Tag: vietnam

The BIG news !

So, here I am again, last time I talked mostly about my new job, and where it’s taking me, now I’m going to give a little update on my personal life which has changed a lot in the last year !

I met this wonderful woman while I was hosting “surfers” with CouchSurfing, we got on pretty well, and after some time we got together. She ended up moving in with me in Amsterdam in December 2010. My life changed completely from one day to the next, and it’s been amazing! And we got engaged on July 14th 2011 in Paris while watching the fireworks.

She is vietnamese and we will be having a fairly traditional wedding which will take place in Hanoi on January 31st 2012 for the engagement day, and February 3rd for the wedding day. I’m not going to go into too much details about vietnamese traditions here, as this would probably require a separate post, since there’s so much to talk about.

I know the distance will not make it easy for my friends and family to make it to my wedding, so we will probably organize a party in Paris next summer. More details about this later, this is just an idea for the moment.

Anyway, I started my new (remote) job in August, and my fiancee having her residence permit expire on September 1st, we decided to move to Hanoi for a few months, until we can move to my jobs new office in San Francisco. This should give us some time to organize the wedding, take some wedding photos, do some paperwork for the wedding, including posting my notice at the british consulate, learn some vietnamese, get some clothes tailored, etc… All this while working evening and nights remotely.

A couple of days ago, we were invited to the wedding of some friends of my fiancee in Hanoi, which took place in the same place we booked, so it was a great opportunity for me to see what to expect from a vietnamese wedding, and for us to have a look at the place. Well, it looks very nice, and we are both very happy about the location.

Here are a handful of photos I took from the wedding, to get an idea of the place:

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I started 2011 (I mean it all started 1 hour into 2011) in a critical condition, with a hiatal hernia, that prevented me from eating for a couple of weeks, but life has been good to me lately. I’m looking forward to the upcoming events.

Cheers!

Back in Amsterdam

Well, that’s it! I arrived in Amsterdam early this morning, thus ending my trip to Vietnam.

I had an amazing time there, as usual ! :) (it is the 3rd time I go there). I didn’t do any backpacking this time, but stayed at my friends place in Hanoi. I was really sad saying goodbye at the airport, but I know I’ll be back there again, I just love Vietnam!

And hopefully a piece of Vietnam is coming to join me in Amsterdam very soon too, which I am definitely looking forward to! I’m waiting for you Cam Nhung !

Tomorrow I’m starting on my new job in Amsterdam at Perfect World Entertainment, a new adventure begins!

News from Hanoi

Well, I can’t say I’ve been very active posting updates about my trip.

The main reason is that I haven’t left Hanoi, and I don’t intend to. I’m currently staying with a friend and her family in Hanoi, and they have been great to me. They’ve been having me taste all sorts of food, and took me to their country side house for a weekend, where I met a lot of the family, cousins, uncles, grand father, etc…

I’ve had an amazing time so far, and I really want to make the most of it.

I did get myself the visa for Laos but it will have to wait for another trip!

I still have another week before I have to leave, so I could be posting some more before I go, if I have time :)

No news, good news!

Hey there,

We haven’t had much time to sit down and post any news, we have been pretty busy on the roads. Everything is great here, the bikes, the roads, the landscapes, the people. Another great trip, and its far from being over.

So as we did last year, we rented 125cc Minsks in Hanoi, and headed off to the west.

First stop was in Hoa Binh, with a little detour by the Ba Vi national park, the road along the river from the park to the city was amazing.
The river was covered with myst and the view of the other side was just coming straight out from a ‘jungle’ movie. It was a nice introduction to the scenary we were about to see.

No particular interests in Hoa Binh, just a place to eat and sleep over. Next day, we headed off to a small village called Mai Chau (Le Lac), where we slept in small ‘local’ houses .. on the floor. A bit rough and noisy very early, but it was fun and the food was excellent!!

We then had a long day to get to Son La, we are now really starting to see the mountains, and its getting better and better as we drive up. Son La was again just a pitch stop for the night so that we could get to Dien Bien Phu the next day. The road to DBP was unbelievable, a big part of it is being redone, so the sealed word has turned into a huge roadwork dust road. Which was great fun to ride, but a bit exhausting by the end of the day, but it was really worth it, the view was just great!

DBP, well we slept at the Beer Factory Guesthouse … yeah, they have a very cheap Bia Hoi (1L for 2.000 VND … and 1 euro is 20.000 VND, i’ll let you do the math, but its cheap ^^), so we had a nice evening there, and met 3 other guys there, riding bicycles, on a year trip, they were coming from China, just entered Vietnam, and then were heading south, and then back up through Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, seems like a ‘common’ trip for long time travellers, but with bicycles, it was really be something different.

Wasn’t that much to see in DBP, an old ’empty’ bunker, and some old tanks, so we didn’t stay too long and headed north to Lai Chau.
Quite a long drive, but it was a beautiful ride. Only one place to sleep in the area so, we ended up with all the other tourists there, but we met 2 nice couples there, one of them hired a minsk too but were 2 on a single one, he’s an experienced driver so they had a great time. Again we had a nice evening there, drinking beer and chatting.

Early start on the next day, and we took the road to Sa Pa, which is the big town in these mountains, and the place were all the tourists go to (by train usually), to hang out in the mountains, and trekk all over, there is also a nice view on the highest mountain in Vietnam called Fansipan, but unfortunately the mysts doesnt want us to see it clearly, but we could feel it just out there ^^. This is were we are now, we have spent 2 nights here, and are about to get ready to continue our trip, and head slowly over to the east.

Well enough writing its time to get on the road.
As we dont check on this site very often, im not sure we’ll be able to post many photos, we’ll probably send them from Hanoi before leaving or when we are back in Paris.

Cya!

Yogin.