Quy Nhon is famous for its poetic landscapes and unique cuisine from the salty sea and this simple land is also affectionately called "Xu Nau". With 2 weeks living like a local in Quy Nhon, travel blogger Lo Huu Duc Anh discovered this land in his own way. Through Duc Anh's lens, the beauty of Quy Nhon becomes very gentle, pure and simple.

Travel blogger Lo Huu Duc Anh spent 2 weeks in Quy Nhon last July. This trip was very special. Before coming here, Duc Anh thought Quy Nhon was just a transit point or a place to combine with another place because there were few places to explore here.

It was not until he received an invitation from his friend Thinh to come here to explore new places together that Duc Anh began to explore this land of martial arts and literature.

One time, while accidentally searching for information on Instagram, he saw posts by an account named Benz with new perspectives on Quy Nhon after about 4 months stuck here due to the epidemic, which urged him to come here sooner.

Duc Anh excitedly recounted: “When I looked at those pictures, I remembered my time in Korea. I no longer felt tired even though my travel schedule was quite long. I packed up all my excitement to get to the airport on time.”

When he decided to experience living like a local in Quy Nhon, Duc Anh's definition of travel changed. If at the age of 18, this young man liked the feeling of driving across Vietnam, driving to visit as many places as possible during that trip. Now, he likes the feeling of slowly exploring each place thoroughly, instead of passing by like a gust of wind.

As soon as he set foot in this land, Duc Anh was quite surprised and did not think Quy Nhon was so developed. Being a nomadic person, each place has its own differences. Although he went to Quy Nhon, his perspective is very different from everyone else's.

When asked by Travellive about the difference between being a tourist and a local when coming to Quy Nhon, Lo Huu Duc Anh smiled and said: “It’s different, very different. If I were a tourist, I would just go horseback riding to see the flowers (not all tourists are like that), but if I go with the mindset of an experiencer, I will know where to go when I arrive at a certain area. It’s not like following someone else’s schedule, but you will set your own destination.”

During half a month in Quy Nhon, Duc Anh's most memorable memories were enjoying the simple meals that Thinh's parents cooked for him. After each time Thinh took him to explore Quy Nhon, he just wanted to go home to eat instead of hanging out at some restaurant. Or he got to stay with the locals and explore Quy Nhon together like a local, not just going to the popular places.

“Even now that I'm back in Hanoi, when I think back, I can still remember the taste of sour soup made from giang leaves, a favorite dish of both me and Mr. Thinh,” Duc Anh said.

According to Duc Anh, the flavors of dishes in Quy Nhon are quite sweet and spicy. If you are a Northerner and trying these dishes for the first time, you will not be used to them because the flavors in the North are a bit stronger.

Like other places in the Central region, Quy Nhon people are also very sophisticated in eating, because each dish will have its own dipping sauce or fish sauce. Duc Anh really likes and encourages anyone who comes to this land to definitely try boiled meat with mackerel fish sauce. Or on these hot summer days, having a bowl of sour sorrel soup is called "a delicacy of the world".

Instead of going to popular places on social networks that are crowded with people, Duc Anh spent many hours in museums in Binh Dinh, to look at each stone carved with Cham motifs, or masks used in Hat Boi...

During his time in Quy Nhon, Duc Anh visited quite a few destinations and some of them he went spontaneously. For him, it was difficult to choose his favorite place because every place was beautiful. In addition, there was no place that was not as imagined because every place he visited was chosen according to his personal preferences.

The weather in Quy Nhon in July is quite hot and harsh. Because of his carelessness, he got sick for several days.

One morning in Quy Nhon, after eating banh hoi chao long - a famous breakfast food in Quy Nhon, Duc Anh drove to Binh Dinh General Museum, located right in the city center. Unlike before when he quickly set up a tripod to take pictures, now he slowly stood there reading the information about the exhibits on display.

After visiting the museum and talking with Mr. Thinh, in addition to providing information of high historical and cultural value, according to Duc Anh, historical museums should pay more attention to aesthetic factors, because it is undeniable that the "check-in" factor will attract more tourists to visit the museum.

People often say that the Central region is a barren land, but Duc Anh does not see it that way. He said: “I think they just have not found a suitable solution to wash away the dirt on the outside of their pearl. If you look closely, the sea in the Central region is very beautiful. More than anywhere in the other two regions. There is a lot of potential for development here.”

During Duc Anh’s trip to Quy Nhon, there were many interesting things. Even the relatives of the friend who invited him to Quy Nhon were curious and said: “Huh? I don’t see anything beautiful in Quy Nhon, isn’t the North more beautiful?” Or the driver who drove Duc Anh was always surprised by the places he visited.

“The questions they asked were: Why did we go to the water dispenser in front of the gas station? Why did we go under the bridge? Why did we go to the water pump house? And why did we go to the leper village? Why did we go to those places and not Ky Co, Cu Lao Xanh, Hon Kho… That was because they didn’t see the gem they had,” he confided.

Duc Anh once shared that he learned to refuse inappropriate trips, which was the first step to learning to love himself and also to avoid negative posts about his trips.

“It’s like choosing clothes, you can’t see someone else wearing a beautiful outfit and force yourself to wear it too. Choosing a place to go is the same, seeing someone taking beautiful pictures here makes you want to go, seeing that place with a lot of people coming there makes you want to jostle with the crowd to check-in like everyone else. But are you really satisfied with a trip like chasing after someone else’s shadow? I’m not. Before each trip, I often ask myself what the purpose of this trip is?”, Duc Anh confided.

If it is a trip to post on his personal blog called Floating Soul, he will have to prepare many things from the schedule to the concept in the most detailed way. But if he wants to sightsee or change the atmosphere, Duc Anh does not prepare much, sometimes he does not even bring a camera.

He confided: "It sounds a bit complicated, why do you need to prepare so much for a trip? An unscheduled trip is the trip with the most experiences."

But each trip brings a positive or negative experience is unknown. Traveling is a moment of enjoyment for yourself, but you don't have a moment to check the weather, a moment to check what the destination has to offer that season, and a moment to find a place that suits your purpose. You only find the way after looking at a few pictures online, and then when you come back, you write a negative article criticizing that place and the person who posted the article about that place. For Duc Anh, that is a lack of responsibility for yourself.

As a travel blogger, Duc Anh is a person who often travels and introduces to everyone the places he has been to. However, none of his articles has a title that says this place must be visited before a certain age. According to him, people travel to have fun and experience, not to “run KPI”.

“We cannot predict the weather, but we can choose the destination, so find suitable places to have a positive and memorable experience,” Duc Anh shared.