Author: Grey Gap Year

As I am a kind of solitary individual and not one given over to public outbursts of my thoughts or  feelings this does not really come very naturally. Apart from a nice smile and a fake pretence that I am interested in what people are saying to me my social skills = zero and my writing skills = zero.

Anyway in conversation with work colleagues about an upcoming holiday in April 2018, it was mentioned about creating a blog to upload pics so they could share whatever “adventure” I may have. It sounded like a good idea. Thanks Holly as I have now been glued to my pc, tablet and phone checking out various blogging platforms over the weekend instead of clubbing and raving as I normally do.

Adventure may be too strong a word to describe what I would actually do on a couple of weeks holiday. Also I am not a great photographer and tend to forget I even have a camera on me most of the time.

At this stage apart from buying a flight to Bangkok I am not 100% settled on where I will go. First instinct was to go to Vietnam to take advantage of the visa exemption rules currently in place, which I believe ends in June. Being a kind of lazy person who cannot be arsed with too much paperwork hassle the idea of 15 days visa exemption appeals to me

However when i was looking at hotels on Expedia I still had a search listed for Siem Reap, Cambodia. I visited there last year and it came into my head that I have unfinished business in Cambodia, as well as it being cheaper :). My brother died on the first day of my holiday last year and although my mum was ok about me staying on rather than flying home early,  I did not really get to see as much of Cambodia as I wanted to.

Right now it is probably 90% going to be southern/central Vietnam, starting in Ho Chi Minh city then onwards to Dalat, Nha Trang, then maybe down the coast to end up in Vung Tau for a few days before flying home. We will see what actually unfolds in April/May, as any soldier or ex soldier will tell you – no plan survives first contact.

I don’t know too much about Vietnam, main influences being news bulletins from the 70s’ about the American war, the Top Gear road trip and the limited Vietnamese food I have had in other countries such as Laos and Thailand.

Research so far on You Tube and other platforms is actually giving me the buzz for travel again, sometimes the anticipation of going somewhere new is better than the reality but I think not in the case of Vietnam.

Hopefully I will not get too influenced by the hordes of social media “influencers” out there with their perfect views of hotels, nightlife, scenery, food etc.  Have you ever wondered why nobody ever ever dribbles or drops food down their shirts/vests/bikinis on travel Vlogs ?

I do not know Vietnam but I know SE Asia, it is chaotic, fantastic, where anything can happen and I for one am always dropping food off my chopsticks. I cannot be the only one.