We’ve passed the 6 month mark, we’ve passed the 200 day mark, these were roughly the mid point of the trip. But I always viewed Hong Kong as the mid point. What went before were the cheaper countries and the rougher part of the trip. Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Nepal were where food and accommodation would be cheap. What comes after Hong Kong is South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. They would be the expensive but western countries. Travelling there would be easier and safer but much more costly. Today is day 222 but leaving Hong Kong feels like the next phase of the trip. The adventure...
Read MoreWe booked a tour from Hoi An to visit My Son (pronounced me sun), $5 for the tour and $5 for entry. The ruins are about an hour and a half drive away, but we are getting used to spending hours on a bus getting to and from these kind of places. My Son is an incredible place, over 1,500 years old in parts and built using bricks with no mortar (a technique they can’t reproduce to this day). It is of the same design as Angkor Wat, but it is lot older. It was the main religious centre for the Champa people who came to South Vietnam around 400AD from the island of Java (Indonesia). The Champa people had their capital city in the centre of Vietnam and My Son was where they would go to pray. It laid forgotten in the jungle for a few hundred years until the French discovered the remains in the late 19th century. Luckily for us the temperature had dropped a little and it was in the low 20s making the tour comfortable. We had about 2 hours walking around the site in total, lead by our guide, who knew his history but also had a good sense of humour. We had a good half day on the tour and the only thing that went wrong was the camera failed on us. The lens (16-50mm) wouldn’t focus, leaving us to use the 55-200mm lens. Not the best situation but something is better than nothing. After getting back to Hoi An around 1:30pm we headed for the Indian restaurant (called Ganesh) just round the corner from our hotel. We had been hunting for it a few nights back and spent 30 mins wandering in a circle before giving up, we then walked past it on the way home and realised that we had not only walked past it earlier that night but we were only one street away the while time we were searching. So the next night we went straight there and found it full. Because of the grief caused from searching for this restaurant we decided to give it 30 mins then try again. An hour later it was still packed and no tables available. So in the afternoon we had almost 3 hours between coming back from My Son and getting the bus to the airport and we were determined to eat there. The place was deserted and remained so for the duration. The curry was excellent and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. As usual all the photos can be see viewed on Flickr. Posted from Ninh Thuan province,...
Read MoreWe made it all the way to central Vietnam from the UK without flying; just over 9000 miles of travelling. But we have decided to fly from Hoi An in central Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam. The train is a 20 hour journey whereas the plane does it in a little over 1 hour. It is a little disappointing to have to fly after avoiding it for so long, but really we have no good reason to not fly, the train costs about the same but takes so much longer. This will give us the extra time which we need because we have Christmas booked in Cambodia and it would be a shame to have to leave Vietnam knowing that we have skipped places we probably did have time to visit had we been more pragmatic. Posted from Da Nang, Da Nang,...
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