Lottie Let Loose

Vietnam IS moped madness personified! Ho Chi Minh City was the craziest for sheer numbers - so many you couldn't cross the street! But it was the strange loads, the huge loads, the 'oi troi oi, you're not serious!' loads that got me taking shot after shot. So here is a selection of the best I managed to get. I missed loads of amazing ones just cos my camera wasn't at the ready. I never did get 4 members of one family on one bike or a tiny child standing at the front of the bike. Crazzzzeeeeeee!... read more

Following our Cu Chi tunnels experience we headed back to the capital Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon as it used to be known before reunification) and after longed for showers and some lunch we headed off on a scary but hilarious cyclo tour of the city. Cyclos are the equivalent of the Indian rickshaws, only on these contraptions you sit at the front with the guy pedalling behind you rather than in front in India. This, of course, means that YOU are heading into the traffic first! Remember my description of the massed mopeds? Well all 4 million of them seemed to be heading towards us as we set off ACROSS the flow of traffic on left turns! Apparently cyclos have right of way in this crazy system and very trusting of this rule the riders ... read more

For the last day in Nha Trang we had a free morning so I headed off on my own in an attempt to see a massive white Buddha statue. Unfortunately the map we'd been given didn't have a scale on it and by the time I'd reached the Catholic Cathedral (bizarre!) and then a war memorial statue near the train station, I admitted defeat and gave up on my mission, opting instead to get a cyclo back to the beach area. I haggled my price and off we set across the main road straight into oncoming, wave after wave of mopeds! We eventually got across to the right hand side of the road and only a couple of roundabouts - with criss-crossing madness - to endure and we arrived at the beach. I spent the next ... read more

Well I survived Room 101 but someone else did get flooded in the night (via their faulty air con) so maybe I projected it onto them - do it to Nat, do it Nat! (George Orwell's 1984 reference if you didnt' know.) Today was to be a blissful one of relaxation, relaxation and maybe a bit more relaxation thrown in for good measure. We set off from the busy port at Nha Thrang in a wooden boat with our guide for the day An and a massage/nail lady too. We were barely out of the port before our girls were sitting having their nails done. We were heading to the island of Mieu where the population are mostly children (they love big families there - up to 6 or 7 in a family is common). The ... read more

We had been warned not to have a heavy lunch so, after picking up my swanky boots, I found myself a funky restaurant with great art-work of the 'down with capitalism, big brother is watching you' variety and did as I was told and ordered myself a cheese cake and a banana lassi for my light lunch :P We picked up the bikes from the hotel then set off on the slowest cycle ride I've ever been on. We were being led by a motorbike guy (as one of our group didn't feel confident cycling and so was on the bike with him). Despite the annoyingly slow speed and much breaking to avoid crashing into the person in front, we got to see some great stuff. After pootling along the banks of the river for a ... read more