Hi everyone, I’m back in Hanoi with the crazy traffic, the unfriendly Vietnamese people and the buzzing feeling. And I’m not alone for the moment, Bertrand (who I met in Malaysia last month), joined me for 5 weeks to visit Vietnam and that’s really nice to travel with someone. One of the things to see in Hanoi is the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. Small history lesson (from Wikipedia): Hồ Chí Minh (1890 – 1969), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc or Uncle Ho was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945–1955) and president (1955–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, as well as the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) ... read more

Xin chào everyone, Last time I was in Hanoi, but I decide after 4 days to do a tour of the north west of the country. But I will go back to Hanoi after the tour, because there are still a lot of thing I haven’t since yet. I started my tour by Mai Chau, a little town at roughly 3 hours bus from Hanoi. This is a little town with a lot of villages around and that is in one of them that I found my bed for 2 nights. I stay in a little village named Ban Van. This is a village I’ll say about 70 stilt houses surrounded by rice plantations and mountains not far from Mai Chau. This is a quiet village with nice people… almost. There is a difference between here ... read more

Hello everyone, That’s my last week in George Town so I have to show you a bit what this town looks like. I loved being here. That’s a place where a lot of people just wanted to spend a few days, but end up staying a lot more than expected. This is because there is so much to see, because the atmosphere is so great, and because the food is soooo good! A bit of history first: George Town was developed by some English traders in 1786 and named after the English king, King George the 3rd. It was a trading port where everyone was invited to develop business which leaded to a merging of different civilisations between Malay, Chinese, Muslim, European and Indian. This tapestry of civilisation is still visible today in food, languages, religious ... read more

Hi everyone, I’m still in Penang for 2 reasons: first, this is a wonderful place with a lot to see, to do and to enjoy; secondly because I met Bertrand, an excellent photographer (and a really nice guy) who agreed to give me some lessons. ( if you want to have a look at his pictures (and you should), go there: http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/bertrandlinet/) Today I’m going tell you about (actually more show you) some of the temples on the island of Penang. There are a lot of temples here, but I’ll tell you about 4 of them: The first one is the Kek Lok Si temple: this is the largest Buddhist temple in south East Asia. Its construction started in 1890 and still continues today. Thanks to large donations from the Chinese community, a huge statue of ... read more

Hi everyone, Last time I was leaving Sibu to go in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. Kuching has a laidback atmosphere and it is really easy to forget about time, date, hour… everything! The symbol of Kuching is a cat, which made me like the town even better! The first day, I visited the Sarawak museums: from the natural history museum to the ethnographic section, including a wooden fossil exhibition and finishing by the history of Sarawak, I spent my day trying to remember all the information (attempt failed obviously), but that was a nice way to start my visit of Kuching. In the town I found some Chinese streets, colonial buildings, a lovely river with a riverfront absolutely great to walk on during the evening, some temples, some really good food (as everywhere in Malaysia, ... read more