Vietnam is Australian Travel Influencers’ Favourite Country to Visit in Southeast Asia

Exploring beautiful strests of Hoi An ancient town in central Vietnam. Photo: Alesha Bradford & Jarryd Salem

Alesha Bradford and Jarryd Salem are professional photographers and award winning travel writers who have travelled the world since 2008, specialising in adventure travel, sustainable tourism, detailed travel guides, off-the-beaten-track destinations, photography, and creating a lifestyle around travel, according to VOV.

They created the site, NOMADasaurus, as well as their Facebook and Instagram, in order to document their various experiences to showcase their enjoyment everywhere they go. In a story recently published on their webpage, the Australian couple told everyone that Vietnam is undoubtedly the place most worth visiting in Southeast Asia. They explained their various reasons why it is their all-time favourite country to visit in the region.

“From the tropical coral reefs of Nha Trang to the northern mountains of Sa Pa, travel to Vietnam is one of the most adventurous yet culturally empowering experiences you can have,” they noted.

“One moment you will find yourself haggling for banh mi deep within Saigon and later that day you could be watching a breathtaking sunset from the Mekong Delta,” the coupled explained.

According to the pair, visitors to Vietnam can discover the country’s distinctive delicacies by heading to street food vendors cooking exotic food such as pho, a local noodle dish. They can trek to Fansipan, the highest mountain throughout Indochina, or cruise around Ha Long Bay which has been twice recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Bun Cha is just one delicious you can get on the street, say Alesha Bradford and Jarryd Salem.

For those interested in adventure activities, they suggested homestays which can be the perfect way to spend time as the monsoon rains fall across the endless snaking rivers of the Mekong Delta.

“Vietnamese hospitality is unrivalled and is something that you should experience once in your life, so what are you waiting for? Say good morning Vietnam! And go get lost!” they wrote.

The couple said that a trip to Vietnam would not be complete without taking the overnight train from Hanoi to Sa Pa, hiking through the rice terraces of Sa Pa, cruising around the Mekong Delta, going caving in Phong Nha, and riding a motorcycle.

They also suggested that visitors spend time learning how to cook Vietnamese food, scuba diving in Nha Trang, go canyoning in Da Lat, explore the Marble Mountains, and sandboard down the sand dunes in Mui Ne.

Other pleasant experiences visitors can enjoy include visiting the Cu Chi tunnels on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, conquering the Hai Van Pass on a motorbike, exploring Son Doong cave – the world’s biggest of its kind, and climbing Fansipan – the highest mountain in Indochina.

They’re at Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park is a national park in Bo Trach district and Minh Hoa (Quang Binh province) in 2015. Photo: Alesha Bradford & Jarryd Salem

Jarryd Salem proposes Alesha Bradford in Son Doong Cave.

Jarryd Salem and Alesha Bradford met in a Canadian hostel in 2008. After a year together in Canada and nine months in Australia, they used their savings to partially finance an eight-month trip through Central America, and to make ends meet, Salem tells Business Insider in an email.

They then headed back to Australia to once again shore up their savings. In early 2014, they left, this time with the aim of backpacking from Thailand to South Africa without taking a single flight. In February, they got engaged in Son Doong cave.

The cave is 150 meters wide, 200 meters high, and nearly 9 kilometres long. With such a size, Son Doong cave has surpassed Deer Cave in Gunung Mulu National Park – Malaysia (with a height of 100 m, width of 90 m, and length of 2 km) to occupy the position as the largest natural cave in the world.