Laowai

The first thing I did when I arrived late in the afternoon in Mui Ne is check out the beach… Only to discover that there wasn’t any! The guesthouse I was staying in had a beachfront without any sand; the ocean directly hit a small dike! Also the other guesthouses and resorts I could see, until far in the distance, didn’t have any beach. No!!! Why have a beachless beach resort town? It didn’t make much sense. After dropping my bags in my room I ran into Dave, one of the people I met on the mountain in Da Lat. He comforted me by telling that there actually is a small beach in the morning. Apparently they built the resorts too close to the water front, resulting in no beach at high tide. I went to ... read more

Massage, Sauna, Mud Bat, Hot Springs... What more do you want? On Valentines day I took a night bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang. Finally I would reach the good weather... Nha Trang is a medium-sized city with a large beach front, and is the location in Vietnam for beach holidays and water sports. The bus arrived at 6am. I found a nice hotel, 100 meter from the beach, but I couldn't enter the room until noon so I walked around the beach. Already at this early hour people wereexercising and playing sports at the beach front. When I left the beach to check out the tourist part of the city I encountered Jens and Anke again, the German couple I met before in Hue. We had breakfast together and they went back to their ... read more

Just Not My Day After spending almost 2 weeks in Hanoi and surroundings it was time to move. Hue used to be the capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen dynasty between 1802 and 1942. Because of this there are many historical sites such as the imperial citadel, tombs of the emperors, and several temples and pagodas. To get to Hue I took a night bus from Hanoi. The 'beds' where decent, 1.80 meter long, too short for me but still OK. I didn't get much sleep though... Before we even left, the Vietnamese guy in the bed next to me started shouting to the bus driver for about 15 minutes. During that time he threw an empty can of coke downstairs, I don't know why, maybe he tried to provoke the bus driver or something. The ... read more

Bay of Descending Dragons "Ha Long" is literally translated as "Bay of Descending Dragons." In 1898 a sub-lieutenant named Lagredin, captaining the Avalanse reported seeing a huge sea snake on Ha Long Bay. This was also witnessed by many of the crews. Thus emerged the European image of the Asian dragon. Whether this appearance of a strange animal looking like a dragon resulted the name of Ha Long Bay is not known. (source: Wikitravel.org) In Hanoi I booked a three day, two night trip to Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island. The trip included one night of accommodation on a boat and one night in a hotel on Cat Ba Island. After boarding I sat down on a table of mostly Chinese, and another foreigner that was living in China. The table was dubbed 'Chinese ... read more

Green City of China Nanning calls itself the 'green city of China', and because of it's green parks and tropical surroundings it's a name well chosen. Since I had to wait until the next Monday for the Vietnamese consulate to open, I had three whole days to explore the city. Nanning is a very friendly city with some nice parks that are not filled up with gardens and tea houses like most Chinese parks. However it severely lacks nightlife: besides severalKTV's (karaoke bars) I only found a single bar. It's a Chinese shopping paradise though, lots of shops with the required McDonald's and KFC's in between over a large area. Even underground, I think Nanning has the most extensive network of underground shopping streets in China; with one street going on for more than a kilometer. ... read more