Category Vietnam
Sunday Photos – Hoi An, Vietnam
I have just watched the episode of Great Asian Railway Journeys when the living Opal Fruit Michael Portillo visits the beautiful Vietnamese town of Hoi An. Nowadays the town is a tourist hotspot, uncomfortably so at times. Indeed Portillo asserts in blazing sunshine that it is akin to Venice in popularity. When I visited in […]
My Top 10 Big Cities Outside Europe #9 Hanoi
#9 – Hanoi, Vietnam (population 7.8 million) The capital of Vietnam is situated in the north of the country and despite its smaller size it is altogether far less frenzied than Ho Chi Minh City down south, which has a population in excess of 10 million. I visited the previously war torn nation in 1998 […]
A-Z April Challenge – Mekong River
The mighty Mekong has its source in the Tibetan Plateau in China and flows through China’s Yunnan Province and onto Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia before reaching the South China Sea in Southern Vietnam. It is the 12th longest river in the world at around 4,350 km and is the lifeblood for millions of South […]
A-Z April Challenge – Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Hanoi
Ho Chi is to Vietnam what Lenin is to Russia. Indeed, just like the Russian revolutionary, Ho Chi Minh has been preserved with chemicals and lies in state in a purpose built mausoleum in the Vietnamese capital. An irony then that to coincide with my visit to Hanoi in November 1998, the Great Minh had […]
A-Z April Challenge – Vinh Moc Tunnels
In the Vietnam War the Viet Cong developed a network of underground tunnels, which was used to launch surprise attacks on the enemy as well as acting as a shelter for the military and civilians alike from the aerial bombardment. I visited two complexes of tunnels at Vinh Moc close to the north/south divide just […]
A-Z April Challenge – Hoi An
I mentioned in my Dalat post a few days ago that our visit to Vietnam coincided with the worst floods there in living memory. This was to lead to probably the worst journey of my life! We had made our way to Nha Trang, a place described as Vietnam’s paradise. Not when it rains incessantly […]
A-Z April Challenge – Dalat
In ’98 my mate Hamish and I visited Vietnam starting in Ho Chi Minh City and making our way to Hanoi. Our first leg northwards from HCMC took us to the small city of Dalat……….. When we booked our November trip we of course had no idea that it would coincide with Vietnam’s worst ever […]
Cyclo Psycho
OK, I said I would share a Vietnam story from my time there in ’98. This was my first experience of the country. Jet lag has a lot to answer for….. Ho Chi Minh City is a wonderful place – vibrant, crazy, intoxicating. I set off for the Apocalypse Now Bar on my first evening. […]
Friday Photo
I took this photo of a mobile fruit vendor in Hanoi in November 1998. It was raining stair-rods and while us soft travellers took shelter, this lady needed to get somewhere and she was not about to let a monsoon stop her! It was the time of Vietnam’s worst ever floods and had quite an […]
