Articles from this Category
14 August 2018
Bird’s eye view of Saigon I had enquired about a late check-out till 1600 for half a day’s rate. Anything beyond that would he at the full day’s rate. I decided against it in the end and checked-out at 1100, leaving my pack at reception. I took a Grab car to Bitexco Tower. I read […]
13 August 2018
I had a lazy start today, staying indoors after breakfast till 1100. I headed out for my massage to Pham Ngu Lao. I tried choosing the place carefully again, trying to avoid the many that had skimpily dressed female touts. I stumbled across one with a young masseur. The massage started off well, then about […]
12 August 2018
As expected, I woke early in Saigon and dozed till around 0530. I took breakfast on the hotel’s rooftop in their main building; I was housed in their annex. Surprisingly, they had no pho for breakfast so I settled for an omelette accompanied by a very good personal baguette. It was very light inside and […]
11 August 2018
We landed at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat airport about 30 minutes early around 1915. With no luggage, I was out quickly. First priority was to get money from the ATM. Both the ones I tried imposed a local fee. I chose the one with the cheaper fee and withdrew what I expect to spend for […]
7 August 2012
Above: Typical Hanoi street in the old area near our hotel. We arrived in Hanoi around 0430 and taxied to the hotel where we camped in the lobby briefly. I did a lot of errands on the internet so time flew and soon breakfast was served. As we have an early departure tomorrow, I asked […]
6 August 2012
Above: On the road from Sapa to Lao Cai. We had a late departure at 2015 on the night train from Sapa back to Hanoi. We had considered doing a walk or a motorbike ride to another village but the weather wasn’t conducive. We did our morning in slow motion and checked out at midday. […]
5 August 2012
Sunday is market day at Bac Ha. It is meant to be the most colourful market n Vietnam so we decided it couldn’t be missed. With a 0730 pick-up, we were up around 0630 to catch breakfast at 0700. We got to Bac Ha (via Lao Cai) at 1030. The actual driving time was around […]
4 August 2012
We woke to a modern arrangement of Fur Elise piped in through the PA around 0530. There are worse ways to be woken up. Our arrival into Lao Cai (next to the Chinese border) was uneventful. We found the shuttle desk for Sapa easily and bought our tickets. We waited briefly for the van to […]
3 August 2012
There’s nothing touristy in Hanoi that we wanted to do as we “did it all” only a year ago. Perfect for shopping and relaxation then! Over the last couple of years, I find myself holding pages further and further away as I read. Last year, Kim found glasses in Hanoi to be of extremely good […]
2 August 2012
We had chosen the 1730 flight to Hanoi to avoid an early wake-up. The day went pretty quickly with a walk around town, checking-out, a massage and late lunch before using the shuttle to the airport. The shuttle at VND40,000 per person was a great deal as taxi would have been rather pricey with the 30km […]