
Leaving our parents in Indonesia was emotional, we had such an amazing time but it was onto Vietnam we went and to top it off my bestie was meeting us there!!
Now a bit of background on my best friend, she loves to holiday but she hates flying! We had flown a few times together, one of them was to Dublin where I actually thought she was going to break my hand squeezing it so tight! But not only was she on her way to Asia (bit out of her comfort zone at the time) but she was doing both flights all by herself, with a little help from her friend ‘diazepam’ which judging from the quick catch up when we bumped into her on our layovers in singapore definitely had helped her relax. Not only was this a big thing for her to be doing but back home we had been friends since primary school and had become pretty inseparable in our early 20’s so being back together after 14 weeks apart was huge!

Two flights down and a long and disruptive layover in Singapore. Quick story, Singapore is a great airport with so much going on, shops, restaurants, bars, cinema even a swimming pool it isn’t a bad place for a long layover but in the middle of the night we were napping in the cinema and were awoken by police and security guards with guns checking everyone's passports, that was a bit nerve-racking, god knows what they were looking for! Anyway we finally landed on Vietnam soil, I was back with my Wifey and we were on our way to meet the next group…. Once we found the driver who was sleeping in arrivals anyway!
Now Vietnam as a country isn’t my favorite but the tour itself is, it was the most jam packed tour I did and really did show you as much as possible within only 3 weeks! Also the guides we had on this tour were the best!! Now being a tour guide myself I like to think I know what makes a tour stand out above the rest and having good guides does this. A tour needs to be informative, interesting, fun and exciting but you also need to make the customers feel safe and comfortable at the same time. On all of the tours I’ve run we always had 1 western guide (me) and 1 local guide, this makes a big difference! A local guide is the most knowledgeable person to have on a tour, they know the history of their own country, they know the best places to visit, where they sell the nicest food and who has the cheapest drinks and how to navigate around the country (Key to a smooth tour). Obviously as a western guide you do learn all this as well but you can’t beat real local knowledge. A western guide knows what the customers expect and the ‘western standard’s’ that need to be kept but above all a guide, local or western, that knows how to have fun and make you feel like you’ve known them for years after the first night inturn making you feel comfortable and relaxed throughout the entire tour is what you need and this is what our guides managed to do! I’ve never known someone who loved their country as much as our Vietnamese guide loved hers and her passion rubbed off on everyone around her, she loved to talk about their history and culture and we loved to listen to her, why else would you come on a tour really! Our western guide was not only knowledgeable and experienced but he was FUN, I don’t think I'd have gotten through the week painting a school without his ‘never have I ever or would you rather’ games. (I learnt everything I knew from this guy)

So we began our tour in Hanoi. I'm not a fan of this city, for me it's too disorganised! Even now after god knows how many trips to the country I still can’t find anything I’m looking for in this city, other than bar street but that just shows my priorities! However there is still a whole lot to do whilst here, places to visit, things to try, streets to explore. We spent a day sightseeing around the city stopping off at the beautiful St Joseph’s Church, a late 19th-century Gothic Revival church that serves as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hanoi, and a wander down ‘shoe street’, a street for shoes, go figure! The evening was mainly just the group getting to know each other over delicious food and a few too many drinks, we did step away from the bars to attend the Water Puppet Show. Now this is a little different shall we say but it is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century, today's Vietnamese water puppetry is a unique variation on the ancient Asian puppet tradition, when in Vietnam and all that. One thing we, well the others not me, did try that needs a mention is ‘Weasel Coffee.’ Now the way it is made isn’t the most glamorous but this is the most expensive coffee you will come across. Basically what they do is feed coffee cherries to Asian Palm Civets, weasels, wait for them to poop it out and then make your coffee using that! Luckily I'm not a coffee drinker anyway so the ice cream shop across the street was already more appealing but it is an experience you wouldn't get anywhere else.

From Hanoi we headed to Halong Bay, a place you have to experience if you are visiting Vietnam. Known for its emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone islands topped by rainforests. Halong Bay see’s millions of visitors a year, boat tours and sea kayak expeditions take visitors past islands named for their shapes, including Stone Dog and Teapot islets. When you are sailing through the islands it's like you're in another world. The region is popular for scuba diving, rock climbing and hiking, particularly in mountainous Cát Bà National Park (which I visited at a later date). A lot of people embark on overnight cruises where you can spend the evening enjoying home cooked food and starry skies however we stopped on one of the islands, Monkey island where we stayed in bamboo huts with our own private beach and hilltop lookout! This should have been a beautiful setting but with a thunderstorm through the night and constant rain throughout the day we were very unfortunate however we managed to keep entertained with a karaoke night and pool table.

Once back on dry land and after another day exploring Hanoi we boarded a night bus and headed to the city of Hue in central Vietnam. So I have been on A LOT of asian night buses but the ones in Vietnam are by far the best! Single beds, personal tray table, comfy blankets and drivers that actually pay attention to the roads (I've had some hairy moments on night buses) I would definitely recommend this as a way of getting about the country. Hue was our base point for volunteering. We took some time out sightseeing to volunteer at a local school where half of us helped in the classrooms and the others helped renovate the school by painting doors, windows and a cute murial to liven up the stairs. I was part of the painting crew!


Two things I have learnt over the years, Vietnamamese people love karaoke and they love parties! This is no different when you're volunteering, in fact every project ends the week the same, with a big party filled with karaoke, food and beer, lots of beer! The local people enjoy coming together with the volunteers to thank you for the work you have done and show how much they appreciate your help, they also love to get you tipsy. If you are going to learn any words in Vietnamese you will learn Một Hai Ba dzô, which means one, two, three, cheer. It is a phrase that's repeated countless times before you down your drink. I mean it's not like you can say ‘no thank you’ that would just be rude.

After a week of working hard, not too hard, it was time for some relaxation and there is no better place to do that than Hoi An. The drive to Hoi An along the hai van pass is breaktaking. FYI if you are travelling down this route make sure you stop at Elephant Springs, a Laid-back swimming hole featuring large rocks and waterfalls with wooden platforms scattered around, bliss! Once we arrived at this beautiful quant riverside town we headed along the river for dinner and chilled ready to experience country life the next day. Fresh and ready for exploring we rented bikes and rode through the rice fields until we reached a traditional Vietnamese village, like Cambodia being out in the village just makes me smile, they’re always such laid back and happy environments to be in. Once in the village we got to go out on the river in basket boats, traditional boats still used in Vietnam today. We rowed around, tried our hand at crab fishing with man made rods and tried not to fall out when spinning, it was such a fun day! Once back in the village we joined one of the local families in their back garden to play games and ate more delicious food, Vietnamese food is extremely delicious and the local people are so welcoming!


From riverside to beachfront, it was onto Mui Ne we went on another relaxing but long night bus. We spent a day quad biking over the white dunes, sand boarding down the red dunes and trekked along the fairy stream. However, apart from these activities there wasn't a whole lot else to do here, the rest of the time was spent swimming in the sea avoiding as many jellyfish as we could and lazing on the beach in between rain showers. One of the most important things but also the hardest thing for a tour guide is to keep everyone entertained throughout the tour especially when there isn’t a lot to do and Mui Ne is the place that tests the guides abilities at doing this, even more so with a town wide black out lasting hours because of horrendous weather! Of course our guides nailed it!

Our last stop of the tour was Ho Chi Minh, formally known as Saigon. Now this city is more to my liking! Streets lined with bars and restaurants, rooftop beer gardens, bright lights and street food stalls, there was so much to see and do and it's more organised than Hanoi. As well as Halong Bay another must see when visiting Vietnam is the Chu Chi Tunnels, a system of underground tunnels that were used by the Vietnamese army as hiding spots during the vietnamese war, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous North Vietnamese fighters. This is found in Ho Chi Minh and is great for a day of history before a night on the town!

Then just like that our Vietnam tour was over which also meant that was the end of my traveling with my baby brother! Me and my bestie were off to Sri Lanka for a week before tackling China and he was moving onto Australia. People always ask me what it was like traveling with a sibling but really and truly I couldn’t have wished for anyone better to travel with, he’s not only my baby brother but he’s my best friend. Of course we wound each other up sometimes, probably me more than him but as a whole we got on like a house on fire and looking back now I love that I got to experience all that I did with him by my side!

This wasn’t the end of my relationship with Vietnam though, I was lucky enough to return a few more times since then but I'll talk about that in another blog!
Another great blog Kayla xx
Absolutely love reading your blogs 💜