Around Town in Hồ Chí Minh City We stayed in the Backpacker District of Hồ Chí Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. The city has a lot of traffic, but the flow seemed to be more organized than in Hà…
Hội An
Arriving in Hội An Hội An was one of our favorite places in Vietnam. It’s a small town of about 120,000 people and the whole area is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Throughout history, Hội An has been…
Huế
The Train to Huế We took the SE2 express train from Đà Nẵng to Huế, capital city of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty from 1802 to 1945. Our seat was in the more expensive soft seat section of the train but…
Đà Nẵng
Đà Nẵng, Street Food, and Orange Hotel Our plan was to take the sleeper train from Hà Nội to Đà Nẵng, but the train was booked — we flew instead. Linley had a very sleepy Vietnamese neighbor on the plane…
Hạ Long Bay
The Road to Hạ Long Bay & Our Boat, Paloma Hạ Long Bay is only about 90 miles away from Hà Nội, but it still is a 4-hour drive. We met some good friends while crammed into a mini-bus. After…
Hà Nội
Hoàn Kiếm District (Old Quarter) Our hotels in Hà Nội were located in the Hoàn Kiếm district (a.k.a. the Old Quarter). The streets are small, the sidewalks covered in motorbike parking or nonexistent, and the health code not enforced (if…
Destination: Vietnam
Hà Nội Our flight arrives in Hà Nội, the capitol and second largest city of Vietnam. Old Quarter, Hà Nội Credit: Wikimedia Commons [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hanoi] Hạ Long Bay Hạ Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site filled with thousands of…
Our Travel Route at a Glance
Our trip in numbers: 2 people, 9 countries, 4 months, 114 Days. Our route goes counter-clockwise around the Pacific Ocean from San Diego to Hawai’i. We fly onward from Hawai’i to Japan, where we have Japan Rail passes to get…