Sun Spa Resort Dong Hoi

... still on their (deserted) beach. So, the staff called security to escort us off their premises!!! A bit extreme, we thought.

Once we were finally off their beach, we enjoyed some time in the sun and surf on our own!

The next day, we visited the few sights they have at Dong Hoi; mostly American planes that they shot down during the war. Dong Hoi is very close to the North/South border so was massively bombed in the war. We also visited the ruined church where only the ...

After Hue, we travelled along the Ho Chi Minh Trail with our guide Luong ("Long but short, you know, Long") and stopped over at the Vinh Moc Tunnels. These tunnels are bigger than Cu Chi as they were used for living. As you can see though, not big enough for Luke and I. You can't help but marvel at how clever and hard working they were to build kilometres of tunnels by hand to hide from the bomb attacks during the war. There was even a small ...

... hotel and arrange a pick up by taxi. Our optimism soon turned into despair, as they claimed to have not even heard of Hostel World, and our reservation. A tense few minutes followed, as we both discussed whether to cancel this booking and go directly to Hue. As we calmed ourselves down, we headed downstairs to check out. As we heaved our bags, one step at a time, I heard my name being repeated incessantly. It seemed the Hoa Hong had ...

... gestured that we should sit with our feet on the milk - the fact that we're 18 inches taller than the average Vietnamese passenger didn't sem to matter. The closer it got to 7pm, more and more Vietnamese arrived for the journey along with, on average, 3-4 bags of food/oil/rice each. As it was clear that the bus was going to be full, they then decided to take all the westerners bags off the bus and then pile them up in the middle of ...

So Dong Hoi is new to tourism and is ready to rip you off! We arrived and the cab driver wanted to charge us 40,000 vnd to get to the hotel. We weren't going to pay when a nice vn boy from the bus gave him the money and told him to take us. We both were shocked, considering it was a metered cab and that is what we wanted to us not the agree on a price. The ride ended up being 100 meters! If we ...

... sortant des grottes, on a fait la connaissance des employes du site, visiblement harasses par la surcharge de travail, vu qu'ils etaient tous en train de jouer a un jeu de plateau, une sorte d'echecs : Co Tuong. Tout le monde y joue au Vietnam, et je n'ai jamais su ce que c'etait avant aujourd'hui. On a passe un moment super sympa avec eux, a apprendre a jouer et a apprendre des nouveaux mots. Certains d'entre eux se sont ensuite leves en disant ...

... alors un autre touriste qui voyage tout seul. Et qui repond 'Bonjour' a mon 'Hello' ! Waouuu, un francais ! Ils se font rares par ici. Au fur et a mesure qu'on discute, on se rend compte qu'on a prevu d'aller a peu pres aux memes endroits dans les jours a venir, jusqu'q Hanoi. A commencer par les Grottes de Phong Nha. On verra bien apres comment ca se passe avec Mister Jean, de Clermont-Ferrand.

... this morning at 6AM with his son and their motorbikes (Troy not scared). We took a backroad trip to My Son, an old temple ruin. We rode past farmers, livestock, uniformed schoolkids biking to school, old women working out with those heavy poles, rice fields and old army trucks. The ride was worth the price of the tour. Several cars and tour busses passed us and Troy and I both thought how removed they must feel from the action, from ...

... the street and crazy dark carved wood furniture inside. Each balcony is adorned with a lovely paper lantern. Buffet breakfast is included (dragon fruit!) and there is a pool at another hotel too which we have access. I couldn't wait for Troy to see it. We live like two kings. Have you heard about Hoi An? Allow me a moment of pure materialistic indulgence... you can design your own clothes and shoes here and someone will make them for you. Did ...