Wrapping up our Sibling Trip to Vietnam and Japan

It’s time to wrap up our Sibling trip to Vietnam and Japan. Originally the plan is to primarily visit Vietnam. But after a bit of planning we decide to split it between Vietnam and Japan! It’s been a great opportunity to embark on another epic Sibling Trip! If you’ve spent anytime to read through the trip, Thank You! If you haven’t and want to, you can find the whole trip here. Let’s Go!

Top 3 Highlights

Highlight #1: Qatar Airways Business and First Class

Being able to fly in premium cabins whilst travelling is always a treat! Getting to experience both the Qatar Business Class Qsuite and their First Class products is a highlight in itself. But what makes this even more memorable is being able to do it with the Sister. I’ve had many opportunities to enjoy these sorts of travel experiences on my own. Very rarely is this something that I can enjoy with someone else and see them experience it too!

Another standout element of this is the opportunity to have a meal together in the air! Even on most fancy flights, eating together isn’t something that’s possible since most seats are fairly private. However, Qatar’s First Class pods allows you to dine with a travel partner if you’re flying together. Doing so was a new experience for me and having the Sister share in it further perpetuates the highlight!

Highlight #2: Ba Na Hills

I still don’t know what to make of our trip to Sun World Ba Na Hills. Very few travel experiences have left me both happy and confused at the same time! When we first put this in our itinerary the main goal was to visit the Golden Hands Bridge. But after visiting, all I can conclude now is that this Vietnamese theme park is wild. It’s so well constructed and yet so extremely random at the same time. There are literal castles and mountains with massive rock sculptures carved into them. And yet when you enter some of these massive attractions, its almost a “troll” that there are carnival games or some weird shop inside.  Every turn of a corner presents something weird and wacky and by the end of it we probably had more questions than answers! But to this day I still think fondly of this day and for that it is for sure a highlight of mine!

Highlight #3: Otaru Snow Light Path Festival

Ever since my first visit to the Sapporo Snow Festival and hearing about the adjacent Otaru Snow Light Path Festival. I’ve always wanted to visit. The timing didn’t work out for me on that trip, but this time I made it a point to visit. The festival is much smaller than the larger Sapporo one. But I like that it feels more local and community focused. The lanterns along the water and the paths also make for a magical scene in the evening. Add to it that we get to enjoy this with our friends Dessert Fiend and Photos makes it even more special!

Favourite Meal

Even though there are tons of memorable meals. I think the one that is most satisfying is our first Vietnamese meal after landing in Hoi An. After checking into our hotel we venture out to explore Hoi and and stop at Vy’s Market for lunch. What makes this meal cool is that its a bit of a “food court” of sorts. However, you order with a waiter and they go to the different stalls to get the food. Each stall specializes in different items, so the Sister and I order a little bit of everything! Being able to sample so many tasty Vietnamese dishes in one place for our first meal is so satisfying and I still remember how exciting it was to try so many things!

If I could change the itinerary…

Even though visiting Japan and especially the snowy parts of Hokkaido is always wonderful. I think my change would be to spend more time in Vietnam. Originally, the main purpose of our trip was Vietnam. But because the draw of the Sapporo Snow Festival we ended up splitting up time up between the two locations. And after spending time in Vietnam, I find myself wanting more. Even though it can be a bit chaotic, I really enjoyed my time there. Whether its the history or the food, I was continually pleasantly surprised at my enjoyment for the region! Even during our planning the Sister and I needed to decide on which elements would be cut to facilitate the Japan portion of our trip. So looking back now, the itinerary change I would make is to reinstate some of those things. Things like a visit to Sapa, or spending more time in Danang feel like things I would enjoy doing.

What surprised me?

Vietnam’s coffee culture surprised me. Before coming I knew that different regions in Vietnam are famous for certain types of Coffee. And the Sister and I tried to try different kinds throughout our trip. But what’s surprising is that on top of the variety of coffee are the number of coffee shops and how popular they are. Throughout the different cities we visited, there is no shortage of unique and very cool “vibing” shops! Many are busy or even packed full. I think you could spend an entire trip checking out just coffee shops and not run out of variety!

One memorable story from this trip

I’m going to say that jet lag has a role to play in this. After our long flights from North America to Thailand, we check into our hotel and have an afternoon and evening in Bangkok. The Sister and I set out from our hotel to one of the Bangkok malls. While waiting for our ride, I tried to learn a bit of Thai like “hello” or “thank you”. When our ride is ready, we hop in and out of nowhere I decide to thank the driver by saying “arigato” which is Japanese! The Sister and I look at each other and burst out laughing! At no point had I been looking at Japanese and was practicing Thai the whole time we were waiting. But somehow I blurt out Thank You in Japanese. It was just a very weird set of circumstances and something that we brought up and laughed about throughout the trip.

Did I pack appropriately?

Given that our trip hits both warm and cold climates, I think I did the packing for this trip pretty well. One of the things that probably helped, is most of our time in Vietnam ended up being overcast. We didn’t have too many very sunny days. This also meant that the temperatures in Vietnam are a bit cooler than normal. So While I did pack for warmer weather in Vietnam, I did have  a pair of shorts that I didn’t end up wearing. Beyond that, our time in Japan and especially the wintery parts of Hokkaido were fine. While it is cold, we all remained bundled up and handled the cold weather well.

Regrets?

I regret not eating more variety of food in Vietnam. During our time, I remarked to The Sister that I intend to have Pho soup noodles everyday. It’s one of my favourite dishes back at home and I wanted to savour as many bowls of it as I could. For a good chunk of the trip I did just this. But because of this, we did re-visit some restaurants once or twice when we had an opportunity to try something “new”. So I sometimes wonder if perhaps we might have missed something amazing! An example of this is, we only discovered Bun Cha on our last day in Vietnam. I really like it but we didn’t discover it until much later in our trip! So in my mind there is a bit of regret and curiosity about other cuisines left to be explored.

Advice for people considering similar trips/destinations?

I can’t say enough good things about Vietnam. From a North American point of view, it’s a relatively affordable destination. There are economical options for accommodations and food. However, if it’s a first trip, I would suggest adding a day or two at the start of an itinerary. Like many South East Asian countries, there is a bit of controlled chaos when you visit a big city like Hanoi. Taking a bit of time to get your bearings after landing can be beneficial. At first it can be a bit intimidating and overwhelming, but once you start to familiarize yourself, comfort sets in.

Because traffic is hectic, The Sister and I spent a bit of time overlooking a traffic circle to appreciate the flow of traffic and how local pedestrians navigate crossing the street. There’s a certain sense of intention that you need to have when crossing and allow the flow of traffic to go around you. Taking the time to appreciate small nuances like this will help the rest of the trip go pretty smoothly!

Final thoughts?

The main purpose of this trip is to travel with The Sister. Being able to embark on an ambitious trip like this is something we haven’t been able to do in a long time. With how busy life is, making something like this work is certainly more challenging now as adults versus when we were younger. It’s also nice to know that even though its been a long time since we did an elaborate trip, we are still able to travel smoothly and harmoniously together. It also allows us to catch each other up on our lives and that is valuable. It’s not lost on me that I am fortunate to have a good relationship with The Sister and I’m thankful that we are able to do things like this.

I walk away from this trip with an amazing sense of gratitude. Not just because of the ability to travel and explore this lovely planet we all share. But also for having people in my life that I can share these experiences and memories with. I continue to be appreciative that I am healthy enough and have the means to be able to continue seeing the world! And with that I look forward to the next one!