Xin Chao means Hello in Vietnamese. In this post we will tell you more about our trip in Vietnam. We made a summary of our visits to Halong Bay, Hoi An, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City.

Let’s start with “The magical mountains of Halong Bay”. We did a 3 days 2 nights tour on a 5-star cruise which was absolutely awesome! We really enjoyed the luxury for a few days.. 😉 We definitely would recommend doing a 3 day tour instead of 1 or 2 day as you see so much more of Halong Bay. You have 2 full days to do activities and if you only stay for 1 night you only have 1 full day as you depart at noon and arrive back at at noon. We also want to recommend the Mon Cheri 5-star cruise, it’s a bit more expensive but it is definitely value for money and you can enjoy your trip much more! On this trip you’ll explore the islands and caves of the bay, go for walks and bike rides, meet the locals and take bamboo boat rides down the narrow waterways through the limestone cliffs.

Let’s move on to the the beautiful lantern town, Hoi An. We were so lucky that we arrived the 19th of January as we could experience the Lantern Festival which takes place every month and it was beautiful! The boats and streets were all decorated with lanterns, there were floating candles on the river which you could buy, light yourself and put on the river. It was so magical. We really fell in love with this little town just the setting of the lanterns, the beautiful old houses by the river makes it so special. Hoi An also has a central market with this delicious Avocado-Coconut smoothie which you should definitely try. To fill our days we bought a pass with which you could visit 5 of the town sights. We visited some pagodas, temples and we also attended a show in the Traditional Art Performance Theatre which was worth going to. It gives you a different insight in the Vietnamese Culture.

From Hoi An we took a sleeper bus to Hue which took us about 3,5hours, not that comfortable but really cheap.

Hue is known for the Imperial City which is UNESCO World Heritage Site. You pay 150.000VND to get in and you can spent a few hours in the Citadel. It was really cool the only sad thing was that it was raining almost all day, so we spent about 3 hours there. After we walked to town where we had dinner @ Nina’s Cafe. We found this cute little cafe on Tripadvisor it had very good reviews so we gave it a try and we can only support the positive reviews. Best food we’ve had in Vietnam!

The day after we took a train down a scenic railroad to Da Nang where we caught a flight to Saigon a.k.a. Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City, the busy backpackers city. When we arrived in Saigon a Grab picked us up and drove about 45 minutes to our hostel. It was so busy in the city even busier than in Hanoi, it was crazy! The city is more spacious compared to Hanoi but there are so much more scooters and cars. We liked Ho Chi Minh but it’s just another big city. Must do in Ho Chi Minh City is the War Remnants Museum, this museum is about the US role in the Vietnam War (1955-1975) which was very interesting but also very moving.

The Mekong River is also something you must see. We did a tour for 200.000VND and it was a great experience. You’ll do boat rides through the coconut fields, walk around the islands, eat some local fruit, we even went to visit a local coconut candy factory. It was delicious so we bought some to take home!

If you want to see a Giant Laughing Buddha you should go to the Vinh Trang Pagoda in My Tho. This pagoda was really unique with it’s giant statues of Buddha in three different poses – sitting, lying and standing.

We said Goodbye to Vietnam or in Vietnamese Tạm Biệt and took a bus to our next destination, CAMBODIA.