Blogs from Vietnam, Asia - page 1301

I want to thank you for the information you sent me. I will take it all into consideration. If you do come across more infor. please let me know. Thank You Scuba... read more

Sapa We hopped onto an overnight train and headed for the small town of Sapa close to the Chinese border. On the two hour bus ride from the train station up to Vietnam's highest town some 2000m up we were treated with some fantastic views of the surrounding area and rice terrarces. I know rice terraces are not the most exciting thing in the world but the views were awesome; the terraces stretched up the mountain sides like giant steps covered in mist. That day we met a crazy Austrailian guy who kept buying beer and vodka for everyone in the hotel and insisted that we went out that night. Unfortunately due to some of the dodgy food we ate on the Halong Bay boat trip Tony was quite ill and would not leave the safety ... read more

Hi All!! How are you doing!! It's been a month since our last update, and quite a hectic one it's been. Accompanied by the wonderful Robyne (Daniel's mum), we have covered Vietnam bottom to top, and I can tell you we have made the most of it alright. A beautiful country with beautiful people who (in contrast to the Cambodians) have moved on from the atrocities of their war torn past, and are happily going about their day to day lives. In the countryside this involves lots of rice, growing vegetables and fattening up cows, chickens, pigs, and yes, dogs (more about that later) - life here doesn't seem to have changed much in the last millenium or so, with women wearing pointy straw hats going back and forth on their cycles, people working the fields ... read more

Unsere Reise nach Kon Tum verlaeuft etwas anders als erwartet. Zuerst muessen wir von Hoi An morgens um 8 Uhr zurueck nach Da Nang und nehmen von dort den Bus nach Quy Nhon, noerdlich von Nha Trang, dem Badeort Vietnams. Den "Highway" 14 direkt nach Kon Tum koennen wir nicht nehmen, da der Bus ueber diese Strecke keine Touristen mitnimmt. Warum, das wollen/koennen sie uns an der Busstation nicht sagen. Wie immer, unhaltbar schlechtes Englisch bei allen Anwesenden. Da muss sich noch einiges dran aendern, wenn Vietnam mal wirklich touristisch erschlossen werden soll. Die Strasse verlaeuft in der Kuestenebene und einmal mehr sehen wir unbeschreiblich schoene Landschaften. Reisfelder, Palmen, alles in saftigem gruen, kleine Oertchen und eine Gott sei dank sehr gute Strasse. Nach vier recht angenehmen Stunden im Bus - trotz sehr gewagter Ueberholmanoever - ... read more

Halong bay Well after a few miserable rainy days in Hanoi we decided we could not put the Halong Bay trip off any longer and decided to book through our hotel (Darling back packers - bad choice!). Luckily we had timed our trip perfectly and the weather was great, after waiting around for what seemed like hours in the scorching heat, watching the complete chaos of all the boats trying to push their way through to the harbour, we boarded and set off. Halong Bay is beautiful; it is a myriad of limestone cliffs protruding at random intervals from the sea. The rock formations are staggered with cracks and steps making this place a rock climber’s heaven. The scenery was reminiscent of Koh Phi Phi in Thailand, however unfortunately the water did not look quite as ... read more