Blogs from Vietnam, Asia - page 1341

Dear readers, I'm moving that fast now I can barely remember where I am. I left Cambodia 2 days ago & cruised into Vietnam courtesy of the Mekong river. Once off the boat & on terra firma in Chau Doc we had the usual fun & games with the "taxi" or "cyclo" drivers. We arrive, having done our homework & therefore armed with the necessary to know which budget accommodation we want to check out first. Well...forget that! Once we are on/in their vehicle they blatantly ignore or request & take us to a hotel that will reward them with wonga for depositing us there. This type of gentle scam is something that we're familiar with now, & I understand their reasons for doing this, but after a tiring, sweaty day travelling it does wear a ... read more

Hit the road early on Saturday and got a 7am bus from Nha Trang to Mui Ne, we finally arrived in Mui Ne about 12.30pm. We had not booked accommodation ahead so our first task was to find somewhere. We did not realise it but Mui Ne is actually pretty much 22km long, and all the hotels/resorts are spread across this 22km. The bus company gets a commission with one resort where we were dropped off, but it was too expensive for us. I saw around the corner of the bus one guy trying to catch our attention so I went to speak to him, walked around the corner of the bus and there were about 8 guys from hotels all wanting us to stay with them, they just swarmed around and tried to get us ... read more

The journey to Vietnam was a fairly pleasant and suprisingly organised one. The decision to travel by slow-boat to Chau Doc in the Mekong delta, as opposed to a bus straight to Ho Chi Minh, was justified by a pretty pleasant and comfortable journey with nice views along the Mekong. Having already arranged our Visas the border crossing was straightforward and our guide didn't run off without us which makes a nice change. Chau Doc itself is a pleasant, albeit quiet, little border town with little of note apart from a colourful and busy market selling locally caught fish as well as every fruit and vegetable possible. First impressions of Vietnam were extremely good, particularly as the people seem so friendly. The first couple of times people spoke to me I was still on the defensive, ... read more

It was a hot evening... I had lived in Vietnam for nary a month, and we were sitting under an umbrella at Highlands coffee behind the opera house in down town Ho Chi Minh City. My roomate Martina and I had just finished a 1.5 hour bickram yoga class, and we were still sweating despite ourselves. I was unfortunately dressed in my classiest pair of trekking shorts and oversized t-shirt, she still in her yoga pants. From beyond the gates came a bounding bundle of excitement... Esther Arthur, 5' something and shimmering all the way. She met her own description to a tee; "the brown girl" she called herself. She was dangling with jewellrey and rings and even a scarf (of which the secret of a good scarf can never be revealed). She spoke loudly, laughed ... read more

Yet another 6am wake up call. With exciting things ahead of us, there are no complaints (from Thai) this early in the morning! We had to get ready for our tour to two very popular sites near Saigon. This was our first "free" day away from the family, and as much as we all love our families, it was time to explore the city on our own! We finally felt like travellers and all the excitement of discovering a city on your own, with just the Lonely Planet Bible (btw...bootleg copies of Lonely Planet books are available, and so cheap) and each other it was fun to finally set off on our own. Our bus left at 8: 30am with our funny tour guide "Slim Jim". Full of Aussie slang, he made the US$7 trip very ... read more