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. Please help others discover the podcast by writing a review:https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/adventure-travel-far-east-inspired-by-rick-steves-lonely/id1079513943?mt=2 Support the podcast by becoming a patron, get exclusive chat, messaging and more! Vist my Patreon page:https://www.patreon.com/FarEastAdventureTravel