Day 2: Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnamese motorbikes here aren’t loud, but several of them ripping through the streets in evenly-paced intervals, can equivocate a handful of Harleys. A motor stampede. I awoke from my sleep because my cavernous room echoed thunderous vibrations. That’s what you get from a room with a front row seat of the main street. Otherwise, the view is pretty interesting.
My room? I’ve gotten used to it. Periodically during the night, I’d awake with an itch which sent me to my spritzer of (more…)
“Do you know that Vietnam is a Communist country?” my mom added before parting on Skype. Timing. She’s like that. This is my second big solo trip to a developing country, she’s concerned for my safety and her method of care is to instill fear, rather than courage… at the last moment. Gotta love her. But overall, I’ve heard Vietnam is reasonably safe for female solo travelers so I’m not too worried.
Day 1: Daegu to Ho Chi Minh City and my Less-than-Amazing Race
My morning call was… early, yet I was running late . This was the only time there was no taxi in (more…)
Tourists rest at a roadside cafe
For the female solo traveler, Vietnam shouldn’t be an intimidating or scary country to travel. Though still developing, it’s no longer as ‘off-the-beaten path’ as one might like to romanticize; and while large, Vietnam strives to make transportation easy and cheap for the tourist. For every main attraction, you can bet there’s probably a budget tour for it, as tour operators are everywhere, vying for your business and ready to aid your travel needs.
Tours however, are not for everyone. Some travelers prefer for a more personal and off-off-road experience to (more…)
Do I look like a real Hanoian?
I’ve just returned from backpacking Vietnam, during summer monsoon season- what a wet, wet, wet and sweaty fun… I must have lost 10 pounds of water weight and my skin has a pimply glow (Daegu heat is a breeze in comparison)! But it was all good- 9 days was definitely not enough to see Vietnam and all it offers in crazy motorcycle mayhem. Now I’m back in civilization, where a warm bath and a bed, without a silk liner woos me…
Check out Expacked’s Issue #84…
Major shout out to Expacked for including my blog “5 Reasons to Join your Expat Community when Living Abroad” in Issue #84 of its newsletters. It’s both, an honor and fortunate new discovery for me. Expacked is an (more…)
So I arrived in Pai (a hip little backpacker’s town north of Chiang Mai), learned how to ride a motorbike and then quickly set off to explore the countryside. Wind in my face, embracing my newly earned motorist’s freedom and smelling the earthy countryside of “Thai green”, what I inevitably loved best about my drive to the village… (more…)
