In search of bamboo forests
 

We are headed to Vietnam in late October and are wondering if anyone has visited the bamboo forests in the north. I believe there are production areas around Cho Don near Ba Be National Park. There is also an area around Cho Don, more south of Hanoi and west of Ninh Binh. With the emphasis on bamboo forest, has anyone traveled to either of these places? Is there a recommendation for a car and driver out of Hanoi? Thanks for your help.

We went to Ba Be from Hanoi in 2008. We booked a guide driver from Kangaroo Tours in Hanoi. The guide was great but the driver was probably the most miserable guy in the whole of Vietnam!!! My advice is to try and get to meet both before committing and yes, I know that is easier said than done!

A link to our blog with more info and photos. http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blo...e=33-ba-be.jpg

NB we went in April and it was COLD. Do check the weather in Oct and dress accordingly.

Thanks, Crellston. I am trying to avoid booking through a tour company. I will have a look at your blog.

Crellston isn't talking about a "tour" to BeBe, but using an agent in Hanoi to book a car and driver and guide. How were you planning on booking a car and driver and guide for this trip? Local agents is how one typically books drivers and guides in SE Asia. While you can just hire a taxi driver off the street, I wouldn't recommend this for a long trip like this, though it works fine if you need a car and driver for a day in a city (I don't recommend this for Hanoi).

Thanks for the reply, Kathie. "How are we planning to book a car?" Indeed that was the question. I am still looking for suggestions, and I will contact a tour company to get a rate on a driver for an overnight trip. We have done loads of traveling in SE Asia, but not in Vietnam. As Crellston pointed out, things aren't always great. If we have to pay for both a driver and a guide, we will do so.

I'd recommend that you use a travel agency in Hanoi. As noted, you can ask for price quotes ahead of time, but I'd wait until you are in Hanoi to do the actual booking. If you can meet the guide and driver (these are always two different people) ahead of time, that is best, as crellston says. There are travel agencies in every building in Hanoi, it seems. Two that often get good reviews here are Tonkin Travel and Vietnamstay.

If you just want to get to Ba Be NP then this can be done by bus. But from what as recall, it required several changes and unless you speak some basic Vietnames, this may prove difficult.
As Kathie points out, in Vietnam, drivers and guides tend to work in pairs and in most case the driver will speak little or no English making a guide a necessary expense.

Ba Be is pretty remote ( or at least it was when I was there) and the only places to stay were either the park headquarters or a homestay, trying to find somewhere to stay is possible, but may be difficult. Things may have changed over the last 5 years, there may be more places to stay and transport may have become a lot easier but I would imagine it will still be quite "interesting" to travel there. If you are used to that type of travelling then fine, but please do report back as I would love to hear how it has changed.

Many thanks to both of you for your suggestions, especially Crellston's comment of where to stay when we get wherever we're going. That's a concern of ours. If we can't make contacts on the ground, we may have to go the tour group route. I have gotten a couple of quotes for car and driver already ($100/day), and as Kathie advised, we won't book until we're there. We've made arrangements to stay at a couple of Airbnb-listed homes while in Hanoi. One is a young single guy wanting to practice his seemingly excellent English. He hasn't seen a bamboo forest, and is interested in coming along on the search. The other is a family where the wife is involved in a travel agency. So....we'll see how those work out. I am hoping that between the hosts and the mid-market hotel we've booked, some slightly cheaper option will pop up. However, as Kathie says, there's always the bus.

Crellston,
Finally had a quick look at your blog. Wonderful! Will read it in depth before we go. Interesting to see that you stayed with Pham in Saigon. We too are planning same. Also valuable is the information about the visa - no one at the Washington Embassy mentioned this in their advice. Good thing we haven't sent our applications yet!

Not on topic, but checked with the Vietnam Embassy in Washington, but you can apply for a visa 6 months ahead of travel, and the start date and end dates are whatever is detailed on the visa application. They suggest that whoever helped you out with the visa in Vientiane made some mistake with your dates.

GWA, I don't doubt that the problem lay with either the agent or the Vietnamese embassy in Vientienne, either way it was my own fault for not checking the visas when I got the passports back. I did tell them the dates but they clearly didn't listen, or more likely, didn't understand my attempts at the Lao language, either way lesson learned, ALWAYS check visas carefully!

Hi! One of the biggest bamboo forests is in the mountain area of Thanh Hoa in Quan Hoa and Ba Thuoc district. There are several paper and preprocessing factories for quality products finalized in Thanh Hoa and Hanoi etc.. Its mainly "tre Luong" (dendrocalamus barbatus). Beautiful area. Mostly Thai and Muong people live there. Its reachable from Mai Chau or from Thanh Hoa via Ho Chi Minh Road. From Thanh Hoa you can take local bus or best by "stronger motobike" from Hanoi since there is a lot to discover. But its close to Lao border so some places need permission from local authorities if you want to stay in Home-stays.

Otherwise Phu Tho and Hoa Binh are also important places for bamboo...