Seeking recommendations for an upcoming visit by a friend
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- Culturally sensitive street crosser
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Seeking recommendations for an upcoming visit by a friend
Hi again everyone and thanks for being so awesome.
In early November I'm receiving my first out-of-town visitor, in the person of a spry seventy-something retired professor of economics from India. Together we've made arrangements to visit Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon, Hue, Phnom Penh (obviously) and Siem Reap. He's asked me to put together a pretty rigid and humorless itinerary for us, and I'm posting today to solicit recommendations. I could use pointers on accommodations, dining, and attractions he might find interesting (after I've shared a little bit of backstory about him).
In Ho Chi Minh City we need a hotel near Pham Ngu Lao and, for whatever reason, he prefers those that include breakfast (whereas I'm of the opinion that you pay for it either way). His budget is $25 - $40 per night, single occupancy, and I'd like to put us in someplace that isn't the Savoy but isn't Ma and Pa's Hey-Let's-Run-A-Guesthouse, either. For dining recommendations, I'd like very much to take him to one of those raucous Vietnamese-local places where you sit on benches and slap your cold-wipe packet with both hands to open the packaging. The only attraction I've suggested to him that he hasn't seemed very interested in is the former South Vietnamese Presidential Palace, which makes sense since he's neither Vietnamese nor a Yank like me. I don't think either of us go in for the standard tourist fare, though I suspect that a balance of contemporary, religious, and colonial sights would make a good breadth of experience. The guy loves photo ops, and he loves to stand as wooden as a marionette in front of something instantly recognizable from outside the country, but he's also a retired economics teacher, so attractions or neighborhoods that show of the warp and rhythm of the place will probably be crowd-pleasers, too.
Up in Hue I'd very much like to stay on the sleepier east bank of the Perfume River (with the same guidance as before), and I'm wide open to suggestions for places to eat and things to see while we're there. Same guidance as before.
In Phnom Penh, I think I'll put him up at the Samrach, just around the corner from my apartment on Street 55, but if anyone wants to recommend anything -- either by way of alternate lodging, or food, or attractions, I'd be very grateful.
The last time I was in Siem Reap it was a completely over-touristed zoo, and that was in 2003, but we gotta do it. The wrinkle here, in addition to the other types of recommendations I've sought for the other places on the trip, is that we're taking the Giant Ibis night bus, so we'll need some guidance about the logistics of checking bags someplace and getting to the temples before we've actually been allowed to take rooms. (I'd be interested to know if there's still a $20/head Sokimex toll booth for non-Cambodians on their way to the temples, and/or if the price has changed.)
Sorry for the long post, and thanks again everyone!
Dave.
In early November I'm receiving my first out-of-town visitor, in the person of a spry seventy-something retired professor of economics from India. Together we've made arrangements to visit Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon, Hue, Phnom Penh (obviously) and Siem Reap. He's asked me to put together a pretty rigid and humorless itinerary for us, and I'm posting today to solicit recommendations. I could use pointers on accommodations, dining, and attractions he might find interesting (after I've shared a little bit of backstory about him).
In Ho Chi Minh City we need a hotel near Pham Ngu Lao and, for whatever reason, he prefers those that include breakfast (whereas I'm of the opinion that you pay for it either way). His budget is $25 - $40 per night, single occupancy, and I'd like to put us in someplace that isn't the Savoy but isn't Ma and Pa's Hey-Let's-Run-A-Guesthouse, either. For dining recommendations, I'd like very much to take him to one of those raucous Vietnamese-local places where you sit on benches and slap your cold-wipe packet with both hands to open the packaging. The only attraction I've suggested to him that he hasn't seemed very interested in is the former South Vietnamese Presidential Palace, which makes sense since he's neither Vietnamese nor a Yank like me. I don't think either of us go in for the standard tourist fare, though I suspect that a balance of contemporary, religious, and colonial sights would make a good breadth of experience. The guy loves photo ops, and he loves to stand as wooden as a marionette in front of something instantly recognizable from outside the country, but he's also a retired economics teacher, so attractions or neighborhoods that show of the warp and rhythm of the place will probably be crowd-pleasers, too.
Up in Hue I'd very much like to stay on the sleepier east bank of the Perfume River (with the same guidance as before), and I'm wide open to suggestions for places to eat and things to see while we're there. Same guidance as before.
In Phnom Penh, I think I'll put him up at the Samrach, just around the corner from my apartment on Street 55, but if anyone wants to recommend anything -- either by way of alternate lodging, or food, or attractions, I'd be very grateful.
The last time I was in Siem Reap it was a completely over-touristed zoo, and that was in 2003, but we gotta do it. The wrinkle here, in addition to the other types of recommendations I've sought for the other places on the trip, is that we're taking the Giant Ibis night bus, so we'll need some guidance about the logistics of checking bags someplace and getting to the temples before we've actually been allowed to take rooms. (I'd be interested to know if there's still a $20/head Sokimex toll booth for non-Cambodians on their way to the temples, and/or if the price has changed.)
Sorry for the long post, and thanks again everyone!
Dave.
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Don't take the night bus. The guy is seventy-something years old, let him sleep in a bed and travel during the day. You don't want to check out of your hotel at noon with an elderly man and then try to keep them upright until midnight before getting on a night bus with a bunch of 19 year olds.
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- Culturally sensitive street crosser
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It'll be good for me. I've been completely in my own bubble since I got here -- barely interacted with anyone beyond ordering off menus.
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This is what happens when you can not cross the road, and have to keep walking around the same block all the time.Dangerous Dave wrote:It'll be good for me. I've been completely in my own bubble since I got here -- barely interacted with anyone beyond ordering off menus.
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- Culturally sensitive street crosser
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Man, you're just never going to let that go, are you.
- Phuket2006
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Angkor is now $37/day or $62 for 3
Go after 5 pm for a sunset for free and buy ur ticket for the next day
Fly him up or at least do a day taxi trip
Go after 5 pm for a sunset for free and buy ur ticket for the next day
Fly him up or at least do a day taxi trip
"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer." HST
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Based on the history of this forum, and us pricks that post on it, you will still be hearing about it 5 years from now.
Nearly 15 years ago I got into an altercation with a traffic cop and was forced to break his nose - purely in self defence - somebody mentioned it just last week ...
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Nearly 15 years ago I got into an altercation with a traffic cop and was forced to break his nose - purely in self defence - somebody mentioned it just last week ...
Sent from my SM-G928C using Tapatalk
"We, the sons of John Company, have arrived"
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- Culturally sensitive street crosser
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If I had it to do over, I would have phrased it in such a way as to clarify that I wasn't so much timid about crossing the street, as trying to be culturally sensitive to how it's done, specifically, here. But by that time the damage was done and, hey, it kinda feels like being a little bit famous: The guy who called himself Dangerous and then asked for tips on how to cross the street. It's not like I haven't been called a lot worse, anyway.
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Ahh, the good ol' days, when you could bust a trafficcoppers face, and get away with it, sounds idyllic.
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That does not work anymore and hasn't for a few months already.Phuket2006 wrote:Angkor is now $37/day or $62 for 3
Go after 5 pm for a sunset for free and buy ur ticket for the next day
Fly him up or at least do a day taxi trip
"I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes."
Charles Lindbergh
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u cant get in for the sunset for free??
"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer." HST
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Culturally sensitive way to cross a road????Dangerous Dave wrote:tI wasn't so much timid about crossing the street, as trying to be culturally sensitive to how it's done, specifically, here.
What sort of freak are you?
I bet you are one of those vegetarian deviants or someone who thinks that women should be empowered.
Note to self: Must be nice to morons.
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