Creative Meanderings

My ramblings and wanderings through life

  • Perhaps the favorite city for all of us was Hoi An. Our hotel – Ha An – arranged pick-up for us around mid-day for a rather large fee ($18) considering it was only about 15-minutes away. The hotel seemed fairly nice, though our rooms were right next to the lobby and our room opened up to the main entrance steps as a balcony. But, overall, it was a nice place to stay for…

  • Continuing our move down the coast, we were off in the morning to Danang. The bus from Hue to Danang is just three hours and about USD5. We were dropped off somewhere in the main part of the city and then grabbed a taxi to Sandy Beach Resort. Funnily enough, we passed our bus on the way! Most of the time we were staying at reasonably low-priced hotels, but as the guidebooks showed…

  • We really only had the afternoon to do our sightseeing in the city as we were set to leave the next morning for our next stop. So, after settling in to the Orchid Hotel and refreshing a bit, we went off to explore the sights. Hue is a rather small city and truthfully much more than a day is not necessary. The main attraction in the city is the citadel. With a ticket…

  • A full day of traveling to our next destination was spent for our half-way mark of our travels through Vietnam. There was a bit of waiting around as our boat made its way back to the port and we were shuttled back to land. In some ways it was a relief to return to a more comfortable form of life on land after being away in the quiet and watery-world. In others, I…

  • In the morning, Columbus Cruise came to pick us up from our hotel. After a few stops to pick up more of our travel companions, we were on our three-hour bus ride to Halong Bay for our two night/three day tour. At first, our tour guide, Hai, was a bit too talkative and happy for me. After Egypt, I’ve become a bit less patient and more skeptical of tour guides and their babble.…

  • Cities used to be my favorite places to be, but now I’m reconsidering if I’m a city-girl or not. Walking down the streets of Hanoi is so stressful to me with the incessant and mostly-unnecessary horn-honking. The sidewalks are full of motorbikes or squatting people having a chat, so pedestrians are mostly forced to walk on the street. So, it’s not really fun to walk the city – though it is still infinitely…

  • Realizing that we had a day longer than we thought in Hanoi, we decided to have a fairly lazy day starting with a bit of a lie in (aka 7ish). After a breakfast downstairs we settled on a plan to head to the train station to get our tickets down to Hue after we return from HaLong Bay. The train station was pretty easy to find and though slightly chaotic, it was quick…

  • I had a terrible night’s sleep with backpacker’s alley being a busy locale until 3am and restless dreams the rest of the night. However, we were up bright and early to head out for our flight to Hanoi.We took Vietnam Airlines up. It’s just two short hours and the flight seemed alright though I was half awake for most of it. 🙂 Our airport pickup for Hanoi Boutique hotel was there to greet…

  • The last stop on my around the globe travels during this summer holiday is Vietnam. Craig and I have a two-week adventure planned with a friend, Roman, joining for most of it. We started with our flight from Narita to HCMC. This is Day 1 technically but nothing to report. The flight is about 7 hours and there is a two-hour time difference between the two countries. That should orientate you. 😉 Our…

  • Due my somewhat crazy travel schedule this summer, I was only home in Oregon from July 18 – 24. My main purpose was to just hang with my family and to relax. Somehow I still ended up seeing many friends, which was great. I made a visit to the Old Spaghetti Factory, one of my favorite childhood restaurants; met my Dad’s softball team; visited more friends; shopped (yes more!) and in general just…

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