Details can be spared, but breakfast in bed and time in and around the pool played significant parts in our day. We had some cards to open which was nice and quite a few e-mails, and it is a funny feeling that our wedding definitely doesn’t feel as long as a year ago, but some parts of our trip away feel like they happened several years ago. We reminisced about the $2/night accommodation we’ve experienced and enjoyed whilst knocking back a $100+ bottle of champagne and agreed that we’ve seen the best of both worlds. We’d booked the hotel’s ‘honeymoon [View Full Entry]

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Da Nang is the transport centre that serves the town of Hoi An that is arguably Vietnam’s prettiest. It probably isn’t anymore because as soon as a reputation like that emerges the tacky stalls appear by the dozen, but here even those are kept under wraps and it’s certainly the nicest town we visited. Anyway, we got off the train to be met by our hotel transfer which even included a refreshing towel and bottle of water each. As you can probably guess we’ve gone upmarket for a few days partly because we’re winding down as we come to the [View Full Entry]

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Our last day in Hanoi today, which was our only chance to visit the superb Museum of Ethnology. Neither of us would qualify as a big fan of ethnology, and to be honest we skipped most of the information on the countless different ethnic groups that make up Vietnam, but some of it was brilliant. One section in particular was all about living under classic socialism, where the state decides what you want down to the very last detail years in advance. There was a lot on rationing and the corruption that goes with it, and some colourful examples like [View Full Entry]

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An early start, with an open air breakfast overlooking the working harbour. Then we began the long journey back to Hanoi. What with bus then boat then bus it took a while and it was late afternoon when we got back and went off to find a hotel. For dinner we visited a place called Green Tangerine, an old restaurant in a building full of colonial charm where the food is incredible, where West meets East and an explosion of flavours happens. That was a great experience. And where else can you get King Prawns in Mojito sauce? [View Full Entry]

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It was great waking up early on the junk, with the temperature still cool but the sun shining and hardly any other boats in sight. We had breakfast and then transferred to a smaller boat which took us to a very secluded spot where we got into our sea-kayaks. These were very good quality - another reason to choose Handspan - and we set off exploring the islands with the sun beating down. The kayaks are perfect for this type of job, being very stable and steered by a rudder attached to the rear-paddler’s pedals. We went under a small [View Full Entry]

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An 8am start ahead of the 3+ hour journey to get to Halong Bay. The tour company we went with, Handspan, favour the approach that we like of having everyone meet at their office. The alternative, which is to offer hotel pickups and which might sound better, invariably means sitting in a minibus for an hour picking up everyone else before driving past your own hotel once you finally get going towards the real destination. Halong Bay is famous for thousands of limestone islands and scenery reminiscent of ‘The Beach’. We arrived at the dock from which all the tourist [View Full Entry]

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Now that we are booked on a tour that will let us explore Halong Bay, this meant that we only had two days - Monday and Friday - to explore Hanoi. However as we found out of all the days of the week these are not the good ones: most if not all the museums close on a Monday and Friday! We were staying in the ‘Old Quarter' which is an area of Hanoi that is bustling with street vendors selling everything to anyone whether you are tourist or not. It is also where most of the tourists hang out. [View Full Entry]

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We have made a vow that we will not stay anywhere where we cannot have aircon on in the room. You cannot get the rest you need to enjoy the next day when you cannot find any refuge in your own room, especially when the humid high temperatures persists constantly. Anyway... Our afternoon flight to Hanoi, on Laos’ airlines prop plane, rudely awakened us to be back in honking and scamming-ville. A couple of little things annoyed us that can so easily can get a new tourist/holiday maker, for example promoting taxis for $10 for the 40 minute ride into Hanoi [View Full Entry]

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And we did this in true café hopping style. After a cheap nights accommodation that did not disappoint in the uncomfortable stakes (just a ceiling fan moving around the already hot air) we found refuge in an air conditioned café for breakfast and a good read of our books. Wandering the streets and lanes of Luang Probang in the glorious sunshine we would quench our thirst sampling the different prices of the same drinks where ever took our fancy. Ending up in a lovely restaurant sister to that of L’Elephant, from last night, and had a glorious and not rushed [View Full Entry]

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We didn’t do a lot today except wait for our afternoon flight to Laos, although Gemma did have a relaxing hour of Thai massage, a first for her and maybe a last. How is pain relaxing? Once out of the airport in Luang Prabang we felt like we’d just emerged from a time machine. It really does feel completely different to most other Asian countries in the sense of being untouched by anything modern. This feeling remained with us the whole time in Laos. Of course, it has US-style coffee shops and internet cafes, but the general impression from wandering around [View Full Entry]

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