Blogs from Quang Binh, North Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 3

Our next day at the Farmstay was just as exciting, though significantly less life threatening than the day before. We ate breakfast before piling into two vans, each with one tour guide, and set off for Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. You’ll never guess which tour guide was assigned to our van…none other than my fellow survivor Benjamin. As soon as he saw that I was in his group, he became “fearful” that my bad luck would strike again and our van would run off the road or something. Thankfully, no such thing happened. After a short ride through the village, we passed the Hollywood-esque sign for the park positioned on the side of a mountain in large letters. We then drove through a gate highly resembling the one from Jurrassic Park and found that our ... read more

Fellow travelers agree, even on the road, sometimes you need a break. After getting back to Ninh Binh (Sadie, trying to outsmart the bus driver, ended up getting us screwed over, so we had to walk about 4 km to the station this time, with all our gear) we caught the train leaving shortly after for Dong Hoi. The train ride was a long 9 hours, and in the rush to catch a train that we wouldn't have to sleep on, we neglegted to ask for anything better than hard seats. And when they say hard, they mean it. It was everything we expected: sticky, uncomfortable, hot and dirty, but we loved it. Everyone was really friendly, we met a charming mother and daughter and managed to talk to them for a while (a combination of ... read more

Nakoniec sme rano dorazili do Dong Hoi a boli velmi radi ze sme konecne mohli vystupit. Izbu sme si zabukovali den predtym, takze sme len museli najst spravnu ulicu, zbavit sa veci a vyrazit. Dnes sme chceli navstivit jaskynu Phong Nha. Toto je vraj najrajsia a najnavstevovanejsia jaskyna v celom Vietname a tiez je v zozname UNESCO. Chlapik z hotela mal na prenajom len jeden skuter. Toto bol trosicka problem, ale hned sa nastastie vyriesil. Nahodny okuloiduci na nam prihovoril, teda vlastne majitelovi hotela, pretoze nevedel ani slovo anglicky. Majitel nam dohovoril, ze nas zoberie do jaskyne. Cesta bola okolo 50 km, ale zvladli sme ju pomerne rychlo a bez problemov. Jaskyna Phong Nha ma asi 50 km, z toho pre verejnost je otvoreny prvy kilometer. Bola obrovka, vsade plno roznorodych utvarov, roznych farieb a textur. ... read more

The blogger that is who. And the blogger in this case is me. Yes, it is not always easy to write a blog. Sometimes you are tired, you are not in the mood, you have a hangover, or you are just not inspired. And yet it is that day of the month/week that you need to write your travelblog. You could ask: 'Why not postpone it till you feel better?' Good question. Well, I am not sure if I will be more inspired tomorrow. I wasn't inspired this whole week, and I have been struggling to come up with a story or theme for this particular blog. So, I think in this case postponement would not do anything. Also, I tend to write a blog every ten or so days when I travel. I have found ... read more

Dong Hoi to Phong Nha Dong Hoi had a relaxed and friendly feel, the streets were lined with trees and we enjoyed our tastiest bowl of Pho. Tender juicy bits of beef; yum. We cycled the 40kms inland and arrived at Phong Nga farmstay that overlooks paddy fields with large hills as a backdrop. The farmstay is aimed at Westerners and is publicised throughout Vietnam. The owners are very friendly but are overstretched, ruining that 'homestay' feel. We enjoyed chatting to other tourists but were a little disappointed about the food (slightly expensive and of variable quality). Tomorrow we are off to explore the caves. Phong Nha Caves Phong Nha lies just north of the narrowest part of Vietnam and boasts some beautiful mountains and national parks. There are also still remnants of the real Ho ... read more