I’m really hooked on Vietnam. This was my fourth visit in 3 years and I think, as long as you can avoid tourist scams, is an absolutely charming and fulfilling place for travel. I spent most of my time in Hanoi, using it as a base camp to explore a couple of places I still hadn’t visited in the north. Rather than going to the Unesco World Heritage site of Halong Bay, I opted for the more quiet, less crowded Cat Ba Island. Where you’re still close enough to see the beautiful karst islands and rock formations. Unfortunately I hit a bad patch of weather making it uncomfortable to be out on the water for more than a short time. So I decided to just explore the island and some of it’s sites. You can see all of this in my Cat Ba Island video on my YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/VgizfMnXonQ It was what I called a research trip, at least better than categorizing it as a wash-out! I would definitely go back to spend some time in Han La Bay and it’s the perfect place in the north to feast on fresh, reasonably priced seafood.
October 28