Lauren Tabbron shares her favourite things to do in Manchester
Jess Astbury regales tales of festivities in warmer climates.
Remember I said some of these destinations won't be inside all students' budgets. Well this is an example of that. There is no easy way around this, flights to the far east are expensive. A quick search on Expedia tells me you're going to have to splash out around £500 in order to just get there and back. However, the good news is that once your there, things are cheap – an expensive restaurant in Hanoi will set you back approximately £5 for 2 courses. The final precursor is that you could easily spend three or four weeks touring Vietnam, however, it is also worth considering touring countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Thailand at the same time if you are spending so much money to get there. These countries will be covered in later editions of this series.
In all my travels, however, I still regard Vietnam as the most beautiful country I have travelled to. From the motorcycle filled streets of Ho Chi Minh City to the vegetation of the rainforests to the stunning Ha Long Bay, Vietnam is somewhere I would advise everyone to visit once in their lifetime.
The two main cities in Vietnam are Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon). Hanoi is perhaps the more sterile of the two, as a former French base much of the leading architecture is reminiscent of a Parisian scene. It is however identifiably Vietnamese, with an abundance of street markets and the roads clogged with motorbikes. The street-markets are not to be missed and provide some of the most fun haggling experiences you will have (it's not unusual for street vendors to tell you the price is 5 times as much as they actually expect to get for it!).The food markets are also great fun, some of the best food in Hanoi is served on rugs on the street, from a large stewing pot. It's also a great way to meet the locals.
Ho Chi Minh City is (unbelievably) more manic than Hanoi. Crossing the road is an art-form and the restaurant district simply has to be seen to be believed. One of my favourite memories in Saigon was ordering a dish at random from a restaurants menu (it was all in Vietnamese) to which the response was “out of prawns”. Instead of asking me to change my order however, the waitress popped on a motorbike and returned 5 minutes later with a bag of prawns and promptly prepared the dish in the front of house kitchen.
Ho Chi Minh, like Hanoi is also a great place to discover the history of Vietnam. Although presented in a highly politicised manner by the ruling Communist government, both the War Remnants Museum and Ha Lao Prison are fascinating regardless of whether you are interested by history or not. Both tell a very human story and bring the country to life.
There are of course plenty of other places to visit in Vietnam which I haven't been able to list here, Ha Long Bay and Hoi An to name but two. I can also highly recommend the train ride that starts in Ho Chi Minh City and goes right the way through to Hanoi. Don't let the 30 hour duration of the trip put you off, it provides stunning views along both the coastline and in-land and can easily be broken up by stops in places such as Hoi An. What's more is that the whole journey costs only £55 for soft-bed air-conditioned accommodation, dropping down to £20 if you're willing to put up with a wooden seat (not recommended if you're planning the 30 hour trip)!
Overall, for students looking for something a little different to a traditional student break, you seriously cannot go wrong by visiting Vietnam.
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