Author Archives: John Rose
If all the World’s a stage….
… Then Thailand is its Movie Studio and Bangkok, in particular, Sound Stage 1. Bangkok has provided the setting, background and magic for many movies over the years. Either as its genuine self or as a stand in for Phnom Penh, Saigon and Hanoi. I have decided to highlight a few movies that I have […]
Among the H’mong!
We had 4 hours between returning from Halong Bay to our pickup for Sapa. Our first task was to change bags, or more accurately the contents of our small bags. Wet swimming and kayaking gear was replaced with fleeces and Kagools for the anticipated harsher highland climate. After some dinner nearby and grabbing some drinks […]
Bringer of Light
Since arriving in Vietnam one face in particular has been seen again and again. He is on the money (all of it), on posters and walls, he’s got a museum in every city, including the one named after him. He spoke English, German, French, Mandarin and of course Vietnamese. He also famously told the French […]
Friends Reunited
Hanoi was always going to be on our itinerary. It’s a cool city and serves as a base for Halong Bay and Sapa. Another good reason is that my friend Long lived there and I had not seen him in just over three years. An extra bonus is that his business includes hotels so we […]
Tomb Kings
We had an evening flight booked to Hanoi so the hotel kindly let us leave our bags and this allowed us to take a trip out of Hue, South to see the Tombs of the Emperors. As Hue was the Imperial Capital of Vietnam from 1802 until 1945, the rulers of the Nguyen Dynasty were […]
Hue..ho..let’s go!
It became necessary to destroy the town to save it, While the above statement was in relation to Ban Tre, it could have equally been applied to Hue. In 1968,during the Tet Offensive, Hue was captured by the VietCong in an audacious assault. In order to retake the city the US Marines and South Vietnamese […]
As seen on Top Gear.
There are many forms of transport that we have taken so far on our trip. With our next destination, the Imperial City of Hue, being not that far away we decided to saddle up and motorbike it. To get us there we would use Mr. Thong – Easy Rider and his Honda Master 125cc bikes. […]
The Road Less Travelled
Vietnam’s most up and coming city and Tripadvisor Travellers Choice Award for 2014. Less than an hour from Hoi An and 15 minutes from the airport. Sounds like heaven. This is how Danang was sold to us. It is heaven if you stay in the fancy resorts overlooking China Beach. Not so much if you […]
Wonder World!
Our last full day before heading to Danang. What would we do? For the last few days this has been staring back at us in the distance: Vinpearl is Vietnam’s answer to DisneyLand and the good thing about it is that every activity is free (once you pay 500,000 Dong entry fee). But the best […]
Back in the USSR
While Calungate Beach and Mui Ne were ‘mini Russia’, Nha Trang is ‘Big Mother Russia’. There are Russian bars big as cars, Russian Tours pour ‘touts jours’, White Russians and sunburnt Red Russians. Sailors and Tailors, beluga restaurants and vodka bars. All that is missing is Lada cars and the Bolshoi Theatre. The nearby International […]
Mui Ne, Mui Ne, Mui Ne must be funny…
In a rich man’s world. An apt title for this post as Mui Ne is covered in high end resorts and fancy sailing clubs – most of them Russian owned. We managed to find a great little hotel however, called Xin Chao that even had a pool for $22 a night (including breakfast). But we […]
Cu Chi Cu Chi Coo
After spending a few hours pricing out a half day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels we decided to book the group tour with a travel agent across from the hotel as he said there was only 10 other people on the tour. As we were collected that morning and we walked to the bus […]
Mekong – you Jane!
Another day and another bus journey. Only this time it’s no ordinary bus journey. Today’s challenge would be the 6 hour bus Journey from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). With almost a month spent in Cambodia it was time (according to our Visa) to leave this beautiful country and head to our […]
North West Frontier
For many years I used to spend a couple of weeks at my granny’s house in Tipperary. It was here that I gained my love of World War 2 history through the various movies we would watch together. We saw them all dozens of times but the magic was always the same. We even had […]
First they took my molar…
For the last 5 weeks John’s tooth has been lose. He knew he needed to get it seen to but he wanted to wait for the right place. Our friend Charya goes to a clinic that is staffed with foreign trained dentists so we got her to book an appointment for John there. It was […]
JKRoaming - Travel Blog 