Paradise Cave

Vietnam

　　Surrounded by forested karst peaks, this staggering cave system in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park extends for 31km, though most people only visit the first kilometre. The scale is breathtaking, as wooden staircases plunge into a cathedral-like space with vast alien-looking stalagmites and stalactites illuminated by large flood lights. Get...

Ban Gioc Waterfall

Vietnam

　　Ban Gioc is one of Vietnam’s best-known waterfalls, and its image adorns the lobby of many a cheap guesthouse. The falls, fed by the Quay Son River that marks the border with China, are an impressive sight in a highly scenic location. Aim to visit around lunchtime when the upstream...

Lan Ha Bay

Vietnam

　　Lying to the south of Halong Bay off the north-eastern coast of Vietnam, the 300-or-so karst islands and limestone outcrops of Lan Ha are just as beautiful as those of its superstar neighbour, but feel more isolated and untouched. Lan Ha also has the additional attraction of numerous white-sand beaches,...

Tu Lan Cave

Vietnam

　　The Tu Lan cave system comprises of more than 20 wet and dry caves, which are thought to be between three and five million years old. Huge caverns, underground rivers and vast dangling stalactites make the caves a big draw for spelunkers (cave enthusiasts) visiting Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park...

Hang Son Doong

Vietnam

　　Hang Son Doong (Mountain River Cave), located in the heart of Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, is known as the world's largest cave, and is one of the most spectacular sights in Southeast Asia. It is also one of the most exclusive. Access to the cave was only approved by...

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park

Vietnam

　　Designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2003, the remarkable Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park contains the oldest karst mountains in Asia, formed approximately 400 million years ago. Riddled with hundreds of cave systems – many of extraordinary scale and length – and spectacular underground rivers, Phong Nha is a...

Tran Hung Dao Statue & Park

Southeast Coast

　　Just off the promenade. ...

Lighthouse

Southeast Coast

　　Built by the French, this 1910 lighthouse boasts a spectacular 360° view of Vung Tau. From Cau Da Pier on Ð Ha Long, take a sharp right on the alley north of the Hai Au Hotel, then roll on up the hill. Although Jesus and the lighthouse look temptingly close,...

French Field Guns

Southeast Coast

　　These six massive cannons, all with support trenches, demonstrate how strategically important Cap St Jacques was to the colonial authorities (it guarded access to Saigon). To reach them take Ð Tran Phu beyond Mulberry Beach and look for Hem 444 in the fishing village, about 6km from Vung Tau. Turn...

White Villa

Southeast Coast

　　The weekend retreat of French governor Paul Doumer (later a French president), this gorgeous, grand colonial-era residence has extensive gardens bursting with frangipani. The interior is oddly empty (besides the odd piece of furniture and some Ming pottery retrieved from shipwrecks off the coast). It sits about 30m above the...

Giant Jesus

Southeast Coast

　　Atop Small Mountain with his arms outstretched to embrace the South China Sea (East Sea), this 32m giant Jesus is one of the biggest in the world – taller than his illustrious Brazilian cousin. It's possible to ascend to the arms for a panoramic view of Vung Tau. Note you...

Robert Taylor Museum of Worldwide Arms

Southeast Coast

　　Come here for a stupendous private collection of military arms, uniforms and paraphernalia from across the globe. One section is dedicated to the conflict in Vietnam, another to the French Colonial period and there are Chinese, European and even Zulu exhibits. Robert Taylor, who has spent 50 years amassing and...

Tuc Dup Hill

Chau Doc

　　Because of its network of connecting caves, Tuc Dup Hill (216m) served as a strategic base of operations for US soldiers during the American War. Tuc dup is Khmer for ‘water runs at night’ and it is also known locally as ‘Two Million Dollar Hill’, in reference to the amount...

Chau Doc Floating Market

Chau Doc

　　You need to get up at the crack of dawn to see the best of this floating market. The action is busiest around 5am to 6am, when locals gather to buy fresh produce wholesale. Less colourful and much calmer than other floating markets in the Mekong Delta. ...

30 Thang 4 Park

Chau Doc

　　Stretching from the main market to the Victoria Chau Doc Hotel, this park is the city’s main promenading spot and a superlative area for river gazing. Sculptures and a fountain are framed by manicured lawns and paths, and if you’re interested in getting river-borne, women may approach you here offering...

Chau Phu Temple

Chau Doc

　　This temple was built in 1926 to worship the Nguyen dynasty official Thoai Ngoc Hau, buried at Sam Mountain. The yellow structure is decorated with both Vietnamese and Chinese motifs; inside are funeral tablets bearing the names of the deceased as well as biographical information about them. There’s also a...

Mubarak Mosque

Chau Doc

　　The pretty, pastel Mubarak Mosque, where local Cham Muslim children study the Qur'an in Arabic script, is on the riverbank opposite Chau Doc. Visitors are permitted, but you should avoid entering during the calls to prayer (five times daily) unless you are a Muslim. To get there, take the car...

Floating Houses

Chau Doc

　　These rustic houses, the floats of which consist of empty metal drums, are both a place to live and a livelihood for their residents. Under each house, fish are raised in suspended metal nets. The fish flourish in their natural river habitat, and the family can feed them whatever scraps...

Tra Su Bird Sanctuary

Chau Doc

　　This immense 800,000-hectare forest is home to an astounding number of wading birds. Much of the wetland is off-limits to visitors so that the birds' breeding grounds are not disturbed, but visits include a short speedboat ride and a tranquil 20-minute paddle along narrow channels through the gnarled and green...

Ba Chuc Tomb

Chau Doc

　　Ba Chuc’s memorial, 40km south of Chau Doc, stands as a ghastly reminder of the horrors perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge. Between 18 April and 30 April 1978, the Khmer Rouge killed 3157 villagers here, leaving only two survivors. The memorial consists of two parts: the ossuary housing the skulls...

Catholic Seminary

Kon Tum

　　This lovely old Catholic seminary was built in 1934. The upstairs normally functions as an absorbing museum of hill-tribe life, but was closed for renovation during our visit. Outside, to the left of the building, note the sculpture of Mary and baby Jesus, with Mary dressed in traditional clothing and...

Kon Harachot

Kon Tum

　　Kon Harachot's beautiful rong sits next to the rustic football field. ...

Kon Tum Konam

Kon Tum

　　In the eastern suburbs of Kon Tum, this village has a large and appealing rong. ...

Kon K'lor

Kon Tum

　　Near the suspension bridge across the river you'll find a large rong in the village of Kon K'lor. ...

Ya Chim

Kon Tum

　　Ya Chim is the collective name for a group of eight Jarai villages that start 17km southwest of Kon Tum. In them you'll find traditional nghia trang (cemeteries) complete with wooden mourning figures. You may see villagers 'feeding' the dead by putting food down bamboo tubes leading into the graves....

Kon K'tu

Kon Tum

　　Nine kilometres southeast of Kon Tum, the village of Kon K'tu is reachable across the Kon K'lor suspension bridge and along a potholed road. There's a beautiful riverside rong here, near the Catholic church, as well as a couple of simple homestays. You can watch locals transporting crops along the...

Kon Tum Museum

Kon Tum

　　This museum is one of the region's best, with good lighting and clear English text detailing local religious and spiritual life, including displays on the iron forges of the Sedang (Xo Dang) people and the significance of gongs to Vietnam’s hill communities (Vietnam's gong culture is included in Unesco’s List...

Immaculate Conception Cathedral

Kon Tum

　　Built entirely from wood, this stunning cathedral from the French era has a dark frontage, gold trim and wide colonnades. Known to the locals as the 'wooden church', it’s light, airy and elegant inside, with incredible interlocking beams. The heart of the 160-year-old Kon Tum diocese, it primarily serves the...

Ho Chi Minh Museum

Danang

　　Despite its huge grounds, this museum is typically unenlightening for a site venerating Ho Chi Minh. At the front is a display of the usual US, Soviet and Chinese weaponry. Hidden behind the Party buildings are a replica of Ho Chi Minh’s house in Hanoi, and the museum. ...

Convent of St Paul de Chartres

Danang

　　You can't enter through the convent gate on the road behind the cathedral, but it's worth taking a look at the church architecture from the outside. The Sisters of St Paul de Chartres date to the late 17th century and first arrived in Vietnam (in Saigon) in 1860, running orphanages...

Phap Lam Pagoda

Danang

　　This pagoda has three giant Buddha statues in the courtyard, and an equally imposing large gold one in the temple. ...

Danang Cathedral

Danang

　　Known to locals as Con Ga Church (Rooster Church) because of the weathercock atop the steeple, the candy-pink, photogenic Danang Cathedral was built for the city’s French residents in 1923. Today it serves a Catholic community of over 4000, and is standing room only if you arrive late. ...

Museum of Cham Sculpture

Danang

　　This small but important museum contains the world’s largest collection of Cham artefacts, housed in buildings marrying French-colonial architecture with Cham elements. Founded in 1915 by the École Française d’Extrême Orient, it displays more than 300 pieces including altars, lingas (stylised phalluses representing Shiva), garudas (griffin-like sky beings), apsaras (heavenly...

Dragon Bridge

Danang

　　This wonderfully wacky bridge takes the form of a ginormous, colour-changing dragon, weaving its way across the Han River. If that wasn't attention-grabbing enough, the sculpture, which cost a reported VND1.5 trillion (US$88 million) to build, spouts fire and water from its mouth every Saturday and Sunday night at 9pm,...

Sapa Church

Sapa

　　Sapa's small stone church was built by the French and is still a central landmark. It opens for Mass on Sunday and on certain evenings for prayers. ...

Tram Ton Pass

Sapa

　　The road between Sapa and Lai Chau crosses the Tram Ton Pass on the northern side of Mt Fansipan, 15km from Sapa. At 1900m it's Vietnam’s highest mountain pass, and acts as a dividing line between two climatic zones. The lookout points here have fantastic views in clear weather. 　　On...

Sapa Market

Sapa

　　Turfed out of central Sapa and now in a purpose-built modern building near the bus station, Sapa Market is still interesting, and hill-tribe people from surrounding villages come here most days to sell handicrafts. Saturday is the busiest day. ...

Sapa Museum

Sapa

　　An excellent showcase of the history and ethnology of the Sapa area, including the French colonial era. Dusty exhibitions overview the various ethnic groups around Sapa, with information on the region's rich handicrafts, so it's worth a quick visit when you first arrive in town. Located above a handicrafts shop...

Fansipan Cable Car

Sapa

　　Towering above Sapa are the Hoang Lien Mountains, once known to the French as the Tonkinese Alps and now a national park. These mountains include the often-cloud-obscured Fansipan (3143m), Vietnam’s highest peak, regularly dubbed 'The Roof of Indochina'. Fansipan's wild, lonesome beauty has been somewhat shattered with the opening of...

Ho Chi Minh Statue

Can Tho

　　Uncle Ho, flanked by hammer-and-sickle flags. ...

Munireangsey Pagoda

Can Tho

　　This small golden pagoda was originally built in 1946 to serve Can Tho’s Khmer community. The ornamentation is typical of Khmer Theravada Buddhist pagodas, with none of the multiple Bodhisattvas and Taoist spirits common in Vietnamese Mahayana pagodas. ...

Can Tho Museum

Can Tho

　　This large, well-presented museum brings local history to life with mannequins and life-size reproductions of buildings, including a Chinese pagoda and a house interior. Displays (with ample English translations) focus on the Khmer and Chinese communities, plant and fish specimens, rice production and, inevitably, various wars. ...

Pitu Kohsa Rangsay Pagoda

Can Tho

　　Trying to hide down a quiet backstreet, but gloriously gilded in gold, this rare three-level Khmer Theravada Buddhist pagoda from 1948 contrasts sharply against the adjacent grey buildings. The carved, detailed wall patterns, painted columns, huge Buddha statue and city views from the balcony are all impressive. Its charitable pursuits...

Binh Thuy Ancient House

Can Tho

　　Dating from 1870, the Binh Thuy house was built by wealthy merchant Duong Chan Ky and extensively renovated in the French colonial style in the early 20th century. The interior of the house is very much original, with ornate hand-painted floor tiles, elaborate decorative wood carvings and huge floor-to-ceiling display...

Phong Dien Floating Market

Can Tho

　　An intimate floating market, Phong Dien has more stand-up rowing boats than motorised craft, with local vendors shopping and exchanging gossip. Less crowded than Cai Rang, it has far fewer tourists and less activity. It's most bustling between 5am and 7am, with little to see later. The market is 20km...