Country Info
- Hanoi
- Capital
- Dong (VND)
- Currency
- 79,939,014
- Population
- VN
- Country Code
Vietnam Slideshow
Travel Blogs from Vietnam
The Walk to the Citadel
This is a top pick! As I mentioned in the last post, Hue has some military history in regards to the Vietnam War. I expected to see the war mentioned in some museums, a few tanks, some craters, but I didn't expect all the personal artifacts from the war to be for sale ...
Temple Tour
This is a top pick! I had gotten sick after the Perfume Pagoda trip. I had a cough and a fever. I had a sore throat. I had the bird flu. I had Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, West Nile virus, and malaria. I had a cold. I took cheap antibiotics and DayQuil. I spent a ...
My Newspaper Feature on Sapa
This is a top pick! ... http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/MYSA011308_01Q_Sapa_5ba6fd_html.html The Price of Travel by Dane Phillips SAPA, VIETNAM - I am accustomed to transportation in the developing world. I have been on buses in which poultry outnumbered ...
Cantonese Assembly Hall
This is a top pick! ... stunning and historically important buildings in Hoi An. Would you like to hear all about it? Well, I got rid of my Vietnam guidebook, so I can't help you. If it's really important to you, then please visit your local library and demand ...
Tu Duc Tomb
This is a top pick! We rented a motorbike again to get out to the tomb of Tu Duc, about 6 km from town. It wasn't a particularly interesting day, so I'll just tell you about the site itself. I like to alternate between useless narrative and pertinent ...
City in the Clouds
This is a top pick! Our first day in Sapa was beautiful. Our second was less so. Clouds had enveloped the town, the valley, and the peaks above. Everything was white. Anything more than 10 feet away was invisible in the haze. It was kind of magical though. I don't remember ...
Bich Dong Pagoda and an Unexpected Tour
This is a top pick! ... , like so much that is frequented by tour buses and day trips and those with foreign currency. We felt like we were really in Vietnam, not a sanitized version of it. So we wandered with the kids to a home where two boys emerged - an older boy, ...
A short stay in Hue (Hway)
This is a top pick! ... homes appearing which hopefully wont rip the soul out of the place, but I'm not convinced. We passed through Da Nang, Vietnam's third largest city after Saigon and Hanoi, and saw 'China Beach where American soldiers were sent for 'R&R' during ...
Saigon and the Mekong Delta
This is a top pick! ... with some cool cats from Saigon. The Ancestors and local thugs - Saigon and Vinh Long A major purpose for my visit to Vietnam was to travel to the graves of my ancestors to pay respect and thank them all they did to make it possible for me ...
We have arrived
This is a top pick! ... and her little sixteen year old niece who looked as hip as any of my New Yorker college students. I was actually surprised how modern Vietnam is now since I last visited in '98. The Vietnamese have progressed in such a short time. I dig Saigon and could ...
Checking out Hue
This is a top pick! ... and Hue became the capital of a reunited Vietnam. But the French showed up in the early 20th century, and Vietnam suffered from foreign occupation for the next 75 years. Hue is well-known to Americans as well. The ...
The Heart of Hanoi
This is a top pick! ... manipulate painted wooden puppets over a pool of water--the stage. Immediately, the choice of water made sense: Northern Vietnam's people are intricately connected with water, whether through growing rice in paddies, fishing, boating, or raising ducks. ...
The Dong Xuan Market
This is a top pick! ... weren't any incredibly exotic goods. It's mostly dishes, dresses, shoes, and brand name jeans for low prices courtesy of Vietnam's proximity to China. Some people we met said they saw a meat vendor selling dog, but we missed that. It ...
IndoChina 1860
This is a top pick! Wednesday 28th July 2004 Booked the bus for 8.00am, waited for an hour, then was taken round the corner to the bus, got on, sat for a further hour, then we left.....the pleasures of travel in Asia! Vietnamese people seem to have no real concept of ...
Ha Long Bay - Day 118-119
This is a top pick! Day 118 - 19/06/08 Departed Hanoi at 8.30am for Ha Long Bay. First a three and half drive by mini-bus to Ha Long city. In Ha Long city I joined up with some of the other people on the tour, seem like an alright bunch. We had a bit of a wait in the ...
Made to measure capital... Lets go shopping
This is a top pick! ... tired from the bus made us think we might not manage the collection. The mighty Ho Chi Minh freed the people of Vietnam from French rule through a communist regime and subsequently his party 'reunited the country' under the communist flag of Vietnam. ...
Beach bumming and a slithery encounter
This is a top pick! Early on Sunday morning 31 July, we piled onto our bus for the relatively short journey southwards, to the seaside town of Hoi An. The four-hour drive took us over the scenic Hai Van Pass - its dramatic bends and spectacular views of the sea reminded us ...
Beaches, Buddha and Boozing
This is a top pick! Hello dear readers, So we had a nice enough bus ride here, sunset and all. The bus man tried to take us to a hotel a bit out of town, but we stuck to our guns and kept on for nearer to the backpacker haunts. I (ER) sat in a cafe and played connect ...
Centre Of Attention
This is a top pick! ... some attention. We've traveled through a number of places where we were something of an oddity but it was somewhat unexpected in Vietnam- it was a lot of staring mixed with a number of waves, hello's, and broad smiles. Our moment to feel like movie stars ...
Saigon, My Tho, Ben Tre (Mekong Delta) - Day 109
This is a top pick! ... Mekong flows into the south China sea as I've been following this mighty river for the last month through Laos, Cambodia and now Vietnam. We visited 2 provinces, Tien Giang (My Tho) and Ben Tre. First we crossed one of the tributaries from My Tho to the ...
Hanoi to Hue
This is a top pick! Overnight bus to Hue, our new found friends Blake and Matt were to join us on this very very loooooooong journey. After putting the world to rights and deciding our place in the world and how we would achieve this, we all fell asleep. After a few hours ...
Hue to Hoi An - shopping capital of the world
This is a top pick! On arriving at our destination the token tour rep boarded the bus and began telling us how wonderful his hotel/ company/ country was, blah blah blah. Pat got off to survey the hotel and then got back on the bus to try the next stop, and the next stop, ...
Hoi An to Jungle Beach
This is a top pick! So, another destination and another bus journey. Vietnam will stick in our minds as being the place of the bus journeys. This journey was another overnight 12 hour long ride and should have left Hoi An at 6pm and arriving in Nha Trang at 6 ...
Imperial cities and majestic landscapes
This is a top pick! ... on a single bamboo pole, who are probably stronger and tougher than most men you'll see at your gym. - rice paddies (though Vietnam is only the 2nd largest producer in the world, Thailand being 1st) - the incessant honking (the idea behind it is the ...
Hue - Day 20
... of the initial Emperor that had it built, the building was plagued with decay and termite infestations. However, like with most of Vietnam's iconic buildings, most of it was demolished either by the French or during the American war, the walls even have ...
Danang - Day 21
We had to get up super early as we had to get the bus and wanted to have plenty of time to reorganise things if the bus didn't turn up at our hotel as it was meant to. We were up, ready, packed and having breakfast at 6.45am. I was very impressed with ...
Hoi An - Day 23
... , saw the prices and swiftly left again. In England the prices would seem pretty normal, but for two travellers on a budget in Vietnam, they were outrageous! Unsure of what we where we were going to eat now, we decided to just wander down the street again ...
Danang - Hoi An Day 22
... I wanted was some breakfast, but after waking more than a kilometre in the already 35 degree heat, I turned back. I hadn't thought of Vietnam as a country were the men are a bit pervy, like India, but here they were ready in their numbers to make ...
Long Bien Bridge
This is a top pick! ... side for foot and motorbike traffic. It spans the Red River and was of great strategic importance during the Vietnam War, providing a communication link to China. The structure was repeatedly bombed by Americans and then hastily repaired by ...
Hoi An - Day 112-115
This is a top pick! ... probably won't need to wear it for a couple of years but I thought sod it. Can't come to the capital of tailoring in Vietnam without buying something. Probably buy a pair of custom made shoes too. I can always send the stuff home which means I don't need ...