Travel Thursday time! This time I am writing about a trip which I haven’t written about before and one that is fairly recent. In January 2015 I travelled to Hanoi, Vietnam for a conference and Bangkok, Thailand for a visit to some work partners. Even though the travel was mostly for work, I managed to get some time off to explore both cities. I only had half a day to explore Hanoi and a bit more time in Bangkok.

Travelling to Hanoi took a looong time, I flew from Durban to Johannesburg, Johannesburg to Hong Kong and finally Hong Kong to Hanoi – the whole journey was just less than 24 hours. I felt very weary of my Johannesburg to Hong Kong leg because it was a 12 hour flight and I have never flown for that long in one sitting. I thought I was going to be rather fidgety towards the end, but it wasn’t too bad. They served us food and right after we ate, we were all asked to close our window blinds (to create a dark environment), I slept a bit and the rest of the time I was on my computer.

I was attending a conference in Hanoi, so I really did not have time to be out and about in the city. Here is the stuff I did and saw with the half day free time that I had.

The view from the hotel on my day of arrival – little did I know that it would be the only clear day I would experience in Hanoi. The rest of the days were cloudy and foggy.

Posing outside the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum – unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there.Flowers are everywhere in Hanoi and they are so beautiful!The fruit were weird and wonderful, others that I had never seen before.I was a millionaire! lol! That amount of Vietnamese dong is equivalent to about R650The food was either a hit or a miss, more hits though. The good thing was that it was very cheap, for R20 I could get a full meal which I couldn’t even finish because it was so much. I did not have any of these delicacies in the picture above.

We then moved on to Bangkok for another work trip, but it was more play than work this time around. I was happy that I was able to explore a bit more in Bangkok and do some shopping!

The main river in Bangkok, everything happens around it. Boats are a legit form of transport in the city.I visited this place twice for the shopping and the foodThe food in Bangkok was everything. We were mostly hanging out with the locals so they knew exactly where to take us for the best food.This Thai green chicken curry was everything! Sooo yummmy!My name and surname in Thai letters – how cool is that?Hair being sold at the market. I didn’t buy any.

I would love to go back to South East Asia for a holiday, especially to Bangkok and some of the Thai islands. It’s still one of the affordable holiday destinations for us South Africans with the rand doing ama-otherwise currently.

One thing that finally made sense to me when I got there (to both cities) was why Asian people usually wear face masks when they are out and about. I also felt like I needed one at times. The air pollution is rather bad, so everytime I was walking out in the city; I would start sniffling, my throat would be scratchy and I would get a headache. All of this would clear away when I got back indoors.

The traffic was also a nightmare, it took hours to get from one point of the city to the next (in Bangkok) and there are sooo many cars on the road.

I hope you enjoyed this last Travel Thursday installment for 2015. I know I love writing these posts because they take me back to the time and rekindle good memories.

Here’s to a travel filled 2016!