To all of you who have followed along this odyssey, hope u enjoyed it and found it helpful.
A few photos from Saigon and the Mekong Delta
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80018999@N03/page1/

I read and viewed your TR and photos in one breath (ok, more than one, it is absolutely fascinating! Thanks for the great effort!

Thank you so much! Always nice to hear feedback.

Fantastic report! There is such a wealth of great information that I am in awe!
I'm hoping to return to SEA in the not-too-distant future so this will be a big help.
A million thanks. And I've not even seen the photos yet!




For the record, I also thought Temple Club was vastly overrated; one of those prettified spots where the decor trumps the food.

Much appreciated. We used one of your TRs when we were in SEAsia and look forward to using your Puglia trip reports as we travel Puglia this fall, so glad our info will be useful to u.

You may appreciate this :)

Allie is home from school this weekend. She is taking a SE Asia cultures class this semester and said the professor did a slide show of Laos in class earlier this week...and there was a picture of Tamnak Lao and the same table where we had dinner. After the slide show, the professor asked if anyone in the class had been to Laos, and Allie responded, "Yes, and in fact I know that restaurant and ate at that table in your photo."

Wish it was easier to get there, because that sounds really good right about now!

Hi! Too funny! She must have felt very cool. That was a good restaurant and it would be great about now. We've played with trying to go to LP again in 2014. Jut not sure if it will work out or not.

I don't know how I missed this report before today. Maybe because he had been several times to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia in the last ten years. But now, after reading this...we must go to Laos. I thought we were finished with long haul trips.

Just loved Luang Prbang. Would like to explore more of Laos too one of these days.

Just booked the Apsara for our visit next year to Luang Prabang! Looks wonderful!

Great! I hope you enjoy your stay there as much as we did. I know there are newer places, but we loved the ambience and location of the Apsara.

I just reread the parts of your epic that centered on the same locations we will be going. Thank you so much for your careful exacting descriptions. I took lots of notes and will look for the same places as we wanderer Hanoi, Sapa, Hoi An, and Luang Prabang.

Thanks guys for writing this out in such entertaining AND useful detail. GT, you're quite the writer.

I've been having a read over the last several days of the Vietnam bits (North and Central) for my planning. I'm sure I'll be coming back as time allows just to read the rest for the fun of it.

Glad our TR is helpfuL.

Very enjoyable read. The parts on Thailand and Cambodia will be very helpful for our upcoming trip.

Thanks! Glad it will be helpful.

Thanks for the great trip report - it's incredibly helpful.

My boyfriend and I are starting to plan an April trip to Vietnam and are considering using Tonkin to simplify making the arrangements. We are torn, however, between going it alone or joining a G Adventures tour for the companionship of other travelers, which we'd enjoy - plus they have an itinerary that covers exactly what I'd like to do: http://www.gadventures.com/trips/tim...nam/AVHC/2014/. (Hanoi, Mai Chau, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, and Saigon in 13 days for $2099 per person.)

But we also like the idea of more independence and the ability to choose our own hotels. It looks like, based on the price you mentioned, we could do it more cheaply on our own.

Did you think you had a reasonable amount of interaction with other people? And did you feel well taken care of by the various guides?

We definitely were well taken care of by the guides that we had. They were very solicitous and always helpful. We met lots of people along the way, but can't say we were looking for companionship from others. It's easy to talk with the people in VN, many of whom speak English esp younger folks. And we always meet fellow travelers as we travel. I've never done a group tour so can't really make a comparison to the travels we do on our own. In terms of costs I do know that when I have looked at tours I could always do the same for much less $. And as you say, you can pick your own hotels and go at your pace.

Glad you found our TR helpful and have a great trip.

Thanks Althom for reviving this thread.

GT & YT, I used some of your informative and entertaining report while planning our current journey through Thailand and Laos, to the extent that I changed the initial plan around in order to go downstream on the Luang Say cruise.

Today we had lunch at Morrodoke (admittedly we stumbled across it) the meal was fantastic.

Thanks for being so generous with your time to write !

Thanks! Glad to hear Morodoke is still around. We'll be in CM on Friday.