Vietnam is a beautiful destination to visit all year round- but it is especially rich and vibrant during this upcoming summer season. Ryan C. Haynes, our Vietnam gay travel guide, gives us all of the latest inside scoop from his recent travels to one of the greatest hidden gems of the world!
"Being gay is a western disease as it is a southern and eastern and well pretty much actually a part of life across our great planet. Vietnam is not immune from being fantastically rainbow and while this communist county may not flaunt it - it's here in Hanoi!"
"The journey to Ha Long Bay was ferocious, the driver forced his way along the road without care for the oncoming traffic. Lorries, buses and bikes zoomed around each other at 50 - 70km/p/hour in the gloom of an impending storm."
"Hoi An is a magical city, one that takes you back to when the Portuguese first took advantage of this port as its key trading point with eastern Asia. The beautiful wooden and brick yellow colonial shacks of the town are reminiscent of many other Latin countries..."
"From what I saw Vietnam cannot really say it has a countryside in the traditional sense, commercial farmland and a reduction in cityscape, but pretty much the whole country from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City has been developed in someway...."
"Beyond the big cities of Hanoi and Saigon, past the coastal ports of Hy Long Bay and Hoi An you will discover how the Vietnamese really live and uncover some of the more traditional cultural ways of the local people."
Hue- Tombs and Forbidden Cities
"Vietnam like the rest of Asia is not without its historical tombs and ancient sites of worship and cultural interest - the only difference is that much was destroyed by American or French wars and paragodas as well as temples have undergone much refurbishment throughout the centuries."
"The problem with Vietnam is the early nights. By 10pm the streets are quiet and tourist revelers are being tossed out of the bars during their (our) second drink - the evening is over. The reason: the Vietnamese wake up early and the Fish Market in Hoi An really proves this."
"The Vietnamese are strong people. They have a grit I haven't seen so vividly before, even through Eastern Europe and the fall of communism, opening up of my continent following the World and Cold Wars."
"Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City these are two completely different worlds. Excuse the blue skies, but focus your eyes on coffee shops, no street living, latest technology, historic landmark buildings, big bright lights and an ever growing skyline."
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