You don´t have to go far over the border and you see BIG DIFFERENCES to Laos or Cambodia. In every point of view is Vietnam bigger - not just in the size of the country (narrow but very long, maybe 3days bus from top to bottom). Compare to Laos it seems to be endless population. Small towns seem to be BIG CITIES, the countyside between them is just 15km with mostly ricefields (not 3hours by bus through forest like in laos),..
BUILDINGS are totaly differnet and they have a really funny look to me. Because of the expensive landprice here they are very narrow, but have serveral levels. And usualy they have lots of colourful decorations on the outsidewalls, as well as baldonies and often something like a madonna on the top.
And thats the RELIGIOUS difference. There are as well chinese and buddhist tempels, but as well a lot of CATHOLIC CHURCHES, some as big as the european once, just a bit more modern.
The whole country is a lot more DEVELOPED and modern compare to the last ones. Cities are "real cities" like Hanoi with 7Mio people. Everywhere are "proper" european stile shops, coffe and clothshops, american fastfood, but as well a lot of VIETNAMESE SHOPS and as well the TRADITIONAL THINGS. Markets are everywhere the same than the rest of Asia. But TYPICAL Vietnam are the little coffe shops or foodstands everywhere and you usualy have that on little chairs in the middle of the pavement. An other tradition are the ladies walking up and down street selling food (fruits as well as whole meals) caried on their shoulders!

Everybody told me how crazy that city is - I never believed it could be THAT CRAZY. The traffic is radiculous, kind of fun to watch :) If you want to cross the street then just start walking (never run, but don´t walk to fast), the motorbikes drive around you! Hanoi is for me not a big "sightseeing" city. There are a few TEMPEL which are pretty impressive, the lakefronts and the mainthing is the Ho Chi Minh Masuleum (which was closed when I went there). The more interesting part is the LIFE here. There is huge shoping going on. From malls, western shops, a lot of faked brands, night and day markets everywhere, and endless street stands for food, souvenirs... Famous here are the BASKET LADYS selling food on the street. They have 2 big baskets connected to carry over the shoulders. In in there they sell everything, sometimes they have a whole kitchen with them to prepare food to go :)

Just a jump on the map away, but a whole day in the train (a real funtrip with some local ladys on sunday trip in the train :D) is SAPA, explained to me as a small hilltown in beautiful landscape. Yeah, I guess I have to get used to the vietnam-small at first. Sapa is some kind of splitted. The citycenter is basicly JUST FOR TOURIST. The middle is full of restaurants, small nice guesthouses, endless shops for NorthFaceProducts and so on. Around the lake next to it you find endless huge Hotels, nothing cheap or lower than 5 levels. Outside of that are a few local houses and then there is just countryside.
Important to experience is the WEEKENDMARKET in the middle of town next to the old little HILLCHURCH. The market is full of TRIBEWOMEN, men and kids, often babys, coming from the tribes in the little villages outside of the city. They wear they´re black-colour traditional cloth and bring handmade things to sell like colourful bags, cloth, souveniers and so on. Beautiful!

One of the most stunning landscapes I ever saw is around Sapa. There are waterfall and hillpases on the one side, on the other you will find endless tiny tribevillages in the middle of the fields. And the "fields" here look amazing. Nothing is flat, instead everything goes in some kind of circles down till the ground, and because of the mountains there´s lots of rain as well to fill those "circles". Hard to explain, just watch the picture :)

All the way back and further to HALONG BAY, CAT BA ISLAND. Halong Bay is one of the WORLD WONDERS because of the LOMESTONES everywhere in the sea. The Island itself is the perfekt size for a daytrip on the MOTORBIKE all around. There is a NATIONALPARK with some amazing views from the top, WARHISTORY with the hospitalcave, little villages, lots of beautiful bays and a small town with some beaches (and hotelresorts of course). Famous for all kind of fresh seafood.
The must do here is a daytrip (or overnight) on a BOAT through those LIMESTONES and FLOATING FISHERVILLAGES. Usually those trips are connected with KAJAKING, snorkling, beachislands and so on. Worse to see it, really :)

NINH BINH is often called "halong bay on the rice fields". The city itself is small, not much to see. But the suroundings are very pretty. As far as you can see there are green rice paddies, and in the middle of them are limestonemountains all over. First we went to the mainattraktion here - a big open CAVE where they drive you through with a little BOAT, pretty cool!
    
And then we`ve been lucky to get here when the big FESTIVAL was on. We had time to kill and just drove with the scooter to random places on the map. And then we ended up at this huge TEMPLE crowded full with people. We didn´t get the whole festival reason (we´ve been basicly the only tourist there, nobody spoke proper english), but apparently it is something around buddas birthday, and it´s just once a year! Endless people were praising the big bronze budda. And there were people in traditional costumes, dancing, dragons...  And everybody loved us as the only tourist and wanted to have pictures taken of them :) AMAZING EXPERIENCE!

Next city south is HUE which was something like an old capital. We stayed out of time just one night, but longer wont be a mistake. Lots of HISTORY places and the whole old towncenter. And all over the place are old TOMBS of former leaders and their familymembers. We went to one of the smaller ones, and it´s allready really impressive how much gold and money they did put in this one grave!!! And after that we found out that there is as well here a big FESTIVAL in the evening. It was all around the riverfront, from nightmarkets over music, dance, and a big FASHIONSHOW :)

Step into HOI ANH and you think you step in a differnet county and world. The citycenter with the river and huge market in the middle is full of small old wood building, most of them made up as shops. Lots of them selling souvenier and tourist things, but the most are eather ARTGALLERIES or TAILORS. Every dress or suit you can think of, they will make it here for you (and of course, the price is probably not even a quarter of what it would cost in Europe!). And the whole flair of the city is made up as a peaceful and romantic place. Walk at nighttime to the riverfront with the restaurants, bars and the nightmarket. I´ve never seen as many colourful lights and laterns as here - beautiful :)

Back on the nightbus to end up the next morning in NHA TRANG. A city famous for the big SANDBEACH and heaps of RUSSIANS. And thats it basicly. Where ever you go in town, everything is in russian. All the signs on streets or in shops, the menus, the hotels,... Even at the nightmarket more of the vietnamese sellers spoke basic russian than english!!!! But the beach is great, perfect for a day of relaxing after so much traveling and bevore a good NIGHT OUT IN NHA TRANG :). And we went on a BOATDAY TRIP as well. Booked a trip to islands for several snorkling opportunities. How it allways is, bookings and happenings are different. We went to some islands, had one basic snorkling with some amazing fish to see, lunch on the boat, and lots of unexpected party from band to karaoke, bar in the water and so on. Different than planned, but great trip :)

From the hot sunny beach the way goes up in the mountains, for the first time it is COLD AND RAINY when we leave the bus in DALLAT. We´re doing the best to see what we can, but half of the time it´s pouring rain. No problem, this is a town with excelent stylish coffehouses as well :). The towncenter has a lot of the old FRENCH STYLE houses, colourful and romantic, there is even a moulin rouge restaurant :). Worse a visit is as well the CRAZY HOUSE, like a littel "artpark" to visit or even to stay overnight. The rooms, houses and ways between are magical. A mix of "100 water art" and alice in the wonderland - amazing! And if you go a bit out of town there is another crazy place: the "VALLEY OF LOVE". I´m not kidding! It´s called like that, and if you see it you´ll agree. Every motive of love from every culture is to find here, made up with hearts and in pink. As well as you find boats on the lake, ponyriding with cowboys, music, strawberry fields, and just a lot of hearts - worse the fun :).

We´re going to the CAPITAL HO CHI MINH, former SAIGON. A city which has of course Vietnam style, but has as well lots of WESTERN TRADITIONS. Every big westerncoffe house is to find here (in european prices which are radicules to the street prices here!), shoppingmalls, as well as buildings are lots left over from the european time here (lots of catholic churches...). Good to see in the city is the WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM, the CENTERMARKET for bargain shopping, the buildings, and of course you have to experience the maintourist street which is like a little version of K-ROAD in Bangkok :). If you have the change, take a daytour our to the CHU-CHU-TUNNELS. Crazy to see how long they are, but that narrow that we wouldn´t fit in. And they lived there! Most tours stop as well in factories where you see how the cheap souvenirs actually get hand-made. Interesting to see!