Destinations Vietnam
Our Vietnam tour begins and ends in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), so you need to arrange return flights. The Vietnam tour used to begin and end in Bangkok, but now we visit more destinations and so we spend all 15 nights in Vietnam. If you wish to visit Bangkok (it is the Coloured Gem capital of the world!) you may be able to join us either before or after your Vietnam tour. There is no guarantee that I can accommodate a tour extension to include Bangkok, so if you plan on visiting, please let me know as soon as possible.
Your tour cost is from $2900 per person and includes all accommodation, transfers and internal flights.
We do a lot of flying in Vietnam as it is a very long country, think of driving from Mackay to Melbourne!
Vietnam has a rich cultural, food and gemstone heritage, although the gemstone industry is relatively new and underdeveloped, especially compared to Thailand. However this offers many opportunities to buy fabulous gems at very good prices. We have plenty of time in Vietnam to explore the culture and history as well as searching for gems.
SAIGON. (Ho Chi Minh City)
Saigon is a very large and bustling city, however it is not the most exciting city in the world from a purely tourist perspective, Saigon is a wonderful destination for gemstones and also a superb destination for nightlife and food. There are a few activities that are well worth the time and effort, such as cooking classes, dinner cruises, many temples and museums. We do visit a Lacquer ware Factory to see the whole manufacturing process, which is quite an eye opener, as the amount of work involved to produce each piece is truly amazing.. There are also the Ben Thanh markets which are wonderful for clothes and souvenirs and some Shopping Centres. The star of Saigon is definitely the food and nightlife. We stay close enough to Walking Street to be able to easily walk there and back, yet far enough away to enjoy some peace and quiet. The street our hotel is in also has a couple of coffee shops and this is where gem dealers come to meet us and sell us gemstones and jewellery. We sit around drinking coffee or a beer whilst looking at exquisite gemstones. I have been meeting the same dealers twice a year now for 7 years, so we don’t have to worry about fakes or high prices!
Hanoi
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and makes Saigon seem like a country town, it is fast paced and hectic. You just need to embrace the chaos and immerse yourself. We stay in District 1 which is also known as the Old Quarter, which is home to all the best restaurants and bars, so that we can walk to dinner and home.We also stay near Hang Bac Street which is home to 40 gem and silver jewellery shops. Hanoi is not a fabulous city for tourism activities however it does have two Sunday gem markets.There is an Incense Village to visit, pottery classes or Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. The Mausoleum is a very interesting, if somewhat morbid attraction. You queue in silence before joining a procession of mourners who file past Ho Chi Minh’s body as it lies in state against his final wishes. He wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered in Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam in the hope of reuniting his people. The Vietnamese people hold no grudge against Americans or Australians for their part in the war. The war was a mere ‘blip’ in their history. They are not fond of Chinese, who they have been sparring with for centuries!
We fly to Hanoi (1hr 40mins) and take a mini van to Yen The (aka Luc Yen). The trip takes 4 hours and we make a comfort stop half way.
YEN THE. (Also known as Luc Yen)
Yen The is a very small town in the Luc Yen district about 250km NorthEast of Hanoi. If you tell a Vietnamese you are going to Yen The, they will not know where you are talking about! It is very famous outside of Vietnam, amongst the gemstone community. The gemstone trade is very underdeveloped across Vietnam, with Yen The gemstones only being 50 years old and discovered by accident. Mining is done by small family groups and is all by hand. It is dirty hard work, as most gems are found in farmland that is wet and muddy. the main gemstones found are Sapphire and Ruby, Spinel and Tourmaline. The area is also known for the incredible and incredibly rare “Cobalt’ Blue Spinel.. gemstones over one carat are exceptional and command prices in the tens of thousand in US dollars. We meet a dealer who specializes in these gems and you can see world class specimens. If you fancy a cheaper alternative, you can buy specimens of the Spinel in marble! There is a daily morning market where a dazzling array of gems are up for sale. You wioll note all the dealers are women. They make the deals, control the money and rule the roost! There are maybe three people who speak English in Yen The, so you get a true cultural experience. There are a couple of nice restaurants and several good coffee shops. We also have pre-dinner drinks at a Beer Garden, so even though we are in the countryside, we are still somewhat civilized. (The hotel has air conditioning and Western toilets!!!) Yen The is one of the highlights of the trip for me.
Yen Bai is better known than Yen The but has fewer gem dealers. However there is a newly established daily market that is growing in popularity. It is located only 2 and a half hours from Hanoi, whereas Yen The is 4 and a half hours, so sees more buyers from Hanoi.We take a lake cruise on Thac Ba, which is man made being a dam for Hydro power. It has 1 300 islands dotted throughout the lake. Depending on time and weather, we visit a cave on an island, an active village or waterfalls. .
Thanh Hoa
On one of the days, we take an 8am minivan again and drive the 3.5 hours to Thanh Hoa (with a comfort stop along the way).
Thanh Hoa is the centre for Aquamarine and Heliodor in Vietnam. We meet many dealers, and you can buy rough or cut stones. I usually end up buying a couple of kilos, so bring plenty of money! We also meet in a coffee shop, so that we can have lunch whilst looking at gemstones.
HA LONG
This is our stepping off point for a cruise around the Bay. Ha Long is a major tourist centre that has loads of restaurants and a Casino. Vietnamese are not permitted in the Casino as it is only for Foreigners. There are many restaurants along the main road, so we usually arrive in time for dinner, before we take our cruise the next day. We charter our own boat and leave at 8am so as to avoid the rush as many many boats sail out daily. There is a Pearl farm in the bay and we stop here for a very informative explanation of how Cultured Pearls are made. There is of course a very expensive shop with all sorts of jewellery.We spend a total of four hours on the cruise, which is plenty of time and on the way back, we have a fabulous Seafood lunch. We don’t do overnight trips on ha Long Bay, as you embark at 2pm and then disembark at 12pm the next day, so you spend 22 hours on the boat, eight of them asleep! I only recommend an overnight stay if you really want to kayak around or see the caves.
Pleiku
Situated in the Central Highlands, Pleiku is a very interesting town from a gem point of view. It is rarely on the tourist trail and it is unlikely that you will see any foreigners in town. Very few people speak English and hardly anyone knows about the fabulous Peridot that is found just outside of the town. Gem quality Peridot crystals of 20+ carats are not uncommon and the colour is world class. Pleiku is home to some magnificent, Instagram worthy coffee shops and unusually for Vietnam, one of them has a Patisserie attached and so you can eat and have coffee. The breakfast Bahn Mi is wonderful and the pastries to die for. We visit active Peridot mines and you can buy direct from the miners, or you can fossick for free on the spoil pile. We also meet some dealers so that you can buy bigger crystals or already cut gems. We have a traditional lunch of Spring Rolls, Prawns and chicken sitting in our own hut on the Caldera lake, which was formed when the volcano collapsed in on itself. We also fish from the hut and despite being able to see fish, I have never caught any! There is a really nice Italian restaurant in town which has ‘Fawlty Towers’ style service!
BUON MA THOUT
This is the largest city in the Central Highlands, being twice the population of Pleiku, with nearly 500 000 people. We visit here for one specific reason, a fantastic gemstone facetor! It is close to Buon Ho where Sapphires are found. Buon Ma Thout is regarded as the coffee capital of Vietnam with a particularly distinct flavour. Interestingly coffee in Vietnam is of the type Robusta as opposed to the more ‘popular’ Arabica that we are used to. Vietnam is the second largest producer of coffee, behind Brazil. Vietnam produces half the coffee that Vietnam does and about 90% is Arabica. Research indicates that Arabica trees are more affected by changing climates, so we may have to learn to drink Robusta blends!
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