Places that give the worst first impressions
Within ten minutes of arriving in the Vietnamese town of Dalat I was ready to throw in the towel. Lost, hungry and tired of playing […]
Articles by Simon Petersen
Pho: if it’s good enough for the president…
A visit to Vietnam wouldn’t be complete without tucking into a bowl of the country’s unofficial national dish: pho. Just ask former US President Bill […]
From Hanoi to Luang Prabang (a love story)
It was off to a fairly underwhelming beginning, delayed in a bitterly cold and threadbare Hanoi Airport due to adverse weather conditions (airport speak for […]
Friends and foes at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium
I stepped off the train in a freezing cold Cardiff and even then, eight hours before kick-off, I knew I was in for something special. […]
Vietnam travel tips (learnt the hard way) – part 2
Welcome to the second part of my Vietnam travel tips extravaganza, where I will share with you, the lovely people who read this travel blog, […]
Vietnam travel tips (learnt the hard way) – part 1
As I round out my tour of duty in Vietnam and prepare to travel into Laos, now seems like the perfect time to reflect on […]
Visiting Ho Chi Minh’s final resting place
Gruff military personnel strip you of your camera as you pass through a metal detector and join a long and somber queue. You slowly make […]
Five reasons to love Brussels
You might think a city that’s home to both the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) would be dull and uninteresting. […]
Death defying acts in old Saigon
Thousands of scooters whip past, their horns blaring as you stand in the middle of the road like a deer caught in headlights. Your heart […]
Getting stabbed in the face in Tenerife
Three simple words to sum up my holiday in Tenerife: OPEN BAR and BUFFET. To be honest, and I feel guilty saying this, I never […]
Vietnam: sleeper buses for dummies
As I write these words my body is still reeling from a 12 hour bus journey that took me overnight from Nha Trang to Hoi […]
Istanbul: the place where history and kebabs come from
Istanbul is ten thousand miles away from New Zealand, literally and figuratively. Mosques dominated the city skyline as the ferry made its way across the […]