- This little riverside border town -- worth a visit in and of itself -- is the main stopover for travelers going to and from Cambodia.

- With its wide avenues and grand parks lined with colonnaded buildings of a yellowed, aging stucco, Haiphong is like a smaller, more manageable version of Hanoi. You won't find jaw-dropping sights, but the town is worth a wander and not a bad stop on the way to, or from, the likes of Cat Ba or Halong Bay.

- The town of Pleiku, capital of Gia Lai Province, is easily recognizable to those who lived through the Vietnam War era: The American Seventh Cavalry, an air brigade and the unit featured in the film Apocalypse Now as the Wagner-blaring helicopter squadron that rains terror in its path, touched down south of Pleiku near famed Camp X-Ray in the La Drang Valley on November 14, 1965, for what would be the first open combat between American and North Vietnamese regulars after full American deployment at Danang.

- The small peninsula city of Quy Nhon is sheltered by outlying islands and a curved spit of land like a "cap," which makes this a very effective deep-water port, the most important in a long stretch between Danang and Nha Trang. As a result of this strategic importance, the town was hotly contested over for centuries, first by the Chinese and later by the French and the Americans (some of the largest U.S. troop deployments, including the famed "Air Cav" unit, came ashore here at Quy Nhon in 1968).

- The Thua Thien -- Hue region was a political football during hundreds of years of early Vietnamese dynastic turf wars with the Cham people in the south and the Chinese in the north. It wasn't until the late 18th century that the leaders of the Tay Son rebellion and Emperor Quang Trung, having routed the Chinese out of the north, established a capital at Hue. Later, the Nguyen dynasty leaders, beginning with powerful Gia Long, made Hue the capital that served the Vietnamese puppets of the French until the end of World War II. The first citadel and Imperial City was built by Gia Long in 1803 on a former royal site; many of the city walls still stand, battle scarred from fighting with the French as far back as 1873, and later with the Americans during the notorious Battle of Hue in 1968.

- 80km from Sapa is Bac Ha town where there is the old famous Bac Ha market. Bac Ha market is not only the place for buying and selling, but also a place for cultural and sentiment exchanging. On the market days, right from the early morning, all paths and mountain roads are full of people and horses pouring to the market. People usually sit in groups around a soup pan ("thang co") eating and chatting.

- Fansipan is a mountain in Vietnam, the highest in Indochina, at 3 143 m. It is located in the Lào Cai province in Northwest Vietnam, 9 km southwest of Sa Pa Township in the Hoang Lien Son Mountain Range. Fansipan is dubbed "the Roof of Indochina"; it is to be approved as one of the very few ecotourist spots of Vietnam, with about 2,024 floral varieties and 327 faunal species.

- To visit Dien Bien Phu, a plane from Ha Noi can take you there in more than 1 hour or a trip by car will take you through the 500km roadway to enjoy the beautiful nature of the enormous Northwest mountain region.

- Ba Be Lake have a water area around 500ha, spreading over 8km, as biggest natural water lake in Vietnam, situated in Cho Ra-Ba Be-Cho Don carste terrain pertaining to lowlying lands of Vietnam North raising mass. This raising mass was formed from the destruction of South East Asia continental mass at the end of Cambri era, around 200 million years ago. Due to its special geological constitution, the Lake has very original and special features compared with other world-wide carster lakes :world carster lakes are spent or only with one-season water, while Ba Be Lake has its permanent full-water.

- The Caodaism Holy See are in the province of Tay Ninh, which is about 100 kilometers northwest of Saigon. The Holy City, area of about 20,328 hectares divided into 18 sections or neighborhoods administered by the Church. The Holy See is the site of the Main Temple (Den Thanh), the main administrative offices, residences for high dignitaries and adepts working on the grounds, a hospital, a school, an orphanage, a home for the aged  and other major facilities.

- The Chams were a people and a culture which flourished for 13 centuries until the 15th century, after which they were absorbed by the Vietnamese. My Son Holysee is right in the valley surrounded by mountains. That makes it more holy and mysterious.

- The tunnels of Cu Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Cu Chi district of Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Cu Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam's base of operations for the TET Offensive in 1968. 

- Ban Gioc Fall is situated in Trung Khanh district in Cao Bang province nears the Sino-Vietnamese border. The echo of the falls can be heard kilometers away from Trung Khanh. Water from Quy Xuan River falling down on the stone creates water droplets columns that can be seen from a distance. The temperature near the waterfall is remarkably cool, due to the water mist in the air.

- Known as "Le Petit Paris" by the early builders and residents of this hillside resort town, Dalat is still a luxury retreat for city dwellers and tourists tired out from trudging along sultry coastal Vietnam. In Dalat you can play golf on one of the finest courses in Indochina, visit beautiful temples, and enjoy the town"s honeymoon atmosphere with delightfully hokey tourist sights.

- Set at a confluence of two smaller Mekong tributaries (the Hau Giang and the Can Tho rivers), Can Tho makes a great base for canal tours to the surrounding countryside. A visit to the floating markets, the city"s massive central market, or outlying riverside towns is memorable. The tour guide can take you to all the right places the impressive floating market, rice-paper-making and weaving villages, small factories, and picturesque rural canals.

The nearest place in Phu Quoc compares with the mainland is far from Ha Tien 46km, far from Rach Gia 115km and far from the coast of Cambodia 4km. It is about 500km from Phu Quoc to the industrial and tourist center of Thailand, 700km to the East of Malaysia, and 1,000km to Singapore. Phu Quoc neighbours the North-West gateway of Cambodia, from Bai Thom (in the North of Phu Quoc Island) to Kep tourist city of Cambodia is about 30km by ship.

- This is one of the best laid-back getaways in Vietnam. The town of Phan Thiet itself is a bustling little fishing port -- quite picturesque and good for a day"s visit -- but you"ll want to get out to the long, sprawling, sandy stretch of beach to the east: Mui Ne. This is a popular weekend getaway from nearby Saigon, and development in recent years has been rapid. You"ll find some very nice upscale resorts and comfy little boutique bungalow properties.

- Buon Ma Thuot is a good base for day trips out into the broad-reaching hill areas. Rolling hills covered with the ordered striations of row upon row of coffee plants bring you to far-flung ethnic minority villages of the Ede and the M"nong people. You can organize all kinds of trekking and tours in town that include canoeing, hiking, and elephant riding, as well as some great options for overnights and homestays in rural villages

- Sapa is a small market town that has been a gathering spot for many local hilltribes for nearly 200 years. Hmong and Dao people, among others, still come here to conduct trade, socialize, and attend an ephemeral "love market," where young men and women choose one another for marriage (these days, its unlikely youll see anything more than a staged re-creation of it).

- The many sights in and around Ninh Binh -- just an hour-and-a-half-ride south of Hanoi on Highway 1 -- are often visited as a day trip or with an overnight on a planned tour from Hanoi. Independent travelers arriving in Ninh Binh find themselves in a cluster of shops along busy Highway 1 with little in the way of good food and just one hotel that even passes muster.

- Nha Trang sees a heavy local and international tourist influx, especially in the summer. The surf isn"t bad (for frolic, not for surfing) along the vast crescent-shaped beach in Nha Trang"s central city, and the bright blue vista is dotted by more than 20 surrounding islands. There are many good high-end hotels and resorts to choose from, and the high-rises in the town center hearken almost to a large beach town in Florida.

- Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is Vietnam's commercial headquarters -- brash and busy -- with a keen sense of its own importance as Vietnam emerges from years of austerity to claim a place in the "Asian Tiger" economic slugfest. Located on the Saigon River, Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam"s major port and largest city, with an estimated population of over eight million people. The old Saigon still survives in wide downtown avenues flanked by pristine colonials. Hectic and eclectic, Ho Chi Minh City has an attitude all its own.

- Hoi An was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. From the 16th to the 18th century, the city was Vietnam"s most important port and trading post, particularly of ceramics with nearby China. Today it is a quaint old town of some 844 structures protected as historical landmarks, and the unique influence of Chinese and Japanese traders who passed through (or settled) can still be felt.

- One of the great natural wonders of Asia, Halong Bay is the single most popular side trip from Hanoi. The beauty of the bay and its 3000 islands is so awesome that an excursion there should be considered an essential part of any visit to Northern Vietnam.

- Cleaving the yellow walls of a centuries-old Chinese temple, an old gnarled banyan tree is adorned with flowers and offerings of rice wine and incense. Adjacent to the tree is a designer boutique and gallery, farther on is an Internet cafe, and, out front, an endless stream of honking motorbikes whiz by, rustling the tree"s leaves.