Cuisine Adventure Tours Pre-Departure Blog Post

Cuisine Adventure Tours customer prepares for her upcoming trip.

One of Cuisine Adventure Tours’ customers has recently committed to a tour this late summer. As she gets ready for her tour, there are lots of things that are crossing her mind. We hear from her now as she explains some things she will do to prepare for the cuisine tour:

One of the things that I needed to research before the tour was what type of money Vietnam uses. In case you are wondering, it is the Vietnamese dong (VND)! I wanted to arrive with some local money, so I went to my bank and ordered a small amount of Vietnamese dong. The exchange rate of U.S. dollars (USD) to Vietnamese dong is very high. Although it fluctuates, one USD equates to about 22,000 to 25,000 VND.

A second thing I needed to research was the weather. While it does stay consistently warm throughout the year, it can fluctuate. November through April is a bit cooler and mostly dry, where as the summer months can reach very hot temperatures and experience rainfall.

Since I am going during August, when it is warmer, I will pack light-colored, loose clothing, keeping in mind to pack something appropriate for temples and places of worship. I will pack loose pants, dresses, a couple pairs of shorts, some t-shirts and tank tops as well as a scarf or shawl for when it’s cooler at night or I need to cover my shoulders.

Another thing that I wanted to research was how to say a couple of useful or common phrases in Vietnamese. Some of the common phrases I wanted to learn were, “Hello”, “How are you?”, “Can I buy…?”, “Thank you!” and “Goodbye”. Tan Pham, co-founder of Cuisine Adventure Tours and one of the guides that accompanies you on the tour, enthusiastically provided answers and translations for me.