Asia
Everyone warned me Vietnam would be foggy. Grey skies, hazy bays, that signature moody atmosphere you see in half the travel photos online. I went anyway, in December, with a summer wardrobe and no idea what was coming.
Ho Chi Minh City: Arrive Hungry
Ho Chi Minh City is loud and fast and completely indifferent to you, which is the correct energy for a city this size. The traffic moves like a single organism and crossing the street is an act of faith that somehow always works out.
Notre Dame Cathedral was closed for renovation when I visited. There is nothing to see from the outside so skip it and eat instead.
The food in Ho Chi Minh City was genuinely good. I had duck magret with passionfruit and Thai fried rice with pineapple, both excellent, both completely unexpected. The restaurant scene in the south is more international and more ambitious than people expect.
Two or three days is the right amount of time before moving on.
The Mekong Delta: A Day on the River
The Mekong Delta is an easy day tour from Ho Chi Minh City and one of the best things you can do in the south. The landscape shifts completely once you leave the city: flat, green, cut through by water in every direction.
The tour included a stop at a coconut candy workshop, one of those village producers where you watch the whole process from husked coconut to wrapped sweet. It sounds touristy and it is, but it is also genuinely interesting and the candy is very good.
There was also a live traditional music performance on the river, local singers performing on a wooden boat while the water moved slowly past. Quiet and completely absorbing in a way that was hard to explain afterwards.
Get on the boat early. The light on the river in the morning is worth the alarm.
Hoi An: Bikes, Banana Roti and a Café Near the Bridge
Here is what nobody tells you about Vietnam in December: it is cold in the centre and north. Four distinct seasons, and the coast around Hoi An in winter is genuinely chilly. I arrived with a summer wardrobe and felt it every single morning. Pack layers.
Hoi An is best explored by bike and that is exactly what I did, riding through the old town and out into the surrounding countryside where the rice fields open up and the traffic disappears. I also did aerial yoga in the rice fields for the first time, which is as surreal and wonderful as it sounds and one of those experiences you do not expect to find in a town famous for lanterns and tailor shops.
The food highlight was not from a restaurant. A street vendor near the old town making banana roti on a griddle, thin dough folded around banana with Nutella, made right in front of you and eaten immediately. Simple and completely addictive.
Find Faifo Coffee near the Japanese Covered Bridge. Small, cute, excellent latte art, the kind of place where you buy a postcard and stay an hour longer than planned. I had coconut ice cream with coffee there at four in the afternoon and was still wide awake at two in the morning. You have been warned.
I am not a coffee drinker, which in Vietnam is a real handicap. The kind of person who tests everything, I still could not bring myself to try the egg coffee after what that single coconut ice cream coffee did to me. Egg coffee, ca phe trung, was everywhere in Hoi An and Hanoi: whipped egg yolk with condensed milk over strong Vietnamese drip coffee. I watched enough people drink it with complete devotion that I feel confident recommending it. Just not to people like me.
Da Nang: A Dragon, an Infinity Pool and a Bridge in the Clouds
The hotel in Da Nang was the best value decision of the trip: an infinity pool with a direct view of the Dragon Bridge for €34 a night. I chose it entirely for that view and it delivered completely.
The Dragon Bridge performs on weekend evenings at nine. First fire, then water, a full display over the river that is genuinely spectacular. Stay up for it.
From Da Nang I visited the Golden Bridge near Bà Nà Hills, the one held by two enormous stone hands emerging from the hillside. It is part of a large amusement park complex in the mountains and when I visited it was raining, packed with people and completely fogged in. You could barely see anything. I mention it because it is famous and you will probably want to go, but manage your expectations around the weather.
Ha Long Bay: The Fog Never Came
I almost skipped Ha Long Bay. Everyone says it is foggy, grey, overhyped. I went anyway and got the best possible version of it.
Zero fog. Thousands of limestone karsts rising out of green water under a completely clear sky, and then one of the most extraordinary sunsets I have ever seen anywhere in the world. I stood on the deck and watched the light go orange and then deep red across the whole bay and felt genuinely, absurdly lucky.
The cruise was a five-star boat at around €300 per night. The cabin had floor-to-ceiling windows, a balcony and a bathroom with a bathtub positioned in front of a large window looking directly onto the bay. Kayaking through the karsts early in the morning, before most boats are moving, is the other version of Ha Long Bay that stays with you.
Go. And hope the weather agrees with you the way it agreed with me.
Hanoi: Photograph Everything
Hanoi rewards photographers more than almost any city I have visited. The old quarter is layered, dense and picturesque in every direction: the street vendors, the narrow shopfronts, the people moving through it all with complete ease. I took more photos here than anywhere else on the trip.
The opera house is one of the architectural anchors of the city, a French colonial building that sits in the centre with total authority. Worth walking past, worth photographing.
The train street is real and worth going to. A narrow residential alley where a working train passes close enough to touch the café furniture on either side. Go for the alley itself.
The Note Coffee in the old quarter is one of the most photographed spots in the city. The walls and ceiling are covered floor to ceiling in colourful Post-it notes left by visitors from everywhere. Go for the photos, go for the atmosphere.
Before You Go
When: November to April for the south and central regions. The north has a genuine winter from December to February. Pack layers. I cannot stress this enough.
Getting around: Domestic flights connect the major stops quickly and are worth it. I flew between cities and two weeks covered everything comfortably. Ha Long Bay requires a cruise booking in advance. Budget around €300 per night for a boat worth staying on.
How long: Two weeks if you fly. Three weeks if you prefer the train or sleeper bus.
Visa: E-visa available online for most nationalities, valid for 90 days.
