#lessbaggage

Grand Tour #29; Sarkozy, Clichy and Justice for all.

There are few inevitable things in this world. We have death. We have taxes and we have the seeming unstoppable wave of gentrification that spreads inexorably outwards in the capitals of the world. One visit and you think you are in a salt of earth, normal people place but its just a snap-shot.  The next time you come through theres a perceptible difference. It’s like a giant stop frame view of a…

Grand Tour #25 Dazed and Confused on the backstreets of Saigon.

It is 06:00 am. We’ve trundled through the night on another epic train trip. Our last in Vietnam. I had one too many cold beers staring out the window, watching the countryside slide by and wondering when or if I will get back here. The kids slept until we approach our destination and they have to be rudely awakened and herded off the train and wham! Saigon. Saigon traffic. Saigon smells. Saigon…

Grand Tour #23 Looking Out. Looking in.

Looking out. Looking in. There are temples, there are graves. There are boats, there are waves. My daughter, Aoife, and I left the rest of the family behind for a change. We skipped down to the wharf at Hue where there are a fleet of tour boats. We were following a young woman and what we didn’t realise was that we were going to visit her home. We had travelled on the overnight train from Hanoi…

      Museum Piece. Museum. Peace. There are no shortage of museums in Vietnam. They have buildings. They have history. They have exhibits. They have largely been set up by the vestiges of the communist apparatus that for so long had fought against Feudalism, Colonial Imperialism and American intervention. They are largely dark and dull. They could be much better but the development of museums…

Grand Tour #21; Fear of Food. Fear of Tours.

A Fear of Food. A Fear of Tours. After nearly four weeks in Vietnam I got over my fear of tours. The Tour I was willing to risk was a special case in many respects. I was moderately confident that there would only be the four of us. The subject of the tour was something that I expected to hit all the right notes with Miss and Mrs LessBaggage. Food. We gambled upon a street food tour in the Old…