Finally we had got settled in Tunis and by November 2003 we were ready for our first trip into the country taking advantage of the Ramadan holiday. I’m not sure why, but we chose the Jerid area – an arid land in the South West of the country. The guide book description hardly makes it the most romantic of getaways, “The Jerid is an arid land of bare pink hills punctuated by mining towns and sporadic oases – villages built…
A whole mish mash of photos of in and around Hanoi taken between 2001 and 2002.
26th April 2002 Day One Hanoi to Mai Chau My two years in Vietnam was coming to an end but there was time for one last big bike trip up north. Looking at the map, I had been to most places but there was a gap, the spine of the Hoang Lien Son Mountains. I hadn’t heard much about it but there was a road marked on the map (no doubt just a track in places) and there would be…
As I said in my previous post on Mandalay, the flight to Bagan was (for once) without incident and on time. I stayed in the centre of backpacker ville – lots of traveller restaurants and hotels. The place seems to be really taking off. I booked in to the New Park hotel. $7 for a nice room – big and table and chair outside and I’m glad to it’s still in business today. Like Christmas, I had forgotten it was…
Kalaw 28th Dec 2002 Another interesting bus experience! I was up at 6am in the cold, had breakfast and was ready and waiting for the bus to Mandalay. Eventually it arrived at 8.30, although the aisle was blocked with sacks I did manage to find a seat. It shuddered 500m down the road and then stopped again to cram more goods on board eventually leaving town at 9am. The journey itself wasn’t too bad. Obviously we broke down, had a…
I got on the bus from Yangon to Mandalay as planned and found myself sat next to a mad Italian vet called Carla who happened to know a mutual friend in Hanoi. She was good company but talked a lot. The other foreigners on board were an Israeli girl called Udit, who I described in my diary as being very thoughtful and introspective and an American, Jennifer, who was quite independent and interesting. They had been to a Buddhist monastery…
I was living in Vietnam at the time, so the flight was fairly short and uneventful. Arriving in Yangon, I was through immigration fairly quickly and exchanged some money for the official Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC). this was compulsory I remember $200 for 20FEC. I then got a taxi ticket and was soon headed into the big smoke. I had decided to stay in the YMCA as my copy of the lonely planet said it was very clean and the…
This was the fourth of my bike trips in Vietnam. I’d been down to the Central Highlands, up to the North West and the North East and now- the Far North. Although I was getting used to the protocol, it never got any easier. The first problem was getting train tickets and getting the bikes on the train to Lao Cai. It was always a real hassle and this was no different, perhaps more so as I saw the blokes…
Hanoi 8th June 2002 I’d already undertaken motorbike trips to the North and to the South, this time it was Central Vietnam’s turn. Not so big on Ethnic Minorities but the trip was centred on the ancient capital of Hue. It was also quite novel as I wasn’t taking my trusty Minsk as I wasn’t travelling around much. However, it started, as ever, with an overnight train trip from Ga Hanoi (Hanoi Railway Station). I woke up fairly fresh on…
28th April 2002. I’d been to the North West of Vietnam and the Central Highlands. This time I was venturing North East to the Chinese border. Little visited by foreigners, I wanted to spot some new Ethnic Minorities and also experience the wonderful karst scenery. I first headed north on the main road to Thai Nguyen. It was the worst case scenario – the road was pretty bad but it was also busy with lots of smoke belching buses. Just…