Blogs from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 18

It's Arnee's birthday and we're up for some treats. Breakfast is included at the hotel so after breakfast we jumped in a cab to find the #1 rated coffee is Saigon! It was a pretty impressive and trendy sun drenched (airconditioned) airy space on the third floor. There were 2 single origin beans to chose from and about 6 coffee making methods. Arnee's cold pressed local bean was beautiful, my latte was not bad either! Next it was tattoo time.... After several hours of drafting the design and ensuring it aligned perfectly on Arnee's shin (above his new shoes) work began. Meanwhile the kids and I went hunting sushi, Agus allowed mummy to have 3 pieces and managed to down 5 salmon, 4 cucumber and 2 avocado, I had to roll him home! Dinner was another ... read more

So we spoke to soon is saying our travels to Vietnam were uneventful. We boarded in Korea to head to Saigon and got a good laugh watching the shit show of people boarding trying to get their luggage on and use a combination of letters and numbers. We arrived Saigon and waited for our visas with only one guy working them. Kirsten commented that it at least when they got their visas their luggage would be there. Heading down the elevators, Lynn and Chester see their luggage on the carousal. Kirsten did not see hers and after a few minutes getting run over by luggage trolleys, Kirsten told Chester she did not have a good feeling about her luggage. And she was right. It never arrived. So she made a claim with a 3rd party who ... read more

Sarah: The evening after our last day at The Angkor Temples was a very pleasant one. I took postcards and Nick took 'The Damned United' to a local cocktail bar, Miss Wong's, that we had spied previously. They had the usual extensive variety of cocktails, but what caught our eyes were the three 'infusions' of G & T; one of my favourites and a drink that while travelling Nick has weened himself on to! Now, being a creature of habit, normally I'd suggest not messing with something that ain't broke. However, we happily sampled each 'infusion' (elderflower, ginger or camomile) between us and returning to our favourite (elderflower) to finish. Postcards were written and books were read. Whilst all this was going on, the evening downpour had started. This lead us to the decision to grab ... read more

Today felt like a good day to head up to Saigon - or should I say Ho Chi Minh City? It actually changed its name in 1976 but some people still refer to it as Saigon. I prefer the name Saigon so for the purpose of my travel blog that's what it'll be called! Picked up at 9ish ( a much more sensible time) I was taken to the bus station - for buses heading north. Buying a ticket I headed off at 10.00 on a coach full of locals - where are all the travellers!? Stopping off half way for a wee stop a friendly Vietnamese girl made her way to the back of the bus to chat to me, as she's in her first year of learning English and they are quite keen to ... read more

I'm extremely excited to announce our next family adventure. When our children were younger our holidays have always been in 'safe' places. However, this trip is designed to take my sons' travelling experiences beyond the theme park and into the next dimension of independent travel. This will be their first foray into a third world country on a "planes, trains and automobiles" odyssey. It's my first foray into a Communist country and it's ambitious and I'm sure, at times, I'll be despised, but it is a sacrifice I am prepared for in order to teach my sons about the world in which they live. Next month we are about to achieve in two weeks what the American's (and later Australian's), didn't manage in nearly 20 years during the Vietnam War.... an intense advance from HCMC (Saigon), ... read more