A Non-Book Holiday

By Vicki Delany

Vicki at Ha Long Bay

I am just back from 18 days in Vietnam. It was a wonderful holiday.  I loved every minute of it. I loved the people, the scenery, the food. I even loved the traffic in Hanoi and Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City), but that is only because I didn’t have to drive in it.  Although you take your life in your hands just crossing the road. 

What made the trip particularly special, is that it was a completely non-book related holiday.   I travel a lot, to mystery conferences, promoting the books, doing research, but this time I let all that go and just enjoyed myself.  I had a vague idea of maybe setting the next Sgt Ray Robertson novella in Vietnam, but quickly gave up that idea as I have no police contacts in the country. 

I love the writer’s life (to mis-quote Jeffry Singer, “writing is a poor way to make a living, but a great way to make a life”) but it can be all encompassing.  I write every day of the week, every week of the year, and when I am not writing books I am blogging, or thinking up blog posts, or Facebooking or Tweeting about my newest book, or trying to arrange trips and promotion.

So the break was just great.   The weather in the North (Hanoi and Ha Long Bay) was cool, but it got extremely hot as we went south.  In Ho Chi Minh City and on the Mekong Delta it was around 35 – 37 C, and very humid.  We were extremely fortunately in that we had no rain at all.

Here are some pictures of my trip.

Buddha at Marble Mountain outside of DaNang

Traffic in Saigon

Mekong Delta

Marble Mountain

A Temple

Old books