Vietnam - Our Summary
Final Blog - Vietnam - A Summary Helen and I had wanted to visit Vietnam for quite some time so it was great to finally make it here. And it was a first long-haul trip for the kids as they left Europe for the very first time. Overall we loved Vietnam - there's something so unique about SE Asia - the...
Saigon
Saigon has very much lived up to its hype and my expectations. Yes it's a bit touristy and no there's not loads of amazing things to do but it is one of the most vibrant and fun Asian cities I've been to. It's big - a lot bigger than I expected. We took a trip up to the Skydeck (49 floors up!) and t...
Saigon/Ho Chi Minh - First Impressions
I don't know if it was just because I'd seen it in so many movies or just because I like the buzz of big cities but I was always looking forward to visiting Saigon on this trip. Firstly, to clarify, Ho Chi Minh was the founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party and was a key figure in Vietnam obtaini...
The North Part 2 - Hanoi
Hanoi was the most polluted city in the world (air pollution) this morning. It features regularly in the top 5 of this dubious "top 100" ranking. Up there with cities like Dakar, Mumbai, Lahore and Calcutta. Chinese behemoths like Beijing (the most polluted city we'd experienced in our lives up till...
The Elephant in the Room - Coronavirus
We set off to Vietnam aware of but confortable with the risk of Coronavirus. Despite media (and particularly Social Media) coverage, it seemed to me to be a relatively mild flu-like virus. A few people raised eyebrows when we told them we were still going but most were OK with it. Yes it was new and...
The North Part 1 - Cat Ba
Today involved a lot of travelling - started with a 6.30am taxi to Dalat airport, a 2 hour flight to the capital Hanoi, another taxi to transfer us to Hanoi Centre, then a 2hr bus to the border, a 30 minute ferry to Cat Ba island and finally a 30 mins transfer to our hotel. Phew!!! The flight from D...
Dalat
Dalat - the drive to Dalat was interesting. With the storm brewing, the cloudy, wetter weather felt somehow more like I expected Vietnam to be like rather than the clear sky and very dry landscape we had had thus far. Agriculture is a huge industry in Vietnam and nearly all the land we drove through...
Whale Island
It was a short but fun stopover in Nha Trang but then we were off for a 2 hour drive followed by a short boat ride to Whale Island. We're still none the wiser as to why it's called Whale Island as it doesn't look like one and there aren't any whales there, but it's a lovely little island resort of a...
Nha Trang
Nha Trang is a lively, quite touristy city located right by the sea. The beach is huge, sandy and almost completely deserted. After checking in, we went for a walk around town. It was the kids' first experience of the bedlam that is driving in SE Asia. There are over 40 million motorbikes in Vietnam...
Arrival in Vietnam
Arrived in Ho Chi Minh airport at 5.30am having had about 2 hours sleep each. In fairness to the kids they did really try to sleep but it's hard a) being excited and b) because body time is the middle of the day. So we basically all had a nap on the 11-hour flight from Zurich. We didn't see anyone w...