~/travel$openvietnam-2026
I’m so bad at giving TL:DR. Basically, Vietnam is goat travellig spot, I recommend Hoi An and Ha Giang Loop big thumbs up, Ho Chi Minh is okay but a bit too city and too dirty, BIG THUMBS DOWN on the food poisoning.
Went with Eric, Bethany and JooHui, good gang :D
~/travel/vietnam-2026$catitinerary.log
- day 01
Sydney -> Ho Chi Minh City
lunar new year doom
We arrived at 4:26am and I wanted to d**… I think we slept for like 3 hours to go to the main part of the city…
We went to the market but everything was closed because of Lunar New Year. Many many motorcycle go vroom vroom. We wanted to go to this Banh Mi place but everything was closed cuz Lunar New Year. Lunar New Year sucks. Me and Eric ditched Joohui and Bethany for egg coffee (it was the other way around, they went shopping) - it was pretty yermy.
two cafe linhs…
We decided to meet eachother again at Cafe Linh, only to realise there are multiple Cafe Linh and we both went to different ones so we kinda outdid ourselves there. They came to us btw, cuz the dudes are bums. Lwk the coffee here is so yermy, the coconut coffee so yermy it so yerrrmy. I felt the vietnam potential.
We went to Pizza 4P for lunch, it was very yermy, very cheap, very yermy
plastic chairs and pho
We went to some outside pho stall stand thingy where we sit on the plastic chairs and eon the plastic tables because JooHui’s performative like that. It was very yermy too, I love pho, pho so yermy.
- day 02
Ho Chi Minh City -> Hoi An
independence palace
Locked in on the independence palace in Ho Chi Minh, learnt about the history and it was pretty cool to see the palace and like all the meeting rooms and stuff and the outside gardens and stuff.
oxtail pho and coffee
We again locked in good food, JooHui (I think?) recommended this pho place that was michelin selected and we all got the ox-tail pho (which was the recommended one) [edit: apparently, it was nnot JooHui, it was one of my friend - who the helly plz lemme know i need more recs] (plz . It was so yermy, best pho I’ve ever had, lwk been sleeping on that pho, pho HIGHKEY so yermy.
Then we went to Sipply Coffee (WHAT A BANGER FIND BY ME, SELF-GLAZE), very hidden tho, we walked past it like a few times… Stayed there for a while and these two people travelling together were talking to the barista about coffee and lwk it was interesting, so I was like lemme join them and turns out they were from Australia (now living in Singapore), it was some good yaps - wish I got a photo with them tho (at least I got their insta bang).
flight to hoi an
We had a flight to catch. Bruv, we spent 2 days here what the helly, why so short bang. We catch flight to Da Nang so that we can go to Hoi An. Bang. Lwk it was pretty messy, we had to like get on a bus to the flight and it was like packed af, lwk dodge. JooHui edit: our flight got delayed by like 3 hours holy doom.
At least, we made it to Hoi An in one piece.
- day 03
Hoi An
hoi an first impressions
I woke up to Eric being a slut. Why does bro have his phone inside his shirt and like peeling his shirt back like what that mean bro, I ain’t gay.
Lwk Hoi An is pretty nice, reminds me of my hometown bang, the wops :D. Saw a bunch of boats, pretty aura, the wood bridges are like super impromptu, i lwk like, 10/10 for the architectural design.
vietnamese coffee wisdom
Had some Vietnamese food, it was yummy. Like the spring rolls and the pancakes and stuff. That stuff pretty good too. JooHui’s location was in the middle of the river, I thought she died.
Whole bunch of cafe in Hoi An, lwk very fun as a coffee enjoyer, many many coffee were consumed that day. I keep finding the little dolls that like bobs their head, lwk they kinda got aura. JooHui copied them and bobbed her head. She lost some aura.
I found a shop with a big ahh 67 sign in front. That shop has aura. It’s spreading love and peace throughout Vietnam
Me (and Eric - bro just followed me) found and went to this vietnamese coffee workshop thingy. Lwk the greatest thing that’s ever happened, I gained so much wisdom (aka learnt how much sugar is actually in vietnamese coffee - me and Eric vowed to drink only one coffee a day from then on).
lanterns in the windy ahh river
We went on the lantern-making boat trip thingy where we make lanterns on the boat. It was so windy, our lanterns died as soon as it touched the water. It’s okay, the night with all the lanterns were pretty and Hoi An at night is also pretty with all the lights around the street.
We ate at a fancy dinner place that was like on the top floor, it was pretty nice. Hoi An is a place to walk around fr
- day 04
Hoi An
optiver call
I got the Optiver return offer call - lmao in Vietnam hurhur - so we basically did nothing all morning, my bad gang
coconut boats
We went to this seafood place for lunch, it was pretty yummy, note to self, that is NOT a seafood boil - my memory is lying to me.
We went on a small roadie to this village in Hoi An where we did like the full tour with some cooking workshop and lantern making and stuff. It was good experience, highly recommend, unfortunately I don’t know what it is since I wasn’t the one who planned it. Coconut boat was a very fun ride and the thing where they like spin you around looked fun as.
mango sticky rice tax
We went back and the first thing we do is go to the market so that JooHui can buy her favourite mango sticky rice. We got scammed 100%, alg tho, it was yummy. We ate more food. Bang.
- day 05
Hoi An
goodbye hoi an
We woke up at 5:50am so that we can be at the airport to fly to Hanoi (oman what a short stay in the best city in Vietnam).
walking around hanoi
Walked around Hanoi for a bit, had some more Banh mi and found another coffee spot - Black Market coffee space (ANOTHER BANGER SPOT BY ME). Matcha was also very yummy there. We lowkey just walked the whole day today. Took a banger shot with flowers and Joo and Bethany, very clean, some good photo spots here near the lake. Also visited this shrine on this small island, was pretty cool.
sleeper bus north
Went to another place that was like on the top floor, it looked pretty fancy bang i forgot what it tasted like bang. Had avocado ice cream, I was ENLIGHTENED on how good coconut ice cream tastes. Vanilla ice cream might have some competition after all.
then we locked in for the night bus to go to Ha Giang for what would be the highlight of this trip (not the night bus, that was kinda ass - it was pretty cool tho, it was like the ones where you get to lie down).
- day 06
Ha Giang
first ride on the loop
I’m lowkey the greatest photographer of all time, two of my all-time best were captured during this morning while we waited for our drivers for the Ha Giang Loop. This was the first time I’ve ever been on a motorbike, lwk its pretty fun, pretty refreshing to have the wind fully on you while you ride. We just went through a bunch of mountains and cities, few stops here and there but oman the views are so beautiful. It so amazing 10/10 recommend.
Also, my driver lwk omega nonchalant, bro is like the second in command or some shi but he young af. And whenever like we stop, everyone gets together but bros too cool so he goes off alone and goes to smoke and doomscroll. I decided to commit to forcing him to take selfies with me so that I can steal some of that aura (I think bro got tired of me by the end </3).
- day 07
Ha Giang
mountains and motorbikes
I have nothing much to say because this whole loop is just a bunch of mountains and beautiful views and motorbike riding. Your butt hurts like so bad when you on it for a long time tho, I was praying for stops once we got to like the 2-hour mark of continuous riding.
Highlight of the day was probably going on the boat to the Njo Que River, it was pretty kewl.
The place we stayed tonight was highkey very hometown vibes, super green and a lot of farmland, it was very noice.
- day 08
Ha Giang
chinese border
Today was the day of the Chinese border… We could actually like see the wall that acts as the border between China and Vietnam.
I was joking about Eric jumping over the wall, and this other girl from our group said I might have special needs, what that mean, chat isn’t that just an insult, chat am i doomed?
We went up like this whole flight of stairs to get to this tower thing that you could go up and you could see this castle(?) off in the distance. It was pretty cool. My driver also came up the stairs so you bet I took a selfie with him, it was beautiful.
We also went to see the famous like winding road of the Ha Giang Loop, it was pretty cool.
We went crazy tonight, JooHui drinks too much (she looks high as fu-) and then we had a whole karaoke session with the gang, the leader of the drivers (I forgot the name lwk sorry - (“Laap” - JooHui Lee). Me and JooHui had some yaps and curating stories to post and we were laughing our ass off at like midnight about the Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Song - lwk peak melody.
- day 09
Ha Giang -> Hanoi
caves and goodbyes
We went to this cave complex thing, which was pretty big and pretty cool. The deeper areas of the caves were pretty fun since it was like kinda tight but not too tight where you felt super claustrophobic.
Today was also the last day of the Ha Giang Loop, it was very sad to part with our driver, I felt a connection (I don’t think he did, bro was happy I left him). Laap is good dude, I like him, he a fun and funny guy.
This was also the beginning of the end for me and JooHui cuz I’m pretty sure we had food poisoning here… We stayed strong thru tough times twin, never again </3. Made the night bus experienced 100000x worse (also that banhmi is deadly, now I have PTSD).
- day 10
Hanoi -> Hong Kong
recovery and hong kong
Me and JooHui died so we lwk just chilled, went to a cafe for some food. I had to part ways with the gang here because a company in HK (iykyk) called me up for a final round interview so I had to lock in (on catching up with Yunge).
Overall very fun trip, 10/10, would do again (not the food poisoning part tho).
~/travel/vietnam-2026$catactivities.log
Ha Giang Loop
the best 4 days of my life