Blogs from Vietnam, Asia - page 1366

And so it came to pass that the three man unit that is The Busters© was to be torn asunder. Tez was flying home to the loving bosom of his family that very morning. We breakfasted long and well and wished our fellow G1 bon voyage with a standard Buster Triple Shake©. Tez climbed into the back of 1990's carriage and with a wave, a braff and a smile he was gone. "A good man", I said to Joe. "A great man", Joe said to me. For the first time this trip I waved away all forms of transport and went for a walk. I soaked up the atmos of this wonderful little town and vowed that someday I will return, I will return to Siem Reap. 1990 picked up the two remaining Busters at 11.00am ... read more

Hmmm... Still can't really get into this place. The girls feel much the same, though Eva can't seem to get enough of the markets - yes, we did the markets AGAIN today, though different ones, and yes, we bought more. Shockin', as a true Aussie would say. The area where we are staying, D Pham Ngu Lao, is tourist central, and it seems that the Saigonese hanging around these quarters are very 'spoilt' by the Vietnamese tourist boom. I have gotten everything from wolf-whistles to 'Moto, madame?', 'No, thanks', 'Marijuana, madame?'. Last night, we had dinner in close to the guesthouse, though nothing really grabbed us, probably mainly due to the seedy-looking middle-aged single white men lingering everywhere. We ended up at an Indian restaurant down an alleyway. The food was ok, the service was American-style ... read more

Learning to walk around the streets in the Old District of Hanoi is like learning to dance…the only catch is if you make a wrong step, or lose the tune…you’re dead on the road. When I first arrived I would stand on the sidewalk, looking across the road to where I wanted to go, for a good 10 minutes before getting up the guts to take that first step into the traffic. By the time I left, it was like instinct. I just put myself out there, the first step is always the hardest, and danced. It’s amazing how easy it is once you get the hang of it. Hanoi was good, if a little overwhelming. I discovered Bia Hoi on my second to last night there, and it caused me one of the worst hangovers ... read more

Hello everyone! Sorry it took awhile to post again but the beach was just too nice. We got back into HCM City Monday morning the 6th of March. But let me take you back to Nha Trang. As I mentioned earlier we arrived last Thursday in Nha Trang. The drive from the Cam Ranh Bay Airport took about 30 minutes. The drive reminded me of the northern California or Oregon coast. Lots of curves winding above the South China Sea. You can see well out into the bay with plenty of fishing boats. The Resort shuttle took us from the airport to the ferry dock. The Vin Pearl is on an island 7 minutes and a world away from downtown Nha Trang. It is Nha Trang's newest resort and something to see. It boasts Vietnam's largest ... read more

It has been sooooo long since my last blog - I was actually rather grumpy for a minute when the computer just switched itself off in Can Tho after I had typed furiously for a good thirty minutes... all gone. That was the second night in a row of my typing being wiped, though the second time around, I decided to pay and leave the computer behind me. I wondered whether I was perhaps not supposed to write anymore, as my fate seemed to continuously (and literally) wipe my thoughts... Nah, I am not going to give up on it that easily. I am finding all of the typing very stimulating, and the thought of a career in Foreign Journalism is quite attractive. Hmmm. Vietnam... I haven't really written much since our arrival to this place, ... read more