Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was never on my bucket list.  To be honest, the only reason I visited Vietnam is because I was already in Cambodia and my hotel sells bus tickets to HCMC/Saigon.  So I bought one and decided to cross the border from Phnom Penh (Cambodia) to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam).  Little did I know that …

Ninh Binh province in Vietnam comes in an easy to love package – rice paddies and placid river hemmed in by limestone hills, majestic caves, verdurous forest, ancient ruins, majestic temples and majestic cathedrals. Ninh Binh is a perfect day tour from Hanoi city because it is just 2.5 – 3 hours away by bus, car or train.  Youn will …

What began as a small fishing village where the Khmer people originally dwelled before the arrival of the Vietnamese settler during the 17th century became a pulsating metropolis now known as Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Here, timeless alleys are fringed with temple, street food stalls, cheap guesthouses, posh hotels and restaurants serving almost everything Vietnamese.   It may sound cliché, …

Limestone hills soaring like sentries above bleak and barren bogs and wide expanse of rice fields welcome me. The land here is a sea of olive-green dominated by these gorgeous mammoths so ancient that it dates back to the forgotten ages of the earth’s beginning. Time seems to stand still, and only the sound of the river flowing, the cooing …