How long to Ha Long? Up for a 7 am breakfast, I really needed that egg sandwich to last me to Halong Bay. The mini-bus (a van for those of you back home) was driven by Mr. Victory who's real name escapes me, but translated we're told it means Victory. Ausie and Lauren and I are off. "Mr. Victory, how long?" was about all the English he understood, although he was sweet enough to try as he stopped on the side of the road to get Lauren a cold ...

How long to HaLong? Day1: Up for a 7am breakfast I really needed that egg sandwich to last me to Halong Bay. The minibus (a van for those of you back home) was driven by Mr. Victory, who's real name escapes me, but translated we're told it means Victory. "Mr. Victory, how long?" was about all the English he understood, although was sweet enough to try as he stopped on the side of the road to get Lauren a cold coke. Funny enough, she has asked h...

So an Aussie, a Friso-er & a New yorker walk into a bar...Falling asleep and rising to the "meep meep" of the motorcycle horns, this little city of cramped streets and 2 wheel travl sleeps for only several hours a night.After a Vietnamese breakfast of Pho, a beef soup with rice noodles, my first stop was to find Handspan to book my trips to Halong Bay and Sapa. I set off armed only with the map on page 838 in my guide book to wander trhough the stre...

Hanoi--Toto, we're not in Hong Kong anymore!!Now I realize how smart it was to stop in Hong Kong on my way to Vietnam. Hong Kong was meant to ease me out of familiarity. The different time, different food, different language... My plane landed 2 hours ago and my adventure has begun. Nothing is familiar.Off to a good start. I met another solo traveler on the plane. we shared a ride into the Old Quarter, dodging through bikes and motorcycles sharing the narrow ...