Part of a striving-to-be backpacker's must trip is the richly cultured country of Vietnam. There was no definite plan this year to visit but this country has been always in my travel list. Due to the surge of excitement brought about by an airline's seat sale, I found myself on a plane to Ho Chi Minh City more easily referred to as HCMC six months after booking my ticket.

This begins an exciting exploration and adventure to a country much frequented by backpackers from US, UK, and Australia. Those that I swapped stories with told me that it is usually a trio of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos with a must stopover in Bangkok. So greatly fascinated was I with this bunch of travel nomads that in the midst of our discussion I was dumbfounded to learn that they usually travel for a period of 2 months and more. I spoke to a UK guy, Ken, who was already on his fourth month (out of six!) in Asia free flowing moving from one country to the next. No fixed itineraries, no deadlines, no pressure, JUST free & easy adventure and exploration on each soil he steps in (*sigh*). There were also the Canadian girls duo who even shared an overnight in an unknown bus station somewhere in the provinces of Bangkok. Some US travelers also manages to squeeze in 6 countries in their one month Asia visit. HOW can they manage to "get out" - apparently some are in between jobs and some have a (very lucky!) mobile role allowing them to travel and work anywhere (!!!).

Check out my stories for both Hanoi and HCMC on the two blogs that follows :) Enjoy!


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