nature BOY

A bit unsure if I could call this a vacation or a business trip, may be a mix of both taking the perspective of my friend. It was a trip without any planning whatsoever, got asked if I would be able to accompany him and I immediately agreed. Made a few calls to arrange my leave from work, bought the tickets online with easyjet and off we go. Reached Alicante Spain around midday, caught the first flight off Luton. Didn’t really expect a full two hours flight, nevertheless with no onboard meals, it was quite boring. Although luckily we managed to get good seats on emergency exits, which gave us loads of leg space. There was no boarder control whatsoever in Spain, the immigration booths at Alicante airport was all locked so we just walked off ... read more

Unlike HCMC, Hanoi airport is quite far from the city. Luckily Jetstar sell bus tickets onboard which was only 35000 VND which took us straight to the city but not exactly where I was going, my hotel was in the old quarter adjacent to Hoan Kiem Lake. Hanoi is no different than Saigon in terms of motorcycles as they were everywhere. We were later told by one of our tour guides that in Hanoi there is 1.5 motor bikes per person! Once been dropped of at the Jetstar city office we had to look for alternate means of transport to our hotel. There were loads of taxis available and with a bit of bargaining the guy agreed to take us to our hotel for USD 5. Given the info we had from our research that its ... read more

Saigon, Vietnam It all started a year ago in 2010, planned to visit Vietnam but it just remained as a plan until now, thanks to Vietnam Embassy in London denying me a visa. I was a bit skeptical initially while I was thinking of Vietnam, how it would be as a holiday destination whilst it still being a socialist country. May be Jeremy Clarkson’s road trip looked tremedously entertaining, or the lush natural beauty of Halong Bay was just too attractive, Surprisingly I didn’t realize that my determination to go to Vietnam would be almost unbeatable that even after a year from my visa rejection I tried again and eventually get an e-visa, embassy-0 e-visa-1. May be they were thinking why would a national from a third world muslim country staying in London, want to go ... read more

Phnom Penh, Cambodia I guess Phnom Penh is still scoring low in the popularity chart among tourists. This is a plus for you as a traveller since you can still enjoy the unspolied beauty of the places and not have a rush of tourists and over commercialization or local tourism. Locals are still very friendly in general and will not try to rip you off at all opportunities, like you might experience in other far east destinations. Before stepping in to the country I was having a very modest expectations about the city, however I was taken by surprise to see all the modern expensive cars on the streets of Phnom Penh. However the roads were mainly ruled by two wheelers and tuk-tuks. Aparently the city looks nice, not very big or many high rise buildings, ... read more