[REPORTER'S DIARY] From hot springs to Roaring Twenties, all under the sun in Vietnam

Long favored by budget travelers chasing the sun and its spectacular scenery, Vietnam in the post-pandemic era aspires to attract more vacationers to lesser-visited regions and longer stays at its burgeoning high-end resorts.

The longest cable car ride in the world over Phu Quoc island in southern Vietnam. [SUN GROUP]

Long favored by budget travelers chasing the sun and its spectacular scenery, Vietnam in the post-pandemic era aspires to attract more vacationers to lesser-visited regions and longer stays at its burgeoning high-end resorts.

In December, the Korea JoongAng Daily joined a media trip organized by the Vietnamese Embassy to five of the most famous destinations across the Southeast Asian country. The journey included stays in the world-famous Ha Long Bay, the capital Hanoi, the central coastal city of Danang, the tropical island of Phu Quoc and the bustling southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City.

The trip showcased not only an ongoing boom in the Vietnamese hotel industry but also shifting priorities for the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT), which is “targeting the high-end tourism market” as the “most viable solution” for growing travel demand, according to vice chairman Ha Van Sieu in a meeting with Korean reporters on Dec. 11.

While Vietnam welcomed over 11.2 million international tourists from January to November last year, 28.5 percent of whom were Korean nationals, tourism officials like Ha are keen to welcome visitors to less frequented regions as well as luxury getaways to diversify the country’s tourism sector.

Some of the destinations promoted by the VNAT include Ninh Binh, often described as Ha Long Bay on land, where karst mountains loom over paddy fields interwoven with rivers, as well as the floating markets of the Mekong Delta.

Ha Long Bay

The trip to Vietnam, which took place from Dec. 9 to 16, began with a short but pleasant 4.5-hour flight from Incheon to Hanoi with Vietnam Airlines, where flight attendants dressed in turquoise ao dai were the picture of politeness as they served hot food and coffee to passengers.

Upon landing in Hanoi, we made our way to Yoko Onsen Quang Hanh Resort, a hot spring resort built in the manner of a Japanese onsen bath near Ha Long Bay.

While soaking in a Japanese-style hot spring wasn’t what I had in mind for a visit to Vietnam or its most famous destination, gazing at the dark outline of the limestone cliffs against the pale moonlight from the outdoor bath brought home the area's magnificence.

After a good night’s sleep in one of the expansive vacation villas at the leafy Oakwood Ha Long resort, we embarked on a tour of Sun World Ha Long, our itinerary's first Sun World theme park.

The Ba Deo Hill complex at Sun World Ha Long in northern Vietnam. [SUN GROUP]

The park is split into two sections — the Coastal Amusement Park and the Ba Deo Hill complex just across the water — and our group opted to spend most of our day in the latter, which involved riding the world’s highest cable car while taking in the breathtaking aerial view of the famous bay. On the hill, we also rode a Ferris wheel at the top, which offered more views of the sea dotted with cliffs and islets.

Hanoi

Upon our arrival in Hanoi later Sunday afternoon, we were whisked back to 1920s New York as we sat down to a sumptuous afternoon tea at the rooftop bar of Capella Hanoi, the first of three Bill Bensley-designed hotels we saw during the trip.

The hotel, themed as a sumptuous haunt for performers and patrons of the nearby opera house, features individually designed suites named after famed actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt and musical pieces like Scheherazade.

The elevator foyer leading to the reception desk at Capella Hanoi. [SUN GROUP]

Guest facilities throughout the hotel were decorated meticulously according to their function, such as the gym with a larger-than-life bas-relief of a bodybuilder mounted on the wall. The marble interior of the hotel’s underground pool and white telamon sculptures in the lobby recalled the golden age of Art Deco design from a century ago.

Capella’s ground-floor restaurant — appropriately named Backstage in line with the hotel’s theme — was a favorite dining spot of K-Pop girl group Blackpink during their stay in Hanoi, with elegant velvet maroon curtains setting the scene for the sumptuous four-course dinner that concluded our evening.

After an overnight stay at the expansive Grand Plaza Hotel — one of several properties and golf clubs operated by Chamvit Group — we set off to explore central Hanoi, whose well-preserved historic core is still largely made of late 19th- and 20th-century architecture.

The first stop of the afternoon was Cafe Giang, a coffeehouse tucked behind an alley famed for serving egg coffee since 1946. We then ate a delicious lunch of pan-grilled catfish tossed with turmeric, spring onions and dill at Cha Ca Thang Long. Upon our return to the French Quarter, I set off to see Ngo 224 Le Duan, also known as Hanoi Train Street, where tourists sat on stools along a still-functioning local railroad, sipping drinks and taking in the city’s hectic but dynamic atmosphere.

Danang

On Tuesday evening, we boarded a Vietnam Airlines flight for Danang, a coastal city in central Vietnam long favored by Korean tourists seeking good weather, relaxation, and views of its famous long coastline.

We headed straight to dinner from the airport, eating under fairy lights strung up along the trees at Little Ba Na, an outdoor restaurant modeled after a German biergarten. In the morning, we were greeted with stunning views of the city’s Han River from the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, where we ate breakfast before heading to Ba Na Hills, the second and most famous of the amusement parks we visited on this trip.

Though located only 45 minutes from central Danang, Ba Na Hills is worlds apart from the sun-drenched coastal city in both climate and geography, a contrast made vividly clear during our serene, 20-minute ascent by cable car to the 1,487-meter (4,880-feet) high mountaintop complex.

The Golden Bridge at Ba Na Hills in Danang, central Vietnam. [SUN GROUP]

From the peak of Mt. Chua, visitors can walk across the mist-shrouded Golden Bridge, an iconic 150-meter-long pedestrian bridge that appears to be held up by two giant hands, before walking over to a European-themed village with a French-style garden and an original wine cave left over from the old colonial hill station that once existed on the site.

After our descent from Ba Na Hills, we headed for a late afternoon swim at the Intercontinental Danang, a beachside resort built in a remote bay in the corner of a peninsula located away from the rest of urban Danang.

While Capella Hanoi recalled the splendor and excess of the Roaring ’20s, the Bensley-designed Intercontinental resort in Danang emulated the glories of aristocratic Vietnamese architecture. Here, smooth black pillars and reflecting pools set with stone pagodas at their center contrast vividly with the white walls of the buildings, all of which face the blissfully uncrowded shore.

The pool of a Club Penthouse suite at the Intercontinental Danang in central Vietnam. [SUN GROUP]

The piece de resistance of the resort’s main restaurant is the outdoor terrace, where tables are set into the recesses of massive black stone balconies shaped like upside-down non toi, the iconic conical hats worn throughout the Vietnamese countryside. To complete the effect, these balconies were suspended over a large rectangular pool fringed by shrubbery, giving diners the impression of taking their meals in a paddy overlooking the sea.

With the resort’s buildings and villas arranged along three levels named Paradise, Earth and Sea in descending order, guests can move up and down using a dedicated funicular. At the Sea level, visitors can not only swim in the sheltered bay but also enjoy drinks at the yellow-and-black checkered Long Bar or climb upstairs to make use of the infinite pool above. It was here that we took a late afternoon dip and watched the clouds turn orange and pink as the sun sank below the hills above.

Phu Quoc

By Thursday early morning, we were already aboard our pre-dawn connection with Vietnam Airlines to Phu Quoc, a tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand off the southwestern corner of Vietnam.

I was immediately awestruck as I walked into the JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay resort around mid-day. The vast lobby, designed in a reinterpreted Indochinese colonial style, featured delicate wicker armchairs and chaise lounges surrounded by oil portraits and soaring dark bookcases. The overall impression was that of a hushed, airy library in a private summer retreat.

My room within this vast estate was a ground-level suite with reproduction antique furniture and great bay windows that opened directly onto a seaside pool. Though Bensley designed the resort to resemble a French university campus, I couldn’t help but think of the towering Long Island mansions described in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” as I walked past the pastel buildings along the white beach to spend much of the afternoon lounging in a hammock overlooking the glistening, turquoise sea.

An aerial view of one of three beachside pools at the JW Marriot Emerald Bay resort in Phu Quoc, southern Vietnam. [SUN GROUP]

After dinner on the outdoor terrace of Draft Beer Sunset Town on the other side of the island, we headed to watch “Kiss of the Sea,” a daily evening oceanside multimedia show complete with fireworks that retells an interstellar love story.

The titanic jets of water and eruptions of fire conveyed the raw emotion undergirding the tale, which climaxed with a magnificent fireworks display to signify the triumph of love over evil.

Ho Chi Minh City

We witnessed a beautiful sunrise before departing Phu Quoc on Friday for Ho Chi Minh City, the last stop of our weeklong trip to Vietnam.

As we made our way from the airport through heavy traffic in a van provided by the Saigon Tourist group, I was struck by how Vietnam’s complicated history and booming present seemed to coexist comfortably in this city. Nowhere was this more evident than the central core along the Saigon River, where towering skyscrapers and giant billboards mingled with well-preserved buildings dating back to the period of French colonization.

The van dropped us off at the Hotel Majestic, a historic Riviera-style hotel dating to 1925 that Saigon Tourist now operates. As I stepped into my second-floor room with pale yellow walls and white plaster moldings facing the indoor courtyard pool, I felt whisked back to a bygone era of quiet, secluded luxury, away from the hubbub of motor traffic on the other side of the building.

Although most of our time in Ho Chi Minh City was spent in meetings, the compactness of the downtown area surrounding our hotel made exploration easy. From the hotel, I walked down historic Dong Khoi Street toward the French-built opera house before turning onto the plaza leading to the chateau-esque city hall.

I then continued onto the central post office, a cavernous hall with restored antique maps adorning the walls that offered respite from the blazing afternoon sun under its wrought-iron barrel-vault ceiling. Unfortunately, the 19th-century cathedral next door was covered in scaffolding due to renovation, but that only gave me more time to walk over to Le Duan Boulevard, leading to Independence Palace, which served as the workplace of the president of South Vietnam until reunification in 1975.

While our departure from Vietnam the following Saturday evening didn’t leave us with as much time to explore Ho Chi Minh City as much as I would have liked, I left with the distinct feeling that I would be back in this extraordinary country and hopefully to visit areas we didn’t manage to explore on this trip.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]