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…
Category: vietnam
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 Token Traveller 