After spending a few weeks with my family in India I decided to meet up with my friend that lives in Singapore in Vietnam for a week. We both had never been there before and despite wanting to see a lot of the country decided to take a more laid back travel approach to see the few places we had well rather than trying to pack in too much. I found a really affordable flight from Mumbai to Da Nang so we decided to meet there.

Da Nang

We stayed at The Memory – boutique hotel that was super affordable, beautiful with breakfast included. My only complaint would be that its not very insulated so we could hear a lot of noise from the street. The morning I landed I decided to visit the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture. This museum is one of the oldest in Vietnam and contains an incredible collection of artifacts from the Cham people who occupied central Vietnam between the 4th to 13th centuries and practiced Hinduism. Afterwards I stopped by Chay Corner where I found incredible vegan Vietnamese style dumplings. In the afternoon a school friend of mine that was visiting family in the area picked us up to show us around the Son Tra Penninsula. Located about 10 km northeast of the city center Son Tra acts as a giant screen protecting Da Nang from storms and cyclones coming from the sea. The main thing to see here is the Son Tra Quan Am (Son Tra Goddess of Mercy) who is the unofficial symbol of Danang city and actually enormous in person.

Afterwards we were lucky enough to have an incredible home-cooked traditional meal with my friend, Henry, who grew up in Da Nang and his family. Henry’s mom made us a veritable feast of noodles, rice paper rolls, curry and tofu. This was the best meal I had in Vietnam by far!

After dinner we headed over to the Dragon Bridge in time to catch the fire show which happens on Saturday evenings at 9pm. Next to the bridge was also a fun night market with food and merchandise vendors that was fun to look around. It seemed the riverbank close to the Dragon Bridge was the place to be on a Saturday night.

The next day we decided to visit the Hoi An, a UNESCO world heritage town about an hour away from Da Nang. On the way we stopped at the Marble Mountains to check out the temples inside the caves and the incredible view from the top. These mountains protrude from the landscape almost out of nowhere and the cave temple system was so cool to explore. We spent about 3 hours exploring the caves, temples and gardens here before grabbing another cab to Hoi an.

Hoi An

Once a major port, Hoi An has incredible architecture a charming riverside and heritage houses. The well-preserved Old Town has Japanese merchant horses, Chinese temples and a picturesque Japanese Bridge. For about $5 entrance ticket visitors can get access into 3 of the 21 attractions including assembly halls, historic houses and the Japanese Bridge. After wandering around the Old Town for a few hours we went to have lunch at Tam Quang Minh a great budget friendly vegetarian restaurant. Before coming to Vietnam I was worried that it would be difficult to find vegetarian options. While the average street food stall or local restaurant wouldn’t necessarily have lots of vegetarian options I was able to find plenty of vegan and vegetarian restaurants in all the cities we visited.

After lunch we decided to wander around the markets and then enjoy a drink on on the terrace of a cafe overlooking the river. This was the ideal spot to pass time as afternoon turned into nighttime. Hoi An really comes alive at night time with night markets and boats floating down the river with lanterns. I’m so glad we stayed till evening time and would recommend that anyone that visits the town plan to stay until night time.

My Son

Our last day in Da Nang our flight was leaving in the afternoon so we decided to schedule a tour of My Son in the morning. My Son is a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site located about an hour away from Da Nang. Deep in forest there are Hindu temples built by the Cham people between 7th and 13th century AD. While a lot of these temples had been reconstructed we could still get a sense for the scale of the original site and the difference between these temples and the more commonly found Buddhist temples in Vietnam. While most of the statues from inside are located in the Cham museum in Da Nang the structures themselves were still really interesting to see.

Ha Long Bay

Our first day in Hanoi we had previously booked an overnight cruise in Ha Long Bay through Stellar of the Seas which was a company recommended by multiple friends. This was a big splurge item for us on the trip and we paid $265 per person to share a room and have three meals on board. About a week before the company upgraded us to Elite of the Seas their newest and nicest ship. We also booked a transfer from Hanoi for about $30 per person. There are options to take public buses but we decided to just do the transfer through our company because we really didn’t want to miss departure. After getting to the dock we were loaded onto a pontoon that drove us about 30 minutes to the actual ship that was parked further into the bay. The boat itself had a beautiful pool, bar, dining room, sauna and top deck that we could hang out on. Unfortunately though it was raining the whole time we were on the boat so it was challenging to appreciate all the amenities. After lunch we did go out on the kayaks they had for about an hour and then enjoyed the pool afterwards. We even went into the sauna for a few minutes to warm up afterwards given the chilly day.

The next day, after breakfast, we were taken out on a boat tour to explore some caves in the area and we even spotted some monkeys. I will say that all these activities could have probably been fit into a day trip but it was nice to have a slower day and have more time to really soak in all the views of the bay. Ha Long Bay was definitely one of the highlights of Vietnam so I don’t regret splurging on the experience. All the meals on board were also incredible multi-course meals and the entertainment was lovely as well.

Hanoi

Our last two days we had time to just fully explore Hanoi. In the evening after we got back from our Ha Long Bay cruise and decided to walk around Hoan Kiem Lake and visit the Ngoc Son Temple located in the center of the lake. In the evening there were many locals and tourists alike enjoying walk around the lake in the cool evening air. Then we stopped by Vegan Banh Mi for a delicious and affordable sandwich. Afterwards we ate the dessert shop Quán Gốc Cây (Hoàng Thực) located right across from Nexy Hostel where we were staying in the Old Quarter. Quán Gốc Cây was a small roadside shop, common in Hanoi, with plastic stools and tables on the sides of the alleyway. The desserts have incredible fresh fruit on top of shaved ice and coconut ice cream. We loved this place so much that we ate dessert there every night.

Our first full day we started off with a breakfast at the Hanoi Social Club which had a great atmosphere and delicious food but was a bit pricey compared to other places we were eating in Hanoi. Then we visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which I had not done any research on other than it was a place to visit in Hanoi. After cueing up and being ushered by very serious Vietnamese guards I was shocked to see a real life preserved cadaver of Vietnam’s great political leader Ho Chi Minh dressed in khaki inside a glass box. Despite having been in Vietnam for several days by then, this was the point that the communist structure of Vietnam sank in for me. Afterwards walking through Ho Chi Minh’s stilt house and gardens where we were able to learn a little more about his life. Then we visited the Temple of Literature which was my favorite place we saw in Hanoi. Built by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong during the Ly dynasty the temple was created in honor of Confucius in 1070. It then became home to Hanoi’s first university and is the national symbol of Vietnamese education and architecture where students go to get good luck for their exams. When we visited many locals were dressed up and posing for pictures for the upcoming lunar new year in front of the beautiful gardens and pagodas. Finally, we visited the imperial citadel which dates back to the 7th century and contains buildings from several different dynasties over centuries. At the citadel we were able to see more beautiful lunar new decorations and some more ancient gates and cultural exhibits.

We decided to end our day with a vegetarian walking tour through airbnb experiences. It was just my friend and I with a local college student as our guide. It was lovely to visit a few local street food favorites and get to chat with local. Through the tour we had fruits, donuts, papaya salad, sugarcane juice, banh mi, noodles and even 30 cent beer. We got to learn some more about the history of the old quarter and visit popular street food spots we would have never found on our own.

On my last day I wanted to take it pretty easy so we didn’t have much planned other than visiting the Women’s Museum and getting in some last minute shopping for souvenirs. We visited Cong Caphe a coffee shop my friend Henry had suggested for coconut coffee. Cong Caphe’s decorated with communist nostalgia. The staff wear basic green fatigues and the walls have various memorabilia. I decided to try to coconut coffee which was basically a shot of espresso with a scoop of coconut ice cream but we were surprised they had pretty limited food options and ended up grabbing pastries from a street over. Then we headed over to the Women’s Museum which had an excellent curation of artefacts, clothes and photographs exploring the important role of Vietnamese women in the country’s history and society. As a clothing and history nerd I really enjoyed exploring this museum.

I had an absolutely fantastic week in Vietnam and would highly recommend visiting to anyone looking for a beautiful country with incredible food and kind people to visit, especially if you need it to be budget-friendly. I can’t wait to go back to explore the mountains and the south of Vietnam since we couldn’t get to them on this trip and other travels couldn’t say enough positive things about them.