Trang An Hotel Hanoi

... is quite a challenge! Besides that, lots of markets could be seen everywhere in the centre. It was a bit troublesome that they kind of persisted in trying to sell you something. But other than that, the people in Vietnam seemed to be very friendly and helpful.

We visited the main places in Hanoi and went to see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. We also wanted to see the Ho Chi Minh Museum but it turned out that all the museums were closed on Friday afternoons. So instead we had ...

... good ****ing times, great ****ing times...times that may never happen again but the first time was special enough I don't need seconds. Everyone of you reading this out there, if you've never been away for longer than a holiday (a holiday being 4 weeks in the burnsie book of definitions)...And I don't care if you went to the moon...You have to do this...! Experience what I've experienced, see what I've seen, meet random people every day that you can have the best ...

... the next morning. DAY SEVEN Next day we are up early for the 3.5hr drive out to Halong Bay. Here we were meant to be staying onboard a junk boat for the night whilst crusing around the limestone cliffs, however there was a huge storm coming that night so we could only make it a day trip. We spent a few hours on the boat and had a look through some newly discovered caves in the area before heading back to the dock and our long bus ride back to Hanoi. Unfortunately as ...

... guys (Asia had to sit at the
vegetarian table) and had a really interesting discussion on American
stereotypes and racism. After dinner, it was officially happy hour. We
played drinking games (we learned several new games) and ultimately
ended up having a dance party downstairs. Around midnight, we decided
it was a good idea for a swim. Taeha, myself, and a random British guy
who was afraid to jump alone, jumped from the top of the boat, hand in
hand into the ...

... poor tourists who go back to Hanoi several thousand kilometers to the north. The nightmare!
The 3-star hotel in Hue is worth the detour. It is a labyrinth of concrete U-shaped in the Soviet style. The corridors are wide enough to pass a tractor, the rooms are huge with at least 3.5 m high ceilings and a decor in brown khaki of the most beautiful effect. We find it rather funny. Against by the pool is not bad and the joy of children.
The old citadel is surrounded ...

... Frogs" and all that jazz. The singers were two women who looked incredibly bored as they sang in Vietnamese. The puppeteers themselves are actually really talented, since they have to control various puppets using bamboo sticks in the water. The puppets look pretty lifelike, especially the river fish, and all in all it is a great outing for maybe a 5 or 6 year old. For us, it probably went on about 20 minutes too long , but I enjoyed it ...

Laos was a pretty quick leg of our trip. We did the main backpacker route and got caught in the countries biggest and best festival of the year. So in summary - it was awesome! Best of Laos The Water - Tubing on water, swimming in water, fighting with water, bars on the water; WATER WATER WATER! Buddha Park by Scooter - Half the fun was seeing this bizarre ...

... min hintet til det men de snakket dårlig engelsk. Etter 2 minutter med vietnamesisk mas sa den ene vakten: "2 Yuan!" (Kinesisk valuta, ca 2 kroner). Det var et språk jeg forsto. Vell framme i Hanoi fant jeg et hotell som en kanader fra bussen hadde anbefalt og ble der et par dager. Hotellet lå i Old Quarter-delen av byen som vell kan oversettes til turiststrøket. Det er allikevel en veldig fin bydel med parker, trange gater og et travelt byliv. Trafikken i Vietnam er mye ...

... afford a 20" flat screen TV, two mid-sized speakers and a microphone. While I was there, three neighborhood boys came over to sing.

Outside of karaoke, though, performing arts just aren't nearly as popular as back home. During a recent break in Hanoi, though, I searched the city for other options. My timing was good. I found a ballet, opera, circus and new store opening.

The Vietnam National Opera and Ballet had a contemporary ballet at ...

... them onto a CD!

In theory all I had to do was get back on that very same PC, save the full size images onto a disk and at least I would have retrieved SOME of the 'lost' photos, right?!

Errrr, wrong :(

Imagine my surprise (and swearing) when I got to the very same internet cafe to find that OVERNIGHT (I'd been there yesterday!) they'd upgraded ALL of their PCs, so the old terminals were nowhere to be seen ...