Blogs from Tuyen Quang, Northeast, Vietnam, Asia

The photos in this blog were taken on my two trips to Tuyên Quang province in April and May this year. My travel companions on both trips were Vietnamese tourists and we spent very short time in the province. On the first trip (14 April) we went through the province and traveled up north to Hà Giang (the northernmost province of Vietnam) along the Lô river. On the way we visited three temples (Tam Cờ, Cây Xanh and Thác Cái) and had lunch in a small town. On the second trip (28 May) I just made last week to 6 provinces in the North East of Vietnam, I was back to Tuyên Quang province, but traveled in another direction and the route was new to me. The purpose of my second trip was to visit some ... read more

Chúc mừng năm mới- Happy New Year! Tuyen Quang. REAL Vietnam. This ain't your Lonely Planet sugarcoated version with matresses and sit down toilets and french fries. No tourists and no tourist market. I'm talking about little kids who are terrified of you because they have never seen a white person before. We are pretty freaky looking, if you think about it. Blue eyes and light skin are like the worst evolutionary move ever. The older kids yell HELLO or "ba tay" (Mrs. Westener) to try to provoke a reaction and everybody else looks at you like you're an alien. The ladies at the train station laughed at me when I bought my ticket. The train up there wasn't too bad, I was in the hard seat class so its sort of like sitting on a ... read more