Blogs from Vietnam, Asia

It’s the last day of our holiday today, so we thought we would get ourselves in the right frame of mind (it’s now that we could do with those early morning tai chi sessions - see ) and go out to do battle with Ho Chi Minh City’s eight million mopeds again. It was raining again first thing in the morning, but, again, it had stopped by the time we came to leave our hotel. Our guide book had recommended the Jade Emperor Pagoda. Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon is split into a number of numbered districts, which sounds a bit Hunger Games-ish. Our walk to the pagoda took us out of the apparent security of ‘District 1’ and into the wilds of the untamed ‘District 3’. It seemed pretty much the same to us, ... read more

There were a few, distant lightning flashes in the night, but nothing in the league of the storm that hit yesterday morning. The morning started early with a lovely sunrise, which I was the only one on deck to enjoy, along with the peace and quite of the bay. It wasn’t long before the boat pulled-up its anchor and started to head off to another location, and then it was time for our the early morning Tai Chi. Compared to yesterday, this definitely seemed like the advance class. There were three of us again. This time the guy hosting it was in his proper silk Tai Chi outfit and went through three very complex stages. My balance is awful, I’ve got no coordination, my joints are inflexible and my knees are shot. I could take up ... read more

We’re leaving Hanoi today, but it is not “goodbye” yet as we will be back again in a few days. We do love the independent travel, but it is something less to worry about when there is a transfer car waiting for us again to take us to the next location, Halong Bay. Like the car from the airport, there is both a guide and a driver, just for the two of us. Apparently, also (and this must have been lost in translation), they will wait there for us for three days to take us back to Hanoi. It took a while to get out of Hanoi, taking on all the mopeds. Despite the chaos, however, we have not seen a single accident since we have been here, although there were a few times people were ... read more

I had heard that these Dreamliners change the colour tone of the cabin lighting to help you adjust to where you are going and the time of day. This plane was just showing off though, as we awoke to it cycling through all the colours of the rainbow, followed by a rainbow. There were no problems at immigration, although we have had more friendly welcomes to a country. Sadly, we then had to wait an absolute age at the baggage reclaim as the bags all trickled through over a period of 50 minutes, not helped by the return of the vast number of shrink-wrapped boxes that we had seen being checked-in in London. We did get to see quite a nice sunrise out of the windows by the baggage reclaim whilst we were waiting. Hopefully the ... read more

Now that I'm smack bang in the middle of the tourist trail, the Vietnam adventure just keeps getting better. After a fabulous spell on the beach at Nha Trang, it was time to keep on rolling. Although the famous resort town is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, it's surprising how far one has to travel to get to Cam Ranh airport. Granted it's an accident of geography, but a taxi ride from Nha Trang is around 50 kilometres from town, including having to navigate a winding hill pass. But once travellers arrive at the clean and modern airport, it's easy to bliss out under the luxurious air conditioning. Vietjet airlines check in and subsequent flight proved smooth sailing, and before long I landed in wonderful Hoi An. As discussed in the ... read more