After the hustle and bustle of Vietnam, we have thoroughly enjoyed a more restful time in Laos. We work up early and got on to our small plane with maybe only 20 other people on board. Because of this, boarding was so easy that even the flight attendant started drifting off to sleep during take-off. […]
travel
Castaway Island, Ha Long Bay
I have seen many amazing things so far on this trip and Ha Long Bay has just added itself to my list of favourite sights. Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the top travel destinations in South East Asia. It has an area of about 1,553km squared and consists […]
Vietnam’s Culture Filled Capital: Hanoi
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and it’s known for its centuries-old architecture influenced by France and China. The city revolves around a bustling old quarter that is filled with street sellers down each side and motorbikes swerving down the middle. I’m pleased to report that, although I got close, I managed to go two […]
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park
The Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is a 4 hour drive from Hue and is a very special part of Vietnam. The core zone of the national park in Vietnam is 858 km2 (larger than Singapore) and it spills out into Laos too. It has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 2003. We woke […]
Hoi An and Hue. Exploring Central Vietnam.
Hoi An translates from Vietnamese as Peaceful Meeting Place and after a few days, I think this is a good name for it. Hue translates as a City of Romance. That one I’m not sure I can comment on. Leaving Ho Chi Minh City we were rushed and frantic. We had to get sassy with […]
Ho Chi Minh City: The City of Motorbikes
The journey from Cambodia to Vietnam was awful. I could write a whole blog post about reasons why I hated it. We had a sleeper bus from 6.30pm-1am from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh which wasn’t too bad but it was too early to sleep and I was so worried about not waking up when we […]
Beach Life in Sihanoukville and Koh Ta Kiev
I promised in my last blog post that this one will be a much lighter read than the last two. Don’t worry, I’ve kept my promise and it’s been so nice to finally relax after such intense travelling the last few weeks. From Phnom Penh we got a 5 hour bus to Sihanoukville. We’d had […]
Phnom Penh and Cambodia’s Dark Past
Usually if we only spend one night in a place I’ll combine the blog posts but Phnom Penh is deserving of its own. In my last blog post about Siem Reap, I talked a lot about ancient history but this blog post focuses more on Cambodia’s modern history back only 40 years. We got up […]
Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor
If you ever want to visit a country to learn about its history, Cambodia is where you should go. I’m writing this after visiting Phnom Penh and I’ve seen the power of history both contemporary and ancient. (I’m not sure how long ago it needs to be to be called ancient but I’m talking about […]
Bangkok’s High-Rise Buildings and Hierarchies
Like I said in my last blog post, it took us 40 hours to travel from Peru to Bangkok and I arrived very confused, tired, excited and with very swollen ankles from spending 26 hours in the air and not being able to lie flat. Our first 8 hour flight from Lima to LAX was […]