The four of us in SE Asia

We came to the island of Flores for 2 main reasons : go to the Komodo National Park to see the Varanus komodoensis (aka Komodo Dragons) and to do some of the best SCUBA diving on the planet.  Getting ready for our first dive We set out from Labuan Bajo on the La-ra, a 20 metre boat with three cabins and 10 guests. We were going to go to our first dive spot about 1,5h boat ride away. When we got there we geared up and back rolled into the pristine waters of the Flores Sea. Some of the best SCUBA diving on the planet What we saw was breathtaking: turtles, sharks, rays, thousands of fishes and colourful corals. Just incredible. Later that day we snorkelled with Mara and Lea and that too was magical. Within a minute we saw 2 turtles, another minute later we saw a shark (small reef shark). I’m so happy Mara is getting to experience this at her age. Beautiful beaches and pristine lagoons For the last activity of the day we climbed a hill on Padar Island t...

I felt there was a cult of personality around Ho Chi Minh From the moment we landed in Saigon I had a good feeling about the place. We got a grab (with some difficulty) and drove to our hotel. The Sherwood Residence was a hotel having a few nice apartments and ours was spacious. Virginie and her family at level 5 of the Apartment Cafe Over the next couple of days we visited then some very interesting places. We went on a “do it yourself” walking tour and saw some of the major landmarks of Saigon. The most interesting thing for me was the Apartment Café. It is an old apartment building that is transformed into hip cafés, bars and restaurants. Each apartment is decorated differently by their new owners and it made for a great visit and stop for lunch and tea. We were also joined there by Virginie my colleague from Electrolux. Girls on bikes - Nha is our expert driver That evening we went on an exciting adventure. A bike tour of Saigon, at night! Now I’ve only d...

After our break from the back packing life in the resort, we resumed normal service. We went to the town of Hoi An. Hoi An has been one of the most prosperous cities in Southeast Asia between the 15th and 19th centuries. It was a major trading post used by Chinese as early as the 5th century and later by the Chams, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, French and more. Hoi An today is known for its expert tailoring It is one of the best preserved such trading posts in Southeast Asia. Nowadays it is a major tourist stop and is better known for its tailors and seamstresses who can make whatever dress, shirt or suit you wish to have within 24 hours and its magnificent lanterns lit at night everywhere in the old town. We took advantage of both of the above as Roxana had a dress made and I had my backpack repaired. Banh Mi joint made even more famous by Anthony Bourdain Our first lunch was a nice Banh Mi (a sandwich or "pain fourré") in a famous street food inst...

The Sunrise Resort Sometimes one needs to know how to pace oneself. Our attempt at this was booking a very nice beach resort, all-in complete with kids club. It was right in the middle of our three months trip and we really looked forward to some pampering.  Bruschetta and carpaccio All we did while we were there was pool, eat, drop kids at kid’s club, in no particular order. We did break this monotonous life with the odd massage or watching Simona Halep win the women’s Wimbledon final.   Mara and Lea celebrating Simona Halep's vistory Seasonal fruits - some of the best we've had Needless to say we enjoyed every minute of it. We tried most of the cocktails and mocktails on offer. We particularly enjoyed very good food for dinner in the à la carte restaurant.   Pool House service divine cocktails We feel recharged and ready to face dust, noise, haggling, street food and motorbikes again. For more  pictures of t...

We arrived at the Nguyen Shack early morning after being picked up from the train station. We were greeted by Hoang who explained everything and proposed that we have breakfast while waiting for our room to become available.  Nice boat shaped pool The Nguyen shack was a newly built eco-resort with all comforts including an enormous swimming pool in the form of a boat.  We dropped our things and went out for our first visit. Phong Nha earned a spot on the map because of some of the biggest caves in the world. The rest is a usual story of a small village making leaps and bounds in the direction of super exploitation for tourists. There are cayak, bike, motorbike, cave tours, ziplining, buffalo riding, duck feeding outings...everything attentive tourists willing to immerse themselves in the Vietnamese culture could want, against a steep fee. First day cave We did our lot, visiting caves on our first day on a boat. We met a nice French couple, Perrine an...

One of those breathtaking sunsets over rice paddies We spent only one night in Tam Coc because our cruise was delayed due to weather conditions. We arrived at the Tamcoc Horizon Bungalow and were pleased to see their swimming pool had been indeed completed. Roxana had read on blogs that it was due for June and we were counting on this. We dropped our stuff and went down to the pool for a quality control! A man toiling in a flooded rice paddy   Then we went for a walk along the rice paddies until we reached a small pagoda. A nice walk in a typical Vietnamese countryside scenery. Intricate navigable cave system The next day we went for a three hour boat trip on canals and through intricate natural caves. The water took millions of years to dig through the rock in order to have those beautiful rock formations today. A pagoda that seems to be floating on the lake The heat was damning and temperatures rose to 36°C. The lady rowing our boat mane...

The Dragon Legend 1 - our floating home for 3 days We boarded the Dragon Legend for a 2 nights 3 days cruise. This cruise was supposed to have happened 2 days before but due to bad weather we pushed it for later. We dropped our suitcases in our room, which was quite spacious, and went for the briefing. We were 43 passengers on board and about 30 crew members from the waiters to engineer all the way up to the captain. On our way to the floating village and pearl farm Over the next three days our lives went by quietly with some kayaking, discovering floating villages or caves and food. Food on board was great but there was just too much of it. We even had a beach BBQ in a superb setting. Beautiful scenery Another favourite after-dinner activity was squid fishing at the back of the boat. Mara loved it and she had made a new friend too. Leah was 9 years old and a natural at squid fishing, she caught a few on both nights. All in all it was a great experience, an...

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and this is where we started the Vietnamese chapter of our trip. The city only just celebrated its 1000 years of existence. What strikes one first is the chaos in the traffic. I wouldn’t call it a mess, just a fluid anarchy of cars and motorbikes peppered with honking and where traffic lights should be turned off to save the electricity since no one cares. There are literally thousands of those street restaurants Then the second aspect is the street food, they are everywhere, literally! There are about 7.5 million people living in greater Hanoi and I wouldn’t be surprised if the eateries numbered in their tens of thousands. Mara slurping her pork and chicken Pho The king dish is “Pho” which is a bowl of rice noodle, vegetables, a tasty broth and meat. We had quite a few of those! We were very inspired to book a food tour on our first evening in Hanoi to try out all the goodies. That was a great move. Pork meat, rice noodles a...

As soon as we landed and checked in our hotel we rushed to the Angkor Wat ticket office to purchase our precious tickets. We got a three day pass. Sunrise in Angkor Wat The following morning we woke up at 4.30am and went to Angkor Wat for a sunrise experience. It was interesting but not mesmerising. What was impressive though was the sheer size of the complex . After that we went to the Bayon temple where there are 216 faces carved on each face of 54 square sandstone towers. The serenity of the faces was quite moving. Finally we went to Ta Phrom, a temple that is out of this world, over time the forest has reconquered this temple and there are huge trees growing everywhere over the walls and through the roofs. This is also where they filmed the movie Tomb Raider. After that hot half day we went back to the hotel for a nap. Then we dived in the swimming pool to cool down before heading out in the evening to a circus. Siem Reap is a once small village that ...