GuerillaZ

Viet Nam With my daughter Sophie at the tender age of one travel was limited to travel inside Vietnam Phu Quoc - Autumn 2017 Long Hai  - May 2018 Vung Tau - June 2018 Nha Trang - August 2018 A short one hour flight from Ho Chi Minh City  Phu Quoc  was my favourite spot of the last year. The level of development is low with the exception of one or two spots on the island. Long may it last. The beaches and one or two parks inland were exceptional, rustic and still very fresh. The white sand beach in the south of the island was quite wonderful and the so-called coconut prison quite a place to visit especially in the heat of the day. Coconut Prison * Long Hai  was a so-so experience. Really it was just about having a long weekend. Long Hai has a long beach. And that is pretty much it. There is a temple with rhesus monkeys in attendance. Sophie in the homestay garden * Vung Tau  is somewhere I have been f...

The scene on arriving in Mindoro by motorised Catamaran. This was a family holiday of sorts although winging it from London in the UK to Saigon then Manila before reaching Oriental Mindoro by coach and ferry was not the typical undertaking. Thuy and Sophie on the empty beach outside our apartment. At least one person is tired here. Can you see which one? A cheese ice cream. It is a grim thought but it was okay. I wouldn't run to find another one. A durian ice would have suited me far better. A idyllic view from upstairs in our apartment with the outline of Luzon island to the north This was a private beach of sorts. That is to say no one ever sat on it.  No question it was pristine and clean. There was even bit of coral in the bay. As a new (old) father I was actually too tired to swim more than a couple of times. We were several kilometres from the nearby town. Several westerners lived in the neighbourhood with pretty...

Welcome to readers from Turkmenistan First impressions of Manila are less than favourable. The city appears grey even in tropical sunlight. The traffic is execrable. The bus from the airport, only 5 km away, took an hour to make the centre. That journey took us through some tough neighbourhoods. Feel Dinah Washington's  This Bitter Earth Of course merely first impressions. At the traffic lights I was reminded of Manuelita Mascarenas - Green an environmental lawyer recently executed at the lights while in her car with her children. One of twelve such lawyers murdered in the last year alone. * And of course it's hot. The Mexicans and the Spanish got to the Philippines hundreds of years ago at the beginning of the 16th century. Both their influences are palpable here. The big draw here is that most everybody speaks English. I travelled with my partner and Sophie ,who was 4 and a half months old so ... the journey was especially interesting ...

Cap d'Agde The river Herault 300 metres from Cap D'agde railway station. The Canal du Midi , only a stones throw from the railway too.  Visit GuerillaZ's sister site: Singing Bird Tea here Drinking Oriental Beauty in Vung Tau A market stall at Cap d'Agde By the marina in Cap D'agde. It is oddly low key. This was the last week in June. Perhaps I was expecting Ferraris and great motor launches, catwalk models and tycoons on holiday. No thing of the sort here. There was a market selling things nobody much wanted. There was a city of moored yachts. But this town has a number of atmospheres. This marina, a naturist beach (and wife swapping) part of the town, a lugubrious old town and other areas not visited. What I like about France. It is usually low key.  My mother on the left, her friend Jenny on the left. They visited for two weeks. Surprising that vines can even grow in the middle of garrigue terrain.  ...

Welcome to readers from Taiwan, South Korea, China and Peru Mount Fuji from my window in Narusawa.  Narusawa really was such a small village. It sad astride the equivalent of a B road. Like most villages in England you could walk around it and barely see anyone. On one side was an escarpment with pine trees on its upper reaches. On the other side of the village woods that gave out to the rising landmass of Fuji itself. You needed some kind of permit to climb Fuji and well I've more or less stopped climbing now unless it is on a bicycle. Fuji from space The tallest mountain in Japan Fuji stands at 3776 metres. Each year around 250, 000 climbers scale Fuji. In the non-climbing season another estimated 150, 000 manage it. It is the most visited peak in the world. The View from the summit, c 1910 Being near Fuji  draws out the impulse to be blase. From its base Fuji looks like a stroll with some slippery stuff halfway up. The Eiger, Mont Blanc, P...