Brasil 3 *Hellooooooo Rio!!* 12th Aug

Time to say goodbye to Resende.. And travel to Rio.. My first glimpses of Rio!! I can’t say I wasn’t a little nervous arriving by myself in Rio due to the bad rep. Rio has about safety, but I got straight into a taxi to meet Ayumi!! I am extremely lucky as I have a…

Brasil 2 *Our Lady of Aparecida* 11 Aug

  “Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida” The largest Marian temple and the second largest Basilica in the world, second only to St. Peter’s in the Vatican City. Our Lady of Aparecida has a great story! The official account of the apparition took place in October 1717, when the Governor São…

Brasil 1 *My Beautiful Brasilian Family* 9th Aug

I can’t believe I came back to Brasil!! I lived in Brasil – Resende, RJ for one year on a student exchange program in high school, and I lived with a family that had 3 sisters around my age.. I met my family again 🙂 it was an unbelievable feeling..  Whole family re-union ❤❤ And…

Vietnam 8 *Sapa* 25th June

By far, my most favourite place in Vietnam!! And the next day we hired scooters for a ride to the waterfalls and up the mountains and ended up having an unexpected adventure.. More photos..   One place to see before you die!

Vietnam 7 *Hanoi* 23rd June

And onto Hanoi.  But my time was running out to return to Japan and I had to decide if I wanted to see Halong Bay or Sapa. For  me, Sapa was a clear choice.. I didn’t spend so much time in Hanoi as I was flying back to Japan within 4 days, so all I…

Vietnam 6 *Hue* 22nd June

My bus picked me up 1.5 hours late from my hotel in Hoi An which panicked me a bit, but I finally arrived in Hue to pouring rain! The Tuk Tuk drivers swarmed the bus as usual, but one of them must have bribed the driver because before we were even allowed off one of…

Vietnam 5 *Hoi An* 20th June

The view from my sleeper bus getting into Hoi An. Magnificent! I was super lucky to be in Hoi An for their monthly lantern festival. It was a gorgeous sight, but hard to capture in a photo.. I also went on a tour to MY SON SANCTUARY – a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu…

Vietnam 4 *Nha Trang* 18th June

One cool thing about travelling through Vietnam is you can buy a sleeper bus route ticket with pre-determined stops of your choice to take you all the way uo (or down) Vietnam but with no time limit. So you hop off at each pre-determined stop (saving money on accommodation for the nights you’re on the…

Vietnam 2 *HCM Ayumi RaveParty* 15th June

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!! I am lucky enough to have a Japanese friend, Ayumi living here in HCM to show me around the city and help me acclimatise to Vietnam on my first day here. We went to the War Museum, which was a really difficult experience. We also went to see the church, post office…