Blogs from Vietnam, Asia - page 1346

Advertisement

Asia » Vietnam » Central Highlands » Lam Dong » Da Lat May 12th 2006

We have left Saigon and continued to Mui Ne, where we stayed in little bungalows on the beach for 3 days. I was really glad to get back to the coast. Saigon was really cool, but I was looking to get out of the big city metropolis for a while. Its the low season here so there isn't a lot of nightlife going on. The streets are quite deserted, or so it seems after the 24/7 non stop traffic in Ho Chi Minh City. We had 3 days in Mui Ne which were spent going to 2 different areas with sand dunes (white and red), and relaxing on the beach. I am not suffering from culture shock like I did when I was in Malawi. Its nice to be back in this kind of lifestyle. I ... read more
island hopping
wheeling and dealing
Please don't eat me

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City May 12th 2006

OK, first up, let me apologise for not having posted anything on the blog for several weeks. I am tempted to blame Stef but I have to take full responsibility here. Up until now, Stef had been doing most of the writing whilst I was in charge of the photos and other 'techie' bits of running the blog. I did promise Stef that I would write about our first parts of Vietnam and I have been procrastinating constantly. Whilst this is entirely in Character, part of me thinks that I have been delaying it because, to be totally honest, Vietnam has not been the experience we were expecting. In fairness, Vietnam is a country that is experiencing massive growth in the tourism industry, particularly from the backpacker and flashpacker crowds. As a result, the attitude amongst ... read more
My 15mins of movie stardom
Steve and Stef looking great ;-)
Steve coming out of the last stretch of the Cu Chi tunnels

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City May 12th 2006

Saigon was our last stop in Vietnam and, considering the fact that we had enjoyed everywhere else in the country so much, we weren't expecting to like the city a lot. We had also been warned from fellow travellers that it was noisy, overcrowded and a bit sleazy in places. Thankfully we were pleasantly surprised. To us, Saigon was a well developed buzzing city which had a lot to offer. We arrived to the usual gathering of 'friendly' touts, all promising top-notch cheap accommodation. Of course we were sceptical but after a bit of trudging to and fro we found a decent place in a central spot. We were starving as usual so Karen, Julia and I headed out to find some grub. Had just left the hotel when we ran into Steph, Steve and Vinh, ... read more
Looks can be deceiving..
Steve's Birthday Party
Mwaah ha ha!

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Khanh Hoa » Nha Trang May 11th 2006

Wow it's great to be back in Vietnam! The beach at Mui Ne was amazing and a spectacular place to relax. There weren't any peddlers on the beach to harass you and I got to practice Poi (fire dancing) without the fire of course for hours. We took an overnight bus here to Nha Trang this morning and there's a lot more hustle and bustle going on but it seems to be great for parties. It worked out well for one of my travelmates Gemma because tomorrow is her birthday and there's a huge full moon party on the beach. My birthday was pretty fun in Saigon. The gang (there's six of us) took me out for drinks and surprised me with a birthday cake and some cool gifts. It was really nice, we stayed in ... read more
Home
Coast Cruise
The dunes

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Quảng Nam » Hoi An May 11th 2006

We really liked Hoi An. The old town was great to walk around for a couple of days. Loads of old crumbly buildings, temples, pagodas etc.. The only problem was that as a UNESCO site it was pretty expensive to get into any of the old buildings. So being the cheapskates that we are we opted just to visit the free ones and admire the rest from outside. What you didn't see you can't feel you missed! The first day there was spent cruising the various taylors. Hoi An is known for knocking out cheap clothes and we grabbed ourselves a few bits each. Pretty naff stuff to be honest but at 20 quid a suit you can't complain. We also spent a bit of time exploring the coast. Rented a motorbike and drove up to ... read more
Japanese Bridge
Rice Drying
Assembly Hall

Asia » Vietnam » Northeast » Quang Ninh » Halong Bay May 11th 2006

It was introduced to us as the 'Amazing cave'.... and it really is Amazing... As usual, I was the last one in the group (overnight trip to Halong Bay), too busy taking photos and getting left behind. I love caves.... read more
Life on Mars 02
Life on Mars 03
Life on Mars 04

Asia » Vietnam » Central Highlands » Lam Dong » Da Lat May 11th 2006

We had a shit bus for the trip to Dalat, it was a one off the nice bus from Saigon!! We were on this Bus with an English Couple Lucy and Dave, who we have travelled most of the way through Vietnam with. Travelling from Mui Ne to Dalat was quite an experience. We went from desert to the Mountains in a little under 3 hours, very surreal. Through the mountains we were on a dodgey track that was so tiny and looked like we would go over the edge, and it was raining!!! But it looked amazing up there and it was so much cooler. We arrived and the bus did the usual, take you to the hotel they want you to stay at thing. In this case we had no idea where we were ... read more
Dalat Terrace
Dave on stolen cyclo
Dalat Lake

Asia » Vietnam » Mekong River Delta May 10th 2006

Hi Peeps We stayed in Can tho for 3 days, on our 1st day we looked about the town of course we found the markets...which we love..we walked through the fish market with buckets of live fish and crustations floating about...catfish, crabs, prawns, frogs and many other types of fish which i cannot even tell you what they were? I found the clothes section of course and bought a nice top for about 50p...bargain!!! In the evening we went for a boat ride to watch the sunset it was a tiny little boat 1 seat and our driver behind us stearing...this was amazing we took a route down river passing all types of boats we then proceeded down a tiny river into the mangroves and where shown all types of trees including dorian fruit and mango ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City May 10th 2006

Well what was going to be the relaxing couple of days in the sun turned out to be anything but, I think I may have mentioned in the last blog Jane had booked a trip on a tourist boat out to a couple of Islands with some snorkeling, well what a trip. We did not stop laughing from the start to finish, the guides on the boat were a couple of characters one calling himself the Funky Monkey, when we left the harbour with creedence clearwater revival playing over the biggest speakers I was a bit unsure. It is hard to describe what an amzing day was had by the whole family, all of us snorkelling in crystal clear water, amazing tropical fish and an enormous lunch on board the boat. Floating in the south China ... read more
Nha Trang
Floating Bar
Sams School Mates

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Thuan » Mui Ne May 9th 2006

Hi Peeps! Sorry for the lack of blogs but we have been so busy travelling through Cambodia to Vietnam alot going on...We have just uploaded some photos of jim's bday, Mekong River, Floating Market...if you go to this address www.msnusers.com/MyWebDocuments you can view some of the photos we took. Sorry we are having trouble uploading photos to this site..just every computer we go on is different? Mui Ne is a nice little place 22km long beach..no motorbikes to get about just plain old fashioned cycles...we are about to cycle off down the beach for some more food...We hope you can see pics as these sometimes speak better than words... take care another blog coming soon...... read more




Tot: 0.158s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 9; qc: 96; dbt: 0.0752s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb