Blogs from Vietnam, Asia - page 10

Wow my nostrils , eyes and ears were assaulted by the wonders of Hanoi today , all in a good way ! From the love of their horns, to the blast of smells from the market to the amazing stalls selling decorations for New Year ! 30,000 steps later we’ve filed past the embalmed body of Ho Chi Min, had to dodge scooters and cars at every crossing, sipped a cocktail in Train street, been entertained by the water puppet show, wandered around Dong Xang market and had an incredible massage ( all staff were partially sighted) . What a day ! Thanks Hanoi! ... read more

This morning we were woken up 6.00am-ish by notifications coming through to our phones about Preston LXRP works on Cramer Street tomorrow (Tuesday). Hmmn, perhaps we should unsubscribe from the level crossing removal project notifications while we are on holidays? Not to worry, since I was awake I decided that I WOULD wash my hair this morning!! Besides which we needed to make sure we breakfasted earlier this morning with our excursion for today occurring before lunch. The sampans arrived before 8.30am to whisk us across the river to a fish farm where we learnt about rearing the fish. It is a long process, taking about about nine months to grow the fish to marketable size. It sure is smelly though. The pong of the fish and rice food that they make up for them onsite ... read more

Well, I had a pretty rough night going at both ends!! We consulted our symptoms sheet from the Travel Doctor and decided some azithromycin could be in order. My dear husband brought three slices of white toast back from the dining room for me … and that’s all I ate all day. I managed only half a slice with a scrape of Vegemite for breakfast. For lunch and dinner I was able to get a whole slice into me washed down with lemon and ginger tea. Thank goodness I brought the Vegemite, my ultimate comfort food when recovering from feeling dodgy in the tummy. I stayed in bed all day just about comatose! Steps for the day: 1,337 (0.89km) I’m actually surprised that I moved that much! Meanwhile, Bernie, Cathy and Steve visited the Ben Thanh ... read more

We decided to get an earlier start today so that, hopefully, it wouldn’t be quite so hot and humid as we walked to our first sightseeing stop?? We hit the dining room for breakfast about 7.45am and we were out of the front door of the hotel before 9.00am. We were exploring on foot again today. Yesterday we saw the Hop On Hop Off bus so we looked into that on the internet yesterday afternoon. Hmmn, it turns out that it’s a bit of a misnomer because you can’t actually hop on and off the bus! You board the bus at the Opera House, you complete a 45 minute loop of the city’s main points of interest and then you hop off the when you return to the Opera House. There was also a long list ... read more

Finally! Four years, one month and 12 days after returning from our last overseas trip we are on a flight to a destination outside of Australia. Our cruise on the Mekong from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap was originally booked in 2019 for October 2020 but, like so many other holidays, the pandemic put paid to that. In due course Pandaw officially advised that the October 2020 sailing would not be taking place but, if we would like to retain our booking, they would roll it over to October 2021 and they would upgrade us to a cabin on the upper deck. So we left our deposit with Pandaw and put it in our calendar for 2021. When 2021 rolled around, world travel was still up in the air so Pandaw offered to roll ... read more