Honestly speaking, Vietnam was never on both Nidhi’s or mine bucket list. So how did we end up reaching Vietnam and falling in love with it?

I think a lot of things culminated or rather pushed us to Vietnam.

1. The covid pandemic had starved us for the last two years for an international holiday.
2. While I love Europe, the harrowing tales of delayed visas, lost baggages and overcrowded spots really scared us away.
3. We kept contemplating about doing a domestic travel but the prices for basic Airbnbs and hotels in Karnataka(India) itself had almost increased by 100% in the last two years which was not something that excited us.
4. We decided that at such cost, we could do a trip to South east asian country.

We were looking at Bali and saw many interesting stays on AirBnb, which is where I normally start looking for destination. Scrolling through the map, we saw Vietnam to be affordable and interesting. It was enough for us to be motivated and start seeking videos on youtube. One video led to another and before we knew it, we had booked our flights to Vietnam. We applied for Visa the same day and within three days we had a Visa and flight tickets to Vietnam. We chose return flight from Bangalore to Ho Chi Minh considering all the costs.

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We landed at Ho Chi Minh(Saigon) on the night of 29th July and returned on 22nd August. During this time we covered a lot of ground and travelled all the way from Saigon to Hanoi and back. We saw a lot of different cities and landscapes. We even did a cruise along Halong bay. You can read more about it in our itinerary and what we did. This post is purely dedicated about what we loved about Vietnam coming from India.

Infrastructure

Coming from India, it was mesmerising to see the infrastructure in Vietnam. The roads were wide and although there was traffic and crowd, you are not stuck like you are in Bangalore. The buildings, pavements reminded me of when I had been to the US. Although Hanoi is a little worse, still the southern and central cities felt a lot better. It is a marvel to see how they have achieved so much since the war.

Cleanliness

Its clean. Although the water looks dirty in the lakes, it does not stink. The beaches are pristine and they have taps installed in all the beaches for people to not carry the sand home. They have a lot of alleys, yet it’s not dirty. People throw their garbage on the roadside during night and by morning, it’s all gone. It’s a system that works for them. We can always throw data about the population in India but it feels that cleanliness is something that the Vietnamese people care about and hence it shows.

Food

We are big time vegetarian foodies. We love to cook as well as eat outside. Although it was difficult to find vegetarian food outside in some places, in most big cities it was easy. Cities like Saigon, Da Nang and Hanoi had a lot of vegetarian restaurant, vegan restaurant and Indian restaurant. This gave us plenty of options to try from each day.

But what was more delighting for us was travelling to local markets early in the morning to purchase fresh produce. We may not have visited monuments in each of the city that we went to, but we ensured that we went to the local vegetable and fruit market in each city that we stayed. We consumed a lot of fruits like Dragon Fruit, Custard apple, pineapple each day along with sweet coconut water. It was absolutely satisfying.

Shopping

Shout out to Hoi An for making us spend so much without thinking. We don’t normally do a lot of shopping when we are travelling because we like to travel light. Also when we first went to Ben thanh market after hearing so much, we were overwhelmed at the sheer amount of haggling and negotiations. So we had decided not to buy a lot.

This was true for our first two days in Hoi An. Going through all the tailor shops and seeing the price difference of around 200-300%, we were not sure. But once we got our first small batch of clothes, we knew that this was the right place to go crazy. We bought as many clothes from Hoi An as we buy in India in a year. If Hoi An is for tailored clothes, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh are for readymade clothes. Not to forget the artworks, souvenirs and handicrafts.

Vibe

While people normally think about the nightlife and party spots when we talk about vibe, our case is a little different. We are not party animals and most days we were in bed by 10:30. We are morning people and would step out early, or so we thought.

In Nha Trang, we wanted to see the sunrise. So we set our alarms for 5:00 and were on the beach by 5:30. It was cloudy so we couldn’t see the sun, but we saw a lot of people on the beach. They were swimming, playing, exercising and even dancing. A local told us that people came in as early as 4 am and by 7, most people were gone, to get ready for their work. In all the cities that we went after that, we say this trend.

In Hanoi, people were around Hoan Kiem lake early doing Yoga, dance, running, cycling. In Ho Chi Minh, it was around parks and lakes. Same held true across the cities, big or small. It was inspiring to see a country so conscious of their health.

Natural Beauty

Last but not least on the list of reasons, it’s beautiful. We still vividly remember the following places that we could go back and spend more time at.

• Xuan Huong Lake in the centre of Da Lat
• The calm sea at Nha Trang beach
• The lantern festival at Thu bon River in Hoi An
• The hammocks by the sea at Da Nang
• Halong Bay

We are yet to see the beauty of Hue, Phu Quoc and Sapa. But with what we have already seen, I guess it is enough for us to conclude that Vietnam is a country that we would love to go again.