Tags

  • Published on

    Cruising the Red River Delta

    Photography Publishing Vietnam Writing
    Picture

    Watching the view unfold from a sun lounger

    Usually when I travel, I’m updating a guidebook, so I’m rushing around from dawn to late, checking hotels and restaurants for inclusion in the next edition of the guide. But a few weeks ago I lucked out, spending ten days on a Pandaw cruise around Ha Long Bay and the Red River Delta in Vietnam in order to write and photograph a story about it for the company’s magazine, as it was a new route that they wanted to publicise.
     
    Loved it! Sprawled on a sun lounger, taking in the endless change of view, from towering karst outcrops to container cranes, brick kilns, fields of rice and passion fruit, locals waving from the riverbank. Wandering around small villages, watching water puppet shows, seeing conical hats made, listening to traditional songs sung by teenagers. Writing a few notes about the experience and getting to know my fellow passengers, gorging on gourmet food three times a day. Following are a few images from the trip.
     
    If you want to read the full story, take a Pandaw cruise and read it in the Pandaw Magazine while aboard, or sign up as a subscriber on their website—www.pandaw.com.

    Picture

    The way up

    Picture

    Red River abstract

    Picture

    Making conical hats

    Picture

    Enjoying a glass of bia hoi

    Picture

    Container crane in Haiphong port

    Picture

    Youngsters watching the boat from the riverbank

    Picture

    View from the wheelhouse

    Picture

    Clouds over the Red River

    Picture

    Girls in ao dai at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

    Picture

    Ron testing the local hooch

    Picture

    Upturned eaves at Tay Phuong Pagoda

    Picture

    Graduates throwing caps at the Temple of Literature

  • Published on

    Messed up in Mae Sot

    Personal Thailand Writing
    Picture

    The Thai border post at Mae Sot on a rainy day

    To be a successful guidebook writer, you need not only good research and writing skills, but also a good sense of direction. This is one area of the job in which I normally feel quite confident, as I spent a few years driving minicabs in London as well as driving buses for London Transport, and I reckon if you can find your way around London, you can find your way anywhere.

    When I’m on the road researching a guidebook update, I often have a list of 30 or more hotels, restaurants, bars, spas, pharmacies and so on that I need to locate each day in order to decide if they are worth recommending for the new edition of the guide. With the help of maps in the guidebook and online, I usually manage OK, but sometimes things go wildly wrong, and I always get messed up in Mae Sot.
  • Published on

    What's New in North Vietnam 2014

    Publishing Social Issues Vietnam Writing
    Picture

    Schoolkids riding through the Ho Citadel



    Having suffered perhaps more than any other nation in the 20th century, Vietnam is making up for lost time in the 21st century. The economy is growing fast, communications (especially roads) are improving everywhere, new hotels are being built and tourists are arriving in ever increasing numbers. 

    Though few of the following places are 'new' as such, they are all either new to the Rough Guide for the next edition (2015), which I've just spent several months updating, or have been subject to change recently, such as the restoration work at My Son, a temple complex of the Cham people near Hoi An and Da Nang.
    Picture

    Restoration work at G Group, My Son

    Restoration at My Son
    The My Son complex of Cham temples located in a lush valley around 40km from Hoi An is one of Vietnam's World Heritage sites and brings a steady stream of visitors every day to view the ruins of a once-powerful civilization. However, many of the ruins were in such a decrepit state that they gave little idea of how the site once was. Now a sensitive restoration project by UNESCO has brought back to life Group G of these temples, and ongoing work is transforming the ruins of Group E, which dates back to the 8th century.
  • Published on

    On Blamming and Spogging

    Writing
    On blamming

    Don’t you just hate the internet? I mean, the worldwide web is amazing, with more information and entertainment out there than any of us could cope with in one lifetime, but when bugs start creeping in with unwanted attachments to emails, or suddenly your cursor freezes with no warning, cyberspace can become a real drag.

    One of the worst problems for email users is spam, but I see on Wikipedia that my current problem, people spamming on my blog, is now referred to as ‘blam’. I’m now being blammed on a daily basis, and although it’s rather irritating, it has its amusing moments too.
  • Published on

    Google kills Frommer's kills me

    Publishing Writing

    The life of a guidebook writer can be full of surprises, such as world-famous clients suddenly disappearing overnight.

    Picture
    I was just about to go out for a Friday evening meal with a few friends, to enjoy a few beers and some witty conversation, then thought that before I left home I should check my email to keep my inbox clear for the weekend.

    Big mistake.
  • Published on

    Searching for Shangri La

    Publishing Writing





    I sometimes despair of our modern world (as you'll see if you read my new book) when I read or hear about people's obsessions with techno-gadgets like GPS devices to help them find out where they are. However, there's one aspect of the modern world that is a wonder for me, and that's the possibility of self-publication. 


    Picture
    As with many writers, I find there's always a gap between what publishers want me to write and what I'd really like to write myself, which leads to a fair amount of frustration. However, I've spent the last couple of weeks struggling with re-formatting the text and images for this new publication, Searching for Shangri-La, and now it's been released both as an ebook by Amazon Kindle and as a print-on-demand paperback from Create Space, another branch of Amazon.

    Searching for Shangri-La consists of a collection of short writings culled from over a couple of decades, describing unusual places or experiences that I have come across on my travels. Since they are very personal and opinionated pieces, they are the kind of stories that are difficult to sell to magazines and websites, which prefer their travel stories crammed with hard facts.

    Nevertheless, I have confidence that there are readers out there who will be intrigued by such writings, which are (I hope!) both entertaining and informative. So please consider splashing out $2.99 (for the ebook edition) or $4.99 (for the paperback edition) to read the entire collection, and if you find it a worthwhile read, please tell your friends! To see a sample, click here.