Today (11/11 ) seems to be a fitting day to begin blogging our next adventure - it is now 11 sleeps until we leave. No. 1 daughter is very excited and No. 2 is heading that way but until her last VCE exam is over, the holiday is still far from her mind. Remembrance Day always makes me think of my grandfather and this trip is very much about him as we will be touring the WW1 battlefields of France and Belgium where he served. This first entry of our travels is also a bit of a "test-run" to make sure [View Full Entry]

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I am finally able to upload some images to show you. I thought I might group them into themes for easier viewing LOL!! - haven't done a count of how many photos we have taken; but I can tell you, Rob has taken more than me! Some of these photos are amongst my favourites - we found the people of Vietnam very friendly; as we would walk by them in the streets - we would often get a smile, nod and hello and those who were servicing us always called us Sir & Madam. The street scenes of the local people [View Full Entry]

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We have been keeping a fairly busy pace for the past couple of days and haven't found time to blog - sorry if you have been anxiously awaiting the next installment. Anyway here we are filling in sometime before our transfer to the airport so we will do our best to fill in you in on what we have been up to. 25/8/08 - at 8am which felt like the hottest part of the day we took a walk along Cua Dai Beach across the road from our resort to take a few last minute pics there. The locals were already [View Full Entry]

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We have just found a computer that will read our camera - so here are some pics to go with my last entry - enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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Sorry we have skipped a day of blogging - yesterday was a busy day and then there was a Miss Vietnam function at our resort and I couldn't get Rob to follow me to the computer room - he he! However I will try and update you with our movements of the past couple of day ( btw thanks for your comments - this sure beats postcards - hey??! ) Ok, yesterday we headed into the orphanage and the Assistant Director showed us around. Her English was very limited and she kept apologising but we got by. They were very appreciative [View Full Entry]

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Well as you can see from today's title we have moved on...but before I tell you about that. I have some more scooter shenanigans to report.....yep I'm obsessed. I just find the amount of scooter traffic unbelievable - I don't think there are are any road rules here, or if they are, they are not obeyed. We have rarely seen anyone stop for a traffic light, and roundabouts are unreal, it seems you can enter at any time from any direction. There are pedestrian crossings but no-one and I mean no-one gives way to a pedestrian - you just walk across [View Full Entry]

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Another hot day here today and a few showers of rain but that didn't stop us heading into the city centre and visiting the sights. First stop was Ben Thanh Market - mmm interesting sights & smells. We did some souvenir shopping and photo taking - check out the pic of someones dinner tonight ( not ours thankyou! ) Then cyclo ride to the museum that was even more interesting - dodging & weaving through the scooter traffic....many close calls but we live to tell the tale LOL! Then off to the Rex Hotel for lunch in the roof top bar [View Full Entry]

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Yes we are here in HCMC (Saigon) - we had a "rocky" start with a 2 hour delay with our flight leaving Melbourne....but no real worries. We arrived here in the dark but as soon as we landed we felt the temperature change, not sure what it was, but I know if we knew we would probably have felt hotter! It was also raining and has been on and off all day but that hasn't spoilt any of our plans. We started today by meeting our iexplore travel rep and tour guide along with his driver in the hotel foyer at [View Full Entry]

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Yes - we are packed and rearing to go. We have done all the mandatory research; read the LP guide from front to back, watched the movies "Good Morning Vietnam" and "The Quiet American", googled and read numerous travel blogs..... all we need to do now is experience the real thing LOL! Would you believe there is another couple from Shepp. on our flight - I was talking to a client at work and she was telling me all about her travel plans, we looked at each other in disbelief when we realised we were flying out on the same flight [View Full Entry]

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...a very good start! we sent our passports & visa applications (along with $75 each) to the Vietnamese Embassy in Canberra last Monday and today they arrived back in our letterbox - how efficient is that?? I know it is done all the time but I get a little anxious about my passport being in someone elses hands....especially seeing one of the girls I travelled to HK with was a victim of identity fraud. On one of her precious O/S trips her backpack was stolen while checking out of a hotel, it is a long story but she had to revert [View Full Entry]

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