Snapshots: Temple Visit, Hue, Vietnam

Looking forward to go temple hunting again, in Laos this time. Indochina has a special place in my heart. I love the temples and the religion and the culture, and the people's optimism, found in their easy smiles and warmth despite their countries' troubled, tragic past.

Snapshots: Hue Traffic, Vietnam

We were having dinner at a local joint on our first night in Hue (I remember having some pretty good ravioli), and this was the view from the balcony on the second floor.

Twenty-Freaking-Five and Alive! The Epic Vietnam-Cambodia Trip

I've posted about this trip quite a few times already, and for good reason - it remains as, and probably will forever be, one of my life's greatest adventures.

Through this trip my love for travel was cemented. It was the first one that really took me out of the world I knew in such a massive, epic way, and I was pretty much in awe the entire time.

I have so many vivid memories from our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam, and often they come back to me randomly - sitting on plastic chairs in a roadside eatery at 2am on our first night/day in Ho Chi Minh; seeing Angkor Wat for the very first time at dawn on our first day in Siem Reap; walking along the lovely narrow streets of Hoi An; finding a tiny, hole-in-the-wall patisserie in Hue; and making friends with strangers on a junk boat cruise in Ha Long Bay. My two weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia remain to be two of the best and most unforgettable weeks of my life so far.

Cambodia





Hoi An, Vietnam


Hue, Vietnam



Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Snapshots: La Boulangerie Francaise, Hue, Vietnam

I love the random little places one finds when traveling. Our brief stay in Hue, Vietnam last year wasn't particularly special, and perhaps the least eventful of our Vietnam-Cambodia trip. But Tiff, Jen and I finding this random little bakeshop in one of our strolls along the streets of Hue was at least memorable.

The food wasn't particularly spectacular, to be honest - a few different kinds of affordable pastries and decent coffee - but we were drawn to the place somehow, and found ourselves coming back more than twice in the few days we were in Hue. I guess the fact that it just seemed out of place where we found it made it alluring, and gave it a unique charm.

Snapshots: Hue, Vietnam

With our Macau-Hong Kong trip over and done with and my Boracay birthday celebration fast approaching - not to mention the handful of other trips I've made over the last two years - I really ought to close the chapter on my Cambodia-Vietnam sojourn from early this year, so I can write about the rest of my travels.

Here's a teaser of my next post, which will be about Hue, Vietnam. On our last day there, right before we flew out to Hanoi, we were herded like sheep on a guided tour of its many temples, which were impressive in their own right, except the "herded tourists" factor (the semi-sleazy guide who kept hitting on us didn't help either) and the expensive admission rates for each of the temples (this took place nearly three quarters into our trip, which meant we were considerably running out of funds) threw us off a bit.

We ditched the tour early - after our third temple I think - but I was at least able to capture some fairly decent photos given the short time we spent at the temples. This is one of my favorites. I liked how the structures of the temples looked with a blue-sky background, so most of my photos from that day captured just that.