Vietnam on a Shoe String

I toured Vietnam for three months on ten dollars a day. Some might call that shoe-string traveling but, in truth, a bit of cultural savvy goes a long way in a country where $40 a month constitutes the wages of a very plum job. First, let's set the record straight: it was a luxurious trip, definitely more fun than backpacking through Europe with twice the funds.

With $900 US, I paid for 73 nights of hotel and hostel accommodations (the rest of the time was spent camping and as a guest of new friends), a 1,000-mile train ride, four days of motorcycle rental, a two-day island boat tour, a day canoe trip, a day joy-riding down the Mekong Delta on a barge, cyclo rides, inter-city bus trips and even taxi service to and from the airport. On top of that, I never held back on the food, consequently gaining ten pounds in three months. How did I get so much for so little?

Mere fund management won't do it. You need to know how to bargain (it's fun and easy) and you need to prefer a little adventure over silly pampering. Most of all, you need to know in which cities to spend the bulk of your time and which cities to ricochet through without even stopping for a snack.

In the major cities of Hanoi, Hue, Nha Trang, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh, the expatriate community rule dominates, that is, fixed pricing is often the norm. A sizable segment of each of these destinations has blossomed into tourist boom-towns serving a steady, apparently inexhaustible flux of tourists. Competition for business is fierce so prices are low. Privy to the herd mentality of tourists, merchants rely much on word-of-mouth to propagate their business.

From a budget perspective, the choice between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is a toss up: Hanoi has cheaper foods, goods and services while Ho Chi Minh City offers plentiful and cheap accommodation (from $2.50 to $3.50/night in hostel dormitories) but all the amenities that make a traveler's experience enjoyable, such as steaks, beer, sight-seeing and entertainment, are priced from 30 to 100 percent higher.

Both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have a distinct khu Tay balo (khu: area; Tay: Western; balo: backpackers; Western backpacker area). Within these areas, the prices of goods and services are fairly consistent and reasonable for all travelers. By and large, the merchants here live by their reputation for fair dealing with foreigners.

Vietnamese recognize Pham Ngu Lao Street in HCMC as the Westerner Street where, at any moment of the day, there are as many Westerners as there are Vietnamese. Often more, if the foreigners eating in restaurants are counted. The city blocks bounded by Pham Ngu Lao Street, Bui Vien Street, Nguyen Thai Hoc Street and Do Dau Street, form the Tay balo area of Saigon. Nowhere else in Vietnam are the laws more ignored than within these boundaries.

Dormitory beds in this area run as low as $2.50/night. The best deal (and by far the most interesting) can be found within the alleys that riddle this section of town. About one in five alley residences lodges foreigners without permits and without registering them with the local constable. Accommodation in these homes, surprisingly, are often better than many comparably priced hotels on the main streets. Each family takes great care to improve its guest quarters, a single studio, always on the second floor (for safety) and usually takes up about half of the family living space. Prices are approximately $5 for two, $6 for three guests, rarely more than $7/night. More often than not, prices include an in-room breakfast and coffee service.

Dining couldn't be better in Hanoi and throughout the north. Small kitchens abound, serving food in a style known as com phon where each diner chooses from a buffet table the dishes and the amount he'd like to eat and is charged accordingly. With a five course meal going for under $1.20 in most places, Hanoi is the place to get acquainted with Vietnamese cuisine. Food generally is very inexpensive. A platter of fried-rice goes for 70 cents, a steak with french fries for $1.30, a bowl of beef noodle soup for 50 cents, two fried eggs, butter and a small baguette for 60 cents, a whole pineapple for 20 cents, a bunch of bananas for 25 cents. Many expended and/or extended travelers dine comfortably on as little as $1.50 a day (the average wage of a day-laborer.)

The next decent budget destination to visit south of Hanoi is Hoi An, an ancient city on the coast just south of Danang. Extremely cheap lodging is not particularly abundant, but there are dormitory bunks available for about four dollars a night. The exquisite food in this city, however, compensates for any grievances imaginable. The little restaurants and cafes work diligently to provide beautiful cuisine at bargain prices that you won't find in Hanoi or Saigon. The restaurant row along the pier gathers some of the best cooks around. Sensitive to Western palates, a good portion of the cuisine they serve is neither Vietnamese nor French, but something in between bearing Chinese influence. The subtleties and combinations of styles represent something new and strangely regional. Feasts range from three to five dollars per person.

Three classes of establishment form the hierarchy of lodging. Each hotel's name indicates its class (i.e. khach san Binh Minh or nha tro Oanh). At the top of the game are the hotels (khach san) and their cousins, mini-hotels. Most of these have permits to lodge foreigners. Next on the ladder are government-owned and operated guest houses and hotels (nha khach). Traveling government officials, bureaucrats, police and soldiers use these accommodations at a discount. All government guest houses, predominantly shabby, are available to foreigners at ridiculous hotel prices. Last and least (but definitely cheapest) are the hostels and village inns (phong tro or nha tro). Commoners and merchants make up the clientele for this genre.

Rarely will a local village inn put up a foreigner except in and around Phan Thiet, in the Mekong Delta and along the southern coast. When they do, the prices are very low; $3 for a room, $1.50 for a dormitory bed. Bathing is communal. Consequently, some worthwhile cities off the beaten track worthy of a visit are Rach Gia, Can Tho and Chau Doc.

Budget traveling is both fun and easy if you view ferreting out bargains as a challenging game. The point of such an excursion is to live as the locals do, eat their food, observe their cultural practices and make new friends. With these ideas on your agenda, it is shockingly easy to find yourself having the time of your life while spending as little as $10 a day. The best thing you bring home from such a trip is a sense of accomplishment.
Editor's note: Survey of prices are as of March 1996. While a travel guide book is recommended, most of the best bargains are not listed in any of the guide books.

Published on 12/1/96