Category: My blog
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Australia and Vietnam Revisited 2025 -cat Ba/night kayaking
I have discovered that Vietnam does indeed produce its own wine. It started in French colonial times but had a boost when Australian wine companies got involved in the early 2000’s. Most grapes are grown between the Central Highlands and the coastal areas of Central Vietnam. So now we know. And it’s perfectly quaffable. Today…
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Australia and Vietnam Revisited 2025 -cat Ba/Lan Ha boat trip
Yesterday we pottered around, getting trips sorted, drinking coffee in the sunshine (we had a couple of hours of sunshine – hurrah!), using the onsen and generally relaxing. Today was the day of our cruise around Lan Ha bay. Lan Ha bay has now become a Unesco site alongside its more popular sister, Halong Bay.…
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Australia and Vietnam Revisited 2025 -Cat Ba
Our drive from Ninh Binh to Hai Phong (where we caught the ferry) confirmed my views that this part of Vietnam is a fairly unattractive part of the world. I know it was cloudy and wet and that doesn’t help matters at all, but the views were either row upon row of concrete service buildings,…
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Australia and Vietnam Revisited 2025 -Trang An
The temperature has warmed up considerably today. I still took my down jacket out with me though (didn’t need it) and forgot my sunglasses(did need them). We were a bit tardy getting ready today as we’d had such a good day yesterday, we were worried about doing a similar thing at Trang An and it…
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Australia and Vietnam Revisited 2025 -Tam Coc
We had very noisy neighbours last night, screeching away until 2am. Annoying but thank goodness for ear plugs and a white noise machine – we were able to get back to sleep. Today we decided to do everything that Tam Coc has to offer. Designated a UNESCO site, you can be rowed along a river…
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Australia and Vietnam Revisited 2025 – Cuc Phoung national park Ninh Binh
Breakfast was a bit of a mixed bag today. There were pancakes -hurrah- and horrible coffee -boo. Today was a trip to Cuc Phoung, the oldest national park in Vietnam. We’re not keen on tours, we much prefer to do stuff independently, but Vietnam is the Land of Tours so off we went. Also you…
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Australia and Vietnam Revisited 2025 – Hanoi/Ninh binh
Our gym plans were thwarted today as another couple were already in there. It’s a British thing I know, but it would have been too awkward squeezing round them, apologising, waiting politely for equipment etc. We decided instead to walk to the Uniqlo store down near the lake. Observation number 1 of the day –…
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Australia and Vietnam Revisited 2025 – Hanoi day 2
The weather was a bit brighter today as were we. We managed to complete a short workout in the gym early this morning and rewarded ourselves with a big breakfast. I forgot to mention our visit to Train Street yesterday. You may well have seen videos of this – a narrow train track that is…
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Australia and Vietnam Revisited 2025 – Hanoi day 1
I felt as flat as a pancake today. This is only to be expected, a usual reaction of mine when saying goodbye to loved ones and moving on. I always feel like just going home. This time also not helped by a sad anniversary and the bloody awful weather. The weather! Foggy, wet and cold.…
Middle-aged flash packers 