Vietnam, Cambodia March 2026

Our flight was at the very respectable time in the early afternoon, so we were able to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast before returning to our room to pack. I had time for a short walk along the street, but Rob decided it was too warm for him and stayed around the reception area to chat. While out walking I met a young Vietnamese woman, standing next to her scooter waiting for a gate to be opened. She stopped me to say how much she liked the colour of my hair. I thanked her and then she asked where I was from, and when I said Australia, she immediately responded with, “G’day mate” which made me laugh. We chatted for a short time as she wanted to practise her English, before I continued on my way. We were taken to the airport and luckily had plenty of time! Check-in and security lines were very long and by the time we had got through, we only had to wait 40 minutes or so before boarding. The flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Min City took 90 minutes. A funny thing happened to Rob o...

We were up early this morning as our guide and driver for the day were meeting us at 7 am.    Of the sixteen of us, ten had decided to do the optional excursion to Ba Na Hills. We had a very comfortable drive to the mountains which took quite a while as the roads were busy with morning traffic. We weren’t sure what to expect but the whole day was both surprising and enjoyable. Originally in the 1800’s the French who occupied Vietnam at the time thought the weather in Da Nang and Hoi An was too hot during the summer and built a castle, summer houses and wine cellars etc up in the mountains to make the most of the cooler climate. The castle and buildings had fallen into disrepair and from about 2008 onwards a Vietnamese owned company, Sun World bought the site from the government and started to develop a huge tourist attraction. It seems quite incredible what has been constructed there. The area attracts from 10,000 to 20,000 people a day and employs a huge staff to run all the ...

Once again I will start with another story about an incident which occurred yesterday, while we were on our way to the airport. We have one of those camera doorbells which give you notifications when someone is at your door. We both received a notification and Rob looked at his phone and said that it looks like Mike was at the door trying to unlock it. Most of you know Mike and Mandy are our lovely neighbours who keep an eye on our home when we are away and Mike was probably going in to check on things and maybe water a plant. Rob must have pressed something on his phone and was actually speaking to Mike. Meanwhile our good neighbour from across the road, Andrew was out on our lawn with his 2-year-old son and saw Mike and came up to the doorbell to see what was going on. He worked out that Rob could see, hear and speak to him and said, “Hey Rob, I just caught this guy trying to break into your house!” It was hilarious and after they chatted for a short time the conversation ended. ...

Rob has made a speedy recovery and is nearly back to normal….although he hasn’t had a beer yet! Just a funny story from last night which happened to Trevor, the man from Mackay who I have previously mentioned in the blog. Trevor visited the markets with us but decided he wanted to look around for a bit longer. He decided the easiest way to get back to the hotel after his walk was to take a rickshaw. He told the driver, the name of the hotel not realising that there were 3 hotels with that name. The driver took him to the wrong one and while the driver was inside the hotel getting directions for the correct hotel, a pretty young woman approached Trevor sitting in the rickshaw, asking him if he would like a massage with extras. Trevor could not believe it and could not stop laughing when he told us the story. (He did decline the young lady’s offer and said that nothing like that had ever happened to him before!)  Our morning started with our guide meeting us at the hotel and taking u...

Luckily Rob was feeling a little better this morning but still wasn’t up to facing any food and feeling pretty weak. We decided to relax for the morning, rather than taking up the offer of a guided walk through some more caves. We weren’t the only ones who opted to stay on the boat. It was a good choice as the walk was quite strenuous and with the hot, sticky weather, some people struggled. Once the walking group had returned to the boat, we slowly made our way back to the dock before boarding the bus which would return us to Hanoi. On our way back to Hanoi, we stopped off at a Pearl farm and of course there were hundreds of beautiful pieces of pearl jewellery for sale although we couldn’t be tempted. Our coach returned us to the same hotel we had stayed in when we arrived in Hanoi, and we quickly were assigned our new rooms. Rob and I scored a huge room with a king bed plus 2 king single beds in it. We will have to make a decision as to which bed we will sleep in tonight! In the eveni...

Just a few lines about our evening. Rob and I went up to the rooftop bar for the view and a drink. While there we met a man called Trevor who was doing the same tour as us and was on his own. He might be slightly older than us but had said that this was the first trip he’d been on, on his own, since his wife died just over six moths ago. He was from Mackay in Queensland and was great company. He said he was having difficulty getting his Wise money card to work and as we had these cards for this trip, Rob was eager to try to sort his problems out. Anyway, after a drink or two, we walked to a nearby ATM and Rob tried to assist Trevor with his card. There were still problems, so we gave up and decided to find somewhere for dinner. We went into a small restaurant nearby and looked at the menu. Unfortunately, every item on the menu was “goat” and as no other meat was offered, we decided to return to the hotel and ate in the restaurant there. We had a wonderful night’s sleep and woke refresh...