PHUKET 🇹🇭

Work started to pick up in late August after the summer lull, which meant basing myself in Phuket for a few weeks to stay productive.

It rained pretty much every day, so not much interesting to share photo-wise except for food pics.

After ~4 months of non-stop go, I appreciated the recharge 😴

HO CHI MINH 🇻🇳

Vietnam marked country #60 overall, and #20 on this 2023 gap year / career ‘break’ / quarter-life travel crisis.

Formerly known as Saigon, this megatropolis of 10 million people is a place of extreme contrasts, bluntly fusing modernity with old-school ways / safety standards of the past. 

Mix in French cuisine like Escargot, Baguettes, Frog meat, and Croissants, and you’ve got all the components for a very confusing place.

It also rained for most of the time I was there, which seems to be a continuing (shitty) pattern from August.

I don’t think I was prepared for the barrage of senses (mainly smell) that Vietnam offers, with rubbish and food stalls living in co-dependence creating a lovely concoction.

There’s also at least 4 scooters for every person, with horns beeping everywhere from all sides at all times.

In South East Asia bread doesn’t really exist beyond western restaurants, so having good quality bread on menus was a welcome change. It’s the small things that make a trip memorable 🤣

The ~1970s Vietnam War Remnants Museum is also fucked, just absolutely fucked. I thought the nuclear bomb museum at Hiroshima was the most harrowing thing I’d ever seen, but the exhibits on ‘US War Crimes’ and ‘Agent Orange Effects’ just defy all logic and belief. Numerous close-up photos of death and suffering, mainly civilians.

HANOI 🇻🇳

Short 2 hour flight up north to Hanoi, the nation’s capital, which is smaller than Ho Chi Minh at only (!) 8 million people. 

Walking the streets you are frequently hit with a rank stench that I’ve never experienced before, and hope to never experience again. 

I think it comes from pretty much every restaurant washing all their equipment and cutlery at the edge of the street every night after closing.

The humidity and 30C+ / 85F+ weather made things nice and sticky, but thankfully it didn’t rain which was a welcome change from the prior ~5 weeks.

Hanoi Part 2 coming in October..

STATS

A fairly quiet month, apart from a worrying uptick in Croissants

Countries Visited	2
Flights Taken	2
KM travelled by Plane	2,160
Train Journies	0
Ferries Taken	0
Croissants Eaten	12 (estimated)
Photos Taken	1,372

NOM

Lastly, some food I liked this month: