Hanoi, i would say, is a fascinating blend of the east and west. less developed than saigon, but still pretty much modernized. the thing about vietnam is that they have such a weird mix. chinese roots, french colonial (alot of them can speak french and you can see french everywhere), vietnamese language and their accent sounds so like cantonese. we stayed at the old quaters (like the real old chinatown, streets are really narrow), near the famous Hoan kiem lake. since we got sick of museums, we only went to the temple of literature as it was recommended. it was the [View Full Entry]

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Hue is the former imperial capital of vietnam and we can see why when you go into the royal tombs and the citadel. unfortunately, i stayed in the hotel for 4-5 days because i was having food poisoning and fever. the first thing i did when i got into my hotel was to head straight to the toilet to vomit. so i had to recover before we get on another 12 hours bus ride to hanoi. now you can see why hai dang hotel was my fav. hotel beacuse i spent 90% of my time in it. and television programmes had [View Full Entry]

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Hoi an is a gem, you will either love it or hate it. it's listed in the UNESCO world heritage. for my personal preference, i hate it. because it was sooo hot (i've never felt so hot and there was virtually no clouds in the sky) and we were so unlucky to have the electricity cut off for 2 days. so from 6am-6pm, we had to wake up early because there was no ventilation, hang ard and wait for time to pass. you cant do/see much in hoi an because it's really small and the number of tailor shops are even [View Full Entry]

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nha trang! the beautiful blue waters and clear skies, you can toss all your worries away. on the first day we lazed around at the beach. paid to lie under the shade, listened to the breeze, watched people para-gliding above the water, children playing in the sand, couples hugging in the waters and locals going ard to sell things to other lazy bums who were sun-tanning. so that night since we spent so little, we decided to have a veryyy good dinner. since we were such vivid supporter of truch linh (the hotel we stayed), we went to truch linh 1 [View Full Entry]

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Saigon (Ho Chin Minh City) - every man's paradise literally, most of the vietnamese girls wear really low cut shirts. it's my fav. city too because of the bustling night life. we stayed at pham ngu lao district (cant rem how to spell) and it's reallyyy charming in a way. love the small streets and small cafes here and there. but i hate vietnam's traffic. not because it's un-orderly, but it's too irritating and noisy (it would be a miracle if u can avoid hearing horns for 10 seconds). but at the end of the trip, we both have been masters [View Full Entry]

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We had a dubious night entry into Phnom Penh where we dropped off at a red light district and were hounded by alot of detestable locals who tried to induce us to stay at their guesthouse. We declined and move on but were too tired to settle for anything so slept the night out at the area at a super wulu guesthouse. The first impression of cambo wasn't good at all. Checked out immediately the next morning and surprise surprise, walked all the way down(a few kilometres with our heavy and fat bagpacks with repeated attempts to fend off those irritating [View Full Entry]

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Don dhet brings fond memories because i hardly had any sleep while i was there. i was mostly at my hammock with 3 straying dogs coming in and out of the room in the night. swaying to the music and giggles of 3 german girls, night was esp. quiet and long. the boys had no trouble sleeping. (2 japs n the bf because they were so intoxicated from beer lao and lao lao(local whiskey)) The boyfriend even acquainted a brother there! an old carpenter who kept forcing him to drink the disgusting local whiskey and even kissed him on the cheek [View Full Entry]

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mountainous vang vieng was one of our favourites. it's so small you practically can close your eyes to walk around. saysong was one of my fav guesthouse, with the two brothers (Ham and Eng), happy and lucky. we learnt alot about their country from Eng. also chanced upon another sporean, leonard, from nus and met jemma, from wales. and four of us embarked one of the most amazing day trip in vang vieng, which was very recommended because the guides knew the caves and stuffs well. so the four of us, and 2 english guys, the cool holland family and a [View Full Entry]

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the previous night was specially short for both of us due to the morning flight in wee hours. arrived at udon thani (thailand) at 8.45am and got into a minivan to nong khai (friendship bridge btw thai and laos). then we squeezed (like sardines) into a local bus after crossing the thai border and decided to take a tuk-tuk with this holland guy(there's smth about him). our first guesthouse (sasouly) was good for a start and so we kicked start by exploring the city via foot. a sleepy town with lots of monks, tuktuks and wats. i think it's the place [View Full Entry]

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