Loading...
Start a new Travel Blog! Blogabond Home Maps People Photos My Stuff

mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog

a travel blog by mich_and_dan_moors


view 1 photo from this trip

Show Oldest First
Show Newest First

Hoi An

Hoi An, Vietnam

A charming Riverside city, lots of bustling little streets with food market stalls - and lots of places to shop! Kind of a nightmare when you shouldn't really be purchasing, but here you can have anything you want hand made - ranging from leather sandals & boots, to winter coats & suits. All of which a fraction of the price you pay back at home
Unfortunately Danny got really sick here & spent 4 days in bed, so we didn't really explore the place other than to take a stroll up & down the River. But actually that in itself was lovely, and I felt quite at home just wandering around & browsing, visiting the food markets & eating on my own.

One event that we were lucky enough to see, was the Dragon Dancing festival, which all of the kids in the city would take part in. Around the streets at night they'd be beating their drums & dancing beneath the Dragon suits - putting on a show for everyone to see. It was great fun to watch

permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on September 6, 2011 from Hoi An, Vietnam
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment

Nha Trang

Trang Na, Vietnam

We arrived here after an 8 hour bus journey from Hoi An, at about 6am & it was lovely to see all of the locals, irrelevant of age, either running, doing aerobic exercise or playing Badminton along the promenade! It seemed that this whole stretch alongside the sea was the main hub of activity & luckily our hotel was within just 5 minutes walking distance.
We just pretty much pottered about here - we spent a few days on the gorgeous beach eating fresh seafood that was cooked for us by local ladies on their version of a beach bbq i.e. a bucket full of hot coals!. We also went on a snorkelling trip & swam in beautiful clear blue water & got to seem some of the most amazing fish. It was lke Finding Nemo! And to top it all of we spent a whole day at a spa having a Mineral mud bath, which cost us all of 6 quid each. Life doesn't really get much better than that ;-)

permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on September 10, 2011 from Trang Na, Vietnam
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment

Mu Nei

Phan Thiet, Vietnam

Mu Nei was another beach resort, but so much quieter than [[Vietnam/Nha-Trang]] - and when we saw the lovely bungalow we'd booked that were not only ridiculously cheap, but also literally just a few strides away from the beach we were very happy indeed!.
Here they served really great, cheap food & gorgeous fresh fish so to be honest we didn't really move much further between beach & bungalow for the next 5 days. There's not a lot else I can say about Mui Nei other than we loved it!

permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on September 16, 2011 from Phan Thiet, Vietnam
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment

HCM City

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

We were both a bit apprehensive about going to the capital city, only because we were a bit disappointed with Hoi An & we imagined it to be similar - but on a much larger scale. It took us about 8 hours to get there on bus from Mui Nei…….but as soon as we arrived at our hotel which was situated at the end of a street that was lined full of locals cooking & eating goodness knows what - we decided we loved the place straight away!
It had a really good hustle, bustle street feeling and there was so much to see & do - we just took out a map & wandered around the streets ticking off all the places we wanted to visit; their version of the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Sheraton Hotel (where we'd been told we could see amazing views of the city & have have a sneaky cocktail too!) and the War Remnants museum.
The museum was absolutely fantastic . I cant say it was 'enjoyable' as it gave very graphic & frankly really upsetting details of the Vietnam war, telling stories of families who survived & displayed photographs showing the most horrific effects of agent orange. It really opened our eyes to the ordeal the whole country must have faced and it's a must for anyone that visits HCM

permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on September 20, 2011 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment

Beautiful Phu Quoc?

Phu Quoc, Vietnam

We flew over to this remote Island as we'd read & heard so many great things about the gorgeous Sandy beaches that stretched for Miles & which are apparently the best in Vietnam. However the fact that we weren't even sure we'd reach our hotel because the little lane leading to it was flooded should have given us an indicator of things to come ;-)

It pretty much rained the whole time we were there. We didn't get the chance to experience the beautiful beaches because the sun never came out & we couldn't really get around the Island as it was too wet & a bit too risky to hire a moped. So in between the rain showers we would wade up the lane (the water was up to our knees!) & make our way up to a few of our favourite places;

1. The Curry House. We ate there 3 times over 2 days which explains just how tasty it was
2. The Tapas restaurant. They sold red wine & cheese. Enough said.
3. The little shop at the end of the lane that sold cheap beer & vodka. Enough said.

To be honest we did make the most of our time in Phu Quoc, and I can't say that we didn't like it - we just didn't enjoy it as much as we thought we would.

permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on September 23, 2011 from Phu Quoc, Vietnam
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment

Kep

Kep, Cambodia

We travelled across the Vietnamese border into Cambodia with no problems, and got taken to the gorgeous bungalows we were staying at for the next 3 days. They were seconds away from the sea (there wasn't really a beach), and only about 15 minutes walk from the infamous Crab Market. Here you can see the locals catching, buying & selling fresh crab (you don't say?!) and other seafood, at a very noisy & frantic pace. We of course sampled the fish, which couldn't have been any more fresh or tasty than it was.

We explored the beautiful lush countryside - there was a 10k walk we did around the national park that had amazing views, and we also hired Mountain bikes & followed the dusty road out of Kep into the next village.
In between all of our sight seeing it did rain quite a lot, but that didn't really stop us from doing anything. In fact on the first day we arrived it gave us an excuse to take refuge in the 'Veranda' hotel, where we'd only really gone to to withdraw some money………but then the rain came down, and they served relatively cheap red wine. And so we stayed put for the next 4 hours :-)

Kep was definitely a highlight of Cambodia for us. Although there was very few sights to visit or 'things to do' the scenery was stunning and kept us very happy.

permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on September 27, 2011 from Kep, Cambodia
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment

Kampot

Kampot, Cambodia

Kampot has a completely different feel to it than Kep. The centre of town is less green & feels more industrious, & it's It's certainly a lot bigger & more developed - but the 'things to do' list is relatively small. It was until we got to Pnomh Penh that we learned Kampot literally went from being a hub of activity to a ghost town when Pol Pot's army ordered everyone to leave, and to be honest it still has that kind of atmosphere…….a deserted dusty town that you'd expect to see tumble weeds fly past at any minute.

That's not to say that we didn't enjoy ourselves here. We hired a moped and discovered some really lovely places, a few hidden temples and at very pretty area near to the River that seemed to be where the locals picnic-ed. Again, it rained quite a bit but that gave us the chance to watch the England v's Scotland rugby match and re-discover our love for tequila. Oh dear!

permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on September 30, 2011 from Kampot, Cambodia
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment

Shady Sihanokville

Sihanokville, Cambodia

There's a really great beach here that seems to be at it's liveliest in the evening. It's lined full of restaurants selling fresh fish & shack like beach bars, and every other establishment seems to sell 'happy' pizza, (better known as marijuana topped pizza) so it's not surprising that its a very relaxed, easy going place ;-)
We did hire a moped and explore other parts of the town, but we really loved just eating & drinking beside the beach so we spent most if the time here just watching the world go by.

Unfortunately the area is quite notorious for sex trafficking & prostitution - although it's not glaringly obvious in the fact there are not people working the streets or coming up to you & offering their services. However after a while you do notice that there are a hell of a lot more western males with VERY young cambodian women (or men) on their arms, in comparison to white/cambodian couples.......which I know might sound like we're either making quite big assumptions that these guys are paying for company, or that we're totally phobic, narrow-minded people. But on both counts I can tell you honestly that we're not, and what we saw with our own eyes was quite disturbing. But there really is no supply without demand, so exactly who is in the wrong here?




permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on October 2, 2011 from Sihanokville, Cambodia
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The capital of Cambodia, and the main reason we wanted to visit was to see & understand what happened to the country under Pol Pots regime. This meant unfortunately a visit to S21 and the Killing Fields was inevitable.
Neither of these trips were enjoyable. In fact they were truly horrific. To see the actual S11 building (that if fact used to be a school) where prisoners were tortured to death was spine chilling. And being in the rooms & seeing the photographic evidence of what went on in there was so frightening.
We paid for the audio guide at the Killing Fields visit which gave in-depth accounts from various people that were involved. This ranged from victims that had luckily escaped, family member who recounted their horrific stories of how they never saw their loved ones again, right through to those who worked for the Khymer Rouge who were too frightened for their own lives not to kill others as they had been ordered to do so.

It was hard not to want to leave Phnom Penh immediately after seeing these awful places, but the Cambodians are really lovely friendly people, and there are others sights in the capital that we enjoyed, such as the beautiful Royal Palace.

permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on October 5, 2011 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment

It's all about the temples!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

It really is all about the temples here! So as soon as we arrived we struck a deal with a tuk tuk driver and set off to buy our passes for the next day, and went to Phnom Bakheng Temple to see the Sunset. The walk up to the temple was beautiful, it was kind of like being in the middle of an English Forest! And when we arrived there were absolutely hoards of people on their way to do the same………..but the views were stunning & even the crowds didn't spoil it. So we were both excited of the day ahead to see many more.

Unfortunately I was sick that evening (a spot of nasty food poisoning we suspected), so the next morning Danny set off & visit the temples on his own. And I watched cable TV from my sick bed & was well & truly gutted. When he came back that evening & told me they the temples were probably the most amazing he had seen - ever - well I was even more gutted!
We had planned to leave the next day, but I wasn't really well enough to travel, so we stayed an extra day and I managed to pull myself out of bed.
Bless Danny we saw the same temples as he had already seen, but these were the 5 main big ones which included the infamous Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm, or better known as the 'Tomb Raider' because they filmed the movie here.

permalink written by  mich_and_dan_moors on October 7, 2011 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
Send a Compliment
Viewing 41 - 50 of 76 Entries
first | previous | next | last

View as Map View as Satellite Imagery View as Map with Satellite Imagery Show/Hide Info Labels Zoom Out Zoom In Zoom Out Zoom In
find city:
trip feed
 author feed
 trip kml
 author kml

   

Blogabond v2.40.58.80 © 2024 Expat Software Consulting Services about : press : rss : privacy