In September 2004 we visited Vietnam and Cambodia, whilst there I visited several breweries and made some good friends and collected lots of great labels.

First stop was Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), my wife and I hired two bicycle rickshaws (called cyclos) and I told the driver that I wanted to visit the nearest brewery (due to previous problems in the past, I was armed with an introductory letter in the local language this time), after more than an hour and a sore arse we eventually arrived at the Saigon 333 brewery, unfortunately this was not a good start to my beer tour, after duly showing the letter to the guard at the main gate he shook his head and waved me away, I persisted (thinking he didn't understand what I wanted) and showed him a Vietnamese label that I had removed earlier and tried to explain that I wanted more of these, he got on the phone and called someone (in the meantime the rickshaw drivers thought the situation was amusing and were laughing their heads off !) A well dressed gentleman turned up in a few minutes and explained to me in broken English that he could not give me any labels as he would get into trouble, he said he would send me some and took my address (but I received nothing), at the time it did not encourage me to pursue further breweries. I think the rickshaw driver felt a bit sorry for me so he stopped at a few small shops on the long way home and bought a few different full bottles of beer for me which I soaked off later in the hotel.

                                                                                                                 In front of the Saigon Brewery                                        Having beers with our rickshaw drivers

Next stop was Danang in central Vietnam, we first visited the Foster's Danang brewery and were greeted by a much friendlier manager, his name was Ha Ngoc Khoi and not only did he gave us plenty of labels but also gave us glasses and bottle openers along with a nice cold beer (which was appreciated in the humid weather) and took us on a quick tour of the brewery operations, this was more like it !

Entrance to Foster's Danang Brewery

We were on a roll now !!!, next destination was the beautiful city of Hue (the ancient capital located north of Danang), a fellow Aussie traveller I met decided it would be fun to come with me so we hired a couple of taxi motorbikes and sped off to the Huda (Perfume River) Brewery, we arrived at lunch break so we had to wait nearly an hour for the manager to arrive back, he was happy to see us and gave us plenty of labels which we gladly took.

At the front of the Huda Brewery, Hue

When we finished at the Huda Brewery, the locals told us of another "new" brewery in nearby Quang Nam Province, my new mate (I think he liked the idea of free beer) and I decided to take an air-conditioned taxi this time as it was an hour drive, when we finally arrived we couldn't believe it, a large modern brewery located in the middle of nowhere, at the main gate we were met by the "Vice Director" Nguyen Duy Tai, he took us to the function room and made us feel very important and welcome by drowning us in their lovely beer, he then provided us with all their current and obsolete labels, bottle openers, cigarette lighters, he then proceeded to show off the recent trophies they had won for their beers. Next we were treated to a tour of the factory, Tai pulled two bottles of beers straight of the conveyer line and gave them to us, you can't get any fresher than that !!!!, as we were leaving we took a few pictures out the front and on seeing this Tai shouted to the guard to turn on the water fountain, boy were we spoiled.

                                                                                                                   Tai and myself with the trophy                             Enjoying a fresh beer from the bottling line

After an excellent time in central Vietnam, we boarded our flight to the capital Hanoi in Northern Vietnam, when we landed and settled into our hotel, I started planning my next beer exploits, the main brewery in Hanoi called Hanoi Brewery (what else), was easily reached by taxi, the people here weren't as friendly but the manager did take me to the head office and gave me 3 labels (1 of each), he then went to the taxi driver and told him off, I am not sure what was said but I don't think the driver was supposed to take me to this brewery. On the way home was another brewery called "Halida", the lady at the front desk was happy to give me several labels but no friendly greetings, I decided Hanoi was not a good place to visit beer factories.

                                                                                                                         In front of a Hanoi Brewery truck                                          Entrance to Halida Brewery

All throughout Vietnam I kept seeing strange looking metal vessels on the side of country roads, these were explained to me as "Bia Hoi" which basically is a shop or cafe which sells it's own home brew in a large tank, I thought it would be interesting to try this beer so when the opportunity arose I asked the taxi driver to pull over and we all had a beer from the local bia hoi, the beer wasn't the best and slightly flat with a high alcohol content but it was an experience not to forget.

Bia Hoi with taxi driver and owner

As you can read we had quite a memorable experience in Vietnam, apart from the breweries, Vietnam is a great place to visit, it is quite a contrasting country for things to see and goes down as one of my best places to visit.

Below are some of my favourite Vietnam labels from my collection :

VIETNAM MEMORABILIA 1970's