Last year, we spent 6 weeks in Vietnam as part of our six-month backpacking trip. If we started with the idea of staying within a budget, we quickly realised that we didn’t want our trip to be entirely dictated by money. After Hawaii, we kept our budget loose, without going crazy either, even if it meant that we needed to re-think our itinerary.
We absolutely loved Vietnam, where we spent six weeks, visiting my brother in Ho Chi Minh and exploring other cities. I have gathered here some of our best pictures from our stay in this beautiful country and which depict slices of life, in other words, moments of the ordinary life through scenes in the streets of Vietnam. These pictures bring great memories to us and represent some of the aspects of life there.
Vietnam is a wonderful country that we can highly recommend to other travellers. While we usually stayed one month in each country we visited on our long trip through Asia, we actually spent 6 weeks in Vietnam.
Who wouldn’t agree that food is one of the best ways to discover a new culture? I’m French and a vegetarian, which usually don’t go together at all. Luckily for me, other countries are more open to vegetarianism than my own, like South-East Asia. Once we found out that our diets restrictions were no obstacles, we took cooking classes in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Ella, Sri Lanka. In Vietnam, no cooking class but we had the amazing last-minute opportunity to take a food tour in Hanoi the night before leaving the country.
Taking a cruise in Ha Long Bay is definitely one of the main reasons for people to go to Vietnam and we were no exception. As soon as we decided to visit the country, we knew we would go see this wonderful place.
We went to the nonetheless nice city of Hanoi mainly as a starting point to explore beautiful Ha Long Bay, both as a cruise and what is called the terrestrial part of it, Tam Coc.
Hoi an is a very small town but the city and the area have enough to keep you busy for a few days. It’s famous for its silk lanterns (probably the main reason why I wanted to go!), but also for its shopping opportunities. There is an endless number of shops selling art crafts, bags and clothes. This is the place to go if you want tailor-made clothes (if only I had just a little bit of room left in my backpack..!).
After spending one month in Ho Chi Minh to rest and spend time with my brother, we were on the road again to the pretty city of Hue. Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam until 1945 and thus played an important part in the country’s history.