Vietnam Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

  I went to the Bobby Brew Coffee shop for a cup of good coffee and an (overpriced) American breakfast of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and toast. The street clamored with a funeral procession. At two nearby computer repair shops, I explained the symptoms of my crippled laptop but neither were capable of assistance. Their displays of accessories appeared to lag a decade behind the western world's computer age. For the time being my laptop was doomed.    I decided to spend the re...

In the morning, we piled into two vans and headed for the Cambodia/Vietnam border. Much of the drive to Vietnam from Sihanoukville was just as bumpy as the "Dancing Road". But the great scenery and great conversation distracted me and I barely noticed how the road was taking a toll on my bum. We stopped a couple of times, but the one stop I remember was pulling over to the side of the road in a forest in the middle of nowhere. A bunch of guys got out and stood on the side of the road to...

I met that 11 year old girl in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. It was my last day. She sold postcards while I was sitting at a Cafe. I asked her to come over and join me. She was an awesome girl. Smart, cute, cheeky, good hearted and so strong-minded.I saw so much in her... I wanted to stay in contact. She couldn't write and I knew she felt ashamed about it. I hired her to show me a few places. I bought her new shoes, since hers were wrecked. She looked kinda dirty and poor and there were lot...

I leave montreal the 4 of May 2008 direction vietnam!For sure i didnt know what i want to see there but that what i know its history about this wonderfull country and all the people saids to me if u go there be sure u will live a great experience so i was very exiting to be there!!!!! I arrive the 6 of MAy and first place was Hanoi!!!!!!!this town was absolutly amazing my first impression wow im very far of my home and fopr sure im very disorientated and i love it!!!!!!!!Hanoi have 4 million...

It was yet again another early start for me today as I waited for a bus to take me for a tour of the Mekong Delta, south of Ho Chi Minh City. I was looking forward to a leisurely boat ride down the river as opposed to the madness of the city. The bus took a while to reach the Delta but nowadays I'm pretty used to long bus/train journeys so 8 hours just isn't a problem anymore. Its strange to think that I used to think London to Manchester was a long journey (3-3 and a half hours). It just rea...

Nachdem ich das allermeiste meines Gepäcks in Hanoi gelassen habe, habe ich dort leider auch meine Ausrüstung für meine Kontaktlinsen zurückgelassen. Also konnte ich sie über Nacht nicht herausnehmen. Das habe ich zwar bisher im Zug auch immer so gemacht und nie Probleme gehabt, aber heute hat sich das gerächt. Hat unheimlich wehgetan, als ich aufgewacht bin und ich konnte nichts dagegen tun, das heißt so wirklich genießen konnte ich den heutigen Tag nicht wirklich. Macht aber nichts,...

This was our second stop and to our dismay we actually stopped at the port of Vung Tao (I don't know if I spelt that right).  The port is about 2.5 hours from Ho Chi Minh so we got a bit worried about just trying to wing it on our own.  Neither of us are very interested in the tour packages they offered and both of us wanted to see Saigon, not some small city out side of it.  We tried to sign up for the Ho Chi Minh on your own 'tour' which was just transportation to/from the ci...

After enjoying the City tour the previous day I decided to try out another one, the Cu Chi Tunnels whole day tour (80000VND inclusive of the tunnel entry fee), there were other combinations with the Cu Chi tunnel tour but I was advised by the Koreans the previous day that this would be more worthwhile. hence i started off the day with another of the 'bre o e or bre n ja' breakfasts, this time i went for bre n ja' i think the former was still better. their breakfasts in Vietnam btw as i've h...

At breakfast, met another Australian family on holiday.  The college kid was so sweet - he said I didn't look a day over 20.  What a charmer!  It could also have been the fact that I tied my hair in braids and looked like a Chinese peasant girl, but whatever.  I'll take compliments wherever I can!  :) Anh picked us up for the Mekong Delta tour.   We drove out of the city for about 2 hours.  Anh showed us ponds filled with lotuses and morning glories - ...

Only my second full day in Ho Chi Minh and I already wanted a breather.  However, baring a holiday, I have never left again.  I love Minh City, I think that I was just eager to spy a bit of the countryside.  I negotiated a horrible fare, in retrospect, at the time, however, I thougth I was the master of the barter.  I'll leave that number untyped.  I hopped on the back of a motorbike and headed to Cu Chi to check out the tunnels used by the Viet Cong. ...

Nu'oc cong hoa xa hoi chu nghia Viet Nam! After being wrecked on the overnight bus from Kunming, the first thing on the menu in Sa Pa is sleeping. The next three of four hours are divine.. Sleeping must be one of my favorite activities in the world. I think I could devote an entire blog entry to the joy of sleeping, heck I could write a book about it. A trilogy even. I do think you're all familiar with the phenomenon though, so on with the story. At first I didn't really plan to stay i...

February 11-14, o6 - Hanoi, Vietnam. It happened when one of my friends asked me "Do you want to go to vietnam during valentine's weekend?". I thought just a minute, no boyfriend to hang out with at that time, don't want to be home alone on that weekend so i said yes so easy. She asked the same thing to the other friends too and they all said yes then this trip i had 7 companions, all are women, very noisy trip!!! Haha! We went to Hanoi, a capital city of vietnam.  My friend's ...

It strikes me that true heroism is doing what is necessary, whether you want to or not, whether you feel prepared or capable of performing the task, and without thought to the harm that may come your way. My Grandpa is a hero. He became a hero out of necessity when his plane went down over Vietnam during World War II and he spent the next 8 months with his flight crew in Vietnam surviving. First on the run from the Japanese and ultimately captured until he was liberated at the end of th...

Our destination for the day was Ninh Binh province (2 hour distance from Hanoi), more specifically Tam Coc and Hoa Lu. We had planned daily tours in Vietnam and made Hotel Reservation with Vietnamstay. This day we were supposed to leave our Hotel at 7:30, but our tour guide for the day arrived at around 8:30. We quickly realized that Vietnamese are always late and we had to get used to it. He was a young little guy who spoke pretty good English. He told us to call him Saturday since his ...

After an emotional goodbye at the airport, with Kyle flying off to conquer the world of transport planning, I wasn't really in the mood for dealing with Thai immigration as to why I had overstayed my visa. It wasn't like I hadn't intended to, to be honest, seen as it worked out a lot cheaper to pay a fine for a couple of days than renew for a whole month's worth. Although I got out of the country fine, I still felt like I had been breaking the law and was getting a telling off. On the way to...