Like any Southeast Asian city, Bangkok comes alive after sun has set. Streets are illuminated with  sparkling lights and local entrepreneurs are setting up their food carts in order to cook their steamy dishes. Places like Chinatown are basically deserted during the day whereas at night time they're crowded of hungry locals and visitors alike. The good thing about street food here is that the proportions are relatively small, which means you can try out many different foods and hop from one stall to the next one! And this, my friends, is a Thai kitchen experience at its best! 

We did, however, treat ourselves one night to bit of a different style of dining- namely in the 60th floor of Banyan Tree Hotel in a restaurant called Saffron*. They offer contemporary Thai cuisine that you literally enjoy in the sky. It's definitely one of those most memorable restaurants where high-class dining meets outrageous skyline view! They make you feel like a royal the minute you walk in, and seriously spoil you with their service (they even 'wash' your hands and bring you flowers!) throughout the dinner. Last but not least you can climb up the last few floors to get to the outside rooftop where the Vertigo and Moon Bar is located. Now, you pay the price for your cocktail but seriously the experience is all worth it...
Aside from some low-key chilling on Khao San Road, we found it hard to choose where to go for a fun night out. In a city this spread out it's like heading out blindfolded, and thats what we literally ended up doing; we got in a taxi and asked him to drive us to a good party! When he pulled over to this random alley, we got all skeptical and second-guessed our judgement to put our night in some taxi driver's hands. The place was 95% Indian and somehow strange but thanks to these funny guys that invited us to their table for the entire night (and pour us drinks for free), we ended up having a good time! Things got even weirder when one of the guys gave us his business card stating him to be some kind of Indian royal...Oh well, that would explain the free drinks and his demands on the waitresses to move around tables to make some space for his personal dance floor! ;) So in the end of it, even there were no drag queens and she-males involved in our night out, I can well imagine that some of the most legendary party stories out there take place in this very city...

It’s really no wonder this little UNESCO world heritage town is often said to be the gem of Vietnam when it comes to towns. Once you stroll around it’s narrow streets, you can’t help but fall in love with everything about it: little bars and restaurants, pretty yellowish buildings, countless tailor-shops and then the lanterns…that are literally everywhere! 

We had three days to explore the town and its surroundings, and on two of them we got around with bikes. It was such a nice way to see the endless rice paddies and every now and then spot a vietnamese hat peeking from the fields. The beachfront wasn't far either and that’s pretty much where we usually ended up…for a beer swim. 

Hoi An has incredibly much to offer and one thing we will always remember it by is the dining. More specifically a place called Morning Glory. Let me tell a little bit about this heavenly spot: It’s run by a very talented chef who shares her story along with explanations of each dish on the menu. She has categories like “Soups my mum used to make” and “Workers food” and so on, and the focus is on making traditional foods (also street food) with a twist. I can’t even put it in words how delicious the food was (and we ate in her restaurants multiple times)- it’s something about the Vietnamese food…the freshness and the rich flavours that make all the difference. And the talented kitchen staff, of course. The town most definitely came to life in the night time as people filled the street food stalls, lanterns were all lit up and little girls were selling candles to be sent down the river- pure magic. 

Last but not least the shopping. It’s a paradise for anyone who’d like to get tailor-made clothes done for them (or anything else for that matter). I had a few dresses made for me and everything was quick and simple (except choosing what I wanted to have done). It all went down somewhat like this: A lady came over to talk to us and sort of hijacked us into her little store and sat us down next to a thick pile of catalogs…well, the rest you may guess. In short, I pretty much picked a dress I wanted on and the next day I had a fitting and it was all done! As I said back then, I say now: Vietnamese people got some game! They’re the most industrious people I know, and I mean by just looking how they’ve come through “recent” wars and struggles, and still managed to rebuild their nation with a steady growth in their economy. Like the saying goes “Vietnamese plant the rice, the Cambodians watch the rice, and the Lao listen the rice grow…”.  With that being said, Hoi An was definitely the prettiest town we saw in Vietnam and I will always remember it as the little “Disneyland of Vietnam”.