Vietnam Travel Blogs

Hoi An - Suit you sir!
Mar 6, 2009 (29 photos)

Drop your chopsticks, Hoi an is tourist friendly, perhaps too much. Once we arrived in town we immediately knew we had travelled south, the weather was hot (it's been a while). Hoi An is a UNESCO world heritage sight, on our third day we took ...

Day 75: Scooter Dodging
Aug 4, 2008 (13 photos)

... coffee houses surrounding this area, but�today's dinner would be had elsewhere. As I don't have my bootleg photocopied�Vietnam LP guidebook beside me, any attempt to remember this restaurant's�unpronounceable name will be futile, but this was one *good* ...

So cold...
Mar 5, 2005 (9 photos)

... the largest island in Halong Bay. Our mission- a 6km trek through the interior. It started out a bit rough, and then got like a Vietnam war movie. Mud, dense jungle, random holes in the ground, I felt like an US Army Ranger. Luckily, we were dropped off at ...

Hanoi I - 30th anniversary
Apr 30, 2005 (11 photos)

... sure where it will lead, but it sounded genuine and encouraging. Incidentally, the big holiday coming up is April 30, Vietnam's Independence Day. Because all government including schools will be closed for four days, I left early for my next stop. It ...

Onwards to the capital of Vietnam....
Dec 19, 2008 (6 photos)

... very shrewd at business and it is a little more difficult to try and haggle with someone here than it is elsewhere in Vietnam. After a day exploring the sites we booked ourselves on a cooking course and also a trip to Halong bay.  One thing you ...

Vietnam, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) - "Same Same"
Dec 11, 2008 (10 photos)

... towards the Northern Viet Kong and anti-west themes there were hero stories told throughout of how the Northern armies of Vietnam devastated the moral and will of the Southern Vietnam and American armies.  I guess propaganda works both ways.  ...

Day 77: A Day on the Delta
Aug 7, 2008 (15 photos)

Breaking the Saigon stint neatly in two was a short Wednesday foray into the uppermost town on the Mekong Delta. Ideally the delta is explored slowly over 3-4 days but logistics and time were not on our side; we figured one day would be better than ...

Ha Long Bay - Peace & tranquility... but no squid!
Dec 21, 2008 (15 photos)

Ha Long Bay - Peace & tranquility... but no squid! Headed out to Ha Long Bay and onto a cute boat called the Lagoon Explorer with two other people (Hello to Sophie and Carmen!) and the first signs of sun started to appear through the clouds. The ...

Hoi An - Wonton Soup & "Same Same but different!"
Dec 16, 2008 (11 photos)

... with the vendors to get the best price and they have that famous quote which you can see on many T-shirts all over Vietnam...."Same Same... but different".   The Vietnamese seem to use this quote for everything...  Order a coffee and you get ...

Beautiful Halong Bay
May 18, 2004 (11 photos)

My watch has died. This is a sign. The rest of the trip needs to be more relaxed. Yesterday, we headed for Halong Bay, about three hours outside of Hanoi. A private car out was included in our tour, but were we to do it again, we would forgo the car, save ...

Hue - Tomb Raider
Mar 2, 2009 (37 photos)

The sleeper bus came to pick us up from Ninh Binh at around 10pm for the long drive to Hue. My heart sank as I stepped onto this rolling prison cell, the realisation dawning on me that I would be sleeping in a bed no bigger than a coffin. Not only that, I ...

Let's do that again! Or not...
Mar 5, 2005 (4 photos)

We were talking about how the travelogue's been getting stale, and were thinking about how we could spice it up. Drawing inspiration from tv we planned a wedding, then a funeral, then just opted for the border crossing from HELL!!!! (see, we know how to ...

Hanoi - Mopeds, mopeds, mopeds
Feb 24, 2009 (32 photos)

... teach us how to prepare and cook traditional dishes such as spring rolls, chicken and catfish. You can find Pho everywhere in Vietnam and our hotel offered it for breakfast. It's a sort of noodle soup with chicken or beef served with onions and chilli.& ...

My Son Ruins
May 14, 2004 (6 photos)

... visit. My Son contains anywhere from 25 to 70 buildings (depending who you ask) from the ancient Cham civilization of Vietnam. The Hindu religious complex was built in stages from the 4th to the 13th century and has been designated by UNESCO ...

Saigon (for one night)
Feb 2, 2005

... of an international drug cartel. We spent an hour agonizing over our next move. Our tight time frame (we need to be back in Vietnam by Tet, when all of the businesses shut down, and back in China by the 20th) means that we have to leave the next day ...

Tet celebrations, HCMC
Feb 9, 2005 (2 photos)

Happy New Year! The journey back to Vietnam was long, if uneventful. It felt like a homecoming of sorts. The second we crossed the border, I had to restrain myself from hugging the first lady I saw wearing a conical hat. Maybe I only had 2 dollars left in ...

How to Make Rice Noodles
May 8, 2004 (8 photos)

How to Make Rice Noodles: 1. Soak rice in water for 6 hours or overnight. 2. Grind rice into watery flour and tie in bag. 3. Let bag sit and dry for 2 days. 4. Take semi-dried flour block out of bag and boil for 50 min. 5. ...

Spring Break 2005, Nha Trang
Feb 13, 2005 (2 photos)

Three blissful days in Nha Trang, a beautiful if somewhat bland seaside resort. It is such a foreign enclave full of western bars and sun-fried beach bums that the Vietnamese character has been heavily diluted. Ask me if I cared. Not at all. I was just ...

Hoi An and My Son
Feb 14, 2005 (2 photos)

Happy Valentine's Day. Yes, they celebrate it here. Mellisa and I found it quite funny that we were spending Valentine's Day together. It has remained an ongoing joke that I have spent more uninterrupted time with her than any person ever before in my ...

Cultured Hue
May 11, 2004 (7 photos)

We flew to Hue this morning on Vietnam Airlines. The flight felt nicer than all of the US domestic carriers and many international flights I've been on. The flight attendants were friendly and we had a beautiful landing into Hue with rolling hills rising ...

Easy Riding through Vietnam
Apr 20, 2007 (4 photos)

... avoid running into James the horny Brit, so teaming up with Thai the Easy Rider was the perfect way to experience Vietnam first hand.   Language lessons at gas stations over green tea. Stupidly sweet sugar cane juice next to old military ...

Capital of Vietnam
Feb 24, 2006 (2 photos)

... amount of bus time, 24 hours on and off, and a full recovery from the hangover from hell, we arrive in the capital of Vietnam in the north of the country. Although the weather from Hue was wet, the weather here is noticeably cold (not compared to home), ...

Good Morning, Vietnam
Feb 2, 2005 (9 photos)

... wanted us to come eat at his restaurant. Which we did. All in all, you couldn't have scripted a more spectacular entrance into Vietnam. Let there be no mistake, the Americans have arrived. The train ride to Hanoi was scheduled to take 10 hours. We sat ...

Hoi An - Nguyen
May 12, 2005 (11 photos)

Hello. What I was looking forward to most on this trip was visiting Hoi An and the Nguyen family. I met them at the chopsticks store on my last visit. They invited me to stay in their second house. In fact, they insisted several times. Normally I ...

Two day trip to Halong Bay
Sep 14, 2007 (20 photos)

... on the night bus to Hue (pronounced Hway - with a phlegmy H). Several tour companies offer multi stop tickets either down or up Vietnam depending on whether you start in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).  Due to the shape of Vietnam you tend to see ...

Royal Tombs
May 12, 2004 (6 photos)

... too much third world litter and dirt. However, it's a must on any Vietnamese tour as it contains the archeological remains of Vietnam's empire, if ruins less than 200 years old can be refered to as archeological. All of the royal burial complexes are 4 to ...

Rainy Vietnam
Dec 16, 2006 (15 photos)

... .  It was raining from the time we arrived to the time we left, but many other western tourists were having difficulty with Vietnam as compared to the other places they had travelled and the rest of south east asia.  It is easy to sense the ...

Chau Doc and the Mekong Delta
Mar 15, 2009 (21 photos)

How to get to Cambodia? We can either get the bus or sail down the Mekong Delta. No contest. We set off early in the morning from Saigon and were at the dock a couple of hours later. The Mekong looked impressive and I felt rather smug, we'd found a pretty ...

Hanoi, second time around
Feb 16, 2005 (1 photos)

... of "ghost money" on the sidewalk-fake money which is burned as an offering to the gods. Despite my reluctance to leave Vietnam, I am also relieved (just a little) to be getting back "home." To all of the die-hard, ardent backpackers out there, I ...

Lazy day on the delta
Dec 2, 2005 (5 photos)

... were normalised, and everything seemed to be very sweet until the Asian economic crisis of 1997 took place. Since that setback, Vietnam has recovered strongly making it one of the fastest growing economies in the region. Nonetheless 75% of the people are ...