AMA Vietnam

Hi Debe, I saw your name and popped in to say hi. When are you doing this trip? We are going to China in April with Viking. Our first River Cruise.

I am on my IPAD so for some stupid reason it won't let me open the attachment. But I think we board the AMALOTUS on April 22nd. We are not doing the land tour with them. Doing it on our own. This is our first River Cruise also. We were booked to go n July and had to cancel. A they gave us until April to go instead. I so look forward to it. We were doing 18 days total but now we are doing 15 I think it is. Are you doing the land trip with Viking?

I am on my IPAD so for some stupid reason it won't let me open the attachment. But I think we board the AMALOTUS on April 22nd. We are not doing the land tour with them. Doing it on our own. This is our first River Cruise also. We were booked to go n July and had to cancel. A they gave us until April to go instead. I so look forward to it. We were doing 18 days total but now we are doing 15 I think it is. Are you doing the land trip with Viking?

I didn't include any attachment so maybe that's why you can't open it. Yes we are doing the land trip too. It's more land than cruise. We are only 6 days on the river and the rest in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Xian, 16 days in all. We go on the 12th. If we like this tour we may want to do another river cruise, maybe in Europe.

Oh I was talking about the attachment that gives all the Info n the cruise. It is in my email but can't open it all the way on here. :)

We will be going Cambodia to Vietnam. I expect that we will love it and I also hope to do Europe or some of the others ounces afterwards. Of course, doing the Mekong River will be totally different as it is REALLY a third world country. ;) You will have to let me know how yours is. We did the Alaska to Beijing transpacific cruise a few years staying over a week in Beijing and Xian. Terracota warriors is fantastic and walking the Great Wall. We didn't go to Shanghai or Hing Kong though. sounds like fun.

This wonderful, informative, thread has gone quiet. Could it be that everybody is presently on the AmaLotus, cruising down the Mekong River?

 

On the down side, will not be going until this coming October but on the up side we will hopefully have lots of fresh reports before our departure date arrives.

 

One question, if I may: our travel agent says AmaWaterways encourages men to wear a jacket and tie on the two formal nights and we wonder how rigidly this is enforced. I would like to bring a jacket but the current airline luggage restrictions suggests it might be more practical to leave the jacket at home to make room for more tourist "bling".

Forget the jacket. Just a nice shirt will do. It's too warm and humid for a jacket. Don't recall anyone on our AMA cruise really dressing up. It's very informal on this cruise.

Yep, forget the jacket and tie. There's one 'dressy' night, the captain's fareweell. Most men wore khaki type pants with a dress shirt - some button down, some Tommy Bahama type. A lot of the ladies wore sun dresses or one of their beautiful new scarves with a sleeveless top and capris. You could sort of vaguely notice folks were making a bit of an effort, but that's the extent of it. Some folks weren't even aware that a dressyish night was even happening. It didn't matter.

Yep, forget the jacket and tie. There's one 'dressy' night, the captain's fareweell. Most men wore khaki type pants with a dress shirt - some button down, some Tommy Bahama type. A lot of the ladies wore sun dresses or one of their beautiful new scarves with a sleeveless top and capris. You could sort of vaguely notice folks were making a bit of an effort, but that's the extent of it. Some folks weren't even aware that a dressyish night was even happening. It didn't matter.

Who are we to buck a trend. Thanks ever so much for the edification. :D

Forget the jacket or a tie. You will not need it anywhere. On the Marguerite in 2/11 none of the men wore either. Enjoy this trip as it is one of my favorites. While it was almost 2 years ago I posted a detailed review of everything under member cruise reviews on the Marguerite.

We are back from our 12/4 trip and can truly say it was the trip of a lifetime!

Yes, forget the jacket and tie. My hubby wore his nice Tommy Bahama-type silk printed shirts with khakis and felt entirely appropriate! I wore simple knit dresses for dinner most nights and was one of the most dressed-up of the ladies! LOL

One tip for the Halong Bay overnight -- you are told to just bring one overnight bag so I just brought clean underwear and planned to wear the same outfit two days in a row. Big mistake because we had the opportunity to climb 421 stone steps to the top of a hill for a fantastic view of the bay! It was awesomely awesome but we got sweaty!! Bring a change of clothes from the skin out, including all underwear, because you will want to do the climb and you will sweat! ;) Also bring good walking/climbing shoes!

Also, in Cambodia they will take U.S. currency for everything, but make sure your bills are in good shape. More than once I had a torn or stained bill handed back to me with a request for a better one. Don't know why, but look at your currency before you go and make sure it is new or new-ish. Also, we brought $200 in ones and used them all! The ATM's in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap dispense U.S. currency, but it's likely to be $50 bills so make sure you bring lots of small bills. (Although the hotels and the ship can change your big bills for you, it's a bit of a hassle.)

Make sure you take the opportunity to go to the Artisans of Angkor workshop/shop in Siem Reap. They had the very very nicest souvenirs we saw on the whole trip, and we could be confident they were actually made there because we saw them being made. I was especially pleased because I bought a lovely little soapstone sculpture for $45 and when I got back to the hotel I saw an identical one (with the Artisans of Angkor tag) in the Sofitel Hotel gift shop priced at $110! SCORE! LOL

We are back from our 12/4 trip and can truly say it was the trip of a lifetime!

 

Yes, forget the jacket and tie. My hubby wore his nice Tommy Bahama-type silk printed shirts with khakis and felt entirely appropriate! I wore simple knit dresses for dinner most nights and was one of the most dressed-up of the ladies! LOL

 

One tip for the Halong Bay overnight -- you are told to just bring one overnight bag so I just brought clean underwear and planned to wear the same outfit two days in a row. Big mistake because we had the opportunity to climb 421 stone steps to the top of a hill for a fantastic view of the bay! It was awesomely awesome but we got sweaty!! Bring a change of clothes from the skin out, including all underwear, because you will want to do the climb and you will sweat! ;) Also bring good walking/climbing shoes!

 

Also, in Cambodia they will take U.S. currency for everything, but make sure your bills are in good shape. More than once I had a torn or stained bill handed back to me with a request for a better one. Don't know why, but look at your currency before you go and make sure it is new or new-ish. Also, we brought $200 in ones and used them all! The ATM's in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap dispense U.S. currency, but it's likely to be $50 bills so make sure you bring lots of small bills. (Although the hotels and the ship can change your big bills for you, it's a bit of a hassle.)

 

Make sure you take the opportunity to go to the Artisans of Angkor workshop/shop in Siem Reap. They had the very very nicest souvenirs we saw on the whole trip, and we could be confident they were actually made there because we saw them being made. I was especially pleased because I bought a lovely little soapstone sculpture for $45 and when I got back to the hotel I saw an identical one (with the Artisans of Angkor tag) in the Sofitel Hotel gift shop priced at $110! SCORE! LOL

We're all of your $200 in one dollar bills used for tips?

Denmom, we took $150 in ones and $150 in fives, and we used every last one of them. Mostly for tips, but also we bought little things here and there. Everywhere we went it seemed like someone was selling cold beer, soda, and bottled water for $1 each, so we would grab those on occasion, and also sometimes little souvenirs would be $1-$5. Make sure you have tens and twenties too (fresh and crisp), you can tip the guides you have for multiple days with them.

We also blew through about 2 Million Dong. There are several safe ATMs adjacent to the Metropole as well as on the 2nd floor of the Sheraton in Saigon. No need to worry about anything but dollars in Cambodia. If you don't want to use ATMs, the various hotel front desks can break down your large US bills.

Oh, and if anyone is interested in my photos, just leave an email and I'll send you a link. There's a lot of them, and I wouldn't subject anyone to them that wasn't planning the trip themselves. I was always interested in seeing others photos (thanks, Viv!)

Oh, and if anyone is interested in my photos, just leave an email and I'll send you a link. There's a lot of them, and I wouldn't subject anyone to them that wasn't planning the trip themselves. I was always interested in seeing others photos (thanks, Viv!)

Debecanaday at yahoo dot com. Would love pictures. So what on the average are you tipping guides? What is the daily tipping on the cruise? I need to reread the thread. I haven't fully got my memory back from the head injury. :(

Denmom, since you're just doing the cruise portion, you won't need as much, although it's always good to have a pile of small bills. Some of the tips you can put on your final bill, the ones to split between the crew, and some you dole out along the way. You'll tip the tour manager the most at the end, followed by the individual city guides, and less to the bus drivers, tender drivers, cart drivers, etc. Honestly, it was exhausting keeping up with it all. The APT Australia folks have it right just including it in the fare. I think the grand total in tips for the whole 16 day package was around $300 - certainly not much to add on to the total.

Anyway, pics on the way. There's a lot, save them for a rainy day :)

Oh, and if anyone is interested in my photos, just leave an email and I'll send you a link. There's a lot of them, and I wouldn't subject anyone to them that wasn't planning the trip themselves. I was always interested in seeing others photos (thanks, Viv!)

Very much interested. jim.eakins@ns.sympatico.ca

Denmom, since you're just doing the cruise portion, you won't need as much, although it's always good to have a pile of small bills. Some of the tips you can put on your final bill, the ones to split between the crew, and some you dole out along the way. You'll tip the tour manager the most at the end, followed by the individual city guides, and less to the bus drivers, tender drivers, cart drivers, etc. Honestly, it was exhausting keeping up with it all. The APT Australia folks have it right just including it in the fare. I think the grand total in tips for the whole 16 day package was around $300 - certainly not much to add on to the total.

 

Anyway, pics on the way. There's a lot, save them for a rainy day :)

I have already viewed the pictures as a slide show. then viewed some a second time. Some very good photos.

Some I expected to be worst and some I was surprised about. For example: Photos I have seen of Halong Bay are these gorgeous mountainous views with greens and all. from your pictures it looks like a lot of boats, small canoe type boats selling foods, small houses/shacks along the bottoms- just not like other photos. Where there picturs of the floating markets?

Tipping - as a frequent cruiser I understand the cruises tipping. Are you saying you tip the tender boat people? And we are paying for the tours with our cruise but we tip the drivers, guides, etc. I understand, but the tour manager??? Is that the land tour??? Did you take something and give out to the kids? I saw stickers. I really want to find something small to give out. I hear candy saint good. I was thinking or ordering something from oriental trading magazine but are toys appreciated? We are non drinkers - so won't be doing the drink testing. Lol

Shopping - was there lots of shopping for clothes that are cheap? I remember someone talking about buying the zip off pants there for $6. I have bought three pair of the shoes they said to get. But only one pair of the pants. We are doing a junk on our own (we are just booking our land tours n our own to see the highlights we want to see). But the junks looked totally differently than the nice boats with red sails I saw in the pictures on AMA Waterways. As the other photos of Halong Bay on their site.

Did you get your visas in advance or upon arrival?

Thanks in advance and thanks for the photos. Great

Denmom - about six months or so ago the Vietnamese government ordered all the junks to be painted white. The beautiful teakwood boats are now covered in a haphazard manner with what looks like whitewash. As for the sails, it was rainy and misty when we were there, so they weren't often up. Same with the view of the 'mountains' - most were obstructed by fog. They only show you pictures of Halong Bay when it's sunny. I'll be curious to see if future travel photos show the boats as white or the old style wood. As for floating markets, we didn't see any, but we went to a large floating fishing village - those are the shacks you see. We all piled into the little sampan boats four by four and drifted around the village. There was also an excursion to a cave the next morning.

As for tipping, you'll just tip the tour manager for the seven days you're with him, so the daily rate (can't remember, $2.00 maybe?) X 7 instead of X 16 like we did. You will also have a couple of local guides that get a tip, and yes, we doled out a dollar here and there to various boat drivers, cyclo drivers, bus drivers, etc.

As for clothes shopping, there are two kinds. They have large markets in Phnom Penh and Saigon (Hanoi too) that have knock offs and regular Western type clothes like Polo and lots of t-shirts. There are also smaller, souvenir and craft markets that sell these local ladies pants that we were all crazy for. They were either cotton or silk, with an elastic waist, some solid, some with crazy prints. They were about $10 after haggling, and were very cool and breezy. They were fine for wearing out in the cities and location appropriate, but at home they're pajama bottoms. We were wearing them with sleeveless tops and the gorgeous, gorgeous scarves we bought at the silk weaving village. I'm not a scarf person, but even I couldn't resist the ones with Angkor Wat woven into them.

We did the 'loose leaf' visa ahead of time. That doesn't require you to send your passport off, just a photocopy of it along with the application. That way we had the visa in hand, but our friends did the visa on arrival and had no problem. The VOA window in Hanoi is right at the bottom of the escalator before you get in the customs and immigration line. Looked easy. For Cambodia, we just had a passport sized photo and $20 and our tour manager handled it. Not sure what you will do since you'll be entering Cambodia on your own.

For gifts for the children, I'd suggest bringing small school supplies like pencils, crayons, or erasers. Something they can use, rather than stickers or toys. They are despearte for school supplies! They sell pencils i the gift shop on the ship but they charge $4 for a package of 12 -- you can get them MUCH cheaper from Oriental Trading Company.

Yes, you tip the tender people, the rickshaw drivers, etc. Just a dollar per person.

We are considering this trip for November 2013, and are currently comparing the AMAwaterways 14 day package to an 18 day land trip. The 5 star land trip covers more territory (there are 5 internal flights), and is far more economical, but the AMAwaterways trip gets rave reviews, and it would be an advantage to unpack for 7 nights on the river cruise part of the trip rather than move from hotel to hotel for the entire trip. We would miss out on the towns of the central east coast of Vietnam which are covered on the land package, but would benefit from seeing the villages and sites along the Mekong instead.

For anyone who has done this cruise, we are curious about the age range of passengers . We are mid-fifties.

Thanks.

more info under thread.But, we are in late 60s and out of 21 on combo land and river cruise,we where the 3rd oldest couple(ranged from 78 to 40 it seems).My advice is not so much age of passengers,but physical condition.Lots of stairs,climbing,uneven ground and a few struggled(me too after I fell down a few stairs). They did have extra guide to help out those that felt they couldnt navigate certain sites(like 4 story stair climb in Anghor Wat).This is a real adventure and must deal with 3rd world realities,like very BASIC toilet facilities(few and far between),,begging children,stray dogs.Just be aware,some seem shocked and somewhat offended by reality.But hotels and riverboat 5 star. Great way to see this part of the world.AMA did FINE job.:)

GTM, I turned 50 on the cruise, and there were only two or three people younger, with the majority falling between late 50s and early 60s. A couple of young and fit-seeming early 70s, and one couple that was 80. The 80 year olds had stamina I couldn't believe. They made every excursion, and climbed to the top of Angkor Wat with no trouble, when others couldn't/wouldn't climb to the top.

Your dilemma is a serious one. In my opinion, where this trip falls short is the lack of cities in the middle of Vietnam and the short time at the Angkor Temples. AMA used to offer an extension to the middle of Vietnam, but discontinued it due to lack of interest. I was sad that we wouldn't get to Da Nang, Hue, etc., and after doing the trip I wished we had either more time at Angkor or had set off on our own in the short time allotted. This trip has two days, and in that two days you see the four 'important' temples, but it's so crowded that it's a bit of a horror show.

That being said, I don't know what your package deal looks like, but there's no way I'd be interested in five internal flights. About a third of the folks on our trip did cruise only and worked their own trip otherwise. If you did that, you'd have Saigon pretty well covered - you could take the transfer to HCMC after the cruise and either book the Sheraton or your own hotel there. That would leave the rest of Vietnam and Cambodia on your own? Another option is to book this trip and fly in early to Hanoi and do a small package tour to the coastal area?

You don't really know until you come home what you would have done differently. For me, booking this was important because it included Halong Bay, somewhere I've always wanted to go - bucket list and all that. For us, it was cold, rainy and foggy (typical in November/December) and after it was all said and done, I would have rather skipped the two days that took out of the schedule (and all the bus travel) and put them in Siem Reap. That probably wouldn't be the experience of others traveling at a different time of year, YMMV. We saw a small cruise ship in Halong Bay, and I seriously would have preferred that to what we did. Azamara has a lovely Hong Kong to Singapore cruise that overnights in Halong Bay (and hits Hue and Da Nang) and I think I'd like to give it another shot that way some day.

One thing I know for sure, the AMA trip as booked doesn't offer enough time in Hanoi. We flew in two days early, largely because that's when we could get FF seats, and we were so, so glad we did. It was wonderful. Also, even though there's a lot of bus travel, transfers, and one internal flight, AMA handled it all flawlessly. We barely ever had to touch our own luggage, and we buzzed through every check point with our tour guide handling everything. So easy.

ETA: Hi Alexandra! Alexandra Cruiser is right, it's not really age, but level of fitness. I actually elected to skip the excursion to the cave in Halong Bay because they said there were a lot of slippery stairs, and I was terrified I'd twist my ankle and be screwed for the rest of the trip. I'm otherwise fit and a good walker. People came back and reported it wasn't that bad, but I was still okay with missing it and needed a morning rest anyway. We met some people that were aghast at the third world aspect of the trip, and others who were terrific travelers and gave us great tips on where to go next (Burma!)

GTM - I very much agree with Amyr's suggestion that you might have a better experience by combining a land trip with the cruise-only Mekong River option on AMA. That is what we did last Nov/Dec and had a superb time.

We had originally included a few days in the cities on the central Vietnamese coast in our plans but dropped them at the suggestion of our excellent private tour agency (based in Vietnam) because that was the end of the rainy season on the central coast, with high chances of flooding. Instead, we went to Sapa, in the mountains in the far north of the country, which turned out to be a marvelous choice.

Another factor in the decision to skip the central coast is that it is an area often visited by cruise ships and can therefore be left to another adventure in the future.

I also agree with Amyr that the amount of time allowed in Hanoi and Siem Reap on the AMA package is not sufficient. We spent three days in Hanoi and five in Siem Reap. We would recommend at least three days in Siem Reap.

Lest you think that doing a private, custom tour will be too expensive, we discovered that our "package" combing our private land tour with the cruise-only AMA trip was in the same ballpark in terms of total $$$ paid out as the AMA package would have been. The huge difference was the wonderful flexibility we had on a private tour, along with more time in Hanoi and SR. The ability to modify one's tour on the fly (such as deciding how much or how little time to spend at each site during day trips) is priceless. There are a number of tour agencies in Vietnam and Cambodia that will customize a tour. One simply uses one of their suggested itineraries and modifies it or sends a list of cities and sites to visit. The agency then provides a proposed program. One can be as detailed as one chooses in the wish list sent to the agency - in our case, since we like to do travel research and are rather particular about hotels, I provided the agency with the list of hotels we wished to use and the room type at each.

Have fun in your planning for Vietnam and Cambodia. Cheers, Fred

Thank you everyone for your prompt and valuable input. Based on the feedback, it sounds like everyone is definitely recommending the cruise part of the AMA trip, with a variety of recommended options for the land portion. Now a bit concerned about the weather in Halong Bay mid November. Wondering about other people's experiences regarding the junk boat in Halong Bay at that time of year.

Thanks.

Thank you everyone for your prompt and valuable input. Based on the feedback, it sounds like everyone is definitely recommending the cruise part of the AMA trip, with a variety of recommended options for the land portion. Now a bit concerned about the weather in Halong Bay mid November. Wondering about other people's experiences regarding the junk boat in Halong Bay at that time of year.

Thanks.

We went mid November and had great weather aboard the junk. We were sitting up top with shorts in the evening - can't remember what time- but it was dark. Foggy in the morning -which made for mystical looking pictures....don't be concerned:).

GTM - Like Doreen, we have lovely weather on Halong Bay in mid-November (Nov. 17/18). We had a marvelous candlelight dinner on deck just after a glorious sunset.

The next morning we had just enough of the famous Halong Bay mist to enjoy the mystical atmosphere of the bay before the mist burned off to another clear and sunny day.

If you decide to do the land portion on your own, it would be prudent to look at a number of junk companies, as several of them offer junks that are smaller than the ones AMA uses but have much more space per passenger. When we went last year, the company with the most spacious junks was Cruise Halong, with three very nice junks. We loved the one on which we booked, Halong Violet, with only six cabins (all very large) and loads of space both inside and on deck for the 12 passengers. The tables on deck for dinner were far enough apart that it seemed as if it was our own private dinner. Quite remarkable. http://www.cruisehalong.com/halong-violet.html

I'd post some photos of the experience; but I don't know how to do that on CC. It's easy on TripAdvisor; yet I can't see any easy instructions here on CC.

Cheers, Fred

Not that it makes any difference, but which airline did AMA use for the inclusive package air between Hanoi and Seam Reap? Vietnam Airlines or ??

And was it on a regularly scheduled flight or charter for the group?