Category Archives: Vietnam

Nha Trang and Mui Ne – Beaches of Vietnam

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Hi guys,

Writing this from an internet cafe in HCMC (Saigon). It’s an awesome city that we all MUCH prefer to Hanoi in the North, for some reason. The people are a lot more friendly, the crazy mazes of streets are exciting – if a little scary – and you seem to get a lot more bang for your buck (we’re mainly talking lychees here). Today the other guys (Brad, Joe and Sophia) have gone on a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, that were used by the Vietnamese during the war, and are also visiting the Continue reading →

Hue to Hoi An (Top Gear Trail)

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“That was like the smiliest day of my life” – Joe

Hue to Hoi An 008If you’ve had a look at the pictures, you will have seen some of the views we took in on the motorbike ride, through the mountains, from Hue to Hoi An. Unfortunately it was impossible to get some of the things we saw on film as, quite frankly, none of us could get ourselves together enough to pick up our cameras at some of the most breathtaking moments. We each rode on the back of a motorbike from our hotel in Hue to our next hotel in Hoi An, stopping off at some incredible places; the Elephant Springs, Marble Mountain, and China Beach. The ride took 8 hours, and I think we can all say Continue reading →

Cat Ba to Hue – the highs and lows

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Think you might have sent the wrong vibes there guys..!

Our journey from Cat Ba to Hue turned out to be a total nightmare from the offset. We arrived at the hotel with which we’d booked the journey (bus-boat-bus-bus) to be told that we hadn’t been booked onto the preliminary bus, and that we’d have to wait until 3pm for the next one. At this point, thoughts of missed connections and losing money were circulating. We gave the man our sternest English looks and sarcastic exclamations but, ultimately, we knew we had no choice but to trust that he would get us to Hue. We set up a temporary camp in his restaurant, hoping that complimentary drinks would manifest (none did) and so Brad went off in search of a moral booster, and came back with 1kg of delicious lychees for 30p! – apparently, he stamped his foot, repeating ‘Vietnam price! Vietnam price!’, until Continue reading →

Hanoi and Halong Bay

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Hi guys,

First of all, xin chào from Cat Ba Island, Vietnam! Quite a bit has gone down since our last post! After three boiling and kind of boring days in Bangkok, we managed to get our Vietnam visas (phew!). In order to fill time, Joe had his first ever Massaman curry; we ate scorpion, which kind of tasted like chicken skin, kind of like seaweed, and kind of like sick (awesome!); we went down to Chinatown, which turned out to be the REAL Chinatown and not the touristy one that was in the guidebook – cool! After wandering through stalls selling delights such as shark fin (£1,000 a pop), whole dried duck, and vaccum packed pig’s face (now we know where they’re getting all their food from on Nothing to Declare), we managed to find a local restaurant where we had an amazing meal of roasted duck noodles and the best chicken spring rolls each of us had ever eaten. Big thumbs up for REAL Chinatown, Bangkok! Continue reading →