Asian backpacker

1

Laos / South East Asia

30 Mar, 2014

My first trekking in Phou Xieng Thong NPA

Northwest from Pakse is the Phou Xieng Thong National Protected Area (NPA). It was in this NPA that we (me and a German woman and her daughter) would do a 3d/2n tour. We were also introduced to our local guide Miek, 30 years old with a decent knowledge of English.Our first stop was Ban Mai Singsaphan Village where we met our first homestay family. It’s a village with about 380 families..no idea though how many heads 1 family counts.. After lunch, prepared by the family – actually all meals were prepared by the homestay families – we, accompagnied by a...

0

Laos / South East Asia

24 Feb, 2014

There is more than tubing in Vang Vieng and less than you expect in Vientiane

Vang vieng In these few weeks of travelling I already learned that you need to take things how it comes, especially when travelling by local transport. Your bus or train might show up in time, but NEVER expect it to arrive in time! Do not get agitated but stay zennnn…..The day when I travelled to Vang Vieng turned out to be a very very long day, mainly due to a wrong booking by the agency but also because one of the cars in front of us broke down on a mountain and we had to wait till that got fixed....

0

Laos / South East Asia

24 Feb, 2014

Laos’ first Unesco site Luang Prabang

You can opt to go from Hanoi to Luang Prabang by bus for only 35-40€. This option aka the ’24-hours journey from hell’ option is for sure the cheapest way. I however preferred paying 130€ for a 1-hour flight with Vietnam Airlines than taking this hell ride! My visa on arrival cost me another 35$+1$ administration fee. A friend told me I would really like Luang Prabang as people are very friendly and especially not pushy when bying stuff at eg. the nightmarket. It appeared she was right 🙂 Of course there are exceptions but most of the Lao people...

0

South East Asia / Vietnam

6 Feb, 2014

Cat Ba Island and limestone mountains in Halong Bay

Going to Hanoi usually means making a trip to Halong Bay as well. Everywhere in Hanoi you’ll find agencies and hostels offering multiday tours. We instead went by public transport to Cat Ba, rented motorbikes on the island and cruised around for a day, stopping at it’s National Park and playing beachsoccer. I totally sucked but still managed to make 3-4 goals 🙂 It was supercool! We did book a daytrip to Halong Bay throught our hotel. It was the uncle of the hotelmanager himself that guided us that day. We cruised around the karst limestones for 2-3 hours. It...

0

Asia / Vietnam

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...

0

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?...

0

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...

Colourful lanterns 0

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...

0

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...

0

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...

Follow:

More