Vietnam has a new adventure at every turn. These are our favorite things to do in Halong Bay, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City and beyond...
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1. Light a lantern in Hoi An
Every Tết (Vietnamese New Year), Hoi An is transformed into a kaleidoscope of color and light for its Lantern Festival. The celebration lasts for seven days, with the road from Hoi An Bridge to the Hoai River Square adorned with thousands of colorful lanterns.
More than 50 workshops participated in the event, each one trying to create the most beautiful lantern. Bright colors and traditional strict design.
The center of the festival is in the old quarter, between the covered Japanese bridge and the An Hoi Bridge. It’s crowded, chaotic and festive, with spontaneous singing and food stalls at every turn. It is as much a celebration for locals as it is for visitors.
The most breathtaking sight is thousands of lanterns floating on the river; hire a sampan boat to get a closer look. For a small sum, you can buy a lantern and place it well floating. Don Tiet is worried if you can take it to Hoi An for the New Year: smaller lantern festivals are held on each full moon.
2. Visit Halong Bay’s equally spectacular neighbor
With 1,600 limestone towers rising from its turquoise waters, Halong Bay is rightly considered one of Vietnam’s most beautiful spots. As a result, it's UP on every visitor's list - and hundreds of boats offer daily cruises.
Bai Tu Long Bay, just a few miles away, offers the same jaw-dropping landscape but only sees a fraction of the visitors. Here you can explore deserted caves and small beaches, and enjoy super-succulent seafood.
Boat trips to Bai Tu Long Bay leave from the crowded dock at Halong City, just like the ones to Halong Bay. But you'll head off in the opposite direction, to where the islands are a little less tall and a little more spread out – but, according to locals, are just like what those in Halong Bay used to be like.
3. Cruise the Mekong Delta
After traveling over 4,000 kilometers from the Tibetan Himalaya, the Mekong hits Vietnam and slows down to a more languid pace. With islands, rice paddies, stilted villages and a way of life that hasn’t changed for centuries, it’s as if the river wants to take it easy and soak up the view.
Simply find a shady spot to the hammock and look at the far banks of the river when your boat, laden with sacks of fruit and rice, plows the brown flow.
Or, take one of the many commercial cruises that ply parts of the river. The journey from Cai Be to Can Tho is a great way to spend a night on the river. As you head south along the Mang Thit River connecting the Tien Giang and Bassac systems, the canal becomes so narrow that you can look at the rickety stilt houses on the banks of the river.
4. Drop into the world’s largest cave
Quang Binh province is a wild region of the barely penetrable jungle in Vietnam’s skinny middle, close to the border with Laos. The area is lined with hundreds of deep caves, including one of the largest caves in the world - Son Doong Cave. It contained a cave so high that a skyscraper could fit inside it.
The small town of Phong Nha is the epicenter for the area’s caving adventures. Here you can hire both guides and the gear you’ll need to descend into the caves. If the underground is not attractive, this area is also famous for trekking. The surrounding forest has many beautiful waterfalls and an active (and noisy) monkey and fox population.
5. Visit the coffee-making heartland
Buon Ma Thuot is the regional capital of the central highlands of Vietnam, a beautiful area of rumbling waterfalls and traditional Ede villages. Look out for the floor structures achieved by a ladder and marked with carved breasts. In this fierce matriarchal area, they can only be used by the women of the house.
Buon Ma Thuot is also the heart of Vietnam’s thriving coffee industry. Trung Nguyen Coffee Company is the big player here and there is not a corner of the rice field or industrial area in the area without their logo.
You'll probably come across 'weasel' coffee during your visit, also known as kopi luwak or civet coffee, which aficionados claim is the best in the world. While many believe that its unique taste is excellent, it is worth knowing that recent investigations have found unethical animal welfare activities on coffee farms across the region.
6. Search for Vietnam’s best pho in Hanoi
Pho is a main dish of Vietnam - a quick, delicious meal made from four simple ingredients: clear, boiled beef, rice noodles, and herbs or scallions. In Vietnam, you'll find it served on street corners and fine dining restaurants and in every home.
Hanoi has been famous as the capital of Vietnam. Each restaurant here boasts a secret recipe - and you'll find one of the best treats at Pho Thin on Lo Duc in the historic French Quarter.
This unique pho house, with wooden benches and multi-layered tables, makes things a little different - such as stirring the beef in garlic before adding it to the soup. Local dishes claim that it gives Pho an unusual smoky smell, not found in other restaurants. Thin Pho is always packed.
7. Understand Vietnam’s bloody past
More than 60 percent of Vietnam’s population was born after the end of the Vietnam War.
But that does not mean that its war-torn history is ignored. As a country, Vietnam has moved on, but the sacrifices of both sides in the conflict are still remembered in Ho Chi Minh City.
Ho Chi Minh City Museum has many informative exhibitions and explains the country's bloody past through photographs, artifacts, and memorabilia. It's sensitively done, without glossing over the atrocities, and (rather ironically) is housed in the Gia Long Palace, where Ngo Dinh Diem spent his final hours in power before his assassination in 1963.
The War Remnants Museum is a more formidable - but no less essential - reminder of local brutality.
8. Go to church Vietnamese-style
Tay Ninh, a busy town in the Mekong Delta, is probably the most sacred city unlikely to happen on the planet. Here, amidst busy roads, noisy stalls and cars are located at Cao Dai Temple, the Holy See of Cao Dai religion.
Cao Dai is a Vietnamese hybrid religion established in the 1920s. It unifies Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, mystery, and Islam with the ultimate goal of escaping the cycle of life and death. The sect reveres, among others: Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and even French novelist Victor Hugo.
From a distance, the temple’s towers resemble a parochial church. But closer inspection reveals an eclectic facade with sword-brandishing gods, swastikas, a Communist red star, and an Orwellian all-seeing eye.
Prayers are conducted four times a day, with the one at noon popular with day-trippers from Ho Chi Minh City.
9. Cycle around Hue
Halfway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, Hue marks the division between the North and the South during the Vietnam War. Located on the beautiful Perfume River, it has always played an important part in Vietnamese history and is dotted with important historical sites.
It is also a great place to cycle. Set off in the cool of the morning and head three kilometers out of town to the Tiger Fighting Arena. It was Vietnam’s version of the Colosseum, a place where elephants and tigers would fight to honor the strength of the monarchy.
Next, come to Tu Duc Mausoleum before going to Vong Canh hill - the best place to enjoy the panoramic view of the Perfume River.
From Vong Canh Hill it’s downhill to one of Hue's most atmospheric pagodas, Tu Hieu, which is located in a tranquil and picturesque pine forest. Swing by the tomb of Minh Mang, the second emperor of the Nguyen dynasty, before heading back to town.
When you arrive at the walled fortress of the Citadel, you have two options: take a leisurely bike ride through the UNESCO World Heritage site and the version of the Forbidden City, or enjoy a relaxing drink beside the Perfume River.
Sound too much like hard work? You find any number of cyclo drivers nearby to do all the effort for you.
10. Find romance at Sapa’s love market
Sapa town, in southern Vietnam the southern mountainous region, first became famous as a hill station of France in the 1930s. Set on a 1,650m-high mountain ridge, the town boasts fabulous views of the Hoang Lien Mountains and a colorful market attended by hill tribes from the surrounding countryside every Saturday.
One of those is the Love Market, where Dao (and H’mong) men and women come from miles around to sing songs of love to each other. It was originally held at the end of the trading session at the Saturday market, but overly enthusiastic visitors photographing infringement promoted underground tradition.
The love market still exists, but now it takes place in secret places in the middle of the night, away from the eyes of visitors. But if your interest is genuine and you can find a local who is willing to trust you, romance can still be found.
More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in Hoi An
from : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-vietnam-704656.html
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