Diane Aoki, Creativity Activism
  • Home Page
  • Blog
  • Poetry
  • Songs
  • Art
  • Plays
  • Reviews
  • Travel Journal
  • Artists of Note
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog

Travel Journal

 Does travel make you more creative? More compassionate?Yes, if you travel with those intentions. 

Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon

3/28/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
View from third floor bar area of our hotel. Very busy.
Picture
Our first meal in HCMC. We got in late, and were super hungry, walked around and happened to find this place.
Our last few days were in Ho Chi Minh  City, also known as Saigon. I've referred to it as both, but I think Ho Chi Minh City is official. It lacks the charm of Hanoi, but it did have a lot to offer, which we enjoyed - like more banh mi, some theatre, shopping, and museums. I'll have to do some research to dig up the name of the hotel, but it was a splurge at about $100/night. Very nice and had afternoon tea, which we partook of, as you can see below.
Picture
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

How to Have a Good Ha Long Bay Experience

3/25/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Picture
We had heard mixed reviews about Ha Long Bay, one of Vietnam's most famous natural attractions. The negative reviews were that it had become too "touristy," too busy, too competitive.  The positive comments were about how beautiful it was, how unique, a "vision of ethereal beauty." (Lonely Planet.) We decided that if we were going to go to Hanoi, we had to go to Halong Bay. One of my travel companions, Polli, did a lot of research and it was thanks to her, I believe we had a good experience. 

Read More
1 Comment

Why I Love Hoi An, Vietnam

3/23/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
In our planning for our trip to Vietnam, Hoi An came up again and again, as one of the "favorite" places to travel to in Vietnam. We agreed this would be on the "definitely go" list. In the travel articles, there always seemed to be a qualifier, it's great, but touristy. Hello. We are tourists. But I get the point, when you go to a different country, you are supposed to want an "authentic" experience, i.e., not "touristy". I hope I can say this in the future, but in Hoi An, there is a blend of authentic encounters and an appreciation for us, the tourists. On the airplane, I had a conversation with a nice Vietnamese woman and she said even Vietnamese people like to travel to Hoi An. 

Read More
0 Comments

Hanoi First Day

3/23/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
We were in a high rise apartment building, I believe it was through AirBnB. That's Hanoi across the river. It was easy getting a taxi from the apartment to the city but not so easy the other way around.

Looking Back 

My niece, a digital nomad, was in Vietnam at the beginning of the Covid pandemic until she was able to come back in late summer 2021. She hadn't planned to be there that long, but she also fell in love with the country, as I had. So we have a lot to share. She asked me a question and I referred to this journal to answer it. To my horror, it seems I got distracted and never did finish entering my whole account of my time in Vietnam. I had left out Hanoi and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). I am thankful for Facebook and the habit I had of using it to share my travels. I also had a computer mishap and lost most of my photos! In recent times, because of so much ugliness around politics, I had stopped posting and going to FB, I am thankful for it for saving my memories! This post is a summary of Hanoi, using Facebook as my memory jogger. 

Read More
0 Comments

Searching for the Best Banh Mi in Vietnam

3/18/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Banh mi for breakfast at our hotel, the Villa Orchid Garden Riverside, in Hoi An.
Banh Mi, the Vietnamese submarine sandwich, is such a delicious meal for sandwich lovers who also love that Asian twist. It is a symbol of multi-culturalism and cultural appropriation. I love extrapolating narratives from tasty food. In this case, French were former colonizers of Vietnam, so the bread used is based on the French baguette. But the Vietnamese made it better - to be able to handle the pickled and fresh vegetables as well as the meats and pate', also from the French. (Not all banh mi include the pate', in case you are pate' resistant.)  The quality of the banh mi, in my opinion, is judged by the bread, which varies from place to place. 

Read More
0 Comments

Navigating the Visa Process to Vietnam

3/18/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
To get to beautiful scenes like this, you have to navigate the visa process.
One of the questions that we get asked a lot, and was actually the most confusing part of planning for our trip to Vietnam, was the visa process. Yes, you do need a visa, and no, you do not have to send your passport away to get it. Here's how we did it:

Read More
0 Comments

    Author

    I have traveled quite a bit, and am using this page to record some memories. Travel is a wonderful education, expanding your view of the world, of other cultures, of the beauty of diversity. 

    Archives

    June 2021
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    July 2017
    November 2016
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Go to the contact form to subscribe to my newsletter or send me a message.

Contact Form
t
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home Page
  • Blog
  • Poetry
  • Songs
  • Art
  • Plays
  • Reviews
  • Travel Journal
  • Artists of Note
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog