vietnam resources

Useful links on Vietnam/Hanoi : stuff used, come across or found cool during the Hanoi reading up.
- Savour Asia- food in Asia (hanoi, beijing, bangkok and others); also lots of info on Hanoi inluding itineraries, maps and more. Detailing on food is very good.
- New Hanoian- a 'community produced expat guide'
- of course, Travelfish.
- a Hanoi food blog
- on Halong bay
- an NY Times piece on wine and drink in vietnam ("He casually walked to the kitchen, picked up a pair of scissors, snipped the snake’s head clean off and stretched its open neck into a plastic cup")
- Ivivu- flights, travel and acco in vietnam
- an article on Hanoi's shopping, eating and staying options, plus some misc info (lots of relevant prices included)
- a great looking place to spend a couple of days a little while from Sapa. Looks like a wonderful retreat,if you have the time (and money).
- culture and art scene in Hanoi
- a guide to Bia Hoi joints in Hanoi

Forums/posts
- on halong bay acco & cruises- t'fish
- Sapa guide- t'fish

Thailand Travel Resources

~ ALL THINGS THAILAND ~

I dived into Thailand Planning fully expecting truckloads of information on it. I wasn't disappointed. Apparently it is the most heavy thread on Thorn Tree, and thats a great place for information. I am constantly amazed, baffled and wishful after seeing how so many people have the time, inclination and sheer joy to write so much stuff there for, seemingly, just the heck of it. Outstanding stuff.
But this is not a post, its a bucket for resources if one is travelling to Thailand ( as I hope to do so more than once). So here goes.

TRANSPORT stuff
About the (new) Bangkok Airport- Suvarnabhumi. And this thread on it.

Train travel- the Thai Railways own site. Basic, not completely clear, but reliable for time tables at teh very least. Apparently you can try to book via email with them, though I haven't yet. Have a go at: passenger-ser[at]railway[dot]co[dot]th.
Also this site- more lucid.

On budget airlines- updated news, as well links to the lot of them.

GENERAL
The excellent swimmers at Travelfish- a great value site. Has tons of information, written crisply and casually. Nice interactive weather thingy, pleasant maps, decent features, and helpful comments section under the write-up for each place to stay- its great to read stuff from regular people who have stayed at a place. Explore it well, there's lot of stuff there easy to miss out. Register and get access to their free pdf guides. Constantly updated (one of the best things about them- on the fly updates)

Tales of Asia- by Tezza, seen muchly on Thorntree.

Into Asia- havent checked it out too much yet, but seems to have well presented info.

Thailand Travel Guide- cluttered, but lots of stuff.

TAT- the official site of Tourism Authority of Thailand

Sawadee- calling themselves the leading thai tourism portal. Go figure.

Chanchao's Thai Menu. A pretty good pdf document that talks about Thai food and goes on to not only give you the Thai words for food items, but also what they will look like on a menu (ie-in thai script)- go beyond fried rice is the idea, I think.

WEATHER
Weather by the Thai chaps themselves.
and this is daily weather updated by the Met dept.

FORUMS
Thorn Tree, of course. Also Travelfish's smaller community (but so also easier to navigate)