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away
The Simple Life in Hanoi
T
here
is no betterway to get acquainted
with a foreign city than to be shown
around by a local. It’s more evident
when you don’t speak the language
and you want a hassle-free holiday
without having to plan minute details.
I had chanced upon toursbylocals.
com – a web-based service operating out of Vancouver
–when performing an online search for “private tours”.
With guides in more than 130 countries, it seemed
pretty credible.
I chose two itineraries by two different guides. We
communicated via e-mail and I tweaked the program
to give some of the more common tourist traps a
miss because I was more into people-observing and
culture-absorbing than ticking off a checklist of places.
They were happy to oblige.
Private tours with local guides gave
Edwin Koh
glimpses of daily life in the Vietnamese
capital.Theycost slightlymore than run-of-the-mill sight-seeing, but thepersonalised
experiencewas certainly priceless.