Blogs from Northeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 2

It’s often said you should strive to see “so and so” before you die. Usually by those who have recently been to “so and so” and really want to be acknowledged for their adventurousness in going to “so and so”. In that same spirit then, can I extol the virtues of Halong Bay in Northern Vietnam? Dare I mention it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the seven wonders of the natural world? Recognised for its outstanding beauty and its trademark network of limestone karst. Should I outline that not only will we see Halong Bay but, we’ll also experience it by cruising overnight on a specially designed tourist vessel. Journeying deep into the maze of vertical volcanic plugs and rock formations. Perhaps, I’ve said too much already. And when you know Carolyn, and ... read more

After a couple of days in central Vietnam, I took a night bus from Phong Nha to Hanoi. This would be the base of my travels in Northern Vietnam : Ha Giang and Castaways. I arrived there on Tuesday, March 5th, at 4:30AM and I shared a grab with Kurtis from Australia and with another guy to my hostel, VBH. Fortunately they always have some nice comfortable sofas somewhere and so I got another couple of hours of sleep. When I got up I didn’t want to just spend the day in the hostel and so I decided to join the free walking tour of my hostel from 10AM to 1PM. It was nice to get to know the Old Quarter of Hanoi, but the tour wasn’t great. We didn’t get any explanations and just walked ... read more

We are now sitting on the S Coast of Thailand, Tubkaak Beach, for our final days. Another amazing Trip! And a great place to celebrate my birthday! A week ago Sunday we flew from Bangkok to Hai phong. Our last night in Bangkok we had the opportunity to have dinner and drinks with Norm and Ellen Batt from Caldwell. They were just starting their 3 week trip of SE Asia. It was great fun to see them. Hai Phong is about 120 kms east of Hanoi and the closest airport to Ha Long Bay. We spent 2 nights on Cat Ba, the largest island in the Ha Long Bay area. We had been told, Ha Long Bay is very busy with all the larger boats so we decided to just hire a fishing boat from our ... read more

One archipelago and one place which isn't but still sort of looks like one There are plenty of interesting places in northern Vietnam worth visiting. We are now going to write about two we went to on this trip, namely Halong Bay and Trang An sometimes known under the name Tam Coc. We start with Halong Bay. Halong Bay We think the name of this place doesn't describe it very well. A better name would be "Halong Archipelago". If you look at a map there is a bay there, so the name it has now isn't wrong, but what you see when you are actually there is a lot of islands and that is an archipelago to us. Halong Bay is a beauty spot and that to enjoy that is what people go there. The islands ... read more

I haven't updated this blog in awhile and we are already into week one of the Intrepid trip so I best take a moment to reflect on the week that was! On Wednesday morning, me, Bill, Andrea and my dad checked out of the Hanoi Focus hotel and made our way down to the Hanoi prison aka ‘Hanoi Hilton'. But before that we bought some fake North Face jackets at the shop next door as I predicted the cool rainy weather would follow us and I wasn't wrong! So with Bill's directions we made our way on foot, weaving in and out of traffic to the Hoa Lo prison (no longer a prison now a museum) originally built by the French in 1896. Up until the 1950’s the inmates were mostly Vietnamese people imprisoned by the ... read more