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One Night at Angkor, Five in Vietnam

Cambodia and VietnamTomas Lindqvist@tomas10 min readTravelled As a couple

Trip notes

If you are going yourself

Everything practical for Cambodia and Vietnam in one place — where it actually is, where to sleep, how to move, what to eat, what the weather does, and what to put in the bag. The story itself follows.

Travelled

As a couple — Two of us, one carry-on each, and a rule that whoever booked the flight did not also get to choose the hotel.

The route

5 stops · 4 slept in · 6 nights

Stayed the nightPassed throughBy road — follows the actual roadBy trainBy air

Drag to pan, use +/− to zoom, tap a pin for detail.

  1. Siem Reap

    1 night · Cambodia

    One night, which is one fewer than Angkor deserves. In at midday, temple ticket bought the same afternoon for the following dawn.

    Good signal — 4G everywhere and a cheap tourist SIM at the airport. Buy it there; you will not find a better price in town.

  2. Angkor

    Passed through · temples at dawn

    Eight kilometres north of town by tuk-tuk, booked the night before for half past four. Angkor Wat for sunrise, Ta Prohm and Bayon before the heat.

    Patchy signal — A signal at the main causeway and very little in the outer temples, which is part of the point.

    By road · 7.5 km · 10 min driving

  3. Hanoi

    1 night · Old Quarter

    A two-hour flight and a different country entirely. One night in the Old Quarter, which is not enough and we knew it when we booked.

    Good signal — Fast 4G and free wifi in every café and most street stalls. Grab works for everything.

    By air

  4. Hoi An

    2 nights · lanterns & rain

    Fly to Da Nang, then forty minutes south by car. Late October is the wet end of the year here, and the old town takes it in its stride.

    Good signal — 4G across the old town and out to the beach. Most tailors will send you fittings over Zalo.

    By air

  5. Bãi Xếp

    2 nights · fishing-village beach

    A fishing hamlet in a cove thirteen kilometres south of Quy Nhơn, reached down a lane off the coast road. Boats on the sand, three places to eat, and no promenade.

    Patchy signal — 4G in the village and along the coast road, thin in the cove itself. Nobody is working here.

    By train

Siem Reap, then Hanoi to the central coast17.4000° N, 106.5000° E

Open route in Google MapsOpen in OpenStreetMap

Weather

Best time to go

February to April for both countries; late October is the wet end of the central Vietnamese year

Feb–Apr (best)31 °C / 22 °C
Dry in the north and the centre at the same time, which is the hard part to arrange.
May–Aug34 °C / 26 °C
Hot everywhere, with afternoon storms. Best beach weather on the central coast.
Sep–Nov29 °C / 23 °C
Typhoon season in the centre; Hoi An floods most years. Hanoi, meanwhile, is at its very best.

Ranges are typical daytime high and overnight low.

What to pack

Hot, humid, and one country of it likely to be wet

  • A proper rain shell, not an umbrella — late October rain here comes sideways
  • Sandals that survive being soaked, and one pair of dry shoes kept in a bag
  • Shoulders and knees covered for Angkor; it is enforced, politely but firmly
  • One long-sleeved layer for aggressive air conditioning on flights and trains
  • Repellent for dusk at the temples and in the cove
  • Enough small US dollars for Cambodia, where they are the everyday currency alongside riel

Where to stay

  • Siem Reap, Wat Bo side

    Small hotel or guesthouse

    Quieter than Pub Street and ten minutes' walk from it. Anywhere here will arrange a tuk-tuk for a dawn start without being asked twice.

  • Hanoi Old Quarter

    Boutique hotel

    Right in the noise, which is the reason to be there on one night only. Ask for a room off the street or you will hear all of it.

  • Hoi An, between the old town and the beach

    Garden homestay

    Ten minutes by bicycle from either. Cheaper, quieter and far more useful than the riverside hotels in a wet week.

  • Bãi Xếp

    Beach bungalows and village homestays

    A handful of places in one cove, most family-run, some with the fishing boats parked in front of them. Book direct and by email.

Getting around

  • Between the two countries

    Siem Reap to Hanoi is about two hours in the air. Book it as a one-way on a regional carrier rather than trying to make it a connection.

  • Internal flights

    Hanoi to Da Nang is 80 minutes and cheap if booked more than a fortnight out. Hand luggage only is worth it — the bag fee often exceeds the fare difference.

  • The Reunification railway

    Da Nang south to Diêu Trì takes around six hours and is the best-value thing in Vietnam. Book a soft seat on the seaward side and take your own lunch.

  • Locally

    Grab in the cities for cars and bikes, tuk-tuk by the half day at Angkor, and a bicycle in Hoi An. Do not hire a motorbike on a licence that does not cover it — your insurance will not either.

Food stops

  • Bún chả

    Hanoi lunch

    Grilled pork in a bowl of sweet-sour broth with cold noodles and a plate of herbs on the side. Lunch only, and gone by two.

  • Cao lầu

    Hoi An speciality

    Thick noodles, pork, greens and almost no broth — made with water from one particular well and served nowhere else. Have it once at a market stall and once in a restaurant.

  • Fish, in the cove

    Beach kitchen

    Whatever the boats brought in, grilled whole with salt and lime. You choose it from a tray, they weigh it, and you wait forty minutes.

  • Fish amok

    Cambodian dinner

    Freshwater fish steamed in coconut and lemongrass. Milder than anything Vietnamese and a better first night than the Pub Street barbecues.

Day by day

7 days, start to finish · 23–29 October 2024

  1. Day 1

    23 Oct

    Into Siem Reap

    Land at midday, buy the Angkor pass in the afternoon so the morning is not spent queueing, and eat early. The tuk-tuk driver is booked for half past four.

    Visiting1Siem Reap

    Staying Siem Reap

  2. Day 2

    24 Oct

    Angkor before the light, then Hanoi

    Sunrise at Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and Bayon while it is still bearable, back to the hotel by ten, and an afternoon flight north. A ridiculous day, and the best one of the trip.

    Visiting2Angkor3Hanoi

    Staying Hanoi

  3. Day 3

    25 Oct

    One day in Hanoi

    The Old Quarter on foot, bún chả for lunch, an egg coffee upstairs somewhere, and the evening train street. Then the airport again, because a week does not stretch.

    Visiting3Hanoi

    Staying Hoi An

  4. Day 4

    26 Oct

    Hoi An in the wet

    It rained from eleven until four, which is what late October does here. Tailor in the morning, a long lunch, and the lanterns doubled in the wet streets after dark.

    Visiting4Hoi An

    Staying Hoi An

  5. Day 5

    27 Oct

    The old town, and out to the sand

    A dry morning, so bicycles through the rice paddies to An Bàng and back. Cooking class in the afternoon on the promise of no more rain, which held.

    Visiting4Hoi An

    Staying Hoi An

  6. Day 6

    28 Oct

    South by train to the coast

    The Reunification line from Đà Nẵng down to Diêu Trì — six hours of coast, rice and tunnels for the price of a taxi across a city. Then twenty minutes to the cove.

    Visiting5Bãi Xếp

    Staying Bãi Xếp

  7. Day 7

    29 Oct

    One whole day of nothing, then home

    Swim, eat fish, sleep, repeat. The late flight out of Phù Cát, and the first day of the week with no alarm on it.

    Visiting5Bãi Xếp

    Staying — travelling home

The story

Seven days for two countries is not enough, and we booked it anyway. The alternative was not going. What we did instead of pretending it was a grand tour was pick four beds and refuse to add a fifth: one night in Cambodia, one in Hanoi, two in Hoi An, two on a beach nobody had told us about.

One night at Angkor is enough for one dawn

Angkor properly wants three days. With one night you get one dawn, and one dawn is genuinely a lot. Buy the pass the afternoon you land so the morning is not spent in a queue, book the tuk-tuk for half past four, and take Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and Bayon in that order. By ten in the morning it is too hot and too full, and you will have already had the thing you came for.

The trick with a single night is to spend it near Wat Bo rather than off Pub Street, and to eat early. Nobody who has to be awake at four in the morning needs a cocktail bucket.

Hanoi deserved more than we gave it

This is the honest weak point of the itinerary. One night in Hanoi is a taste: the Old Quarter on foot, bún chả at a plastic table, an egg coffee up a staircase that should not pass any inspection, and then the airport again. Late October is the north at its absolute best — dry, twenty-six degrees, the humidity finally gone — and we spent nineteen hours in it.

If we ran the week again we would give Hanoi two nights and Hoi An one, and accept that the tailor would have to be quicker.

— the argument we are still having

Hoi An will rain on you in October, and it is still worth it

Late October in central Vietnam is the wet end of the year. Hoi An floods most years, sometimes badly enough that boats work the old town's streets. We got the mild version: rain from eleven until four on the first day and a clear second one. Plan for it rather than hope. A wet morning is what tailors and cooking classes and long lunches are for, and the lanterns are better in the wet anyway, doubled in every puddle in town.

  • Stay between the old town and the beach and use a bicycle — ten minutes to either, and out of the riverside crowds.
  • The old town charges an entrance ticket. Pay it once and keep the stub.
  • Have cao lầu twice: once at a market stall, once sitting down. They are not the same dish.
  • If a typhoon is named while you are in the centre, move your plans north or south, not out to sea. Boats to the Cham Islands stop entirely in this season.

The beach, which is the part we would repeat

Bãi Xếp is a fishing hamlet in a cove south of Quy Nhơn, down a lane off the coast road, and it is what people mean when they say the Vietnamese coast used to be like this. Round basket boats pulled up on the sand. Three places to eat, all of them somebody's front room. A headland at each end and nothing built along the back of it.

Get there by train. The Reunification line from Đà Nẵng down to Diêu Trì is about six hours of coastline, rice terrace and tunnel, costs less than a taxi across a European city, and is the single best-value thing we did. Sit on the seaward side, take your own lunch, and watch a country go past at head height instead of from 30,000 feet.

We had one entire day there with nothing in it, which after five days of airports was the point of the whole exercise. Swim, eat a fish that was in the sea that morning, sleep in the afternoon, do it again. Then a late flight out of Phù Cát, and home.

Two countries and six nights: temples before the light, a Hoi An that rained, and a beach with a fishing fleet on it and almost nobody else.

  • #vietnam
  • #cambodia
  • #temples
  • #beaches

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