Vietnam, North to South
Vietnam is 1,650 kilometres from top to bottom and changes completely three times along the way. The north is Chinese-inflected and cool in winter; the centre is imperial and rainy in autumn; the south is Khmer, French and hot all year. Getting the season right for the direction of travel matters more here than almost anywhere.
The bay is the part most often ruined. We move clients two hours east into Bai Tu Long, on a twelve-cabin boat with a crew that anchors for the morning rather than the sunset photograph, and the difference is four hundred boats you never see.
Food is the spine of the route: bun cha at a Hanoi curbside, a Hue imperial table cooked by a family that served the last court, cao lau in Hoi An made with water from one specific well. Agencies find it sells itself to clients who have already done Thailand.
Private transfer into the Old Quarter and an evening walk through the thirty-six guild streets as the plastic stools come out.
The Temple of Literature at opening, the Ethnology Museum, and a bun cha lunch at a curbside grill the guide has eaten at for twenty years.
The road to Hon Gai and a private tender out to the boat, anchoring in Bai Tu Long for the first night.
Kayaks at first light through a tidal cave, a floating village where the school is a barge, and squid fishing after dark.
Back to Hanoi for the short flight south, arriving to the Perfume River and the citadel walls at dusk.
The Forbidden Purple City with a historian, the tomb of Tu Duc in the pines, and an imperial dinner cooked by a court family.
South by road over the pass with the sea below, a stop at the Cham sculpture museum in Da Nang, then into Hoi An.
The merchant houses before the tour groups, a morning at the Tra Que herb gardens, and a tailor who takes two fittings, not one.
The Cham towers of My Son at opening, then back down the Thu Bon river by boat to the coconut palms of Cam Thanh.
The flight south, the Reunification Palace and the war remnants museum, and a rooftop above the Saigon river at night.
A morning on the Mekong at Cai Be, a lunch in an orchard house, and the transfer to Tan Son Nhat for the flight home.
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