I’ve been putting off writing this post for two reasons: 1. I knew it was going to be a long one and 2. I didn’t know where to begin to explain how incredible Angkor is. Siem Reap is a city in north western Cambodia, famous for its lively ‘Pub Street’ and, more importantly, as the … Continue reading Oh wat a place… Siem Reap & Angkor Wat – Cambodia
Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, was a 5 hour minibus journey away from Sihanoukville and we arrived quite late in the evening. We checked into the SLA Boutique Hostel after a 20 minute walk from the bus station, through a maze of pitch black streets lit only by a number of red illuminated ‘massage’ … Continue reading Phnom Penh – Cambodia
Our first land border crossing of our trip took place between Vietnam and Cambodia from the small seaside town of Ha Tien. I’d expected it to be a bit dodgy after reading a few stories about the Cambodian mafia and being charged $1 by every border official you come into contact with, but as with … Continue reading Koh Rong Sanloem – Cambodia
Phu Quoc is an island off the southern tip of Vietnam and just east of Cambodia. In fact, in the past Vietnam and Cambodia have been at loggerheads as to who actually owns it. We’d booked in to the Mango Bay Resort on the west of the island as a treat for my birthday and … Continue reading Phu Quoc – Vietnam
Can Tho is the fifth largest city in Vietnam, and is noted for its floating market and picturesque canals snaking along the Mekong Delta. After a 3 hour uneventful bus journey from Ho Chi Minh we arrived in Can Tho and ordered a Grab taxi to our hotel which turned out to be in the middle of absolutely nowhere – even … Continue reading Can Tho – Vietnam
Leaving Mui Ne, we took a single tier sleeper bus (not something I’d previously seen) to Ho Chi Minh and it was one of the nicer buses we’d been on. The journey only took 3 hours but it was still enough to cause one poor Vietnamese lady with a young baby to throw up into … Continue reading Ho Chi Minh – Vietnam
Our train wasn’t due to arrive until 3pm so when I woke at 9am and everyone else in our cabin was still asleep I decided to make the most of it and nodded off again until 11. We’d managed to get two baguettes with Dairylea and some crisps and Oreos before we left Danang so … Continue reading Mui Ne – Vietnam
Somewhat traumatised by our last bus journey, we decided to cough up a little more cash and take a train to our next destination: Hoi An. Arriving at the train station in the morning we were asked what train we were getting and then ushered into a specific waiting room. With no English announcements we … Continue reading Hoi An – Vietnam
A 5am start to get a taxi to the bus station outside Hanoi was only made worse when we located our bus to Hue and it was comparable to Indian standards. We realised we might have made a mistake with our booking when we were the only westerners aboard. Making our way to the back … Continue reading Hue – Vietnam
Having booked a two night tour and homestay to the northern highlands of Sapa via our hostel, we packed what we thought we’d need into our small rucksacks and checked our main bags into luggage storage to collect in a few days. We were picked up from our hostel and boarded our first Vietnamese sleeper … Continue reading Sapa – Vietnam
See Ya Later Sophie 