As we continue to move through Vietnam, we grow more fond of the country and culture. The people are friendly even when you can’t communicate with them, it’s beautiful and full of history. We can’t wait to share more of Vietnam with you in this blog.

We’ve noticed that in Vietnam they love their coffee and bridal shops. They are on every single street, and we often come across ‘cafés’that only serve coffee and no food. The bridal shops are fun to look into, even more so now I get to properly think about my own!

Another huge thing here is karaoke. There are huge buildings with laser lights for the karaoke bars and we’ve walked past many houses where there’ll be someone on their own, or a small group, just singing karaoke in their living rooms.

Food

Before we arrived in Vietnam we had seen Vietnamese restaurants in all of the Asian countries we’d been to, but we wanted to wait to get the real, authentic taste. We are so glad we did, and here are a few stand out dishes so far:

At the end of the last blog, we mentioned that we had just got off a 14 hour bus journey. Whilst we didn’t get much sleep, this bus was more luxurious than the first one we had been on, so it wasn’t a bad place to spend 14 hours. It doesn’t matter if the beds are all booked up, as they let people on anyway and they sleep on a mattress in the aisle. We were also blessed with a budgie in a cage behind us, but luckily they kept quiet after the first hour or so.

📍 Da Nang, Vietnam 🇻🇳

We arrived in Da Nang at 6am, and explored the city whilst waiting to check in. Luckily we got into the room at 10:30am so we could recharge briefly. We only spent one night in Da Nang (which was all we needed), but we liked the city and were pleased to see that there was not a lot of damage following the typhoon.

📍 Hoi An, Vietnam 🇻🇳

To say we fell in love with Hoi An would be an understatement. This beautiful city is right on the river Thu Bon, and due to the buildings, it feels like you could be in Europe. At night, the city lights up with lanterns and that is truly a sight to behold.

The highlights of our time in Hoi An was a lantern making class, and a beach day. The class was run by two brothers who were friendly and informative, and made us feel very welcome. 

It took us 2 hours to complete the lanterns. The following day we hired bicycles from our accommodation, and cycled to the beach. It was a beautiful day weather wise, however cycling back was a challenge. They don’t lie when they say the roads in Vietnam are horrendous – they drive down the wrong side of the road, they don’t check for oncoming traffic before turning, and traffic lights must be there just for decoration. But, we remained calm and moved with large chunks of traffic, so we made it back unharmed.

📍 Hue, Vietnam 🇻🇳

The main attraction of Hue, is the Imperial City. Located within a fortress of brick walls, the City is made up of palaces, temples and shrines that were for use by the Imperial Family only. Each wall is 2km long, and there is also a moat surrounding these walls.

Pictures were prohibited inside the buildings, but they were deep red in colour with gold accents. Some had a sent of incense burning, and gifts left on the shrines of emperors. Shoes had to be removed before entering each one, and you had to have knees and shoulders covered. It was a very impressive sight and considering it dates back to 1803, I was surprised at how much was still intact.

Instagram vs Reality

After being on a train for 7 and a half hours, we have arrived in Vinh. I must say, travelling Asia has done nothing for my hatred of feet as the picture below might demonstrate. This was on the train today – at least they were wearing a sock, however the lady that sat there a few hours later wasn’t. It’s very grim.

Following Vinh, we’ll be going to Halong Bay and finally Hanoi. If you have any questions about our trip, or just want to say hi, drop your messages in the comments! Lots of love, Caitlin and Luke