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I love Vietnam. It’s the first and only Asian country I have ever visited, thus it has a special place in my heart. But it has been almost five months already, so it’s time for Jet Set Zero to hit the road again.

We’ll see you in April in ECUADORRRRRRRRR! I am so excited, you have no idea! See you there!

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It’s never easy to say goodbye. I personally never know how I am going to react until the moment has come. But it might be that the more you think about leaving, the more difficult it gets. My recipe to avoid this? Live your life as normal until the last minute.

Van, Nhan and I promoting JSZ at the pub.

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What will I miss about Vietnam (besides friends)?

1) Fruits. And fresh fruit shakes.
Ooooohh fruits, I love you so very much. I think I have tried nearly everyone of you. I apologize for not knowing all your names, but trust me, I do remember your faces. You were very refreshing, very filling, or both! I’ll miss you so very much.

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Wherever I walk in this city, it seems there’s always something new to catch my eye. Or something I had never noticed before.

Où que je j’aille dans cette ville, on dirait qu’il y a toujours du nouveau. Quelque chose que je n’avais jamais remarqué auparavant.

Shadow on rice.

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In the scorching saigonese heat, what’s better to do than going to the waterpark?!
Awesome slides, a zip-line, an outdoors wave pool…! Some of the aquatic attractions are forbidden in Australia- and possibly in Europe (?)- for safety reasons. Fortunately, there was no incident. I felt like a kid. It was awesome!

Sam, Hai and I at the water park.

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Except for sleeping, many Vietnamese do everything on the street.
They squat eating on the sidewalk. They nap on their motorbikes. And, at almost every street corner, there’s someone to fix flat tires and fill up empty tanks with gasoline.

Sitting on the street.

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They are only two covered bridges in Vietnam. The Japanese pagoda bridge in Hoi An, built in 1593 and restored in 1917, and Thanh Toan bridge near Hue, built in 1776.

The Japanese pagoda bridge in Hoi An.

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I am very grateful to Nguyet for inviting me to her village, Tien Cam.
Life is simple and authentic there. They sleep on hard wood beds with a straw mat on them. There is no real shower-yet (Nguyet said)! They use a bucket of cold water and a plastic pan behind a sheet. But trust me, at the end of the day you don’t want a hot shower anyway!

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Our friend Nguyet invited me to her village to celebrate Vietnamese New Year: ”Tet”. During Tet, all the Vietnamese go home to stay with their family for three days. In short, Tet is a family holidays when you don’t do much besides visiting relatives and neighbors, eating Tet sweets and candies, drinking rice wine (or is it vodka?!) and giving lucky money to the youth.

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Hué being only 100 km away from a main Vietnam war combat zone, I decided to check it out. Initially, I wanted to treat myself to a day trip on a moto taxi taking me to various landmarks. (Being on the passenger seat of a motorbike is truly awesome.) But my driver let me down at the last minute ”because it’s raining and it’s too far.” I think he wanted to stay in town with his friends to get drunk for Tet. So I hopped on a bus with twenty other tourists instead.

The Rockpile on top of which a US army base used to be during the Vietnam war.

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