Azeez visited Vietnam for the first time for the double wedding of two friends. While there, he reconnected with friends from undergrad and together, the group adventured through the country taking every means of transportation available, seeing a variety of unique sights and eating as much fantastic local food as possible.

I went to Vietnam for a wedding and took advantage of the opportunity to travel with undergraduate friends.

Prior to Vietnam, my friends and I took a pilot trip to Miami for spring break and we had so much fun. Despite all the fun we were having during the Miami trip, we also noticed that we were a bit restricted, financially, in terms of things we could and couldn’t afford to do. Thus, we decided our next trip had to be a place where the American dollar could actually allow us to do some major damage. Vietnam (& eventually Guatemala, which we also hit up a year or 2 later) fit the bill perfectly. Due to the dollar to dong (Vietnamese currency) exchange rate, we were pretty much able to roll around Vietnam with style. Accordingly, here’s just a few things in a long list that we had no problem doing without breaking the bank:

• Rent a personal charter bus, driver and tour guides

  

• Rent & ride around with enough scooters to make us look like a motorcycle gang
• Sail in tour yachts. We did this twice (once in Nha Trang and again, in
  Ha Long Bay
• Purchase plane tickets to fly within the Vietnamese borders (this helped us save time when we needed to get from one side of the country to the other faster).
• Purchase train ride tickets to Sa Pa.
• Get cheap but good massages & Hot Spring / mud bath
• Order exorbitant amounts of food & drinks at every restaurant or party we hit up.

While there we went to several locations.

• Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon: (Groom’s City)

We explored city, visited tourist attractions, got massages (to compare north vs south massage styles), and rested

• Binh Quoi, Saigon:

This was where the wedding for groom’s family was helf

• Cai Rang Floating Market (near Saigon): Market on boats in the Mekong Delta

We sailed around the river, tasting & buying things (i.e. rice wine, snake wine, scorpion wine, etc)

At this point we took an overnight bus ride From Saigon to Nha Trang. (We chartered a personal tour bus)

• Nha Trang, Beach Resort

Here we jet skied, snorkeled, had a cruise ship/yacht party, enjoyed the Hot Springs / mud baths and went scooter riding.

• Ha Long Bay:

Took a kayak out, took a cruise boat tour & explored caves

• Ha Noi: (bride’s city)

After the wedding for the bride’s family we explored city, visited tourist attractions, and rested

Then it was an overnight train ride to SaPa

• SaPa: Town in the Hoàng Liên Son Mountains of northwest Vietnam

  

We resided with a host family in the village. Ate, drank & hung with locals. Oh, and climbed mountains.

• Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon: (Groom’s City)

We explored more of the city & visit tourist attractions.

  Củ Chi tunnels tour with a war vet. Củ Chi tunnels were a network of underground tunnels used as hideouts, living quarters and supply routes for the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

  Besides the expected culture shock experience, this trip helped me realized how much I truly enjoy traveling to new and distant places. More importantly, I learned how much fun these trips can become if done with the right people. Currently, I’m working on my PhD, so i haven’t been doing much traveling. However, once i complete the program & land a real job, i do plan on getting right back on that world exploration boat with all those vacation days i plan on racking up.