And not just because Vietnam continues to be sweltering (this is NOT a complaint; we have Toronto on our weather app and are well aware of our future reality). Da Nang is famous for a bridge that forms the shape of a dragon, and twice weekly in a night time show the dragon head spews both fire, and water (not simultaneously, this dragon doesn't defy science). It doesn't last long, but it's neat to see! Da Nang has some other sights, including a long stretch of...

We were lucky on our last southeast Asia travel journey that the rainy season only caught us once, in the city of Hue. Unfortunately it caught us in such a way that we ended up evacuating along with many other tourists, and did not see any sights of this former Vietnamese capital. Hue was one of the main cities Troy wanted to see on our return to Asia, and so we set aside 5 nights for exploration here. The journey to Hue was via an 11.5 hour train ride fro...

The bahn mi sandwich is a Vietnamese staple; a crusty baguette filled with fried egg or meat,, vegetables, pate, and always cilantro. It is a big part of our diet these days as you can find a bahn mi stand on the street selling one for about 0.50 a piece, and they are almost always guaranteed to be tasty and filling. On the other end of the spending spectrum, we found a Japanese-Canadian restaurant making some amazing sushi, and decided it was worth shelling ou...

We have ticked off a lot of boxes over the past few years in terms of accumulating travel vaccinations and pills. Hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, typhoid, doxycycline, azithromycin, Dukoral, are just some of the names that have become very familiar to us, hopefully because we have taken/are taking all of the necessary precautions for our travel. What have we not received? A rabies vaccination, as it was not recommended to us. Of course. Cue story! While...

The town of Ha Tien, gateway to Phu Quoc island is about an 8 hour road journey from HCMC, and one that we chose to do in the day instead of overnight as our desire for a proper night's sleep in a bed trumps saving on a night of hotel accommodation. But when we boarded the bus we were surprised to find that it was still a "sleeper" bus, and therefore had long reclining beds seats, pillows, and blankets! So the day journey turned into a cozy, dozy, on and off na...