All posts by Kelley Lowry

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Stunning Sarlat and the Saturday market

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Having done extensive research into the region, we were super excited to arrive in Sarlat and explore the medieval town and its surrounding sites, laden with historical significance. Originally developed around a prosperous Benedictine abbey prior to the 9th century, Sarlat enjoyed various degrees of popularity and economy over time. We are fortunate it was of no huge significance economically or strategically in recent centuries, otherwise it might not be the beautifully preserved and stunning medieval town we would soon discover it to be.

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Vue générale sur la Pile d'Asiettes au Lac Supérieur de la Salle du grand Dôme.

Gouffre de Padirac & Rocamadour

France, , , Leave a comment

After a beautiful few days exploring the stunning Loire Valley and Amboise, we drove our trusty Renault four hours south to the Dordogne department in Aquitaine, with our destination of Sarlat e La Canada (more commonly referred to as just ‘Sarlat’) highlighted on our map.

En route to Sarlat we have scheduled in a couple of exciting pit-stops – the first one being Gouffre de Padirac in the Lot Department.

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Amboise and Clos Lucé

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As we had just spent two glorious nights at Chateau de la Barre exploring the Loire Valley’s  grand Chateaux (including Chenonceau, Chambord and Cheverny – read more in my post “The Loire Valley Chateaux“), we only booked one night in Amboise, one of the Loire Valley’s bigger cities.

With such limited time in Amboise, we limited our site-seeing to one “must see site” which was Leonardo da Vinci’s old home, and now a museum honouring his work – Château du Clos Lucé.

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Loire Valley Chateaux

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The first stop on our French honeymoon was the beautiful, chateaux-filled, green rolling hills of the Loire Valley. We flew into Tours, collected our Renault hire car, pulled out our directions to our accommodation and hit the road!

After about an hour of manoeuvring around the French countryside, we pulled into the long, winding driveway that would lead us to one of the most amazing homes I have ever been so fortunate as to visit in my life.

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Henry VIII and all his wives

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One of my favourite eras of history is that of the English royalty, and specifically the times of the War of the Roses and the subsequent Tudor dynasty.

I will write a separate entry on the War of the Roses (sometimes called the Cousins’ War also) but one of the most spell-binding stories of the Tudor Dynasty centres around King Henry VIII and his six wives.

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Cu Chi Tunnels & Cao Dai

Vietnam, , , One Comment

From our base of Ho Chi Minh City, Dave, my sister Jess, and I booked a full day tour visiting the famous Cu Chi Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple.

We got picked up at 8am from our hotel, we transferred to Tay Ninh, near the Cambodian border, home to the unique Cao Dai sect, whose patron saints include Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo and Winston Churchill to name a few. The sect is famous for its Great Temple or Holy See, which is the centre of the intriguing small square. The religion itself is a Vietnamese religious movement that incorporates an odd mix of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Christianity.

The Cao Dai Temple (as it is more commonly known) was begun in 1933 in a unique architectural style that reflects its blended traditions.

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XO Foodie Tour – Ho Chi Minh City

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Given our love of food and exploring off the beaten track, I searched high and low for a different kind of tourist experience to undertake while we were in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon, depending where you are!).

Trusty ol’ Tripadvisor came up trumps again for this, this time delivering me to XO Tours who were “the first all-female motorbike tour company in Vietnam, offering the most unique and highest ranked tours in Vietnam”. After reading the reviews, it did not take long for me to register and confirm our bookings on the “Foodie Tour” – seemingly they most popular. Continue reading →

Junkin’ on Halong Bay

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After a few days in Hanoi, we zipped over to Halong Bay for our three day/two night tour on a traditional Vietnamese junk in this stunning archipelago. Jess was still with us and so we booked a triple suite on board our beautifully restored junk, the Paloma.

According to Lonely Planet, Halong translates as ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’, and legend claims the islands of Halong Bay were created by a great dragon from the mountains. As it charged towards the coast, its flailing tail gouged out valleys and crevasses. When it finally plunged into the sea, the area filled with water, leaving only the pinnacles visible.

Designated a World Heritage site in 1994, this mystical landscape of limestone islets is stupendously spectacular, especially as the eerie fogs roll in and you fell as if you have been transported into a dream.

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Hectic Hanoi

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Hanoi was the first stop of our Vietnamese cross country trip and we spent a couple of days touring the city itself, gawking at how many scooters and motorcycles there are, as well as a couple of day trips out to some of the regional areas. One of my younger sisters’, Jess joined us here and would spend a week with us, from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay.

We stayed at one of the most recommended hotels in Hanoi, discovered after hours trawling Tripadvisor, called Charming 2 Hotel (http://www.hanoicharminghotel.com/charming2.html), and it truly was charming! The girls on the front desk were super helpful and our triple room was spacious, clean and had a great view overlooking the busy street front. Breakfast every morning was delicious (I love pho!) and we were given handwritten directions and recommendations on where to go and where to eat. Highly recommend and it was very well priced as well – think we paid about $90 for a triple room…

We visited a lot of the local Hanoi monuments, and probably my favourite was the Hanoi War Museum, heaps of wartime relics, aircraft and old tanks to look at (Dave particularly enjoyed this).

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