Vietnam forum

Hi,
I've traveled around Asia and in 3 years I've used my net once!
If you are staying to the well traveled routes and not planning to hike up into the jungles & camp, then I'd have to say they are not worth carrying around.

If you need one in a homestay or guest house, they will be there.
Others may have different experiences though.

I haven't got a mosquito net and I've never really wished I had one with me.

Get a silk sleeping bag instead, extremely compact and light to carry and far more useful because many GHs don't have top sheets even if they do have mosquito nets. A sleeping bag would more or less cover all of your body and there are products you could impregnate it with to keep the mossies away.

Madmac
'(wife got bit on the forhead last week while sleeping - no fan).'
Why haven't you got a fan? Surely most of the villages are on the electricity grid now. Our place in Ampere Muang near Ubon has electricity, running water and even a telephone box.It even has a tour bus pass once a day to take people to Ubon and on to Bangkok.
I think your headman must have offended somebody

On the matter of mosquito nets, personally if I didn't have a fan I'd use a mosquito coil with plenty of ventilation as nets are hot as hell. I know I'm going to be told about toxic fumes but I prefer them to the constant buzz of mosquitos and scratching the bites all night.

I didn't realise that mosquitos liked air-conditioning.I thought the little beasts only flourished in the sweltering humidity.Must have been a rogue mosquito or just bad luck.
Believe it or not some of the village houses have a/c now. It's a terrible shame to see people knocking down the traditional wooden house and replacing it with cement and a/c. Personally I can't abide it as it gives me a sore throat but each to his own.

They fly in from the bathroom... We don't get a lot, but usually one or two infiltrate during the course of the day, and if we fail to locate and kill or capture the mosquito prior to lights out, he is just active enough in the cool climate to bite.

If the structure is concrete, then sleeping without AC is, for most of the year, miserable. The concrete retains too mu8ch heat from day. If it's a wooden structure that breathes, I am fine with a fan. BUT, you'd better have something in place to deal with the ants, because they infiltrate wooden houses quicker than a VC sapper.

woops, sorry I meant jelly (as you're American)

In Vietnam we were planning to stay at the following places:
Bai Tu Long Bay cruise - 3 days, staying at a nice junk
Hanoi (6 days) - stay at a good hotel
Hue/Hoi An - 3-5 days
Northern Mountains of some sort / Sapa - 4-5 days

SBE
Why would they want to get in your laptop? Reckon you must have been snacking while using it and minute crumbs have got inside.
Actually ants are just as much a pest as mosquitos and nets don't keep them out.
Putting little cups of oil under table legs is the standard practice in Malaysia don't know about Thailand. So you could keep your laptop on the table!
What are those things which bite you on the beach and the bites take ages to heal?
Again no net for them.
I think mosquitos are the least of your worries in the Tropics.
No, nets are too hot; stick to a fan or a burning coil and don't snack in bed or your laptop will suffer.

Depends on what kind of accommodation you're staying in krestniy. If you're staying in posh hotels then you won't need a mosquito net or a sleeping bag because you'll have A/C and top sheets.

In cheap accommodation you'll probably have a fan and often there will be no top sheet. You could use a sarong as a sheet but they tend to slip off during the night ... a sleeping bag doesn't.

Not everywhere in SE Asia is hot, especially the more mountainous areas. I haven't been to Vietnam but I don't think Sapa would be very warm in winter, probably downright cold in fact. Even beaches can get pretty cool at night. I needed a blanket as well as my sleeping bag when I was staying in a beach bungalow in Thailand last winter, even with the fan off. Simple bamboo or wooden beach huts have lots of natural ventilation (unlike concrete bungalows) and there's usually a breeze coming off the sea.

I think the ants probably got attracted by beer spills Sayadian. I never have any food in my room because that attracts rats. [img]smileys/wink.gif[/img] Wee red ants seem to be attracted to the extra heat inside a laptop. I've tried putting my laptop inside a plastic bag full of bug spray ...it kinda works but there are always a few survivors. I read somewhere that deep freezing the laptop was the answer but I haven't dared try that yet...bit afraid that that will cause condensation which might not be terribly good for the innards. Has anyone tried that solution?

What are those things which bite you on the beach and the bites take ages to heal?

Sandflies, AKA no-see-ums because they are very tiny and can get through standard sized mesh mosquito nets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratopogonidae

woops, sorry I meant jelly (as you're American)

HAHA! We have jam in every grocery store in the states....

But if Mac needs some Smuckers I will take up a collection...!