Good Morning Vietnam

Vietnam has grown into a backpacker haven, therefore I felt it apt to look at some of the popular destinations to visit and all the places I have visited and would recommend.

Hanoi

Firstly, Hanoi. The capital of Vietnam and a city where you can really see the true hustle and bustle mixed with the calmness of Vietnamese life. The city is what I would expect from a South East Asian metropolitan, with little markets, hundreds of mopeds and the Vietnamese locals sitting out on the porches of their shops throughout the night. Hanoi is a great city to start in if you’re backpacking through Vietnam, as firstly it’s accessible by plane, but it also then gives you the distance to travel to the other popular destinations. There are plenty of hostels at crazy cheap prices, with cheap drink and food to match. You’ll find tonnes of knock-offs and fakes on the streets and might even be lucky enough to find the whole James Bond boxset for £8 like I did.

South East Asia Part 1

My first trip to Asia involved a three week stint in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Cambodia. Not much time and not much money, but we did it!
When I first thought about this trip my mind conjured up visions of travelling through the rainforest and watching out for bomb remains from the Vietnam War. As you can tell my thoughts about south-east Asia were pretty naive, however as soon as my friend told me to Google Halong Bay my thoughts quickly changed. I didn't really have much involvement on planning the trip; rather I left that to my other friends to decide.

Hong Kong

The trip started in Hong Kong, with a few days to explore the city and see how my friend had been living for the past year. I've got to say I loved Hong Kong; it had the perfect mix of east meets west, and it is a great place to start off as a new backpacker. There was enough of the unknown to get me out of my comfort zone but enough of the ‘holiday’ feel, which made me feel like I was still on vacation. I won’t go into too much detail about Hong Kong as that can be left for a whole post by itself, but basically we stayed in a small hostel in the city and spent our time looking at the main sights of the Victoria Peak, Tsim Sha Tsui East Promenade, the 10,000 Buddha Monastery and a selection of night markets.

Have you Ever Backpacked Because of a Movie?

(Mont St Michel, France. Inspiration for Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

I always wonder where people get the inspiration on where to backpack and travel to. Hopefully if you're reading this, then you rely on travel blogs for inspiration. Some people listen to friends stories, but I think a lot of people get their inspiration from movies or TV shows.
There are many movies which have inspired my travels and made me want to go to certain places. A recent destination on my travel to-do list is Gunkan Jima, which is an old mining island off the south coast of Japan. A lot of Japanese people question why I want to visit such a place, and I say because it featured in the latest James Bond film, Skyfall. So I thought I'd list a few other places I've visited and want to visit which have been inspired from movies.