Blue Dot Explore

June 19, 2023. Hoi An Night Market on the Thu Bon River. Lanterns are placed in the river with a wish. Trying to get this post off quick since we're about to head to the Sub-Saharan Africa portion of our trip and we'll be traveling with friends, so I don't anticipate having much computer time. I wanted to get something off about the rest of our time in Vietnam because I know when I look back a month from now to write it up, I won't remember anything, so here is part 2 of my favorite country so far, Vietnam. Flying back into Vietnam after Laos was a breeze (no visa issues this time) and our first stop of Vietnam, round 2, would be the beach town of Da Nang. Initially, we hadn't planned to make it a stayover, but after hearing about the beaches we decided to park it there for a couple nights and ended up loving it. We were there on the weekend so we were able to catch the Dragon Bridge fire show and found a night market for our dinners. They had incredible seafood spr

June 1, 2023. View of the Nam Ou River from the Nong Khiaw viewpoint at  Pha Daeng Peak .  We decided to avoid the Visa hassle of trying to enter Laos via the Northern land crossing as we originally planned, especially given the fact that we hadn't gotten the necessary visa stamp in Hanoi, and visa on arrival or e-visa aren't accepted there. The change in plans ended up being a much better option and saved us about 30 hours on a bus, although unfortunately meant that we had to skip a stop where we were going to travel by slow boat between towns. One thing that I've been reminded of again and again on this trip is the fact that you can't get hung up on what you may have missed. There is just too much to see, and for everything you miss, you get to see something else instead.   We only had a few locations in Laos, concentrated in the North, in order for us to make our June 27 deadline to fly out of South East Asia. We pretty much stayed on the "banana pancake" r

May 19, 20323, view from the top of  Mua cave, outside of Nihn Bihn, looking down on Tom Coc  After all the visa drama that left me stranded in the Philippines for a few days, I breezed into Hanoi without any further issues. Customs didn't even ask to see my shiny, new emergency visa.... alas, THAT particular Visa drama was over. (Still undergoing India Visa drama. Stay-tuned.) Reunited with Johnny, he was quick to show me his favorite haunts he had discovered in his few days of solo time, most notably his Vietnamese bar owner friend and his spot on the Hanoi train street. He treated us to corn liquor between train passings when you had to press yourself into the local shops to avoid the approaching locomotive. Johnny had also already found the best food spots, including a killer egg coffee. I happily ate my way through the Old Quarter in the short time I had before our transition out to Ha Long Bay. Hanoi had some of my favorite street food since Thailand for sure. Ha Long Bay was