Even since watching Michael Palin Full Circle, the one thing above all that I wanted to do in Vietnam was travel by train from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. In fact despite the city name change, the trains still […]
Embassies and visas
At first it felt like a logistics nightmare attempting to work out when and where is best to get visas, before we left or on the go? After researching the requirements for every country we thought we might visit, we […]
From Hanoi to Hong Kong
It’s possible to travel overland from Vietnam all the way to Hong Kong within 24 hours. If you plan ahead, it is only a matter of two trains and then two metro lines taking you to Kowloon. One train to […]
Between Rivers
The name Hanoi means “Inside [the] river”. It was given this name in 1831 having previously been known as ‘Dragon Belly’, ‘Big Net’ and ‘Eastern Metropolis’, among others. It is apparently sometimes referred to as the Paris of the east, […]
Quá lâo, Vietnam.
We’re about to get on a train out of Hanoi which will take us overnight to the Chinese border and then on to Nanning. Because the gauge is different in Vietnam, this train uses its own special track laid from […]
Imperial Vietnam
Huế is roughly the mid-point in the country. The DMZ is one hundred kilometers north of here, but we had already decided not to see any more sites relating to the war. Tourists climbing on tanks and smiling for their […]
Don’t Miss Saigon
It took us the best part of 3 days to travel from Sapa to Ho Chi Minh City (still often referred to as Saigon or abbreviated to HCMC). The first step was a 6 hour coach ride to Hanoi which, […]
The Long Awaited Awesome Appointment
After a very anxious morning, and a wait of 12 days instead of the advised 3, we visited the US Embassy in Hanoi for our B1/B2 tourist visa interviews. The interview process was very fast. You’re not allowed to enter […]
Sapa: Extreme Tourism
Sapa, a place we probably shouldn’t have visited. Nestled high in the mountains in a north-western province along the border with China is TT Sa Pa, known as Sapa in a lot of foreign information. I personally picked this place […]
Good morning Việt Nam: how to cross the border from China to Lào Cai
Yesterday we crossed the Chinese border into north-west Vietnam. It was a long day for me, having taken our first malaria tablets the night before, I was experiencing side-effects of stomach pains. Both of us hadn’t slept well and had […]
