25 and 27 September 2009 - We left Cần Thơ and went south to Cà Mau, which is the southernmost province of Vietnam. On the way we stopped in Sóc Trăng and Bạc Liêu provinces for visiting some sites. There are 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta and its population is 17 million people, of which Khmer people make up 25%, Chinese 30% and the remaining are Vietnamese according to our guide. Most of Khmer and Chinese people live in Sóc Trăng, Bạc Liêu and Cà Mau provinces. I saw many Khmer temples along the National Highway No. 1 and various [View Full Entry]

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24, 27 and 28 September 2009 - I was back in Cần Thơ city, which is the biggest city in the Mekong Delta, and it was my 3rd visit to this city. On this trip I would go further south through 4 provinces and reach the southernmost point of Vietnam. I decided to book a 5-day tour with a travel agent in Hanoi (Vietran Company) and the tour cost VND 3.9 million (US$200). If I traveled on my own, this amount would be enough for only air tickets (round trip) between Hanoi and Cần Thơ, so it was cheaper to travel [View Full Entry]

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My mother often tells me "Nobody asks you how many countries you've been to, they ask you how many children you have". In my parents' and grandparents' generations, they experienced the French and American wars. Life was very hard at that time and they were happy with having many children, in their cases, 3 to 5 children. My grandmother is nearly 90 years old and she has never been abroad in her entire life. Last year after being convinced much, my mother agreed to travel abroad for the first time to Singapore. It was difficult for her to travel at age [View Full Entry]

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Sunday 6 September 2009 - After an 8 and a half hour train ride from Hanoi, I arrived in Lào Cai. This city is very close to China, only 1km from the Lào Cai - Hekou international border crossing, also on the way to Yunnan province of China. If you look at a map, Sapa is on the left side, 38km from Lào Cai, and Bắc Hà is on the right side, 70km from Lào Cai. Both Sapa and Bắc Hà are popular tourist destinations in north west Vietnam. Tourists often go to Bắc Hà on Sundays to see the market [View Full Entry]

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Đường Lâm (53km away from Hanoi's center) is the first ancient village in Vietnam, which was recognized as a national heritage site in May 2006. There are over 300 old houses at the 9 villages in Đường Lâm commune and they were built 300 - 400 years ago. The old houses are of wooden type, while other houses at Đường Lâm have the walls of lateritic bricks (gạch đá ong) made of the hill soils. Other than the old houses, some must-sees in this area are the temples, pagodas and mausoleums of the two Kings of Vietnam (Ngô Quyền and Ph [View Full Entry]

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"Where did you learn English?" Many people asked me this question. Actually, English was my 3rd foreign language and I learned it at the evening classes in Hanoi. While English was not my official foreign language that I learned at school and college, it's now my major foreign language at work and I can travel extensively with the ability to speak it. If I could turn back the hand of time, I would focus on learning English and French, maybe a little Japanese. All the international organizations prefer English and French when employing new staff and they often provide good offers [View Full Entry]

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It has been 12 years since my first trip as a solo traveler in Vietnam, but the same questions like "Why do you go alone? Don't you feel bored/sad/lonely?" that I was asked all the time have not changed at all. I realize that there are still very few solo Vietnamese travelers and people still have not changed their minds yet about going somewhere without a companion. For most Vietnamese, when you travel alone, it's very boring because you have no one to talk with, or you may be in danger because of the possibility of being kidnapped (no, it's not [View Full Entry]

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My summer this year is pretty quiet. We experienced the hottest June ever recorded. Some days in Hanoi the outdoor temperature reached 45-46°C with very high humidity (often it's 30-38°C during the summer time). Then it rained almost every week in July and August. I didn't dare to go anywhere close to the mountains, as I was concerned about the risk of floods and landslides. Also the pig flu (A/H1N1) is spreading here with the number of patients increasing every day. The warnings that we hear on TV or see on the webpages are to "avoid the crowds". Some people are [View Full Entry]

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Điện Biên Phủ is a remote city inside the Mường Thanh valley in the north west of Vietnam, only 36.5km from the Lao border. The ethnic minority people living in this area are the Thai and H'mong. The city is famous for the site of the battle, where the French troops were defeated by Việt Minh (the League for the Independence of Vietnam - Việt Nam độc lập đồng minh hội) forces on 7 May 1954 after a 56-day siege, resulting in the end of the French rule in Vietnam (1858 - 1954) and its colonial control in Indochina. To a [View Full Entry]

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Bhaktapur, also known as the City of Devotees, was the capital of Kathmandu valley during the 14th to 16th centuries. It's located about 35km east of Kathmandu. The city is filled with palaces, temples, statues and squares connected by a maze of largely pedestrian-only streets. This is one of the must sees in Nepal. At present, this city is a UNESCO world heritage site. Tuesday 28 April 2009 - Car came to pick us up at Nagarkot and we left for Bhaktapur. We traveled along an asphalt road and went down the mountains. I travelled from Nagarkot, as it was the [View Full Entry]

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