25.2.23 I was so excited by the pineapple pancakes on the breakfast menu, John chose the same. They were a stack of yellow pancakes containing slices of banana with a side dish of a sort of pineapple jam and just ok, didn’t warrant the excitement. John told them that our toilet is leaking, they looked…
27.2.23Another day a different motorbike as we didn’t want to use yesterdays again. Yayy, we have one with good back brakes, a working horn, although no speedo or fuel guage working. We had a large loop planned and hoped we would have time to do it all. We planned to be up and on the…
28.2.23Happy birthday to my mum, 84 today. Gosh, we’re all getting old and it flies by. We contemplated going to Cuc Phong National park on the motorbike today, but it seems to be anywhere between 45 and 70km away depending what leaflet or map you look at.It just felt too far for me, John was…
1.3.23Onward to Dong Hoi. We felt very sad leaving Tam Coc, we loved our time here so much. The train took 8 hours, we arrived in Dong Hoi exactly as scheduled at 4.35pm. Nothing remarkable to say about the journey, poor for people watching blogging apart from the man who offered us some cognac from…
2.3.23 John discovered a very pleasant roof terrace at the top of our Dolphin Homestay building. It was nice to see Dong Hoi in the daylight. After reading up on options to get to Phong Nha caves a motorbike gives us the most freedom.There’s a bus at 8am, but doesn’t come back until 5pm, which…
3.3.23 I needn’t have worried about getting chilli bottom because at 2am I was very sick, and again at 4.30am. I felt so tired but at 5am the noise started downstairs, food chopping, small boy alternating between grizzling and repeating the same couple of words over and over (I’d forgotten that annoying stage) and then…
4.3.23Today was another train journey, 8am Dong Hoi to Danang, 5 and a half hours.Luckily John looked at train tickets online a few days ago, we were shocked to find all the soft seats had sold out, so we had to book a 4 birth sleeper cabin, no bottom bunks left. My theory that you’ve…
6.3.23 Each evening we have to mark on the hotel sheet what we want for breakfast.Lauren & I opted for the crambled egg, fried for John. John has had a sore throat for a few days and decided he needed to stay in bed as he was now coughing and feeling rough. Lauren and I…
7.3.23Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeeeee, happy birthday to me. At breakfast Thuy, the gorgeous young lady on reception brought me a cardboard flower decoration with a red rose in it. She has a habit of covering her face and giggling when she’s shy which is just too cute….
8.3.23 Happy Womens Day to all those wonderful women we know and love from near and far. Lauren & I opted for banana pancakes for breakfast today. Not the best move, it seems that pancakes are only cooked on one side in Vietnam, apart from the Banh Xeo savoury ones. Chocolate sauce hid the gloop…
9.3.23Crambled eggs for breakfast, fried for Lauren and noodles for John, with no rush to eat the prawn. We decided on a chill morning, and played Phase 10 for a while.John took the laundry while Lauren and I visited a coffee shop we’ve passed so many times.The service was incredibly slow, just one lady working,…
10.3.23Crambled eggs for breakfast. Thuy booked us a car to collect us to go to Bana Hills at 8am, we get picked up again there at 5pm. We took pack of cards in case it was really naff. We’ve seen posters, it looks a bit Disney but so many people said we should do it….