Vietnam

Happy 2026!

I spent the turn of the calendar in Hanoi, Vietnam, thanking French colonialism for introducing baguettes to Southeast Asia (fka Indochina) so the bahn mi could be created. I had a delicioius bahn mi at Bami Bread that my friend Stefanie recommended. The bread was crispy without scraping the top of my mouth, and the filling had the right balance of sauce, meat, and veggies. Oh, and it was $2.50. Can’t beat it.

Before the bahn mi lunch, I added to my UNESCO count and visited the Imperial Citadel at Thang Long. After the Angkor temples of Cambodia, the Thang Long Citadel was honestly underwhelming. Climbing all the buildings gave some nice views, and the gardens were lovely, but it’s just not fair to Thang Long that I’d just come from Angkor. I am curious why their citrus trees have the fruit covered in plastic like ornaments, though.

At the end of the day exploring Hanoi, I headed back to the hotel for my favorite New Years Eve activity: eating an indulgent dinner and drinking champagne on the couch while watching movies. I had been upgraded to a suite (thanks Amex Platinum!), so I ordered a yummy room service feast and watched V for Vendetta, because it was on the English-language movie channel. Despite an early wakeup, I stayed up for the midnight fireworks before crashing into bed.

That early wakeup was worth it to see the Ha Long Bay archipelago. A shuttle picked me up at 5:45am, and we headed down to Halong for a day cruise on the bay. My photos do not do this place justice - it’s just beautiful. We had 3 excursions: one to climb into the Sung Sot Cave, a stop on Titop Island (on which I climbed a small mountain for great views), and finally a bamboo boat to Luon Cave. It was the perfect visit for me, but I see why people do multi-day cruises.

If I visit Vietnam again, I’d probably skip Hanoi and see other parts of the country - I notably missed Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) on this trip - but would visit Ha Long Bay again. Oh, and I need to eat some more banh mi!

PS - I enabled comments if you want to leave a note.

View from the boat as we head back to port

Garden at Thang Long (but why is the fruit covered in plastic?)

Susan BloombergJanuary 3, 20264 Comments