After experiencing a family crisis, Anh Tuc decided to spend 2023 and 2024 to discover herself and find joy in life again. Every year, she spends a month conquering the majestic mountain roads of the North or traveling across Vietnam. The recent trip to the West was the second journey after conquering Ha Giang in a spectacular 14 days.
The recent trip to the West was Anh Tuc's second journey after conquering Ha Giang in a spectacular 14-day trip.
Luggage for a youth trip
Anh Tuc’s boyfriend is an experienced “backpacker” who has conquered the cross-Vietnam route three times and countless majestic mountain peaks. He is the one who leads the adventure journey of both of them. Her role is to find attractive destinations along the route, record the necessary information to plan a specific trip.
Unlike people who often use TikTok or Facebook, Anh Tuc chooses Google and YouTube as powerful companions for her journey of discovery. Thanks to her huge knowledge base and countless authentic videos, she can easily find detailed information about tourist destinations, beautiful roads, delicious food and interesting experiences along the Western route. From the information collected, her lover will draw the perfect itinerary for the trip, ensuring safety, saving time and satisfying both of their passion for discovery.
Anh Tuc chose Google and YouTube as powerful companions for his journey of discovery.
Tourist attractions, beautiful roads, delicious food and interesting experiences along the Western route
The perfect itinerary for your trip, ensuring safety, saving time, and satisfying your passion for discovery.
With relatively flat terrain, few steep slopes and fuel-efficient fuel costs, the "war horse" chosen for this journey to explore the West is Anh Tuc's familiar Vision motorbike. To ensure safety and a comfortable travel experience, she equipped the bike with a backrest, and thoroughly checked and maintained the bike before departure.
Understanding the hobby of “backpacking” and traveling a lot, Anh Tuc makes the most of the available outfits in her wardrobe. Instead of buying many new clothes to wear only once, she only adds three new outfits: 1 ao ba ba, 1 banh rou dress and 1 dharma costume to suit when visiting beautiful pagodas in the West.
With a long time of traveling outdoors, Anh Tuc prioritizes choosing 7 long-sleeved outfits that can be flexibly coordinated to create "virtual life" photos that are not boring. Cotton material that absorbs sweat well is also an important factor that she considers to be suitable for the rainy weather and traveling in the West at this time.
Beautiful pagodas in the West
The journey to the West has brought Anh Tuc many interesting experiences and valuable lessons. Careful preparation of means of transport, clothing and necessary items plays an important role in ensuring safety, comfort and helping her fully enjoy the journey. However, sometimes unexpected and interesting experiences come from unpredictable things like the story of getting lost in the Nam Cat Tien forest "money cannot buy" that she will always remember.
“When I stood here and took this photo, I had no idea that the next stretch of road would be extremely terrifying. Half of the wheel was sunk, to continue moving, I had to use my hands to lift the entire wheel, either pull or push; there was only dense forest and acacia trees around; I didn’t bring any food; my phone was almost out of battery and the spare charger was broken, the signal was unstable; I didn’t know what was ahead and if it was still far to the residential area; and to go back, I had to cross the many swamps I had already passed and I had gone too far. And especially, this area often has wild animals, specifically elephants,” Anh Tuc recalled.
The story of getting lost in the Nam Cat Tien forest "money can't buy" that Anh Tuc will always remember
12 days wandering the West
The 12-day journey of more than 1,900 km took Anh Tuc to sunny and windy roads with famous landmarks in the Southwest region of Vietnam. Starting from the beautiful coastal city of Nha Trang, she traveled to dreamy Da Lat, vibrant Saigon, peaceful Long An, prosperous Dong Thap, sacred An Giang, poetic Kien Giang, wild Ca Mau, rustic Bac Lieu, peaceful Soc Trang, brilliant Can Tho, peaceful Vinh Long, fruitful Tien Giang and finally returned to Nha Trang full of memories.
The 12-day journey of more than 1,900 km took Anh Tuc to windy and sunny roads with famous landmarks in the Southwest region of Vietnam.
In a conversation with Travellive reporter, Anh Tuc did not hesitate to share that the most impressive destination in his journey to explore the West was Ta Pa in An Giang. “So beautiful!” - that was the first thing Anh Tuc said when he arrived in Tri Ton and admired the scenery of the “lovely valley” Ta Pa.
Before Anh Tuc’s eyes was a peaceful picture of the Vietnamese countryside. The vast green rice fields stretched out to the horizon, rustling in the wind. Dreamy rows of coconut trees dotted among the towering palm trees against the blue sky. A cow leisurely grazed on the bank, not paying any attention to the city tourists who were watching it with fascination.
"Tuyet Tinh Coc" Ta Pa
The afternoon gradually turned into a cool and pleasant atmosphere. Local people leisurely cycled their bicycles along the rice field roads, their laughter echoing loudly. Children frolicked and chased each other on the dike. All of this created a simple, rustic but extremely captivating scene.
The scenery of Ta Pa seemed to come out of Anh Tuc’s thoughts. It was peaceful, gentle, and soft, but it made her linger forever. This place evoked in her indescribable emotions, subtle vibrations about the beauty of nature and people of Vietnam.
A peaceful and quiet picture of the Vietnamese countryside
Unlike her previous trip, this time Anh Tuc decided to “break the rules” with a more economical plan, focusing on experience and comfort. Instead of choosing luxury homestays with prices of more than 1.5 million VND/night like in Ha Giang, this time she chose to stay at homestays, hotels, and budget motels with prices under 300,000 VND/night. The main reason was because she only used the room to sleep and rest at noon before continuing her journey.
Initially, Anh Tuc estimated the cost for two people to be about 1 million VND/day including all expenses. However, there were some days when she spent quite a lot of money on meals, up to 1.5 million VND/meal, with specialties such as Ca Mau crab, mantis shrimp with roe, mudskippers, etc. In return, on other days she ate more simply to balance the expenses. Overall, the total cost of food for the 12 days was about 15 million VND.
Mr. Tuc decided to "break the rules" with a more economical plan, focusing on experience and comfort.
As a foodie, Anh Tuc is not afraid to spend money on delicious and unique dishes. In every locality she visits, she tries to enjoy the local specialties, making the culinary experience an important part of her journey to explore the West. Some typical Western dishes that she is particularly impressed with are roasted field mice, fish sauce hotpot and noodle soup, Long Xuyen broken rice, spicy rice cakes, mudskippers, Can Tho pancakes, spicy beef noodles, shredded salad and Ta Pa tamarind/salt sauce balut, meat skin sandwiches, Da Hoai duck bamboo shoot noodles, etc.
“I don’t expect more than 65% of TikTok reviews. Instead, refer to and see reviews on Google Maps because backpackers often come here to review. Next, take the time to ask the hotel receptionist, the grocery store lady and the people around. Usually, places where truck drivers, public vehicles and locals eat a lot are 80% sure to be delicious. The taste of the West is quite suitable for the Central region, it is sweet and rich in flavor,” Anh Tuc said.
As a foodie, Anh Tuc does not hesitate to spend money on delicious and unique dishes.
