Rainy Day Reads

In 2009 on my big Asia trip we also went to Halong Bay in Vietnam. It is situated in the north of Vietnam 160 km east of Hanoi. We went on a day trip from Hanoi. It should be easy to find an agency to book you a trip. As always watch out for tourist traps. It is of course hard to know until you are stuck in said trap whether or not a specific agency has conned you. But ask other travelers for recommendations and check reputable guide books/websites for reviews.   Halong Bay was according to legend created by a dragon coming from the mountains. It moved towards the ocean and along the way it carved out valleys and gouges with its tail and as it plunged into the sea, the area behind it filled up with water leaving only the tips of the gouged out landscape visible. These tips are what you see rising from the water today.  The bay was named a World Heritage Site in 1994, and the limestone islands, called karsts, dotted with grottoes fully deserve this designation....

I went to Dalat on my big Asia backpacking trip in 2009. We had been backpacking through Thailand and Cambodia for about 1½ months, and I am not really one for the hot, moist climate in those parts of the world. So when we arrived in Dalat after a harrowing bus trip from Saigon, it was like heaven! Dalat is situated in the mountains in about 1500 m altitude, which makes for a nice cool climate. The book recommends that if you have time you take the bus through some of the beautiful landscapes of Vietnam. That should take about 4 hours. But as mentioned above my friend and I had a horrific bus trip. We were also told it would take about 4-5 hours, but instead it took 9½, and the bus was less than amazing. It died several times going up the mountains, and the seats and airconditioning panels were falling apart. So if you decide to take the bus at least make sure of the standard. Otherwise there are flights available. There are quite a lot of things to see in and around...