Blogs from Asia - page 13072

6th March Got up at 6am to start what turned out to be a 13 hour journey to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City. The first part of the journey dragged a bit especialy as we had no lunch. Once we changed buses and then crossed into Vietnam, the journey didn't feel as bad. A new country and its scenery to look at.. Checked into a guest house and went for food & beers with Joel (Canadian) and Kerry (American) who we met on the bus. 7th March - Early start, we went on a 1/2 day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, about 200km + of tunnels that the Viet Cong built to hide from / fight against the Americans. It was weird going under ground and seeing huge craters where B52's had dropped bombs ... read more

A variety of photos from Mumbai... read more

Dinsdag 6 maart. Bij het naderen van Hangzhou zag het weer er maar grijs uit. De stops die de trein maakte, werden frequenter en langer zodat we steeds minder en minder vooruit leken te komen. Het werd uiteindelijk 13u15 eer we in het oostelijke treinstation van Hangzhou aankwamen en een taxi konden zoeken naar de Mingtown jeugdherberg die we als verblijfplaats hadden uitgekozen. Het was een betrekkelijk nieuw hotel. De kamers waren redelijk modern en hadden namaak antieke meubels. Alleen de vloer van de douche was slecht aangelegd: de afvoer lag niet op het laagste punt zodat er constant een plas water in de douchecel bleef staan. Hordes goede loodgieters en elektriciens zouden rijk kunnen worden als ze de opdracht kregen om in de hotels in China alle mankementen wat betreft elektrische leidingen en water ... read more

We arrived here at 5am, fresh from a night's bus journey! The plan was to go and watch the sunrise over the Mekong until the guest houses opened, but after half an hour under seige by the local mosquitos and still no sign of the sun we'd had enough and checked into the nearest hotel (which just happened to be a nice one with a pool). Vientiane is the capital city of Laos PDR but is still quite laid back with no visible rush hour (or traffic really). It has it's own Arc de Triomphe, some interesting Temples and the very first Lao skyscraper (about 10 floors) overlooking the parched river. We came, saw and moved on pretty quickly. Our bus out was overbooked so the driver quickly acquired some plastic garden chairs for the people ... read more

Arriving in Muang Ngoi by river boat was a pretty exciting prospect. Lonely planet describes it in a way that sounds like an idealistic travellers get away and I wasn’t disappointed. I travelled with some friends I’d met trekking in Luang Nam Tha and we met others in Nong Khiaw, just down river from our destination, where we stayed over for the night. Getting here from Nam Tha took an entire day traversing dusty bumpy dirt tracks by bus and an uncomfortable sâwngthâew journey, but at least it was mostly sealed roads. This sleepy market town on the banks of the Nam Ou cuts through close mountains and the scenery sours up on all sides displaying some dramatic lighting as the sun goes round combined with an eerie feeling as blankets of morning mist roll through ... read more