GOOOOD MORNING, VIETNAM! 🇻🇳 

For nearly our 4 months of travel, every backpacker has hyped Vietnam up SO MUCH. Saying it’s the best country to backpack by far, with bustling cities like Hanoi, the charming riverfront town of Hoi An, and the 4-day motorbiking loop in Ha Giang that multiple people have claimed as being ‘the best experience of their life’.

Like ok ok, hold up, are you serious?!!! Best experience of your LIFE?!!?

We had heard similar sentiments in Thailand about Khao Sok National Park and sleeping on the floating bungalows, but we were wildly underwhelmed (partly due to bad weather). Like yeah, it was cool, but life-changing? No. I’ve been trying to take people's recommendations with a grain of salt to not have too high of expectations that may fall flat. Enter Hoi An-

Hoi An 🏮 👗

After the 3-day traveling journey from Laos—> Vietnam, we had a stopover in Hue before traveling to Hoi An. Once again we heard repeatedly “This is my favorite town in Vietnam!” “It’s so magical!” “We extended our stay there for extra days!” etc etc.

Sadly, Sam and I didn’t have the same experience. We rolled into the old town after the sun had set and felt like we were walking around Epcot in Disneyland. There is a river flowing through the town, and rowboats float by with tourists wearing life jackets piled in. Most are decorated with lanterns which adds to the charm. The buildings are adorable and beautiful, don’t get me wrong! But it felt so manufactured and done up, a bit too touristy and crowded for our taste.

We spent three days there, mainly centering our days around getting clothes tailored and altered (hello future wedding suits and dresses!! Hoi An is the best and fastest place to get clothes made!) and wandering the streets looking for cute Vietnamese coffee shops to stay out of the heat. We both agreed the charm of the town is more appreciated in the daylight and yes, it’s adorable. I’m not saying not to go there! But maybe for a day trip or just have the expectations it’s become super touristy and a little kitschy (3 days was more than enough 🤪).

Danang 🏖️ ⛳️ 

From Hoi An we stopped in Danang, a beachfront town that reminded us of a mini Miami. Sam’s main reason for stopping here was to complete the only activity he’s had on his world tour bucket list: golfing at 'Asia's Best Golf Course', Ba Na Hills. He's been buzzing for his round since we started planning our trip. I originally was going to have a self-care day and let him enjoy the day alone, but the night before decided to join him (separation anxiety!!!). The only problem was, I didn’t have a collared polo to wear, which was the club's dress code. Scrambling until the last minute, I was forced to buy a knockoff Chanel polo at the night market we found in the children’s section for $3. I felt like such a fraud the whole day as the rich Chinese tourists came in their actual designer clothing and could probably smell my cheap polo from miles away.

We woke up at 6 a.m. and scootered 40 minutes into the hills while passing locals enjoying early bowls of Pho with their friends and kids on the way to school. We felt like we were a part of the local morning commute. Maybe a commute can feel good and fun every once in a while (or maybe it only felt good because Sam was buzzing for his golf round!).

Upon arriving we realized it was actually only voted the best course in Vietnam, not Asia 🙃 . This made more sense to me. Yes, it was beautiful to be surrounded by mountains, but the facilities felt no more special than an updated country club (in my opinion). They also played the same three songs ALL DAY on a loop which made me go mad. Sam loved the day, mainly because he got a Vietnamese lady as his caddy (all the caddies are women!) but played like shit. I was able to drive the cart around, which helped the time pass!

Sam's input ^ Take this opinion with a grain of salt. Judging a golf course by its facilities… the cheek of it. She just got jealous of me and my caddie 😏 

We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on the beach in Danang and chilling (Sam input: morning round of golf in the mountains, beach, bevvies, and ocean in the afternoon - Da Nang undoubtedly is a lads holiday destination) before our flight the next morning.

Hanoi 🥖 🍺 

I may have a new favorite capital city in Asia!! Hanoi was what I envisioned most Asian cities to feel like: chaotic, bustling with life, and undoubtedly charming. Walking around and seeing life go by with motorcycles balancing huge cartons of eggs on the back, street vendors selling foods with all sorts of smells, and shoe-shine men trying to fix the soles of Sam’s worn flip-flops. The chaos is New York on steroids: crossing the street becomes a topic of conversation- the bikes/cars won’t stop for you, but instead will move around you- it's organized chaos at its finest.

We stayed in the Old Quarter, which is rich with French colonial-styled buildings that add to the beauty of the city. We ate Bahn Mi at a famous place that was full of only Westerners (they were good to be fair!) and enjoyed a salt coffee while sitting on a street corner watching motorcycles pass a busy 4-way intersection (they add salt to the condensed milk to make it taste like salted caramel!).

Sam has a childhood friend, Shannon, who has been a teacher at the British International School in Hanoi for the past 4 years. We went out to dinner with her and her friends and got a glimpse of expat life in Hanoi. It was Halloweekend so there was a concert event where nearly 300 Western expats living in Hanoi partied in costume and raged to a local reggae funk band and DJs. It was cool experiencing "local" expat life.

The next day we were a wee hungover so enjoyed a Michelin guide bowl of Pho, got fancy massages, walked around, and saw not one but TWO trains pass by on the famous train street (mainly because it was raining and we had good seats under cover).

Train Street is touristy but honestly, such a fun activity. Small homeowners who live along the train tracks have transformed their ground floors into makeshift cafes to allow tourists to sit uncomfortably close to the trains that pass by (you can’t even extend your hand out you’re so close!). The anticipation of the train makes the experience even funnier given that people gather at the cafes nearly an hour early just for the 15 seconds of fun. But when the train came, the build-up made it all worth it! We were enjoying our conversations with a Greek traveler so much that we decided to stay another 45 minutes to see the next train (and save ourselves from the rain).

Ninh Bihn 🌄 

2 hours south of Hanoi is Ninh Binh which resembles Ha Long Bay on land. We opted for Ninh Binh because we heard Ha Long is super crowded and polluted with trash but has the same scenery (probably a dumb idea to skip a 7 Wonder of the World but, oh well!!). Ninh Binh is where they filmed King Kong! It’s a super chill town surrounded by huge mountains and narrow rivers where we spent time at the hostel pool admiring the view, scootering around to viewpoints, and rowing ourselves on a boat through various caves. We reunited with our friend Sam, who’s been traveling with us since I met him weeks ago in Pai, Thailand, and met a new friend, Julia (from Philly), who both changed plans to come up north with us for the HIGHLY anticipated, Ha Giang Loop.

Ha Giang 🛵 ⛰️ 

This has been hands down THE MOST hyped-up activity, discussion point, recommendation, etc among EVERY traveler we’ve met over the past 4 months. This is another “life-changing” event for people and everyone has their opinion on which group to organize your tour with. We decided to pick a popular and big tour organizer, Mama's Homestay, which had 7 groups of 10-15 people. Deff a lot of coordination and more bikes on the road but the large group made for better parties at night 😝 

The Ha Giang loop is a relatively new tourist hotspot (became popular in 2018ish) and has blown up since Covid among backpackers. It’s a 400-km motorbiking loop that takes you through the most stunning mountain ranges, local villages, the Chinese border, beautiful waterfalls, and more. The views genuinely did not stop during the 4-day journey and kept getting better and better.

Most people opt for an easy rider, which means hopping on the back of a local driver's bike for the 4-day journey. The roads are infamously sketchy (and dangerous) for a portion of the loop, where there are minimal barriers to stop you from falling down huge cliffs and lots of dusty, unfinished roads with loose gravel and rubble among the tons of twists and turns. We had been hearing various horror stories of people crashing, spinning out of control, and breaking legs, or bikes nearly falling off the cliffs that we felt it was safer for me to ride with an easy driver so Sam could enjoy driving on his own. This was also Sam’s first time driving a semi-automatic bike so I didn’t want to be a distraction. (Sam input: her constant screeching and squawking on the back of a bike isn’t the best idea when you’re on the edge of a sheer cliff drop with no barriers 😃).

I’m glad to report back and share that the hype is REAL. I was skeptical at first, but my god, I hadn’t ever seen scenery that beautiful and VAST. There is just so much to see (which I enjoyed, Sam on the other hand mostly enjoyed looking at the road and bike wheels in front of him 😂). Sam input: kind of the difference between actually playing in the match or idly sitting in the stands. We all know who actually has a better time 😉 

Before sundown, all 80-something of us would stop at a new homestay each night and have huge family-style meals filled with Happy Water 🍶 and Karaoke 🎤 . The accommodations were basic, some sleeping 15 people in a room with rows of mattresses.

Happy Water is famous among Vietnamese and is a family staple. Think of it as moonshine or hooch made of rice wine. Each family has their recipe/ preference on how strong they like to make it and may add medicinal herbs for added healing benefits. It’s FREE FLOWING and consumed after an extremely long chant/ cheers in Vietnamese that we tried to perfect over the 4 days (we still can’t recite the whole thing) 😉 🍶 

I have to add... I thought no one could love karaoke as much as my family. But boy was I wrong, the Vietnamese take it to a new level. They LOVEEE karaoke. So much so that you will see a random man singing to himself with a microphone at 9 a.m. on the side of the road. Or a woman roaming the streets singing horrendously yet proudly with her personal-sized speaker. The homestays were set up perfectly for karaoke parties that I obviously loved and was a heavy participant in. It was also cool hearing the different cultures' “go-to karaoke songs” among the Dutch, French, German, and Vietnamese (my fan favorite was the Dutch song, Noordervond).

One last thing is 95% of the easy drivers don’t speak any English. So it was amazing to still build close bonds and friendships with them through shots of happy water, chanting, A LOT of Google translate, gawking at the amazing views on the loop, and teaching each other Karaoke songs long into the night EVERY night lol. Many of you may have seen on Instagram me and Sam teaching my easy driver the Dirty Dancing lift LOL. These guys (there was only one woman easy driver!) rinse and repeat the Ha Giang loop often without a day’s rest for months, spending time away from their families to earn pretty decent money. It’s a grind for them no doubt - but for the easy drivers in their teens and early 20’s, they seemed to be absolutely living it up and enjoying every second of it.

The people and the friendships made the whole experience. Our crew was perfect. Enough said :)

P.S I’m not just saying this to the youngsters, we met a Mom (Beth from Tempe, AZ!) who did the loop with her daughter and absolutely was a gem and loved it (hint hint, MAMIII!!!)

TLDR: Ha Giang Loop is 100% worth the hype. Can’t say anymore. Just go do it before it gets too touristy and the roads get more packed.

Sapa 🌾 

By the end of the loop, we felt like we were on the end of a 4-day bender and needed to RELAX. We went 6 hours west to Sapa, a mountain town that resembles a French ski town surrounded by rice paddies and mountains. There are also a lot of ethnic groups in the surrounding areas that make hand-woven souvenirs and are dressed in their traditional clothing.

I’ve come down with a cold so I leaned into relaxing and enjoying time at our lovely homestay. It was raining for most of the time here, so we only managed a small trek in the afternoon which was a shame because people say the trekking is a highlight in Sapa where you trek through small villages and rice paddies, and get a feel of local life.

Vietnam 🇻🇳 - Absolutely Worth the HYPE!

Vietnam should be on your shortlist. It feels like it’s at this sweet spot where it’s touristy, but mostly in a good and authentic way (Hoi An feeling the most touristy). It's way more modern and developed than we initially thought, so tourism may rapidly change in the coming years (go soon!). We met tons of Americans on vacation here, more than any other country we visited by far. Our time in Vietnam was short, but I can't wait to return.

Now, we're off to Hong Kong to spend all our money and see Sam's stepbrother, Tom, who lives there now!!!! 🥳 🇭🇰