We heard a lot of negative things about Vietnam, before, during and after our trip there. Mainly people had an issue with how the Vietnamese prey on tourists.  There's the relentless hassling of touts in every touristic area, then there's the tourist price vs. the local price.  Those two things, added to the fact that Vietnam can easily be a package travel type country seems to have turned a bunch of people off.

I'll admit there are times you get quite sick of saying 'no thank you' or as my cousin Pat's favorite 'Thanks, but I already have one of those', but we didn't let it get to us to the level of having it be the first thing we say about Vietnam.  Often times I took it as an opportunity to have a conversation.  You'd be amazed how quickly the 'touter' can be come the 'touted' if you just respond with a simple question.  How's business this year?  Where's this place? Where is this stuff made?  All different ways to get the focus off of you buying something.

Same thing with the prices.  We accept the fact that tourists will pay more, but like anywhere, if you come into a buying situation with some information about what you're buying, you'll come out alright in Vietnam.  Sure there are always exceptions, like that $15 chopstick set we bought, then saw a local buy for $2 (may or may not have happened), but you grit your teeth, say 'you've won this battle, but the war's not over' and move on.

The level of orgnization around tourism in Vietnam can get overwhelming and slightly annoying for the typical do-it-yourselfer.  It seemed often times you can't get any information about a place without the first thing being 'but we have a tour for that, please look, here.'  But again, diligence can be rewarded here in spades. 

Halong Bay is a good example.  Halong Bay is northeast of Hanoi, in northern Vietnam, absolutely beautiful backdrop of limestone karst mountains jutting out of the ocean.  A 'must-see' for any Vietnam trip.  Most people see Halong Bay through a 2 or 3 day tour with companies out of Hanoi, which includes one night on pretty tacky replica junk boat and often a second night on the largest inhabited island in the area Cat Ba.  But with just a little more effort we heard stories of at least 3 groups finding a ride out to Halong Bay (town) then getting ferried directly over to Cat Ba island - on some pretty local forms of transport - and spending all of their time on the Cat Ba, perhaps not even seeing the "true" Halong Bay, but undoubtedly getting a good view of the surrounding landscape and enjoying everything that Cat Ba had to offer - including day trips into the waters from there, a national park, good cycling and hiking etc.

We actually opted for a tour which included a night on the boat, kayaking for a day and a night on Cat Ba.     The highlights for me were 1) kayaking, 2) the place we stayed on Cat Ba and the sunset that evening 3) the people we met on the boat.  We met Adrian and Barbara, a Dutch couple, there, then again later in the trip and had a really nice time with them.  It never would have happened if we had done the do-it-yourselfer thing... So there you go as is the case always, there's good and not so good in every situation you're in.  It's up to you to make the decision, then make the best of the situation, because in the end everything will turn out alright.

We really enjoyed Vietnam and I can bet that our great experience was in large part due to the fact that we did take our time and 'did the place justice'.  Lovely.