Just a Kidd

We spent 3 days in Ho Chi Minh before travelling into Cambodia, and I thought it was one of the coolest cities we visited on our trip. Ho Chi Minh was formerly known as Saigon, but some people still use this name, just to clear up any confusion. It's the biggest city in Vietnam and I found it so interesting to see the integration of old and modern architecture. The back of the Cathedral also faces outwards onto a huge road, I just really loved the way it looks in the middle of the rest of the city. Not my photo, but I wanted to show you all how it looks in comparison to the rest of the city Next to the Cathedral is the Saigon Central Post Office. Even if you don't have anything you need to post, this is a beautiful building to have a look around in, there are even small shops selling cute souvenirs inside .  We stayed in a place called Galaxy Hotel & Capsule and I absolutely loved it. The location was really good, right by the streets full o...

Once I started to recover from my second dose of food poisoning, we had to decide what our game plan was. I felt really bad that my boyfriend was stuck inside most of each day because of me for the second time during our trip. So, I agreed to do something I was completely terrified of, but he was utterly desperate to do...a motorcycle tour. Do you know what? It was the most awesome activity of our whole trip. Good job Jay, I should trust you more often ;) When Top Gear came to Vietnam, Jeremy, James and Richard rode motorbikes from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, all the way up the country. If you've seen the episode, (if not go watch it, it's one of the best) you'll know they travel through the mountains on a road called Hai Van Pass. Our trip was from Hoi An to Hue, driving alongside the gorgeous views of stunning white sandy beaches, bright blue water and the greenest forests. On this map, Hoi An is marked M and Hue is marked L. The journey would usually take around 3 h...

With it's amazing character and beautiful lanterns, Hoi An turned out to be our favourite place in Vietnam by far. The ancient town is home to the age-old Japanese bridge and Chinese Assembly Hall, as well as stylish cafes with delicious menus (we even found brie!!) . We witnessed an amazing lantern festival, with hundreds being set alight and lowered down the town's river, where you can watch them floating through the night whilst eating delicious street food (Banh Mi is a crowd favourite). I was going to try and explain Banh Mi, but this picture does a much better job It is clear to see the French influence in Hoi An in both the architecture and food, back from when Vietnam was a French colony. I loved how lanterns were everywhere around the whole town, whether they were hanging up as decorations between buildings, floating down the river or in shops to be sold, they were just so beautiful. We stayed in an awesome hostel called Tribee, with real...

To give you an insight into how far behind I am with blog posts... my birthday is the 5th of June. I have recently made a blogging schedule, but my current holiday in France has completely messed all chances of that up. I'm trying I swear. I decided I wanted to spend my birthday in Halong Bay, a place I thought would be one of the best in Vietnam. The islands themselves were absolutely beautiful, I would just advise anybody planning a trip here to splash out a bit on the tour, therefore hopefully avoiding the unorganised mess of a trip we were on. As I'm sure you've all noticed by now, nothing was smooth sailing during our trip, but I did have a wonderful birthday in an amazing part of the world. The confusion started when we were picked up by our bus in Hanoi. Once on the bus we were asked to write down our names, ages, nationality etc., which is normal protocol for booked bus companies out there. Then, a Vietnamese guy named 'Circus' stood up with a micr...

So of course, every traveller should plan all the big things before heading off on their trip, for example...visas. We felt extremely lucky once we found out Vietnam has a 2 weeks exemption for British citizens as we had completely forgot you need a letter of approval to get a Visa on arrival at the airport. Yah, we really dumb. This meant our 3 week trip in Vietnam had to be shortened to 2 weeks, but it all worked out well in the end for us timing wise so not to worry. One big, rather scary thing did happen once we landed in Hanoi, however it is a very long story and will be a different, future blogpost about safety when travelling. For right now though, this shall be an account of the cool things we found to do in Hanoi during our 2 days there. Number 1: Go and get a burger at Chops Restaurant. I can't remember what the one I ordered was called but it had mac and cheese in it and it was the best burger I've ever had. The owner also happened to be from Epsom, which is...