Since J hadn’t been down to the south, we decided we should visit two of the big ticket tourist attractions: Abu Simbel and The Valley of the Kings. Instead of flying, we took the sleeper train south. The compartments felt a little smaller than the ones in the Turkish trains for example, but the beds are relatively comfortable, and you actually get fed edible food in sleeper class.
Alexandria day trip
I am a giant! In front of the library model.
We had a lovely day trip to Alexandria with tour guide Nibal. We had decided on a more relaxing day, so instead of the fortress and catacombs, we visited the library and the palace, and whiled away a few hours on the beach.
Filed under Egypt
Cairo – warning: dance and costume discussion ahead!
J and me on Yasmina’s roof terrace, with the pyramids in the background.
When I first visited Cairo back in 2005, it was pretty overwhelming. Now a slightly more seasoned traveller, I took things a little more slowly and without having to keep to the schedule of a tour group.
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Vietnam – Hoi An
Japanese Covered Bridge… with all the other tourists
As we drove through Danang from the airport towards Hoi An, we were pretty amazed to see a lot of development, especially along the beach. There are a startling number of new resorts in varying stages of completion along there, and the Danang airport also has a brand new international terminal since we were last here in 2014. Wow!
Da Nang isn’t the only place to be developing – as we drove in, we saw Hoi An is growing quickly too, and the sleepy town we’d visited is now much bigger too. One night we walked along Cua Dai where we’d stayed last time, and we were shocked to see that almost all the places we’d eaten at (and the cheap beer places, too) had been replaced by more new hotels and electronics shops. The little Pho place next to that hotel was still there, but it looked like only just!
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Vietnam – Hello Hanoi
We flew with Vietnam Airlines to Hanoi, which was uneventful, as preferred! The airport at Hanoi is brand new — only two years old (I couldn’t work out why it seemed unfamiliar, when we’d flown into Hanoi only three years ago…)
Driving into the Old Town, we were overrun by mopeds, and remembered hearing last time that there is some strangely huge number of motorbikes in Vietnam, like three per person or something. There were certainly a lot on the roads!
NYE on Beer Corner
Our hotel was the Essence on Ta Hien St, right off Beer Corner. We had chosen it knowing it was in the middle of the Old Quarter, but didn’t realise quite how much it was totally in the thick of things. It was busy on the Saturday night, but on NYE the streets outside were heaving — literally wall-to-wall people!
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Thailand – Kanchanaburi and Sai Yok
Train to Kanchanaburi
Next after Bangkok, we headed out to the countryside (well, it’s all relative) to Kanchanaburi, the home of the Bridge over the River Kwai. We decided that to do it properly, we should take the train, and so we hopped onto the slow 3rd class passenger train (no aircon) at Bangkok Thonburi station (otherwise known as Bangkok Noi – small).
The station took R aback somewhat, as he was getting used to Bangkok’s flashiness, and Noi was certainly not that. The train was even less flashy, with hard seats and the occasional fan and open window providing the “aircon”.
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Thailand – Bangkok
After the quiet of Laos, Bangkok was a bit of a shock!
We arrived in the middle of rush hour (well, hours) so it took us over an hour to get from the airport to the hotel, The Matria, a newish place off Sukhumvit. After checking in, we went for a wander of the streets to get acclimatised to Bangkok: traffic, traffic and traffic!
Our street, Soi 18, has about 6 massage places, at least two laundries, three or four other hotels and restaurants, and at least three 7/11s. Plus a goodly number of street vendors selling juices, meat-onna-stick, soup etc up near the Sukhumvit intersection, depending on the day. This makes for a great gauntlet to run when wandering out on excursions — everything from “Massage?” to “Tuk tuk?”
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Laos – Luang Prabang
Sunset over the Mekong
Summer holidays means travelling to Europe to take advantage of the extended break, right? Not this time! We’d started planning an Eastern Europe trip, but I threw in the towel and decided that closer to home would be better, and it wouldn’t be nearly as cold as further north.
Laos was the fourth country in the Indochina circle for me to visit – I’d been to Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam before, so I was expecting something similar. Laos is similar to its neighbours, yes, but it’s also got a charm all of its own.
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Singapore jaunt, Days 1, 2 & 3
This school holidays I’ve headed up to Singapore with my friend K and her 7-year-old, M.
We hit the ground running in Singapore. After the midnight flight, we were pretty tired, but couldn’t check into the hotel straight away.
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Two Weeks Away 