asia

Exploring the Streets of Hanoi, Pt2

August 28, 2011 by Bino Leave a Comment

ho chi minh mausoleum

On our last day in Hanoi, we again ventured to see what the city has to offer – this time focusing on the western portion. As it was a sunny day (a rarity by Hanoi’s standards as it is one very cloudy city), we started early in the morning and made our way to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Most people make the mistake of assuming that this mausoleum, by virtue of its name, is located in Ho Chi Minh City. But actually, it is in Hanoi. The building faces Ba Dinh Square, which is one of the few places one gets to see such a wide open space right at the heart of the city. Compared to the Old Quarter, this part of the city featured large squares and wide boulevards that were more in keeping with modern communist capitals. From the outside, the memorial reminds me of the Anitkabir in Ankara, Turkey. It was closed when we visited so there was no chance to go in. Not that we wanted to, since all one gets to see inside is Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed corpse.

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Exploring the Streets of Hanoi, Pt1

August 27, 2011 by Bino 2 Comments

Hanoi is one of those cities that I kept at the back of my mind for the longest time, like a page bookmarked for future reading. I had initially “bookmarked” it in 2007 when I first visited Vietnam but only had the time for Ho Chi Minh City. I was reminded about it in 2009 when a colleague from New Zealand was raving to me how great his weekend break in Hanoi was. But it was only last week that I finally got to visit this thousand year old city during a self-imposed 3-day long weekend.

emerald waters of Hoan Kiem Lake / Lake of the Returned Sword

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Things to Do in Vientiane – Ideas For Southeast Asia’s Sleepiest Capital

January 4, 2011 by Bino 9 Comments

basking in the golden sunlight – Pha That Luang

Ahead of my November visit, I was told by all the guidebooks to expect a very sleepy town in Vientiane considering that it is the capital of a country with fewer people than Singapore but 300 times the size. The first encounter I had with the city was on arrival after an annoying flight delay due to rain in KL, during the night before our bumpy trip to Luangprabang. I did not really expect much in terms of fun things to do in the capital.

Vientiane is a town in many sense of the word. It is compact, no tall buildings and still quite provincial. But by no means was it sleepy… or did I miss anything?…

Easy Daytrips Around Luangprabang in Laos

December 18, 2010 by Bino 8 Comments

The area around Luangprabang in Laos is filled with a number of popular daytrip opportunities. Two have practically become must-see destinations that they’ve been included as part of any default itinerary of Luangprabang-bound visitors.

Kuang Si Falls

We spent our first evening haggling with the many travel agencies in town for a good deal to take us to two sites – the famous Kuang Si Falls as well as to the much talked-about Pak Ou Caves. Both are near Luangprabang. Both are also within one hour car ride away and are described as “must see” places. The friendly chap who entertained us at the travel agency we settled with gave us a supposedly good deal for both daytrips. He even showed us the other receipts for the day containing supposed suckers who signed up at a higher price. “We are not Europeans!” was my default justification to be charged fairly. So did it work? We were able to bring our price down by only $1 per person – nothing fantastic, but still better than nothing. We shopped around and the prices were pretty much standard across the board….

Exploring the UNESCO World Heritage Town of Luangprabang

December 12, 2010 by Bino 4 Comments

The 8-hour car ride from Vientiane was one of the bumpiest I’ve been in. The driver couldn’t speak English but seemed as if he was on a mad dash to see who could get to Luangprabang first. Our van literally jumped every few minutes as it also had to contend with the relatively poor state of the roads. We came ahead of many other buses and vans plying the same route – and ended up arriving in the town a good 2-3 hours earlier than most. Not too shabby, except that our driver kept at this speed despite the harrowing cliffs that were prevalent in the few hundred kilometer journey.

at luangprabang night market

Luangprabang was literally our first real destination in this trip. We took a short plane ride to KL, where we also spent the night. Next day, our flight to Vientiane got delayed because of an unexpected massive downpour – and we spent that night in Vientiane. So by default, we were on “transit” for 2 nights, albeit in different places.

I had high hopes for Luangprabang – given that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Town after all and I heard quite a lot of rave reviews about it, both from friends and from independent travel magazines. But after we had crossed into the city limits, it looked like any provincial town in Southeast Asia. The town is quite spread out, but the overwhelming majority of the attractions are actually situated in the main street called Sisavangvong Road….

Bhutan: Hassle-Free Tips

December 8, 2010 by Bino 10 Comments

A trip to Bhutan is an experience in itself. It’s one of the most isolated countries in the world (Bhutan certainly ranks near the top) . Breathtaking scenery, thousand year old monasteries, gross national happiness, a different way of life – the country certainly has a lot to offer.

Paro International Airport

So if Bhutan is in your travel checklist, let me share some tips. I’m not claiming to be an expert here, but I reckon I can shed light to some things. I suppose there aren’t really a lot of other people around who can give tips for Bhutan so here goes….

In Pursuit of (Gross National) Happiness, Pt3

December 1, 2010 by Bino Leave a Comment

As our guide had this habit of being tardy, we agreed to meet earlier the next morning – our third in Bhutan. We headed to Wangdue Phodrang – the easternmost part of the country that we got to visit during this trip. The relatively short distance from Punakha to Wangduephodrang was filled with rice terraces that extended high up in the mountainside. It was common to hear the farmers singing as a group while they harvested the season’s crops.

looking at the valley below

The main town of Wangduephodrang is situated on a hill, outside the dzong. The dzong itself is smaller, and not as well-maintained as its counterpart in Punakha. However, it is unusually shaped, and its exterior walls seem to follow the contours of the hill – something I didn’t see in the other dzongs….

In Pursuit of (Gross National) Happiness, Pt2

November 29, 2010 by Bino 2 Comments

Woke up at 6:30. Our guide was not going to pick us up until 9 but I decided to take my morning walk around Thimphu. My other companions were still in la-la land. I peered out the window and the sky was a total gray like the day before. The morning air was quite cold, yet I still pursued my plan of walking to Trashi Chhoe Dzong near the northern end of the city.

Trashi Chhoe Dzong

This “walk” took nearly 30 minutes and entailed a distance of 2 to 3 kilometers each way. I passed by many curiosities – government buildings draped with ornate paintings, schoolchildren dressed in the national costume making their way to school, passers-by looking at me curiously… it was a mix of these as I observed the people around me starting their days. I arrived at the dzong, took some quick snaps, had a short conversation with a security guard, then turned back using another way. From the ground, Thimphu seemed much more compact than it looked when we viewed it from high up. There were lots of open spaces and natural greenery that weren’t so apparent previously. Thimphu is easily one of the most scenic capital cities in Asia….

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