Blogs from Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, Asia - page 13

One of my planning decisions (when I thought travel could actually be planned hahahaha) was to use a tour of south east asia to help me get acclimated. While this was a good idea in theory I mainly focused on the tour including as many cities as possible for the least money on my itinerary. So this is all your travel dreamers trying to figure out how to plan a trip. What to think about... 1. How does this tour travel as in what modes of transportation? Cars, Trains, buses, planes, elephants, limos? Then ask yourself if you can see yourself being comfortable with the answer because most of your time will be spent getting to each city. 2. How many people can sign up for the tour? I personally like as small as possible so ... read more

My initial reaction of Phú Quốc was that it was kind of gloomy. The beaches were ehh...ok. The locals were very friendly and were eager to practice their english. There were a lot of resorts and more under construction. After a couple of hazy days at Mushroom Backpacker, I decided to get a motorbike and tour the northern part of the island. To my surprise, the northern part of the island was extremely secluded. I took the dirt road path into the jungle and it was a bumpy ride. My ass felt like I'd been in prison by the end of the day. Once I passed thru the jungle a deserted beach was on the horizon. Unable to say no to the clear blue water and white sand, I hung out and enjoyed some dragon fruits. ... read more

Well I am back in Saigon for the night while en route to Da Lat tomorrow. I thought I should use the time to catch up on reports. Brace yourself, this will be a long one. Today I returned from Can Tho and the Mekong Delta. I arrived in Can Tho on Tuesday afternoon. I tend to always spend my arrival day in a new place wandering around trying to get a feel for the place, which is what I did Tuesday. I greatly enjoyed Can Tho. After being in Saigon, Can Tho seemed very peaceful, relaxed, not crowded with tourists. There were far more random "hellos", smiles, and waves from the locals than in Saigon and almost no one trying to sell me things which was nice. The city has a fairly young population due ... read more

We are settled in our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. A nice place with a good view and a hair dryer! There are no words to express the traffic. Over 5 million "Hondas" all going at great speed and in unison making it all look like an undulating dance. We haven't sat in the front seat of the bus but are told that is very exciting. Probably terrifying! Tonight we are off to a water puppet show and dinner in a home. Today we traveled about two hours out of town to the Cu Chi Tunnels. What an experience. The first tunnel was too small for me....no comments. Our friends Adam and Hazel just jumped in and Adam is as tall as Ot! During the war over 16,000 people lived in these tunnels. Attached are ... read more

Well day two can be described in just a few words - very hot, very long, very tiring. Today we cycled approx 50miles in temperatures of about 35 degrees, rising to 39 degrees at one point. It took it's toll on everyone, even the experienced cyclists. Matt and I managed to complete the day but with two sore bums!!!! We started with a quick ride to a Buddhist temple, quite strange, glowing paintwork that I'm sure glowed in the dark and flashing lights in the actual temple. Quite bizarre then we started the epic journey. we cycled through paddy fields of rice so it was very open hence the temperatures. Very off road and very mountain bike, lots of little bridges and paths, some quite steep and some very narrow. No-one fell in the water though ... read more