calling other families on vietnam teenage trip
Hi Janet
We are also on the Vietnam trip, Aidan, Beryl and 16 year old Joe. We did Thailand last year on a teenage trip and had a great holiday so are really looking forward to it. What are you doing for money on the holiday, you can't seem to buy Dong in this country so I was just going to rely on getting money with a debit card from cash machines.
Hope to meet you at the airport, there are pictures of us on my facebook site in the name of Aidan MacGinley (I am the Aidan MacGinley with the black lab and son in a West Ham shirt)
Look forward to meeting you.
Aidan
Hi Janet and Aidan ,
I'm Christine and we are going on the trip too. There are five of us, my husband Ken and I , twin daughters , Ella and Georgia aged 16 ( 17 in September ) and a son Hugh who is 12.
In terms of money , I have heard from talking to other people that have been that it is a good idea to take dollars and so we are taking dollars and will use ATM machines as well.
Look forward to meeting you all.
Christine.
We have had the same debate about malaria tablets. The first nurse said that we needed them ( doctors surgery ) so I spent about a month agonising over which ones had the least side effects and finally decided on one type and the next nurse said that we do not need to take them looking at where we were going. So ..... I then phoned Nomad travel and they confirmed that in their view we did not need them . I have therefore taken the decision not to take them as their nurses are experts in travel needs. However, I warn you now , I have lots of anti mosquito spray so please don't think that is my normal perfume !!
Hope that helps.
Christine.
Hi Christine and Janet.
My trip to Thailand last year was my first of this type. We met a couple who had done several and they said on every single one the were always far more female children than male.The dad reckoned that this was because these types of holidays attracted more intelligent people and the more brainy the dad the more likely he was to have girls than boys. I dismissed this as rubbish at the time but its 6-2 to the girls on this one and would have been 7-2 had my 18 year old daughter not changed her mind about coming with us too late by which time the plane to KL was full. I am assuming that on this basis that Mr Conneely is operating at genius level.
We stopped at a Jungle place on the Thailand trip and they did have mosquito nets. My wife was planning on force feeding me and Joe malaria tablets from this weekend I didn't bother for Thailand and not sure if I will for Vietnam now, are the side effects bad?
Regarding the money the 2010 Rough guide to Vietnam contradicts the trip notes which suggests bringing dollars and travellers cheques. They says the cheapest option is just to get Dong from ATMs which are widespread now, though you can only withdraw about 2 million dong, about £70 at a time. Problems if you lose your card though.
Aidan
Hi all,
That's really useful , thank-you Aidan. I think we will take a mixture of dollars and credit cards to be covered. I phoned the bank today to let them know I would be overseas and using my credit card as last time I travelled they stopped the card and I couldn't get any money until I had contacted them to confirm my identity.
Re side effects of malaria tablets , my travelling days were about 15 years ago and so the tablets will have improved by now. I reacted badly to them feeling sick most of the time and developing photo-sensitivity. I think they are much more sophisticated now. Malarone is meant to be good but very expensive I think as it is a new drug and so they are price skimming. I was going to go for doxy something or other as it was less expensive ( considerably) and I think the side effects are rare. You realise that after all this , I am going to be the one covered in mosquito bites. Someone mentioned the a tropical disease unit in London that gives good advice but I selectively ignored it having made my mind up not to take them.
I am wondering if having 2 girls at once makes my husband even more of a genius???? Or is it laziness?
Christine.
i've actually got the prescription for malarone but haven't ordered tablets yet. abbie my eldest spent a month in borneo last year and all her group took them with absolutely no side effects. Am being pressurised by teenagers all of whom want to take anti-malarials and who are accusing me of of being a bad mothe and penny pinching when their health is at stake - on the bright side none of them are considering malaria as an instant weight loss programme a la Cheryl Cole! May well just cave in for a quiet life and just get them. We would start taking them in Hanoi anyway so don't have to do anything much beforehand.
To be honest if I had an excess of teenage boys I'd probably send them and my husband off on the Everest Base Camp trek or some extreme sailing adventure whilst I whiled away my time at a spa in the Maldives - this may explain why females outnumber males on these trips. Michael has to come with us to earn brownie points to use for golfing holidays - he's certainly intelligent enough to work that out!
That's so funny. My husband is earning brownie points as normally family holidays involve sailing ( in Devon ) or skiing ( I am not much good at either) and this year I put my foot down! Glad to hear from Aidan that these sort of trips are good as I have never been on one like this before but have heard good reports.
Now I am worrying about malaria tablets .......
i'm also a hopeless skiier - learnt as an adult, hormonally conditioned by motherhood not to take risks combined with a long-term knee injury means only way I am on slopes is with a group of likeminded females chasing after our cute ski instructor - unless we're having a day off!! don't let us bully you into having malaria tablets ... I'm absolutely convinced that we don't need them and am working it up to 'just forgetting' to get them - but consequential nagging from girls will be horrendous.
conneelysix
i'm also a hopeless skiier - learnt as an adult, hormonally conditioned by motherhood not to take risks combined with a long-term knee injury means only way I am on slopes is with a group of likeminded females chasing after our cute ski instructor - unless we're having a day off!! don't let us bully you into having malaria tablets ... I'm absolutely convinced that we don't need them and am working it up to 'just forgetting' to get them - but consequential nagging from girls will be horrendous.
conneelysix
