Small boats, small planes, small cars, rough roads, old trains... even rough seas in a movie can make me squeazy - however, forewarned is forearmed and since we were flying to Phu Quoc island on an ATR-72 (one of them teeny planes, with the propellers in full view), I self-medicated prior to departure. James was fine - he’s great like that. The wee kiddie in front of us was patently not medicated. The worst of it was the mum, dad and child were all wearing bea...

Where in the world (but Asia) can you stay in a 5 star hotel for A$85/night (a bit more than €50 in real money... you know, the sort that’s not dropping in value against the Vietnamese Dong...) The plan (you remember the plan... 2 month housesit, private car ride of 1 hour to Can Tho, get on plane and go to Phu Quoc island for Tet...), well the plan went out the window 5 weeks prior to our arrival in Vietnam when the housesit was cancelled. Which was probab...

History. If there’s anything wrong with Hanoi (aside from traffic in the lead up to the Lunar New Year), it would be the history. Far too much of it. Positively dripping with it. And lots of it modern too... French oppression. Japanese oppression. Threat of American oppression... Possibly other oppression. All in the last 200 years. The corollary of oppression of course is opposition and revolution. Fighting. Which leads to lots of history and propaganda - whic...

Take the train we said. The Reunification Express we said. Sure, it’ll be grand, we said. Afterall - the 17 hour leg in the ‘soft’ sleeper from Saigon to Da Nang went incredibly efficiently - left on time, arrived on time, left us nigh on crippled. But it got us there. So we had not a thought in our heads about having the hotel in Hue phone the Railway Station before we jumped in a taxi at 3.30 pm and headed off to catch the 4.25 pm SE2 train from Hue to H...

Firstly, we enjoyed a fabulous rest day doing very little indeed (highlight was a trip to the laundry lady to drop off washing... another day or so it would have walked by itself). Only thing to do once rejuvenated was of course exhaust ourselves all over again. The day dawned rainy and gray - perfect for an atmospheric wander around the Imperial Citadel. Huge. Think all three tomb complexes from the other day, combined. It was built primarily between 1803 an...