R&M
CanuckCouple
We are a Canadian couple from BC Canada who both enjoy travel and we try to get away at least once a year. Brand new to blogs etc.. so here goes
Travel Blog Posts
March 11th 2008
Fri March 7th Sapa Vietnam (Sapa-Hanoi-Hong Kong-Vancouver-Kelowna) Today is the BIG travel day !!! It has become evident to us both that Rod should have paid a lot more attention to the details of these final days. To try and jam in Sapa in our final day? (with the overnight train travel involved in coming and going) wasn't my smartest move. We were tired when we arrived, neither of us sleeping well on the overnight train so we had a kind of "groggy" day here and the weather was kind of grey and drizzly, chilly etc. We both slept fairly well in the single night we were in the hotel only to wake up realizing we were in for a damn long journey back home. Once we leave the hotel it is a single continuous journey ... read more
March 6th 2008
Wed Mar 5th Hue-Hanoi-Sapa Raining and chilly when we wake in Hue this morning and its just dawned on me to check the schedule we built for today. I should have paid a weeeeee bit more attention. Morning is fine..time for a nice breakfast etc and a car picking us up at 10:30 to take us to the airport.. 12:10 flight to Hanoi arriving 1:30 (so far so good)..then hmmmmmm the train doesnt leave for Sapa till 10pm..car is meeting us at the airport..but WTF are we supposed to do for 5 or 6 hours in the afternoon and evening. I should have thought of this before and booked a hotel room or sommit for the afternoon. Driver agree's to keep our heavy luggage..drops us off downtown @2:30 and we have to wander around until 8:30. ... read more
March 4th 2008
Tuesday Mar 4 in Hue It's 2:40 Tuesday afternoon here ( I mostly do that for myself cause I've lost all track of which day it is ) and we are in the city of Hue on the banks of the Perfume River. We stayed in this same hotel ( The Saigon Morin) when we were last here in 2006! At that time we saw what we thought was the most spectacular rainstorm imaginable (turned out it was the predecesor of a Typhoon that blew through a few days later). Hotel itself is very interesting..originally built in 1901 as French colonial hotel and much of the original woodwork etc is still in place and amazing still. The large center courtyard has trees in it that I'm sure predate the building and its truly an oasis in ... read more
I wish.. That I knew what I know now...when I was younger
Published: March 2nd 2008Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Phan Thiet
March 2nd 2008
Sat March 1st Phan Thiet Vietnam Another lovely day in paradise!! Waken to the sound of the surf and the birds..coffee on our patio..an amazing buffet breakfast and settle in for a full day of "veging".. We spent pretty much the whole day relaxing on the patio..reading and talking..with M making the occasional foray into one of the pools to cool down. I think the title line I put above is a Rod Stewart song..altho I'm not certain. I was saying to M earlier how fortunate we are that we both enjoy travel so much togeather..and indeed how fortunate we've been to be able to do it when we have. I started out by thinking of things that I/we had opportunities to do when we were younger..in school.. like learn languages..history..geography geo-politic etc.. all of which ... read more
February 29th 2008
Fri Feb 29 Victoria Hotel Phan Thiet Vietnam Soooooooooo.. still woke up about 6 am but thats because we wanted to..didnt have to. Beautiful morning..sun rising as we had coffee out on our patio with the surf pounding away... many fisherman out in small boats and birds singing all around us. This is a drop dead gorgeous property..grounds are lovely..the beachfront bungalow is great..the outdoor shower is cool once you get over the initial thought that one of the gardeners will pop his head thru the flowers and wish you a smiling good morning. Huge buffet breakfast with all sorts of asian and western foods with tables out on the deck overlooking the beach. We had a very early dinner last night and were back in the room by about 7pm... had a beer out on ... read more
Feb 28 Ho Chi Minh to Phan Thiet
Published: February 28th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Phan Thiet
February 28th 2008
Thurs Feb 28 2008 Ho Chi Minh city to Phan Thiet After a fairly quiet evening again last night we once again were awakened by a 6am wake up call in order to be ready to meet our car and driver at 8am to depart for Phan Thiet. This was to be another 4 hr or so journey to cover less than 200 km. We have to take the main North / South highway that interconnects Saigon and Hanoi. This entails sharing it with all other means of transportation (bicycles,scooters, cars, vans, cargo trucks, local buses, highway buses, semi trailers) on a 2 lane highway. Lets just say it's NOT a relaxing ride..these guys can find more ways to turn a 2 lane highway into 3 or 4 in a split second so you truly are ... read more
February 27th 2008
Can Tho Victoria Hotel We both sleep a little bit better last night..had some fairly serious rain around 6pm that cooled things down nicely for a bit. A nice pub dinner of Vietnamese dishes last night then a couple of beers on our deck watching the rain and all the river traffic scurrying to return to port and in bed by about 9. I did play around a bit with M's photo's as each of her photo's was sized at about 3 mb but then we remembered Lori telling me about Picassa and I tried it and it seems to have reduced them nicely so maybe we'll finally be able to post more than 1 :) Up @ 6am again and have a nice breakfast then have to pack and check out etc. We meet our ... read more
February 26th 2008
Feb 25 Finally we arrive in Can Tho at the Victoria resort. IN keeping with the pattern so far it was another long travel day. Quick painless flight to Ho Chi Minh City where we arrived about 10:30 am. I had forgotten how long some of the lineups in Vietnam can take. The processing of our entry/extra landing document thingies (which you need as well as a passport & a visa) seemed to take forever.. followed by a wait for our baggage that resulted in us exiting the airport about 12:30! We were met by a private car and driver and driven to Can Tho a journey of only 200 or so km that took us 4.5 hours.... the last 9 km alone took over an hour as it involves a ferry etc. The hotel is ... read more
February 24th 2008
Feb 23/24 2008 Long day 1 and 2...Flights are all on time etc bags are initially checked thru all the way to Ho Chi Minh City and that concerns us as are overnighting in Hong Kong. YVR becomes a little problematic for 2 smokers as we follow the signs from domestic arrivals to the international terminal only to discover we are now on the "secure" side of the airport. After we discover the "smoking" rooms were suspended on Jan 18th things become a tad "frosty" as they wont let us back out without clearing Canada customs etc which essentially turns a 14.5 hr flight into a 16.5 hour flight. Flight to HK is fine..14.5 hrs of 2 smokers dying to get out of the lil metal tube! Flight arrives in HK about 5 min early and ... read more
Starting to get ready to head for Vietnam
Published: February 7th 2008North America » Canada » British Columbia » Kelowna
February 7th 2008
Well we finally heard from the travel agent and apparently our passports as well as the visa's for Vietnam have arrived back. We depart on Feb 23 and our first stop will be in Hong Kong where we will overnight before flying to HCMC. Itinerary is land in HCMC and drive to Can Tho then HCMC, Phan Thiet, Hue, Sapa, Hanoi and then back home. It will be nice to warm up a little in the south as its been a long snowy winter here... another decent dump of snow last night and of course the Bobcat is once again sitting dead at the foot of the driveway. If the weather gods are with us we may even get to play a round of golf in Phan Thiet. Probably won't be anoth entry here until we ... read more
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