances mentioned above.
Banh trang cuon thịt heo is considered as not only a daily dish but also likely an artistic specialty of the Central citizens.
My Quang (Quang soft noodle soup)
Similar to rice noodle and chicken or pork soup (Hu tieu), My Quang is a variety of Pho (rice noodle soup), becathe noodles are made from rice and soused with soup as serving. The soup sauce, which is added, comes from a mixture of flavor from beef or pork bone, shrimps, crabs, chicken and duck. The noodles are yellow, somewhat distinct from Pho. However, the main reason for having this color is to be in hannony with the colors of shrimps and crabs.
The best My Quang is made from rice in Phu Chiem, shrimp in Cho Dai and spicy vegetables in Tra Que. As a strict a high qualification of a Quang Ngai’s specialty.
Special food in the North
Pho, a typical dish of Hanoi people, has been existing for a long-time. Pho is prepared not only in a sophisticated manner but also in the technique which is required to have sweet but pure bouillon, soft but not crashed noodle, soft and sweet-smelling meat. Only in cold days, having a hot and sweet-smelling bowl of Pho to enjoy, would make you experience the complete flavor of the special dish of Hanoi.
Bun thang (“Ladder” soft noodle soup)
Dishes made of soft noodle soup are diverse such as vermicelli and fried chopped meat, Bun Thang, vermicelli and sour crab soup, stewed vermicelli and boiled lean meat, etc. The popular dish is vermicelli and sour crab soup whilst Bun Thang is for con-noisseurs, unique and available in Hanoi only. A bowl of Bun Thang includes lean pork paste, thin fried egg, salted shredded shrimp, chicken, onion, shrimps paste, and a little Belostomatid essence. Especially, Bun Thang bouillon made from shrimps and meat must be very sweet and pure. Without enjoying Bun Thang when arriving to Hanoi, it somewhat seems to lack of a part of taste of Hanoi.
Mon oc (Snail dish)
Snail dish is a popular but unique dish of Hanoi people. It is easy to order some dishes like snail steamed with ginger leaf, gingered snail, snail sauted with carambola, snail boiled with lemon leaf, snail steamed with Chinese herbs, and so on, in many small restaurants, restaurants, and even hotels.
However, vermicelli and snail sour soup is the most attractive to young ladies becaof brittleness by snails, the slightly sour taste by snail soup, and hot by chilly boiled down, making even gorged people keep eating.
Com (Grilled green rice)
Every autumn, around September and October, when the cool north-westerly wind brings a cold dew, the sticky rice ears bend themselves into arches waiting for ripe grains becathese rice grains are at their fullest and the rice-milk is already concentrated in the grains, predicting that the com season has arrived.
Better than any other person, the peasant knows when the rice ears are ripe enough to be reaped to begin making com. Com is made from green sticky rice that is harvested in blossom period, roasted in many times, crashed and sieved.
Com is a speciality; at the same time, it is very popular. One can enjoy com with tieu ripe banana. When eating com, you must eat slowly and chew very deliberately in order to appreciate all the scents, tastes, and plasticity of the young rice.
Com is an ingredient also used in many specialities of Vietnam, including com xao (browned com), banh com (com cakes), che com (sweetened com soups), etc.
Com may be obtained anywhere in the North of Vietnam, but the tastiest com is processed in Vong Village, 5km from Hanoi, where com making has been a professional skill for many generations.
Cha ca La Vong (La Vong grilled fish pies)
Cha ca La Vong is a unique specialty of Hanoi people, therefore one street in Hanoi was named as Cha Ca Street.
Cha ca is made from mud-fish, snake-headed fish, but the best one is Hemibagrus (Ca lang). Fish bone is left away to keep fish meat only, then seasoning, clipping by pieces of bamboo, and frying by coal heat. An oven of coal heat is needed when serving to keep Cha ca always hot. Cha ca is served with roasted peanuts, dry pancakes, soft noodle soup, spice vegetables and shrimps paste with lemon and chilly.
The Cha ca La Vong Restaurant on No.14 Cha Ca Street is the “ancestor restaurant” of the dish.
Banh cuon (Rolled rice pancake)
Banh cuon is popular to Vietnamese as disk for breakfast. The cake preparing process includes grilled rice which is steamed and oil-spread to have sweet-smelling. Banh cuon is prepared available. Leaves of cake put on plate as the customers ask for the disk. The cake is called Banh cuon Thanh Tri due to its origin is Thanh Tri Village of South Hanoi. Besides Banh cuon Thanh Tri, there is rolled rice pancake with the filling of the cake is made from minced pork mixed with Jew’s ears and thin-top mushrooms. The cake, placed on plate, serve with salted shredded shring and fried dry onions. The customers immediately experience the disk as it is just finished and stilI very hot.
It is the sauce of the cake that fascinates the customers. The cake-makers have their own know-how, some of them prepare Banh cuon with Belostomatid essence to have sweet -smelling to attract to the customers.
Lon quay Lang Son (Lang Son roasted pork)
Anyone who arrives in Lang Son Province could find it difficult to say no to Lon quay dish. Lon quay Lang Son is delicious for many reasons, however, the main specific taste of the dish comes from the unique flavor of a kind of leaf called “Mac mat” (meaning “sweet leaf”). The leaf is soaked with spices, fish sauce, glutamate, flavoring powder, then stuffed into clean pig belly and placed on reverted furnace. Pig is fried the spread with watery honey so as to make the skin turn golden and brittle, and pork is soft and sweet-smelling as finish.
Banh tom Ho Tay (Ho Tay fried shirmp cake)
All people who used to live in Hanoi are familiar with Banh tom Ho Tay Restaurant on the Thanh Nien (Young) Street. The cake preparing process includes wheat flour mixed with potato fibres, placing on shape with shrimps upper, then fried with oil. The cake is brittle, soft, sweet-smelling, and served with vegetable pickles and sweet and sour fish sauce for best taste.
Special food in Vietnam
Nem ran (called cha gio in the south) is a much-appreciated speciality, although it is very easy to prepare. Since long ago, nem ran has been a familiar dish on the menu at all households during the New Year’s festivities, at family parties, and at receptions.
Nem ran (Spring roll)
The stuffing of the nem ran is comprised of mince pork, sea crabs, eggs, minced Jew’s ears, thin-top mushroom, dried onions, bean-sprouts, pepper, spiced salt, etc. The mixture is then rolled in flat rice cakes and fried in a pan until crispy.
Nem are eaten hot with a sauce that it is, at the same time, somewhat salty, sweet, acidic and scented (with the flavours of onion and pepper). Papaya and a few fresh scented vegetables are added.
Gio lua (Silky lean meat paste)
By itself, the name “silky lean meat paste” evokes thoughts of the silky aspect of this speciality. Gio lua is made with lean pig meat, which is pounded with a pestle until it becomes a sticky paste. Fresh banana leaves are tied very tightly around the paste, and then it is well cooked. Good gio lua has a fine white colour, is firm, and has a perfumed and sweetish taste.
Gio lua may be obtained anywhere in Vietnam, but the best gio lua is from Uoc Le Village (Hanoi), where the know-how for Gio lua is strictly kept so as to allow no secrets of the job to flow out from Uoc Le. Slices of Gio lua are slightly pink, moist, and sweet-smelling meat, fish sauce and banana leaf.
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