Sapa is a town in Vietnam’s northern frontier, very close to the Chinese border. The local people in Sapa do not speak Vietnamese, at least not as their first language. They are the Hmong people, ethnic minorities, farmers in the vast valleys of the northern peaks. They are all very, very small. The women marry […]
May 22, 2013
After 2600 km on motorbikes, Evan and I at last reached the great northern metropolis of Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, population 6.5 million (officially but it’s much higher than that in reality). By the time we checked into our hostel we were exhausted, filthy, and sick. Driving on the A1 and inhaling all of that […]
May 22, 2013
From Hue we drove to Phoung Nha-Ke Bang National Park. The park is beautiful, as you can see. Evan and I stayed in the village of Son Trach where no English was spoken. In fact, between Hue and Hanoi, where Evan and I spent […]
May 22, 2013
Tomorrow morning I fly to the great, mystical nation of India. There is little doubt that this chapter of exploration will generate much fodder for this blog, so I apologize if I am a bit hurried in the remaining summation of Vietnam. If only there were more time. The drive from Nha Trang to Hoi […]
May 14, 2013
We left for Dalat around 10am, once again later than we’d hoped to set off. Dalat is only about 200 km from Mui Ne but it took us 7 hours because of a long stop in the mountains that I’ll elaborate on in a minute. We saw very few cars for the first 150 km. […]
May 7, 2013
A bit of info about Vietnam’s road map: Highway 1 (also called the A1 or QL1) is Vietnam’s major highway which runs North-South along the coast. For the most part the A1 is only a two lane road, crammed with cars and Mack Trucks, so there’s lots of dangerous passing. Cars and trucks coming from the […]
May 6, 2013
Towards the end of March as my time in Cambodia was coming to a close I began to think about the next chapter: Vietnam. I heard it wasn’t uncommon for backpackers to buy a motorbike in Vietnam, travel from one end of the country to the other (either Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi or […]
April 29, 2013
At present I sit in a cute cafe in the town of Hoi An which lies on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. This place is ridiculously quaint. Hoi An benefited immensely from international influence as an important South-East Asian trading port between the 15th and 19th centuries. The architecture, cuisine, and atmosphere are tasteful, […]
April 23, 2013
It’s been a long time since my last post, and for that I offer my sincere apologies. I wish to apologize especially to Kelsey, for anyone who knows her can attest she is the last person you want to disappoint. My b Kels you deserve better. There are some major gaps to fill in, and […]
March 18, 2013
Two days ago I was driving up the Cambodian coast on a motorbike, checking out some of the beaches along the way. I discovered a very fancy resort called the Independence Hotel, on Independence Beach of all places. I drove past the entrance at first because I saw about 12 wild monkeys on the side […]
May 22, 2013
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