When I wrote about the first stop on our trip, Ho Chi Minh, I casually mentioned the “frenzy of traffic”. In Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, it was just out of control. You know things are a problem when on the “Hotel information” sheet left in your room, point number one is “How to cross roads.” “How…
Author: dani
Bay by Bay
Ha Long Bay is one of the most visited and photographed natural beauties of Vietnam. You would have seen pictures of rugged rocky islets jutting from emerald water, tranquil lagoons, hidden caves and communities of fisherfolk living and farming the waters on bright floating villages. You probably haven’t seen images of rubbish floating in these…
The Last Sapa
We arrived in Sapa exhausted after an 11-hour train ride on the Lotus Express to Hanoi and then a 6-hour ride on an awful bumpy sleeper bus being yelled at by a grumpy driver “NO FOOD” who was watching Vietnamese YouTube music videos the whole way. Sapa town was nothing as we had expected. I…
Show me the Hue
In my research on Hue (pronounced H-way), I did not read anything about it being a university (and therefore party) town. I read about the historical citadel, imperial history and countryside royal tombs, but nowhere did it mention that there would be streets teaming with young people out for a beer, a thumping nightclub and…
The City of Lanterns
The check-in of our beachside homestay five minutes from historical Hoi An was a flurry of confusion. Two old ladies showed us photos of various breakfast foods while ushering us up to our room in the traditional timber bungalow that would be our home for three nights. We decided to stay a little out of…
Good Morning Vietnam!
There’s nothing like a heady dose of a chaotic South-East Asian city to remind you you’re alive: the frenzy of traffic; the clash of glittering Cartier shopfronts manned by uniformed security guards vs. elderly squatted women wearing “non” (conical straw hats) selling cigarettes and bottled water; the heavy humidity lifting scents of rubbish, then BBQ…
The Beginning of the End
The visually spectacular drive between Treviso and Munich took us about 6 hours, with Cam relishing the chance to speed along at over 170 on the smooth-as-silk autobahns in Germany. After spending over 3 weeks surrounded by dramatic, passionate, rowdy Italians, Munich was a bit of a jolt to a more “Australian” reality. Workers rushing…
Home is where the Heart is
While Treviso was only my home for a short while when I was 18, I have visited many times. It was the home of my father and grandparents before they emigrated like thousands of other Europeans post-war to Australia, and has been the place that inspired my second cousins that still live there to write…
Wandering in Wonder
If we were to believe headlines doing the rounds this European summer, Venice has been “ruined”, “destroyed” and “overrun” with tourists. The world has been stuck at home for the past few years. Do you blame them for wanting to start exploring again? Yes, it seems like there are even more cheap souvenir stalls, more…
Lakeside
Probably thanks to George Clooney, the first Italian holiday lake that comes to mind for most non-Europeans is Lake Como. Bigger however at 370km2, less pricey, and arguably with more things to do, is Lake Garda, situated across three regions of northern Italy; Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige. The coast of the lake is dotted…
The Ossuary of Solferino
From the outside, the Ossuary of Solferino looks like any other small church in the Italian countryside, reached by a long tree-lined pathway. Inside, lies a grim reminder of the tragedy of war. While the Catacombs of Paris which we visited a few weeks ago, housed the bones of thousands of Parisians sourced from many…
Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata.
On January 31, 2023 Cam and I celebrated our twenty-year wedding anniversary. I refuse to stop celebrating milestones in our lives in a memorable way. Every big birthday, every big anniversary needs to be a joyous, memorable occasion. Otherwise, it’s 18th birthday party, 21st birthday party, wedding, dead. Non mi piace. We knew we’d be…
Under Brescia
The northern Italian city of Brescia has an inferiority complex. Despite being, alongside neighbouring town Bergamo, Italy’s “Capital of Culture 2023”; regardless of the wealth of artistic treasures housed in the city’s Santa Giulia museum; even though one of the largest castle complexes in all of Italy sits on the summit of Brescia’s city, overlooking…
Lake Annecy
When we were investigating places to stop on our journey between Paris and Venice, a lot of the names of French towns were new to me. I had never heard of Annecy but thought, yeah, we’ll give it a go for three nights. It is one of the prettiest places I have ever visited. The…
3 Burgundian celebrities. A Gaul, a cad, and a saint.
Having a car when you’re travelling through Europe (and a husband who loves the challenge of driving on the other side of the road on the other side of the planet) is a godsend, enabling us to visit places that would either take far too long, or be too complicated, to visit using public transport…
Sweet like “Chocolat”
Between May and August 2000, the small medieval town of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in France’s Burgundy region was taken over with a Hollywood film crew, and actors including Johnny Depp, Juliette Binoche, and Judy Dench, to create the whimsical, romantic tale “Chocolat”. While the film was not a success in France, it received 5 Academy Award nominations,…
The Token Traveller 