Grand Tour #27 One Dozen Travel Tips for crossing continents with kids. Or “How to Fly your family around the globe and not hate everyone/everything!”
Overnight. Long Haul. Intercontinental. Cattle Class. Kids. Hell. The Grand Tour leaves Vietnam and heads to Europe. Oh Oh! Here’s some background. 8 years ago my family tried to travel … Continue reading
Grand Tour #26 Drop me in the water
I was in the sauna for the 4th time when it struck me. I had bathed myself 12 times and swam in the pool 4 times in the last 24 … Continue reading
Grand Tour #25 Dazed and Confused on the backstreets of Saigon.
It is 06:00 am. We’ve trundled through the night on another epic train trip. Our last in Vietnam. I had one too many cold beers staring out the window, watching … Continue reading
Top Ten Travel Tips for Families on Overnight Trains in Vietnam (Grand Tour #24)
Top Ten Train Travel Tips for Families in Overnight Sleeper Trains in Vietnam. Hue to Saigon. We are off again on our fifth sleeper experience. This has become a family … Continue reading
Grand Tour #23 Looking Out. Looking in.
Looking out. Looking in. There are temples, there are graves. There are boats, there are waves. My daughter, Aoife, and I left the rest of the family behind for a … Continue reading
Grand Tour #22; Museum. Peace.
Museum Piece. Museum. Peace. There is no shortage of museums in Vietnam. They have buildings. They have history. They have exhibits. They have largely been set up by the vestiges … Continue reading
Grand Tour #21; Fear of Food. Fear of Tours.
A Fear of Food. A Fear of Tours. After nearly four weeks in Vietnam I got over my fear of tours. The Tour I was willing to risk was a special … Continue reading
Grand Tour #20; The Only Way to Travel.
Travel by rail in Vietnam is easy. It really is. You only have to do it once or twice before you start getting a feel for it. Number one tip … Continue reading
Grand Tour #19; Gardening in Tranquil Tra Que
It took an hour of dragging the kids out of bed and out of the bedroom but we got there. We got there later than I had hoped and it … Continue reading
Grand Tour #18; Take me to the River
Rivers. Take me to the river. Drop me in the water. Or drop me in a little boat anyway. Everywhere I go I am attracted to rivers. When I walk, … Continue reading
Grand Tour #17; A Night in The Museum.
My name is Doug. I am a tourist. It’s an admission that one has to make. Tourism can be good and it can be bad. Tourism can bring much needed … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #16; The Dirty Dozen Travel Tips for families on Vietnam Sleeper Buses.
There is a first time for everything and if you’re thinking it’s the first time for a sleeper bus experience in Vietnam it doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Here’re … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #15; The Sleeper Bus Episode; One long, long journey into the night.
The kids were excited. I was a little bit scared. 16 hours in a space designed for someone about 16 inches shorter than I was one thing. 16 hours of … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #14; Easy Rider, Top Gear & Pedestrianism.
Easy Rider. It’s more than a movie. It’s a brand. It’s a brand in Dalat anyway. In fact it has become a brand all over the place in Vietnam. Everywhere … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #13; Dalat & Hipsters without Beards
Dalat is Cool. It’s all kinds of cool. It has cool architecture. Cool climate. Cool history. Cool overload. With cool overload comes hipsters. In truth Dalat had much more Vietnamese … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #12; Wet Bikes
It rains in Vietnam. It properly rains. We missed the serious wet but we still caught some brilliant downpours. Kids loved it. I loved it. Its like the world going … Continue reading
Aoifes Opinion. Accommodation Review #4; Dalat Train Villas.
We took a four-hour bus to Dalat from Nha Trang. It was quite a busy ride but not bad. We stayed at Dalat Train Villas. It is called “Dalat Train … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #10 & Microdaventure #3; No Room at the Inn in Dalat.
Plans Change. You have to adapt. There was a huge public holiday on in Vietnam over the last few days. It was not only the 40th anniversary of the end … Continue reading
Aoifes Opinion. Accommodation Review #3; KingTown Hotel, Nha Trang
After Sanctuary Resort, we took a train to Nha Trang. There we stayed in a nine-story hotel called Kingtown Hotel. We stayed in a family room with one queen-sized bed, … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #9; Nha Trang.
Nha Trang is a well established tourist destination on the south coast of Vietnam. It’s just not the sort of place we go. Maybe I am a snob. It’s a … Continue reading
Cormacs Comics #2; Toothpickman (& Associates)
Cormac is back with his wild and wonderful world of heroes and comics. This is a behind the scenes peek into how these characters are created. Cormac can spends seconds, … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #8; Another World
Nha Trang. Its brave new world of long established russian tourism, a great big beach and a lot less rubbish. Backpackers and parties. Cocktails and sun and sand and kite … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #6; Fishing Villages & Tourist Beaches
Ho Tram Beach. A very real Vietnamese fishing village with very real Vietnamese Fishermen, fishing boats and indeed fish. And rubbish. Lots of rubbish. Then there is the surreal. There … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015 #4; Sea Creatures (Them and Us)
Food. One of the most amazing things about Vietnam has been the food. People rave about it. There are TV shows about it. My beloved absolutely adores it. But its … Continue reading
Big Hair #3
Its Monday. This trip is only one week old and the hair is getting big. Dominique cleverly tried to minimise her hair before this trip. Thats the spirit; LessBaggage Less … Continue reading
Aoife’s Opinion; Accommodation Review #1 “Sanctuary Resort”
Hey! I’m Aoife. Yesterday we arrived in Sanctuary after a pretty freaky two hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City. It’s in Ho Tram Beach. It is a kind of … Continue reading
Sleep. The elusive and essential luxury. Travel with Kids Sleep laboratory #1
I love to travel. We, as a family, love it too but its mostly me that drives it. We, as a family, are not very good at sleeping. Bad sleeping … Continue reading
Grand Tour 2015; Planning, Planning.
It’s a week to go. We head off on a 5-6 month Asian & European adventure. Dominique, the kids & I. Packing has started. Thinking about packing has been a … Continue reading
Less Baggage Less Stuff Less Procrastination 