Sapa

Sapa is in the north of Vietnam, really close to the Chinese border. It is 1600m above sea level and thus not to hot. The town itself got wrecked by the tourist boom. The Hmong people follow the tourists really annoyingly and yell "buy somethiiiing". That's why you can't experience the real Sapa in the town itself. Hiking around on the huge rice terraces is the best way. We did that for two days in a row. The first one took 8 hours which is a lot by it self, but if you add the terrain - it is a pain in the ass. We were able to walk through Hmong villages and experience their true daily life. It is hard work to take of these terraces and differently than in China, they can only harvest during the wet season (That's probably why they pick on tourists so desperately).
the second day it was a similar hike but in a different direction. Sadly the waterfall we aimed for was out of reach, because we did a bit more adventurous route, which turned out to be really demanding. But maybe after 7 hours of walking in the surprisingly hot sun we returned to Sapa. Definitely worth visiting...

Halong Bay

If did sights you see on the tour we booked wouldn't be as amazing as they were we would have been really angry at the tour operators. They screwed with almost everything. They stripped everybody of their tour ticket at the beginning, they served shitty food. The prices for beverages were way to high, they collected all the passports and "lost" one of a German guy, and so on...
As mentioned before, the sights are beautiful. First we visited a huge cave, which has enough room for a whole cathedral. They installed various colors of spotlights, which made it even more breathtaking. Then we took the ship through the majestic, steep hills and visited some fisher who live on floating houses. There are hundreds of hills to pass. Then we slept in a dull town on the main island. Surprisingly there was a local festival which attracted a lot of local residents. That was pretty cool. The next day we climbed one of these hills from where the view was also really cool, despite the clouds. afterwards we spent the night on the boat. Everybody had to hide their alcohol and only drank in the room. In the morning we went canoeing in a little area in the middle of it all. Then there was the long way back, bad lunch and a long bus to Hanoi. On the whole trip we had to wait for about 10 hours for some guide , bus or ship to show up. TIV (this is Vietnam)

Hanoi

We were greeted in Hanoi with two lies and waited for a bus that never would come. The guy who told us just wanted us to get bored and take the easy way out with the car of his friend, which would take us to his hotel. Then we took a taxi ride with a huge detour. Then we had to find out that it is not possible to get a China visa at the Chinese embassy in the capitol of Vietnam. So it took us a half a day to arrange a deal with the Vietnam Airlines, who supposedly flew the passports to Saigon and would bring it back 5 days later. Hanoi itself is motorbikes turf. People lie when they open their mouth. The best way to explore Hanoi is to do it on your own. There are several interesting spots: an ancient library, the National History Museum, the Mausoleum of the dude himself and the central lake in the middle. We also had to hustle with the tour operators to find a reasonable tour to Halong Bay, which took another approximately5 hours. At least there was a KFC. A German guy even got robbed just after hitting an ATM, which was the first time i heard anything like it in Southeast Asia. And of we went to Halong Bay.

Hue

The last city I have visited before (and already written about) is Hue. We stayed in the backpacker district in the north east and ate cheap and good food. We did the Royal Palace which was amazing even though I was there before. The size and history about this place just knocks you down. So bad that it was destroyed during the Indochina- and American war. The weather was bit rainy but we managed.

Hoi An

The second last city I have seen before was Hoi An. I basically did the same thing like the first time. Stroll around in the more or less car-free roads of this UNESCO World Heritage jewel. Even though jewel is maybe a big word for what you get to see. The riverfront is pretty nice, but there is a big construction going on.We ate at various restaurants and watched the mostly french tourists going by. The alleys can be quite thin. We spend a fair amount of time in the hotel where HBO was available. After two nights we've seen it and chose to move on.

Nha Trang

Why did I go to Nha Trang again? There was still this long beach, that cheap beer, the hot weather, no culture. We just limed in the shade of a palm during the day or tried to cool down with an ice cream. I had fun to watch the motorbike drivers coming to the beach, parking it an strolling as unsuspiciously around as possible to pray on Scandinavian girls who were sunbathing topless on the beach. Then they would sit down in proximity of 5 m and stare at them for about a half an hour.

Dalat

This city is situated 1500m above sea level. It is in a hilly area and is very green. Here the world famous to be Dalat wine comes from. It is a bit dry, but just on the edge with a fruity nuance. And you cant really complain for 2.5 $ a bottle. The city it self has a buzz ling market in the middle and nice park areas. It is popular among wedding couples who want to spend their honeymoon in a bit more romantic place than Ho Chi Minh. We also did a long trip with the bicycle around the area which was pretty hard, but the bikes were very good. We spend the evenings in the market area and walked around town for some time. This city is worth a visit to get out of the heat and mess of coastal Vietnam.