Category: Vietnam

June 27, 2007 Andy 2 Comments

You’re sat in the office on a dull afternoon reading this immensely interesting blog and quietly wondering to yourself, how can he afford all this? This round the world trip has been a long term plan of mine ever since uni when Jon and I said we would travel once we graduated. Well that didn’t happen due to money and the fact that I was enjoying Spain too much when Jon did set off. For this trip Espe and I had been saving for about a year, helped out by a pay rise (and an unexpected bonus a month before…

April 4, 2007 Andy 2 Comments

After our bad start in Vietnam around Nameo, although things got better for us, we continued to hear more horror stories of bad tours and tourist rip offs along with being confronted with rude aggressive people. We decided against seeing Ha Long Bay due to the weather and the fact that not one other traveller we spoke to felt they got their money’s worth with a trip that turned out to be everything but what it was advertised as. We continued to hear similar stories in Hanoi and Hue, invariably people were disappointed with their visits to Sa Pa (one…

March 29, 2007 Andy 0 Comments

I’m really not in a writing mood so you’ll have to wait a bit for more America bashing along with my latest experiences in Vietnam. Heading in the direction of Cambodia tomorrow up the Mekong delta. For the time being, as a follow on from my Secret War post, have a read over this Amnesty International article about Laos. Thanks to Jordi and Nuria for sending the link over.

March 23, 2007 Andy 3 Comments

Well, we’re still in Vietnam and as they say, time does heal wounds. Hanoi is crazy. Not Delhi crazy, but crazy none the less. Population is three million and there must be about two million mopeds buzzing around. Most don’t bother paying attention to traffic lights so at cross junctions motorbikes from four directions pile on in, and miraculously after a lot of weaving most come out the other side unscathed. Despite this crossing the road is not a problem. One just walks across as if crossing a stream, and the traffic flows around either side. Hanoi is quite cool…

March 19, 2007 Andy 1 Comments

“All the peoples on earth are equal” Ho Chi Minh Unless of course you are a western tourist in Vietnam. Never before have I entered a country and wanted to leave within the first 24 hours. Many of the travellers I’ve met that have been to Vietnam were negative about their experiences. Of course there are a few who loved it, but I’d heard that the people are very aggressive and not friendly. This was reinforced further when Jordi said “I’ll never go back there”. Still, you can’t judge for yourself until you try it. Our last day in Laos…