Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City as it is now officially called) is a crazy, busy and buzzing place. Having experienced Hanoi, Saigon seemed like more of a worldly city with large department stores, big cars and very big roads. At the airport we had some bargaining issues with the taxi driver who was about 18 years old, but in the end we made our deal and left for the guesthouse in Pham Ngu Lao, the touristy area in District 1 of Saigon. Dropped at our address, our hostel was nowhere to be seen…Looking like the lost backpackers that we were, [View Full Entry]

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We landed in Hue only to find out it was even rainier here than Sapa. Yay........It wasn't really bad luck - every other person we've spoken to on our trip said they left Hue after one day because it was just 'so rainy'. For us, this was the perfect opportunity to have a lazy afternoon in our hotel 'Thang Long', where I'm almost sure we were the only guests. Looking at the weather forecast for the coming week, we decided to change our travel plans...we had hoped to spend a few days relaxing on the beach in Nha Trang, but all [View Full Entry]

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When we arrived in Sa Pa it was foggy, wet and pretty cold, so I was glad I had stuffed all my warm clothing in my small bag at the last minute along with an extra scarf. After a nice warm shower we felt a little better and were ready for our first visit to the towns of Lao Chai and Ta Van. As we walked outside we were immediately approached by the first of the local minorities, the Black H'Mong women, dressed in interesting looking outfits, with little black hats and black leather "legwarmers". Some spoke good English (the better [View Full Entry]

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Time for a new update! Me and Krista have decided to head off on another holiday together - this time to explore Vietnam and Cambodia (and a mini-visit to Thailand with a few days in Bangkok at the end). We started with an extremely long journey to Hanoi...the cheapest deal we could find was with Finnair and so we thought a few hours in Helsinki would be fun,do a quick tour of the city in 8 hours before flying on to Asia. With our booking in August we hadn't really thought about the cold and dark weather in Scandinavia in mid-November,so [View Full Entry]

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After few hours of sleep and a 4 hour flight, we arrived safely in Jakarta. The first difference, the heat, was noticeable straight away. A sign saying “Welcome to Jakarta. Death Penalty for Drug Traffickers” was also quite noticeable in the arrivals hall….a warm welcome indeed! Once we had picked up our luggage, we met our driver Kiki who would accompany us for our 10-day stay in Indonesia. It soon became clear why a driver is recommended: cars overtake you on the right, or the left, there are a lot of tollbooths where you’re not really sure how much it really [View Full Entry]

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So- the start of a new trip... My younger sister Simone has been on a university exchange for the past 5 months at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and with the end of the exchange approaching my parents had planned to visit and continue on to visit Jakarta with her, as she was born there. My not-so-subtle hints saying I wanted to come along seemed to work, as it soon turned into a family trip :) Quite unique as we haven't travelled together as a family for 10 years or so! During an 11-hour fully booked Cathay Pacific [View Full Entry]

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My third summer spent in the US is now officially over and working life in Amsterdam has started, but the last weeks travelling the States were well-spent, lots of states covered :) From New Hampshire I headed for Boston to meet my camp buddy from 2005, Jenny. I spent the first days relaxing and enjoying lazy days which had not been possible in camp, where there is a LOT of structure (so there should be, imagine no structure in a camp with 300-something girls....) Anyhow, it was nice doing what I wanted, i.e. stroll through a city, have a Mexican lunch [View Full Entry]

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Time is flying by.....!! We're already in the last session of the summer (there are 4 sessions of 2 weeks), then one week of family camp and my camp summer is already over, with a few days of traveling around the US before heading back to the Netherlands. Some personal highlights were Olympic Day in 2nd session and going to Hampton Beach, NH on International Staff Day Off. Olympic Day is, as the name would suggest, a type of competition where the different teams are represented by the different international staff members at camp. I was team captain for the Netherlands, [View Full Entry]

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So, finally my first entry after being back here at camp in New Hampshire for the third year! Leaving the Netherlands in the early hours of a Sunday morning, I slept through most of my journey to New York. In New York I had a few hours at the airport, which I spent trying to find my way around JFK airport, even the staff wasn't always able to tell me where my terminal or gate was... No wonder, when I saw my propeller plane, operated by "Freedom Airlines" - it was tiny and only had about 9 rows. Unlike the [View Full Entry]

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After 5 nights in Tulum it was time to move on yet again. Our next stop was Playa del Carmen, where we had heard it was pretty touristy and as we arrived we quickly saw this was true. Everything is written in English and everyone speaks English...and all the shops have their prices in US Dollars, just to make it that little easier for the tourists I guess...not that the exchange rate is a tough calculation, but whatever. We found a hostel opposite the bus station in the main street, which we quickly opted for especially since our backpacks were getting [View Full Entry]

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