Best places I went in ‘Nam

The Dragon Bridge in Da Nang, image by me.

Hello friends & foes!

This post is dedicated to a friend who is going to Vietnam soon. Hey gurl. I thought I’d list some of the best food we ate, some of the most beautiful places we saw & things that were essential to our beautiful trip from October of 2024. Specifically we went to Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang & Hoi An ~ I know there’s more epic places around that we could have explored! But in a 2 week trip, as someone who had never been there before ~ these were just SOME of the best things we did. (There’ll be food & thrift stores specifically at the end!)

Ho Chi Minh Streets

I think one of the best days we had in Saigon was just us walking around the streets and finding interesting little shops.

Maybe this isn’t super revolutionary but anytime I go overseas one of the first things I do is just go for a damn walk! Maybe it might be a daunting as Nam’ is known for it’s busy streets, but we found so many hidden markets, so many small businesses, so many hidden gems! It is definitely is so worth it to just send it. Especially during the day.

A fruit stand on the side of the road, pic by me.

More images of fruit & veg markets we found, pics by me.

Ba Na Hills - Da Nang

I feel like when we were researching things to do in Nam’ we were told a lot about Ba Na Hills in Da Nang. I think it’s widely seen as one of the more epic places to visit in Nam’ in general. However, a lot of the videos we watched looking f*cking intense! Imagine hundreds of people trying to take photos on a famous bridge at once, in 35 degree heat, with the sun beaming down onto you. Overstimulating asf.

The day we made our trip from our hotel in Da Nang to Ba Na Hills, we actually had one of the most magical and peaceful days of our whole trip! Specifically due to the weather, time of year we went and time of day we decided to go.

A cable cart & my partner in the fog, pics by me.

My long-winded advice about getting there, leaving and the amount of people:

When we were organising getting there, my partner scheduled a Grab from our hotel for around 8:00 am, and additionally for the way home scheduled a Grab for when we wanted to leave. This made it significantly cheaper and easier than relying on buses or trying to get a ride home whilst there. When we arrived, because it was so early in the day, we were virtually some of the only people on the iconic Golden Hand Bridge ~ which was so wild in comparison to the videos I had seen of it being squishy and overwhelming. It was an extremely foggy day in the middle of November, which I believe made it a lot more generally pleasant in terms of temperature too. It was actually cold lol. My main advice for a more pleasant experience, no matter what time of year it is or what weather it’ll be that day, is just to go as early in the morning as you can. It’ll be so much more chill.

I will say, we definitely had a specific experience. It was foggy and cold and we could not really even see the castle from far away. It’d be so epic to see it, and the views properly! But I do think it was better in some ways as well. I love not being overstimulated ♡.

The gardens at Ba Na Hills, pic by me.

Honestly we did actually get lost a fair bit because in the fog we couldn’t see anything. And there is this constant Shrek-Disney-Esque music playing throughout the whole place which was somewhat distracting. But overall was an insanely beautiful and magical experience. And the cable-carts to get to the top of the hills and back are even more insane. I saw some of the best views I have seen in my life in that little pod!

Views from the cable carts, pic by me.

Analog House - Film & Máy ảnh chụp lấy liền

When I travel I am always on the hunt for film stores or just places to buy film. This was kind of an unusual store, located on the 4th floor on a building with what seemed to be a cafe, a tattoo studio & offices within it. We climbed the building and found this tiny one room store and the girl working there was so kind and showed us some really cool stickers which I bought lol.

A cat greeting us at the entrance of the first floor, pic by me.

The people who worked in each part of the building were so cool ~ it was so intimidating ♡. But I just really admired how many small businesses were in this one small building and how much creativity that clearly was there.

From inside the building, pics by me.

Mekong River Delta

The experience of the Mekong was extremely beautiful, learning more about the history of specific parts of Nam’ and seeing the locals creating different delicacies. But we went with a tour and so it felt just a bit touristy (deeerrrr). I’m not sure how you’d get there without a guide but if you wanted to do this I’d research what sorts of freedom you’d get within the tour as we just felt a bit rushed in parts.

On the river ride, pic by me.

Pics from the whole day, by me.

PapaToyLand

If you’re into blind boxes, knick knacks or crafts, this place in Ho Chi Minh will be heaven. They had so many blind boxes, keychains, & all kinds of different beads and goodies. It is such a great concept for a store.

iPhone pic of the door ♡

Hoi An

Guy’s just make sure when you go to Nam’, go to Hoi An okay? We were only there for 2 days unfortunately, and I do think it’s pretty overrun with tourists, but it’s such a gentle place. Especially after the chaos of Saigon, it was such a needed moment of peace for us. Not to mention all the local sewers, makers, silversmiths, leathersmiths, etc, that occupy Hoi An. It was so inspiring.

The water near the night market, pic by me.

More pics around Hoi An, by me

We also stayed somewhere called the Angel Garden Villa and it was such a joy. It was a little bit out from the main area of Hoi An, and was definitely one of the more expensive places we stayed, but it was beautiful, open & lush and full of thriving plants.

The corner of our room, by me. Me by Caeleb.

Let’s now talk about food.

Hum

This place was actually probably the most beautiful eating experience I’ve ever had in my life (lol). We went to their location in the middle of District 3 in Ho Chi Minh City and omg. The building alone was one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen ~ and then the food was just f*cked. For my vegetarian friends specifically, this would be essential to a visit to Saigon.

The outside of the building which contains Hum, pics by me.

This building also has an incredible gift shop ♡ which had such unique ceramics and books within. Additionally it has other restaurant’s we visited which were also so incredible. Specifically we went to Man Moi which was again some of the best food I’ve had in my LIFE! Man Moi is definitely not vegetarian friendly though ~ it mainly was fish options. These were both definitely our most expensive meals we had in Nam’ but I would say it was worth the price for the general vibes. Such a unique building and such incredible food.

For a more indepth video of our food, specifically for Hum , go to 16:54 on my Youtube video hehe.

The interior, and the flight of stairs outside the same building, pics by me.

Bánh Mì Phượng

Anthony Bourdain visited this place in Hoi An and said it was ‘the best bahn mi in town’ but I think it’s widely known as one of the best in all of Nam’. It was so good we went there twice in our 2 day stay in Hoi An, and got several bahn mi’s each time.

There’s also vegetarian options but I would not say it’s super veggie friendly ♡.

Chian

This place in Da Nang had such beautiful graphics on the walls ~ I was frikkin’ obsessed! And the general vibes were impeccable. Everyone was friendly and the pancakes were delish.

I feel like I’ve had pancakes in Japan that were so hyped up ~ but were super sweet and intense tasting. But these were fluffy and light and not too crazy for eating Crème Brûlée pancakes lol.

More pics of the epic graphics from the store. And our pancake. Pics by me.

Mr Mi

This was another one of the best meals we had in Ho Chi Minh. Also one of the fastest and cheapest too! Located upstairs from a random massage parlour, the vibes in this place were just so good.

iPhone pics because my partner was sick and we just wanted to eat ♡.

You can also sit on this sweet little balcony to eat and it’s surrounded by the trees and the busy streets of Ho Chi.

I can’t stress how cheap it was tho. $6 AUD for us both to each a full meal with soup on the side, and less than $1 for two beers. This was beautiful.

Yup.

Let’s now talk about thrifting.

I am positive that Nam’ is one of the best places in the world to thrift. I had to seriously restrain myself from going too crazy.

As I’m not taking too many pics in thrift shops, here are some of the locations just quickly lined up.

Ho Chi Minh: Mayhem Vintage, Đầu Hàng Stooooooooore, 80’s Saigon, DND hood, The 90’s

Da Nang & Hoi An: Rintage & La Mer Vintage 2Hand Store, Talo 2hand Vintage Store.

I highly recommend both the places in Da Nang & Hoi An, I think we spent maybe $50 AUD and got just so many high quality pieces. And Dau Hang in Saigon was such a vibe ~ although I didn’t actually buy any clothes because I had no space in my suitcase lol.

Some of the clothes and the view from Talo 2hand Vintage store in Hoi An, pics by me.

Thanks so much for reading my first proper post abt Nam. As you can tell I can’t get over how incredible the trip was. I loved it!

If you’d like to see more photos from our trip, please go have a look at my folio, and if you like to watch our cheeky adventures go to my Utube!

Peace & luv.

L