Author: Shelley

6 Feb, 2014

More honking in Hanoi

It was certainly not the cheapest way to go to Hanoi, but both Tuya and me wanted to try out the train in Vietnam. So we paid 32€ for a softsleeper in the Hue-Hanoi train, leaving at 19.30, arriving around 9.30 in the morning. Knowing the sleeperbusses in Vietnam, I expected something simular, but no a sleepertrain is much better. It’s almost like sleeping in a real bed! A taxi, which we think overpayed, brought us to the Hoi An Backpacker Hostel, one of the best ones I’ve stayed in in Vietnam. It’s such a wellknown hostel that we saw...

South East Asia / Vietnam

29 Jan, 2014

Vietnam, streetfood paradise!

No mather who you are or where you are, food takes an essential part in your life. When traveling it is my goal to try everything that comes on my path.As I’m already making many people jealous with my travel stories, why not make it even better with pictures of all the delicious food I had on my trip, right? Being in Vietnam definitely wasn’t good for my weight. How could I possibly resist their pho or the freshly rolled nem? or the bahn mi? or even a midnightsnack kebab?For sure I could not! Do these pictures not make you hungry?...

South East Asia / Vietnam

22 Jan, 2014

Biking around with easyriders on the Ho Chi Minh Trail

I never thought of doing it but once Tuya told me about it, I knew I would go for it!Easyriders..I don’t know if you have them in other places but Vietnam, but here it is pretty well known. The idea is to drive through (a part of) Vietnam by renting a motorbike and an easyrider, whome will also be your guide during the easyrider tour. You can choose to drive the motorbike yourself or to be the passenger on the easyrider’s bike. We went for the 2nd option. We initially planned on a 1 day tour Hoi An-Hue, but than...

South East Asia / Vietnam

11 Jan, 2014

Colourful lanterns and tailor-made clothing in Hoi An

December 25th, X-mas day! After 15 hours on the bus, I finaly reached Hoi An. Hoi An is known for the more than 200 tailorshops in town. I noticed that quite well. Just arrived in the hostel and Tuya and I were already ‘grabbed’ by a lady that wanted to show us her shop. And we went along! And had some clothes made there! I guess I gave myself a big X-mas present! Of course we had our doubts..would it be made well, how would the finish be? Luckely it turned all well. I even had extra trousers made after...

South East Asia / Vietnam

8 Jan, 2014

Chilling on the beach in Nha Trang

I totally get it now when people say that they are 3 weeks to 1 month behind in their blog. There is so much to see and to do that you really need to just stay in for a day to update your travelblog. Let me go on with Nha Trang. To get to Nha Trang I booked an open (sleepers)bus ticket HCMC-Nha Trang-Hoi An. It allows you to hop on and off in these 3 cities on the date you prefer. Advantage is that you travel by night so it saves you an extra night of accomodation. Before booking...

South East Asia / Vietnam

27 Dec, 2013

Ho Chi Minh City, city of motorbikes

I’m writing this part on the bus to my 2nd Vietnam City, the one after Ho Chi Minh City, so it’s THE best moment to write down what I’ve been doing the past 3 nights, 4 days in HCMC. My flight from Bangkok to HCMC (Dec, 18th) was booked throught Air Asia for about 50EUR. Air Asia departs in Bangkok from Don Mueang Airport, which is about 25km north of central Bangkok and the cheapest option to get there is to go by train from Hua Lamphong station. I had a flight at 7.45am and as I wasn’t quite sure...

Planning

9 Dec, 2013

7 days to D-DAY

Time is flying! It’s been a while since my last post here. It’s my last week in cold Belgium before heading for the sun! Last Friday Dec, 6th was my very last working day! It ended in a very long day *_*I had a nice farewell drink with my colleageas around 5.30pm (office closes at 6pm) meaning that work was waiting to be finished. My boss gave a me a compass as farewell gift. You would think he meant something with this gift 😉 Don’t you worry Bob, I’ll know my way back to work after 6 months..I think 😀 Thanks...

Planning

9 Dec, 2013

My travel medical kit

Vaccines and Medications Most people go the ITG (Institute of Tropical Medicine) for informations regarding vaccines and medications. A few years ago, when I went to South America, I did the same. They are very professional and you get the shots on the spot. (TIP: bring something to read as waiting time can be quite long, 1-2 hours waiting time is no exeption) If you want to spend your time better, than just go to there website. Look up your destination and you’ll get a list of needed vaccines. Print it out, go to your regular doctor who will prescibe...

Planning

25 Oct, 2013

My first expenses

Tickets I decided to just buy a return ticket BRU-BKK/SHA-BRU. As I work at a travel agency (yep, I do :-)), I could get a serious discount if flying with KLM. As so I got my ticket for a bit less than €500, where the normal price would have been +/- €900. Travel Insurance You can’t go on a long trip without a good travel insurance. Through my work I bought the year insurance World Gold Protection with Allianz Global Assistance. But because such insurance only insures 3 consecutive months of travel abroad, and I was traveling for 6 months, I had...

Planning

16 Oct, 2013

First things first

Once you’ve decided to take a long holiday, the very first thing you need to do is of course let your boss know about it. If he doesn’t agree, everything stops there. The very first time I gave my boss a hint about my decision was on Apr 6th, 2011. He didn’t faint, that was a good sign 😉 It wasn’t until a year later that I kindly ‘reminded’ him about our little chat back then. Because I was the only accountant in the company, we needed to talk about which arrangements must be made for during my absence.We started...

Author: Shelley

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