robinbye
Robin Trulssen Bye Joined: November 14th 2005
Logged in: August 5th 2009
Logged in: August 5th 2009
Recently, I travelled through Southeast Asia with my brother Remi (for his Norwegian MSN Space, click here). Starting in Singapore on 5 February 2007, we made our way through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, before returning from Hong Kong on 13 March 2007.
Previously, my girlfriend, Helene, and I kept this blog for our travels to Africa and South America. From November 2005 to February 2006, we visited Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, sweet home Norway, Peru, and Ecuador, before returning to our place of study --- Sydney, Australia.
I will keep an updated list of all journal entries on this front page.
Please feel free to subscribe to travelblog updates and to leave messages.
Cheers,
Robin
Journal entries Southeast Asia, February and March 2007:
Safari in Tanzania and the start of another great journey, February 5th 2007
A quick taste of Singapore and Malaysia, February 13th 2007
The Island of Ko Samui, February 18th 2007
The City of Angels, February 19th 2007
The extraordinary friendliness of Chiang Mai, February 26th 2007
The US imperialist and its puppets, March 3rd 2007
My mother. My father. My uncle, March 12th 2007
The Angkor temples, March 13th 2007
Welcome to the South, cowboy!, March 17th 2007
Dune, March 18th 2007
Nha Trang? Nah!, March 29th 2007
A day in Hoi An, April 5th 2007
The American War, April 9th 2007
Rendezvous in Hanoi, April 23rd 2007
Boat trip in Halong Bay, April 18th, 2009
Journal entries Africa and South America, November 2005 to February 2006:
So far, so good, November 14th 2005
A nightly encounter in Monkey Bay, November 17th 2005
Terror in the night, November 19th 2005
Photos from our boat trip on Lake Malawi, November 19th 2005
Safari from the train window, November 24th 2005
Africa's paradise island, November 25th 2005
Happy New Year --- photos added!, January 1st 2006
Next continent, please!, January 6th 2006
Partying nuns and the Ampato maiden, January 8th 2006
The world's deepest canyons, January 10th 2006
The highest navigable lake in the world, January 13th 2006
Visiting the Inca capital, January 15th 2006
Discovering the lost Inca city, January 19th 2006
Four weeks in Ecuador, February 19th 2006
World map of countries I have visited through the years:
Visited Countries Map
Travel Blog Posts
Halong Bay
Dear reader, I never quite finished the story of my brother and I going to Southeast Asia in February 2007. My latest blog entry is from Hanoi (), after which we went to Halong Bay, a UNESCO world heritage site featuring thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes (see Wikipedia for information). We booked an all included trip, which included a two-hour bus ride from Hanoi to the sea, a boat trip around the bay and some island visits, and the bus return. Although the weather was not great due to the time of year, we still enjoyed diving off the boat side and also a bit of kayaking between the fascinating monolithic rocks that rise out of the water everywhere in Halong Bay. Many of the islands in Halong Bay contain ... read more
Remi and Robin
EDIT: Sorry for the multisending of email alerts! Dear reader, I have finally found the time to rounding off the story of our trip to Southeast Asia. As you know, we started in Singapore, went through Malaysia to Thailand, and from there to Vietnam via Laos and Cambodia. Travelling with Remi and Anne-Line through Vietnam from south to north, we ended up in Hanoi, the capital, from where we also went on a trip to Halong Bay. As you know, I split with Remi and Anne-Line in Nha Trang; they wanted to party hard, whereas being slightly more culturally inclined, I went to see Hoi An and the Demilitarized Zone, bo... read more
Robin in tunnel
"Do you mind if I sit here," I said. We were on a guided day tour to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), having left the town of Dong Ha a couple of hours earlier. "Not at all," the man said, his accent revealing to me that he was probably Canadian or northwest US. "So, what brings you here to Vietnam and the demilitarized zone," I said between mouthfuls of rice and fried chicken. The man looked at me. "I'm a veteran of the US Marine Corps," he said. Getting to Dong Ha from Hoi An Before going on, I should tell you about what the bus trip to Dong Ha. Upon leaving Hoi An, my brilliantly thought-out plan of travelling alone after leaving Remi and Anne-Line in Nha Trang started to crack up. The plan w ... read more
Japanese Bridge in Hoi An
After leaving Remi and Anne-Line behind (see Nha Trang? Nah!, which also contains a video), I arrived after about 12 hours of discomfort at 7am in the town of Hoi An. As is usual for these kinds of bus trips, the bus stopped at an affiliated hotel first before going to the bus station. Considering that this hotel looked even better than ones we had stayed at previously, I decided to get a room, as the only condition was that I would have to wait 45 minutes while the room was cleaned and prepared. In the meantime I could use the internet for free. After the 45 minutes, however, I was told that I would have to wait for another 1-2 hours! I said that I would never have taken the room if I had ... read more
Remi enjoying a beer
url='/Videos/2447.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2447.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Boat trip Dear reader, in between uni work I am grabbing the opportunity to continue the story... As you remember from the last blog entry (Dune), we were in Mui Ne i South Vietnam and had just jumped on the bus to Nha Trang, a ride that was extremely uncomfortable. That's what you get for going with the cheap and easy option, that is, a bus that comes to your resort and pick you up and costs 4 dollars! However, for more comfort, it might be a better option to get a minibus but at a higher price and a bit more organising efforts. Nha Trang is a beach. Yes, it is a city of about 300 000 people, but you don't go there for the city itself, you go there for the ... read more
Cute Kim
We arrived in Mui Ne after a sweaty bus ride - sweaty not because of lack of air conditioning, but because the seats in our bus were made of sticky plastic instead of fabric! Choosing the same approach as in Ho Chi Minh City, I walked across the road from the bus stop and into one of the many resorts that lie along the beautiful beach. There, I met a friendly American (possibly Canadian) who showed me the room and let us have it for USD 25. A fortune in Vietnam, true, but for us, this was a bargain. The room had high standard, we had a small balcony with beach and sea view and a fridge and a TV for those who desire those. Just outside there was a huge swimming pool. The man told ... read more
Welcome to the South, cowboy!
Dear reader, I am finally back in Sydney after five fantastic weeks in Southeast Asia. I still have to write about our last part of the trip in Vietnam, during which we visited the Mekong Delta, Mui Ne, Nha Trang, Hoi An, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Hanoi, and Halong Bay. Due to uni work, I may not make any further updates until April. I can also tell you that I have posted a video of a bungy we tried in Singapore. The updated journal entry is found here: A quick taste of Singapore and Malaysia. Ho Chi Minh City We landed at the airport of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) late in the afternoon on 28 February. We waited a little while for Anne-Line, Remi's friend from Bergen, Norway, to land and then we cleverly caught ... read more
Sunrise at Angkor Wat I
After our short stay in Phnom Penh (see My mother. My father. My uncle.) we caught the bus on 26 February to Siem Reap, a gateway town to the temples of Angkor in northern Cambodia. It is also a starting point for treks and adventure tours around the Siem Reap Province. In our case, we arrived late in the afternoon and reserved the next day for the Angkor temples. Leaving Siem Reap on the 28th to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, we simply didn't have the time to go trekking. The temples of Angkor are by many considered the most amazing temples in the world, with Angkor Wat as its star. In fact, Angkor Wat is of such extraordinary construction that European discoverers were unable to believe that the Khmers could have built it and mistakenly ... read more
Skulls
I always knew that I was going to ask the question. Still, I spent several minutes contemplating if I really was going to, and if so, how I would phrase it. "So were any of your relatives affected during the Khmer Rouge regime?" I asked as softly as I could. The guide lifted his head and looked me in the eye. "My mother. My father. My uncle. All taken away. All killed." He turned away. "Horrible. Horrible. Crazy. Crazy," he muttered. The killing fields: The Choeung Ek site We were at Choeung Ek, perhaps the best-known of the more than 340 killing fields in Cambodia. The number is increasing, as researchers are still finding more sites. Hiring a tuk-tuk driver for the entire day, we were going to the killing fields first and then to the ... read more
Pha That Luang
To plan or not to plan, that is the question My preferred style of travelling is based on seizing the moment; don't lock yourself to a preplanned schedule, allow for sudden changes when something interesting shows up, and accept that you cannot see'em all. However, when leaving Chiang Mai (see The extraordinary friendliness of Chiang Mai) and going to Laos, we should have been a bit more proactive. It turned out airplanes were fully booked on days we wanted to go and we ended up staying a bit longer than expected in Chiang Mai. As we had made arrangements with a friend of Remi, Anne-Line, to meet in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on 28 February, we consequently were in a bit of hurry to travel through Laos and Cambodia and thus lost a valuable day ... read more
