Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage town on Vietnam’s central coast, famous for its preserved ancient architecture, riverside lanterns, and an absolutely improbable concentration of tailor shops. There are approximately 400 tailors in a town of 120,000 people. This is one tailor for every 300 residents, which suggests either that Hoi An’s population is extraordinarily well-dressed or that something

Crossing a street in Hanoi requires abandoning everything you’ve learned about traffic safety and embracing a philosophy that resembles faith, game theory, and collective hallucination. There are no crosswalks that matter, no pedestrian signals that anyone obeys, and no moment when traffic actually stops. Instead, you step into the flow and trust that dozens of motorcycles will somehow avoid hitting

The Ho Chi Minh Highway runs nearly 3,000 kilometers from Hanoi in the north to Ca Mau in the south, roughly paralleling the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail that was used during the Vietnam War. The name carries weight – Ho Chi Minh is Vietnam’s founding father, the George Washington of Vietnamese nationalism, except instead of a powdered wig he

The Ha Giang Loop in northern Vietnam is 350 kilometers of mountain roads that have become the backpacker’s rite of passage for Southeast Asia. You rent a semi-automatic motorcycle in Ha Giang City – usually a Chinese-made Honda Wave knock-off with questionable brake function – and spend three to four days riding through minority villages, rice terraces, and scenery that