Yes, I’m afraid so… We’re slightly bitter, spoiled tourists in regards to Hanoi. After the dazzling bright lights of Saigon, the dreamy lanterns of Hoi An, and the simply mystical atmosphere of Halong, Hanoi just wasn’t all that exciting. Don’t get us wrong: It IS a beautiful city with plenty of stunning French colonial vestiges (our favourites being the Opera and the Metropole Hotel) mixed with the ever-present Chinese legacy. And we also had some memorable meals at various charming restaurants such as The Green Tangerine and The Opera Club Nouvel, not to mention the delicious street food. But overall, Hanoi failed to captivate us. We were only there three full days and perhaps this is not enough to do it justice. Yet in those three days, we covered a lot of territory, hitting the tourist ... read more

Keen beginnings Feeling well rested after two weeks of downtime in Hoi An, we were ready once again to hit the road and take in a little more adventure. We had high expectations for an interesting onward journey as we were booked on the Reunification Express train that connects Hanoi to Saigon. The line dates back to the French colonial times, having been completed in 1936. It stopped running in 1954 when the country was divided into north and south, only to be functional again after unification in the mid-70s. We bought our tickets directly from the national railway service in Saigon, unaware that a separate private service called Livitran also operated on this line, offering considerably higher quality facilities. We were scheduled to depart Danang at 14:42 on the SE4 train and arrive in Hanoi ... read more

Phu Quoc island has all sorts of interesting sights and activities to captivate you during a visit, including beautiful waterfalls to swim under, lush forests to hike through, and colorful coral reefs to snorkel across… We didn’t do any of it. For three straight days, we stayed put at our little seaside hotel, the Bo Resort, and simply enjoyed the postcard scenery from the comfort of our beachfront bungalow. It didn’t matter that it was grossly overpriced for a minimalist back-to-nature type of hotel, since the food was so damn good and the French-Vietnamese owners hilariously friendly. Furthermore, given how difficult it was to get there (see last blog entry), we weren’t about to chance leaving the place unless it was absolutely necessary. Sadly, that moment came soon enough, since we had pre-booked tickets on the ... read more

Cambodian Capital + Coastal Cambodia Apart from the opportunity to meet up with friends and contacts in Phnom Penh, the city wasn’t filled with all that much to do. Once the royal palace visit was out of the way- an activity that took us 45 generous minutes at best, we were hard pressed to find ways to keep the kids entertained and interested. After the impressive sights on offer in Siem Reap, a stroll along the river and across the one temple vaguely worth a visit in town (Wat Phnom) simply didn’t impress them much (nor us!) Luckily, there were some fun restaurants to check out that were very family-friendly, such as Le Jardin with a bamboo playhouse complete with a slide that ends in a giant sandpit- filled with beach toys (yes, we spent the ... read more

(Please note we have no control over photo placement in this blog... so the photos below don't keep up with the text, but scroll to the bottom to see the full collection. We will soon create a Flickr page to allow you to see a broader selection of our travel photos, should you care to...) Arrival in Asia: After an easy flight from London (read: children slept the whole way!) and smooth arrival in Bangkok (read: traffic was only marginally bad... the last 50meters of our journey took 45minutes), we kicked our Thai adventures off with some local cuisine around the corner from our lovely little hotel, the Old Bangkok Inn. That was to be the first lap on our of Pad Thai marathon. In spite of the 5 hour time difference, we were all tired ... read more