Andy on Tour

Cruising Halong Bay

It didn’t have much time left, when I arrived in Hanoi, as my visa was about to expire and unluckily I woke up with food poisoning the next morning, so the only thing I did while I was there, was booking a trip to Halong Bay with the hostel. Halong Bay is only a short bus ride from Hanoi and the main tourist attraction Vietnam. Everybody goes there, so there’s hundreds of boats cruising around at any given time. The scenery is pretty similar to Ninh Binh (without the rice fields), but a lot bigger...

And Even More Motorcycle Diaries: Ninh Binh

So the “soft” seat the girls from the travel agency booked me in the train, turned out to be a seat in the, literally, wooden class! But hey, the ride was only 18h, piece of cake, right? It was definitely one of the more interesting train rides in my life. The train was packed and some people decided to sleep under the seats, some on the seats and everywhere else. The ride started pretty boring, but after about an hour the train slowed down at some point, which about half a dozen women used to ...Read More

More Motorcycle Diaries: Hoi An

The sleeper bus I took from Nha Trang to Hoi An was a bit different than the one I experienced in Laos. Unlike the one it Laos, this one had single beds, three in a row on two levels. So far so good, but unfortunately you couldn’t fully recline (which is a must for me, if I want to get some decent sleep) and the foot compartment was rather small, so that the feet only fitted in sideways. I dosed off most of the time, but I didn’t get any real deep sleep, so when ...Read More

Beach Town Nha Trang

Well, there’s not really much to say about Nha Trang. It’s a nice beach city and personally, I liked the beach here much better than the one in Mui Ne. The beach and the water were clean, the weather was good and the nearby mountains made a nice background, so I spent my first day on the beach… On the second day Bram and I booked a boat tour, that someone recommended to us. I didn’t take any pictures, but let’s say it was different from all the boat trips I did so far. ...Read More

The Highlands of Dalat

Apparently the bus I took from Mui Ne to Dalat had some kind of deal with a guesthouse in Dalat, as it stopped in front of that guesthouse and advised every westerner in the bus to get off (all of the Vietnamese people stayed in the bus). The interesting thing was, that we weren’t even given a choice, as they just started to unload all the luggage. Luckily the guesthouse wasn’t that bad and after some negotiating I got the price down to a got level. To same even more, I paired up with another ...Read More

The Sand Dunes of Mui Ne

Mui Ne is not really a town, more like a 10km long part of a costal street with lot’s of hotels and restaurants. When I arrived from Saigon it was already dark and looking for a guesthouse wasn’t so easy. I found one in the guide book that sounded nice, but the bus driver didn’t know it and had no clue where to stop (they drop everybody off along the road, as there’s no bus station). So he stopped at some travel agency and told the girl there, that I needed a room. She made ...Read More

Saigon

…while it’s now officially called Ho Chi Min City, the Vietnamese people call downtown HCM still Saigon, which makes total sense, as HCM is incredibly huge (about 8 million people). I found this out right at the beginning: In the minibus from Can Tho I met this girl from Belgium. When we arrived at the bus station she looked into her guide book and determined that the street with all the backpacker hotels isn’t too far away and that she’s going to walk there. I didn’t mind saving money and joined her. So we started ...Read More

The floating markets of Can Tho

The reason, why I went to Can Tho, is that it is famous for it’s floating markets. I arrived in the late afternoon and before I even finished checking into my guesthouse, a guy tried to sell me his floating markets tour. He was a nice guy, but it sounded all a bit expensive, so I told him I had to think about it and I would get back to him later. I thought I would probably find a cheaper offer, if I ask someone with a boat directly… So I started walking into the ...Read More

Another City in the Mekong Delta: Chau Doc

Chau Doc is a small city in the Mekong Delta, famous for it’s floating village and a mountain nearby. I arrived shortly after lunch time, so the first thing I did, was to get something to eat. Afterwards I packed my dirty cloth together and went looking for a laundry service outside of the hotel, as their service was to expensive for me. So, there I was, walking through the streets with my bag of dirty cloth, when a guy came and tried to talk me into talking a boat trip with him to the ...Read More

Good Morning Vietnam, Good Morning Ha Tien

The bus from Cambodia to Vietnam was pretty expensive, compared to the time of driving (20$ for a journey of about 5$). But at least the roads were in good conditions… At the big international boarder crossing we had to switch the bus, as the cambodian driver didn’t have a license for his bus (I really don’t know what I paid all that money for). After about another hour we arrived in Ha Tien. Most people use this town only as transit station to a nearby island, but as I spend enough time ...Read More