The Terra Galleria Blog – QT Luong

Mui Ne‘s reputation as resort is growing, but besides the beach, there is also an interesting mix of natural and cultural elements, found north of the resort area. Despite development in the resort area, the fishing village (Lang Chai) hasn’t changed much. I found the fishing beach particularly lively and active in the morning, when [...]

In South Korea, I had stayed at hostels and at a “love motel”. In the fishing village of Seongsang Ilchulbong, I was going to try a third category of accommodation, a “minbak”: room for rent in a private home. Arriving quite late after hiking Mt Halassan, disoriented after getting out of the bus, I called [...]

When I strolled the streets of Daegu (fourth largest city in South Korea), I saw a pedestrian street lined up with retail stores for many outdoor gear brands, including Millet and Lafuma, two French brands that I’ve hardly seen anywhere in the US. On the Namsam Mountain, near Gyeongju, there were as many hikers as [...]

Upon arriving in Gyeongju, I headed towards the Hanjin Hostel, conveniently situated a few blocks from the bus station. When traveling overseas solo, I prefer to stay at hostels because the management is usually a useful resource, and speaks English, a big plus in a country with a strange script. I’ve found that hostels often [...]

The rest of the World Heritage sites are scattered around the country. My schedule was made possible by two factors. South Korea is a country of compact size – an hour by plane from north to south. The transportation infrastructure is very efficient and quite inexpensive. In the morning, I took a high-speed train from [...]

When traveling to a country for the first time, I often select places to visit based on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The international program lists and helps preserve sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. What makes it significant is that although listing of a site is approved [...]

Last fall, before I traveled to Vietnam for a family visit, I noticed that most flights had connections in Seoul. Thanks to my wife and sister-in-law influences, I’ve watched a few 15-episode Korean TV dramas, but I’d never been in the country, so I was curious to check it out. While on the Asiana (excellent [...]

As seen in the two previous posts, there are plenty of sights and views in Saigon – more “interesting” than “spectacular” – however what interests me the most in that city is simply to observe and capture simple moments of life. In many places, I’ve been threatened verbally for taking photographs of people. In my [...]

I am always drawn to high viewpoints, because they provide an entirely new perspective. The immediacy and chaos of the street immersion gives way to a more detached experience where greater urban patterns emerge. Just one decade ago, there were not too many high viewpoints available in Ho Chi Minh City, but since then a [...]

The temples and pagodas of Ho Chi Minh city provide an oasis of calm and tradition in a sprawling metropolis with mostly nondescript architecture. In general, they are be quite dispersed, and best explored by motorbike-taxi. The exception is in Cholon, the Chinese district of the city. There, more than a dozen temples can found [...]