Broke, Fabulous, & Traveling: Hue and Hoi An, Vietnam

Before reading this post, make sure you've read my first Vietnam Travel Diary. 

After spending the first couple days in Hanoi, we hopped on a flight down to Hue. 

We only spent one full day in Hue, but we made the most of the day by going to Hue's Imperial City. It was in the mid 90's all day, so had to make a couple coconut water stops.

Quick background: Vietnam started building the Imperial City in the 1300's. Since then, the buildings have been restored a number of times. The square used to house the emperor and extended members of the emperor's family.

We spent the most time touring the emperor's grandmother's and emperor's wife's mom's building. Every building had a very specific designated purpose.

The Perfume River passes through Hue. We had to cross it to get to the Imperial City, at which point I saw this rad dragon boat.

After our day in Hue, we took a bus (which had seats that fully reclined, AKA the dream) down to Hanoi. Along the way, we drove through the Marble Mountains (literally: part of the drive was a 15-minute tunnel). I caught this pic through the window of the bus.

Arguably the biggest attraction in Hanoi is the Ancient Town. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I took INSIDER Snapchat followers on a tour of the area. It used to be a port town and housed Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese families. During the day, these lanterns served as decoration. At night, they lit up the sky.

Thankfully, the weather cooled down a bit for the 3 days we were in Hanoi, thanks in part to 2 different rainstorms.

Hanoi is on the eastern coast of Vietnam. We got to go to the beach on one of our days in Hanoi. I was born and grew up on the Pacific Ocean. Every time I see it, I feel a little more at home.

Our last day in Hanoi, we rented scooters and drove around the area. We drove inland to see the rice paddies and back out to the coast to ride alongside the ocean for a while. A weird fact about me is that I have bad anxiety surrounding driving. That anxiety, as it turns out, applies to driving all motorized vehicles, not just cars. Luckily, my mom is a scooter riding champion and let me ride on the back of hers.

We ran into a bunch of cows on our trip, but this was the closest we got to them. As someone who was born in a county with more cows than people, this encounter was strangely comforting.

After spending 7 days in Vietnam, I'm already ready to get back out there and see more of the world... Once I save some more money, that is. While I'm saving, I figure I may as well start planning. I'm thinking somewhere in Central America. Any suggestions?