Vietnam Holiday

vietnam holiday"vietnam holiday"
What extras should we bring to our cambodia, thailand and vietnam holiday?

i'm from Australia. What should we bring besides the usual clothes, toiletries, ug spray, ect??

You can pack light, as most weighty things are available at a fraction of the price in S.E. Asia. You can pick up some really good bargains, particularly in clothing and electronics,

What you will need to bring or to consider buying there....

Bath Soap : Manufactured soap quality in S.E. Asia is not so good. You can buy Aussie made soaps there, but are over priced.

Medicines and Pharmacy items: You can buy many pharmacy only products in Vietnam without a prescription that you would need in Australia. If you need ventolin for asthma, no prescription and about $4.

Insect Repellent: Don't take an aerosol type, but rather the cream type. You can buy insect repellents in S.E. Asia, but for the quality stuff, you will pay often more than you would in Australia. Also, some of the local products are questionable. (Like the warning label saying that prolonged contact with skin could be harmful. Huh ??)' Feminine hygene products can be both expensive and not always readily available. For your major prescription items, bring them from Australia and keep a copy of the prescription with you as you pass through customs to avoid delays and embarrassment. Be aware that the same health/quality controls and drug approvals in S.E. Asia are no where near close to that of Australia. For example, when I sustained an injury in Saigon, the hospital gave me pain killers. They use to make me hallucinate and other problems. I stopped taking them and had a few left which I just forgot about. When I arranged to see my GP in Australia, I had found the few left over tablets and showed them to the Doctor, as I needed a strong pain killer (tore and severed the ligaments and tendons in my knee). The doctor said I was lucky not to get grief by Australian customs, as the particular pain killer in Australia is dispensed one tablet at a time and only in a hospital as they were morhine and opium based !!
Contraception items can be hard to find, and for the non-Asian guys, condoms that fit can sometimes be impossible to find.
Travelers Diarrea. Enough can not be said about the water quality risks. In Saigon, I saw workers digging a trench to fix a leaking water mains. Both the water mains and the sewerage pipes were clay and buried side by side in the same trench. E-coli is common in tap water. Avoid un-bottled water (including ice in drinks and salads that may have been rinsed under the tap). If you get what is called the Saigon Squirts, while there are treatments like Imodioum and other pharmacy items, the absolute best you can do is swallow a couple junket tablets. (Junket tablets can be bought in woolies or coles in Oz. They are used to make a milk based desert. What they due is coagulate inside you stopping the squirts within the hour and does not make you feel bloated or cramped like Imodium does.)
ANTISEPTIC CREAM: Bring a tube of antiseptic cream to apply to any cuts and scrapes you might get, particularly your feet. Even the most minor abrasions to the feet can become seriously infected from harmful bacteria and parasites found in the wet ground, particularly in Cambodia. (Their garbage collection and disposal techniques leave much to be desired)

CURRENCY:
Small denomination US dollars go far in Vietnam and Cambodia. You will get more bargain/haggling powers with US currency than the local notes.

CAMBODIA - for clothes
At the Scottish Market, you can buy "factory seconds" genuine Levis Jeans for as little as $8USD a pair. Some have obvious imperfections, while others you really have to study to find them. For example, on one pair I bought, a belt loop was stitched on at a very slight angle. On another, the parallel stitching down the leg deviated in a few spots, but only by a couple millimetres.
Also silk ties for $2 each.

VIETNAM - for electronics
In down town Ho Chi Minh, go to department store called the Tax Store. You can get quality name brand DVD players, camera, TV's, Computers, Laptops etc for about 30% less than you would pay in Australia. You can also buy lithium batteries for cameras at a fraction of the price you would pay in Australia.
VIETNAM - for clothes
Name brand shirts for just a couple dollars (most will be fakes.. eg. Ralph Lauren). You can get very fine quality silk clothing for very reasonable prices. Pure silk shirts from $8 upwards.

Vietnam Holiday pt2 Sapa


vietnam holiday[/simpleaffiliate]
vietnam holiday[/simpleaffiliate]