Cheap flights to Vietnam are being snapped up by more and more Australians each year, eager to experience the country that curls so elegantly around Laos and Cambodia and faces the Gulf of Tonkin and South China Sea.
Most visitors arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, and fly home from Hanoi, or vice versa. In HCMC, the former capital, at the bottom of the country, you'll find French-colonial buildings straight out of Graham Greene, the Ben Thanh Market and the Reunification Palace as well as what seems like every motorbike in the world.
Hanoi, the capital, is in the north, the final resting place of Ho Chi Minh himself. This compact city is beautiful, boasting Hoan Kiem Lake, the Old Quarter and historic buildings dating from the French era.
From Hanoi, it's a mere 170km to Ha Long Bay. A cruise through this emerald-green and blue bay is a must on every traveller's itinerary.
Vietnam is a land to be savoured at leisure. One trip may not be enough.