Vietnam Travel Blogs

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 ourselves on ...

A travel blog entry from Hoi An by stephen.j.booth
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... 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 ...

A travel blog entry from Halong Bay by zee
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... 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 ...

A travel blog entry from Hanoi by eric
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... 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 will ...

A travel blog entry from Hanoi by mikeandmarisha
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... a War remnants museum where there were harrowing stories from the war along with a large collection of ammunitions, tanks and aircraft. The Vietnam war was one of the most horrific known to man kind, mainly due to the number of people that were killed and ...

A travel blog entry from Ho Chi Minh City by mikeandmarisha
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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 on ...

A travel blog entry from Halong Bay by mikeandmarisha
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... 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 an iced coffee ...

A travel blog entry from Hoi An by mikeandmarisha
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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 ...

A travel blog entry from Halong Bay by kally563
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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 ...

A travel blog entry from Hue by stephen.j.booth
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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 ...

A travel blog entry from Vinh by zee
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... 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. It ...

A travel blog entry from Hanoi by stephen.j.booth
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... 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 ...

A travel blog entry from Hoi An by kally563
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... 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 ...

A travel blog entry from Ho Chi Minh City by luolan
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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 ...

A travel blog entry from Ho Chi Minh City by luolan
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The Vietnam/Cambodia water border on the Mekong River recently opened to foreigners and is becoming increasingly more popular, and sailing down the Mekong sounded a lot more interesting to Eva and I than taking the international bus. We had read that ...

A travel blog entry from Mekong Delta by adamandeva
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... . Maybe that's why Mr. Annoying Combat Fatigues works the way he does. I think I just learned something about Vietnam. Adam --------------- Eva's thoughts: Somehow every time we rent a motorbike, they run out of gas right immediately. How do ...

A travel blog entry from Dong Ha by adamandeva
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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. ...

A travel blog entry from Mekong Delta by kally563
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... Hoi An and Hue and took a 2-day boat trip on Halong Bay. So punctuated by all of that, in the right circumstances, Vietnam is an incredible destination, and Hanoi is the price we pay for that. But these particular two days in Hanoi just shopping for ...

A travel blog entry from Hanoi by dane
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Photos from Sapa.

A travel blog entry from Sapa by dane
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The ferry ride was mildly pleasant. It was 30,000 VND for locals, 70,000 for tourists. Everyone once again ignored the no smoking signs on the small vessel, so we spent the end of the trip on the deck watching the islands roll by. As mass transit it ...

A travel blog entry from Cat Ba by dane
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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 ...

A travel blog entry from Nha Trang by luolan
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Just a few shots that I never posted.

A travel blog entry from Sapa by dane
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From our walk to the train station.

A travel blog entry from Hanoi by dane
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An International Day of Mourning. It should be, but won't. Presidents who launch clandestine wars and sell death for profit, they get parades. Even leaving office in disgrace can't stop it. Movie stars and rock gods could have every teenager in ...

A travel blog entry from Hue by dane
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As I mentioned in the last post, Hue has some military history in regards to the Vietnam War. I expected to see the war mentioned in some museums, a few tanks, some craters, but I didn't expect all the personal artifacts from the war to be for sale on the ...

A travel blog entry from Hue by dane
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I had gotten sick after the Perfume Pagoda trip. I had a cough and a fever. I had a sore throat. I had the bird flu. I had Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, West Nile virus, and malaria. I had a cold. I took cheap antibiotics and DayQuil. I spent a ...

A travel blog entry from Hanoi by dane
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... http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/MYSA011308_01Q_Sapa_5ba6fd_html.html The Price of Travel by Dane Phillips SAPA, VIETNAM - I am accustomed to transportation in the developing world. I have been on buses in which poultry outnumbered humans 2 to ...

A travel blog entry from Sapa by dane
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... stunning and historically important buildings in Hoi An. Would you like to hear all about it? Well, I got rid of my Vietnam guidebook, so I can't help you. If it's really important to you, then please visit your local library and demand that they buy ...

A travel blog entry from Hoi An by dane
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We rented a motorbike again to get out to the tomb of Tu Duc, about 6 km from town. It wasn't a particularly interesting day, so I'll just tell you about the site itself. I like to alternate between useless narrative and pertinent information. Hue ...

A travel blog entry from Hue by dane
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Our first day in Sapa was beautiful. Our second was less so. Clouds had enveloped the town, the valley, and the peaks above. Everything was white. Anything more than 10 feet away was invisible in the haze. It was kind of magical though. I don't remember ...

A travel blog entry from Sapa by dane
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