Green Bottle Tree

21/08/2024

I had a lot of pages to fill in my notebook, so this is a bit more all-over-the-place than most previous entries!! Last day.

Day 17. Vietnam Diary – Hanoi to Nội Bài International Airport/HAN / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Vertigo, earlobe river, Ci******es After S*x Day 17. Monday 3 June 2024 It’s 07:57 on my last day in Hanoi, indeed Vietnam, for this trip. I’m definitely in the top 3 (possibly even #1) sw...

20/08/2024

A bit of practical info. It would seem I was a bit obsessed with the train and bus journeys and the adventures/discomfort/toilets etc. Rereading about travel elements, I still don't feel ready to contemplate another long train or coach journey in Vietnam ... not that that's likely to happen again anyway!

Day 16. Vietnam Diary – Hanoi / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Christmas decorations, cheese blanket, Dung Limousine Day 16. Sunday 2 June 2024 I’m still reeling that it’s June. All those things I planned to do with the long daylight hours in Scotland. I’m still to start my late night act...

19/08/2024

Avocados or avocadoes? Avocadoes to match potatoes. But would you ever write tacoes when tacos is surely the only correct way ... A bit of Googling and I went with avocados.

Day 15. Vietnam Diary – Hanoi / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Whisky barrel coffee, brain freeze, too many avocadoes Day 15. Saturday 1 June 2024 I’m in the air conditioning of Sonder Coffee Bar, awaiting a V60 whisky barrel Vietnamese coffee (60k vnd). They didn’t appear to do phin coffee...

18/08/2024

Video of a train passing - I hadn't expected the train to be mere centimetres from where I was standing or going as fast as it was.

https://greenbottletree.com/travel/asia/day-14-vietnam-diary-hanoi/

17/08/2024

Blimey, I had a lot to say (ie ramble on about) on the day I wrote this entry! I covered why I travel, recreating Vietnamese food and coffee in the UK, mindful hair washing, mangosteen, cabin building, purple dance classes and why everyone should try egg coffee. Really.

Day 13. Vietnam Diary – Hanoi / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Egg coffee, purple dancers, hair cut Day 13. Thursday 30 May 2024 I’m in an old-school café, Café Giang, with an egg coffee. I’ve had one before, in Tonkin Speciality Coffee in Saigon. Oh my, they’re good. I read somewhere t...

13/08/2024

A run-in with an official, two James Bond moments and the joy of squeezing mangoes!

https://greenbottletree.com/travel/asia/day-12-vietnam-diary-hanoi/

12/08/2024

(May 2024 - I'm not in Hanoi now, contrary to what Facebook has decided) A theme of this post seems to be language confusion, over showering and when to use which pants, getting into an MPV with man-unknown and service station rules and etiquette.

Day 11. Vietnam Diary – Hà Nội/Hanoi / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Padded coach, conversing via Google Translate, dinner with President Obama (ish) Day 11. Tuesday 28 May 2024 [No day 10 entry due to being on a coach all day and being knackered that evening and not wanting to write while ...

11/08/2024

Over two months later and nothing came of my very funny turn in a cafe in Hue!

Day 9. Vietnam Diary – Huế / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Cockroach, funny turn, FOMO Day 9. Sunday 26 May 2024 It’s 08:27 and I’m already very sweaty. Plus, this very white café, called The Lab, is very hot and the air conditioning is not on. I got in to Huế at about 15:00 yesterday...

06/08/2024

Re-reading this over two months later, I can see that I didn't quite manage to convey how long that 24-hour train journey felt or how the hours spent convinced I would have toilet emergencies (having eaten not-cooked-through-meat from the train dinner buffet) were all-consuming or how disruptive it was getting disturbed at about 01:30 to be told we'd all need to leave the train to get a rail replacement bus or how alarming it was to do a U-turn across a motorway to detour over mountain passes at 3am. On a coach with a boy being sick ... what adventures there are to be had, eh?!

Day 8. Vietnam Diary – Train (HCMC to Huế) and Huế / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Train: replacement bus, the dreaded loo, intermittent air con, food trolley, fellow passengers Day 8. Saturday 25 May 2024 I may have expressed some misguided enthusiasm for this train journey. All enthusias...

05/08/2024

Last day in Saigon ahead of a 23-hour train journey. Though a fair proportion of this post is actually a rant about 50 Shades of Grey and Danielle Steel, complete with a spoiler.

Day 7. Vietnam Diary – Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Yuzu ice cream, charcoal matcha croissant, dinner trolley on the train Day 7. Friday 24 May 2024 I finally finished Really Good, Actually. The character became a much more pleasant and relatable person but I never f...

03/08/2024

This post breaks all rules of brevity, succinctness and cohesion. I blame the fact it kept pouring with rain so I stayed in one particular cafe, appropriately named Cafe Slow, for a lot longer than expected and just carried on writing in my travel diary.

https://greenbottletree.com/travel/asia/day-6-vietnam-diary-ho-chi-minh-city-saigon/

02/08/2024

If I could be transported back to this day again, I would currently be sitting in Grandmum cafe listening to LPs and drinking hot Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk.

Day 5. Vietnam Diary – Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Death-defying road crossing, chihuahua in a t-shirt, failing to buy a stamp in a post office Day 5. Wednesday 22 May 2024 I have a pen problem. I can’t stop myself buying them. This latest one (which is disappoint...

01/08/2024

A very surreal day with weaponry, yet more pork and one of the worst photos of me ever (and which I've actually posted).

Day 4. Vietnam Diary – Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Upset tummy, AK47s, another pork overload (now temporarily vegetarian) 10:35. I definitely have a slightly delicate stomach (by which I mean bowel). Nothing restrictive, but I’m aware it could go in a direction I....

31/07/2024

A memorable birthday, complete with an excess of coconut, an excess of pork, an excess of caffeine, an excess of heat exposure ... it's going to be a year of excesses!

Day 3. Vietnam Diary – Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Road-crossing assistance, cat-paw chair socks, banh mi/pork overload Day 3. Monday 20 May 2024 16:15. So much for a half day out. But I’m certainly not complaining, I’m having a lovely day, which is also my birt...

30/07/2024

Clubbing in Doha airport. As you do. Sort of. High on airline travel confusion and wearing travel-comfy clothing (no selfie attached)

Day 2. Vietnam Diary – Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon / Asia, Travel, Vietnam / By Karina Monsoon rain, fart flurry, Biscoff incident Day 2. Sunday 19 May 2024 20:43. I’m feeling surprisingly fine considering I spent approximately 23 hours travelling, door-to-door, to get here yesterday. I had wanted t...

29/07/2024

I went to Vietnam for 17 days in May/June and wrote a travel diary. It didn't turn into the literary masterpiece I envisaged but I handwrote 144 pages so figured that posting it would mean my hands did not ache for nothing. Who knew handwriting could be so tiring?!

https://greenbottletree.com/travel/asia/day-1-vietnam-diary-ho-chi-minh-city-hcmc-sai-gon-saigon/

19/01/2024

After more than a year of writing posts about moving from London to Scottish Borders, this post, written on 1 January 2024, will be my last on that subject. Well, I say that, but I haven't ruled out monthly posts or one every now and then if and when something different happens. I realised I was writing more of a diary of "I did X" than finding more to comment on about the unexpected differences between living in London and the middle of nowhere in Scotland.

1st January reflection on remote Scotland versus London for a year. Feels like a lot has happened, which to me is a positive for a year

18/01/2024

Post-Christmas socialising, post-Christmas-covid-free and post-Christmas snow ... got there in the end with all things Christmas.

Reflecting on Christmas travel & what you make of Christmas wherever & with whomever it may be with. It's a complicated time of year in a way