November 2019 – time for another trip. This time Vietnam was up. Our plan was to fly in at Hanoi airport and depart from Ho Chi Minh / Saigon. The trip was a real challenge, not being allowed to rent a car meant travelling by public transport and exploring by motorbike. Officially I was not allowed to ride those either since those are often 150cc and you need a motor drivers licence. Fortunately nothing bad happened.  Travelling by night train and bus was a real adventure. Although it will take a while before we choose another country where we can’t drive our own car, the trip was still another good…

Halong Bay – 2 day trip We were picked up at our hotel early in the morning by a bus to be taken to Halong. There we were ferried to a small ship that would take us on a two day tour through Halong Bay. The bus ride was a boring 4 hour long drive with one stop at a local (work)shop. Where all other busses also stopped and prices for food and drinks were sky high…tourist trap! We decided to walk around for a bit and found a small shop just around the corner with normal priced for drinks & snacks!  Our ship was a faily small one which…

Hue – Day 1 – Abandoned Waterpark From the trainstation we took a taxi to our hotel for the next two nights: the Nice Hue Hotel. Eventhough we arrived before the official check in time, the manager had made sure that our room was ready when we got there. I was really happy about that because I really could use a shower after the night on the train. If you are ever in Hue, consider staying at the place! The staff is really friendly and helpfull, the room was very nice and there are plenty of restaurants within walking distance.After a shower we hopped on the motorbikes that the manager had…

All Aboard The Night Train Like I said part 3 of the Vietnam trip…it was time for another journey on a night train. This time the experience was a little less than the first journey. Our beds were slept on already and apparently no new sheets were available. So I placed my towel on the bed and pillow. Unfortunately we also had people staying in the cabin with us, I am glad we booked the bottom beds though! The couple sleeping in the top beds were from Poland. They were very friendly fortunately!  When we got on the train I made the stupid mistake of forgetting our bag with food…

The day started bright and early and after a lovely breakfast with lots of dragon fruit (pitaya) it was time to check out and wait for the minivan to pick us up and bring us to Ho Chi Minh City. This trip was about 4 hours which I mostly spend looking outside, spotting people carrying just about everything on their motorbikes. Around midday we arrived in the biggest city of the country. We thought Hanoi was busy, well it was nothing compared to Saigon!From the busstation we hopped on a Grab taxi to the hotel and as soon as we were settled in we got on another taxi to go…