Reason enough to plan your holiday in ‘Nam. 😀

Vietnam is the 2nd largest producer in the world after Brazil. Second only to rice in value of agricultural products exported from Vietnam.

First introduced by the French in 1857, the Vietnamese coffee industry developed through the plantation system, becoming a major economic force in the country.

It’s a boom and bust crop, needless to say. And there are environmental and sociological concerns.

Starbucks opened its first store in Vietnam in 2013. Highlands Coffee is biggest of the chains.

Almost every little street kiosk makes good coffee, however. I’ve not been to Starbucks nor Highlands.

For me, most of the coffee is too strong.

Here my guide is drinking black tar. I’m having the same tar with sweetened condensed milk.

The use of sweetened condensed milk rather than fresh milk was first due to its availability and easier storage in a tropical climate. 

Egg coffee is super popular, as well. Egg yolks with sugar and condensed milk rather than fresh milk.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There are dozens of other alternatives available, hot or on ice. Coconut and Salted are great.

At the Me Linh Coffee Garden we toured the coffee plantation. AND visited the Asian palm civet enclosure.

Kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and defecated.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) investigators call this animal cruelty.

The set-up for the animals at Me Linh Coffee Garden looked very good. BUT that’s what they want to show tourists.

I didn’t drink civet coffee.

In Vietnam they call it weasel coffee.

Here are coffee beans.

We drove away from the highland coffee tourist location via one of the abandoned U.S. airports from the American War.

I was going to skip the beach / tourist city, Nha Trang — but I’m glad I stopped over for 1 night.

It’s very inexpensive. AND tourist friendly.

After visiting the beach for about 20 minutes, I had a DAY.

• Monkey Island
• Mud Bath
• Gourmet Barbecue Buffet

Local cuisine is most famous for fresh seafood and barbecued pork rolled in rice paper.

I tried a buffet which offered a LOT of meat, fish, and seafood at very low price.

I was convinced to sit down by the small grill in every table.

Cook up what you want. Pork bellies were my favourite.

I added much of what I cooked to my personal Pho. Keeping everything hot.

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Nha Trang in 2025 is overfull with overweight Russian men with wife / mistress. Many signs include Russian and some businesses provide tourist services mainly for the Russians.

Unwelcome in many nations, in 2025 Russians are vacationing in Turkey, Thailand, China, the UAE, and Vietnam.

This city is very popular with Koreans, as well.

BEST time to walk the beach is early morning or in the evening.

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Huế was the capital of Vietnam from 1802 to 1945. 

UNESCO-designated Complex of Huế Monuments is the main reason tourists visit.

I used the GPSMyCity app to walk the huge site. It didn’t work all that well. I probably should have simply hired their headphones guide.

Happily, I got there in time for the morning changing of the guard.

I took a LOT of photos over a couple of hours. Most tourists don’t leave the main attractions. I walked everywhere. 😀

Pho and Mango Smoothie overlooking the site.

The other thing I enjoyed in Hue was renting a bicycle and cruising the waterways.

A nice tourist stop.

I had another inexpensive private room in a hostel.

I’ve spent quite a few nights in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam over 2 trips, the first in 2014.

If you’ve been, you remember well the entertaining, chaotic traffic. 😀

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Hanoi has already started implementing a motorbike ban, beginning with petrol-powered motorbikes inside Ring Road 1 on July 1, 2026. These restrictions aim to combat the city’s severe air pollution, progressively phasing out fossil-fuel vehicles

I’ll believe that when I see it. 😀

I did see tourist areas blocked off for the evening in some other cities. Restaurants and bars could spill on to the street as they do in Europe.

There’s much to see and do in Hanoi, however.

I was moved by the Hanoi Hilton (Hỏa Lò Prison) museum. This is where John McCain spent parts of his five and a half years as a POW during the American war.

Both my visits I was very impressed with the Roman Catholic Church of Cửa Bắc.

Of course, tourists love the inexpensive local restaurants.

This time I wasn’t allowed into the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. I had a drone in my backpack which was detected going through the metal detector. Busted.

In fact, taking this photo from quite a distance and outside the fence, armed guards came to chase me away.

No worries. Images of Ho Chi Minh are everywhere.

He was the founder and first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969.

He was worldly having worked on ships from 1911 to 1917. This included stops in the USA.

He lived in France for years. Then moved to Moscow in 1923. And to China in November 1924. In Canton, Hồ organized the Association of Vietnamese Youth.

It wasn’t until 1941 that Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam to lead the Việt Minh independence movement.

I passed St. Joseph’s Cathedral often, staying in a nearby hostel.

BUT my favourite activity in the old quarter is walking around Hoàn Kiếm Lake. Especially at night.

Hà Giang Province in far north Vietnam near the Chinese border is one of the poorest regions.

Gorgeous mountainous karst landscape.

Since the designation of Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark in 2010, the tourism industry has been growing. Astonishingly popular in 2025 is a loop of some of the scenic roads by jeep or motorbike.

I signed on for a 3 day, 3 night option for about USD $200.

Rice does not grow well here — corn is the most important crop.

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We traveled by sleeper bus from Hanoi to Ha Giang city. Then slept a few more hours in a hostel.

Each tourist has a personal guide / driver.

I called my guide BOSS as he was the leader of the pack.

It’s possible to do the loop on your own, renting a bike. But I understand you’ll be stopped by the police often — and asked to pay a fine / bribe.

The other 2 nights were in a good hotel. And a charming traditional homestay.

Food was excellent. We all gained weight over 3 days. 😀

Everyone in my group left super happy with the experience. No accidents — if you don’t count me running off the bike when my driver hit a hidden pothole at very low speed.

We did about 300km — all good. Dozens of scenic stops.

Drivers know all the best photo stop angles.

A great adventure.

In Indonesia, I keep some inexpensive Marie Biscuits handy — as emergency snacks.

It dawned on me that I’ve done that all over the world. They seem to be in every small shop, everywhere.

The biscuit is round and usually has the name embossed. Always 66 mm in diameter.

Since they are quite dry, they have a relatively long shelf life. 

They were created by the London bakery Peek Freans in 1874 to commemorate the marriage of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to the Duke of Edinburgh.