Vietnam — Hanoi, Ha Long Bay & Da Nang

A small lake in the centre of Hanoi, named for the legend of a returned sword. The red wooden Huc bridge crosses to Ngoc Son Temple on an island at the north end, built to honour a thirteenth-century general and a scholar-saint.

• Cross the red Huc bridge
• Walk a full lap of the lake at dusk
• Look for the Turtle Tower out in the water

The granite mausoleum on Ba Dinh square, where the queue moves in silence and in single file. In the grounds behind it stand the stilt house Ho Chi Minh lived in and the One Pillar Pagoda, a tiny wooden shrine set on a single stone column above a pond.

• Join the mausoleum queue early
• Walk through the presidential grounds and stilt house
• See the One Pillar Pagoda on its column

Founded in 1070 as a temple to Confucius and later the country's first university. Five walled courtyards run one behind the other, and the stone stelae in the third — each carried on the back of a tortoise — list the graduates of the royal examinations.

• Walk the five courtyards in order
• Read about the doctors' stelae
• See the ceremonial hall at the back

A working narrow-gauge line that runs between rows of houses with barely a metre either side. Cafes put stools out on the track and pull them in when the train is due. Access is periodically restricted on safety grounds, so the guide checks on the day.

• Have coffee at a trackside cafe
• Check the day's train timings with the guide
• Photograph the line down the middle of the houses

An art form from the flooded rice fields of the north, where lacquered wooden puppets are worked from behind a screen on a waist-deep pool of water. A live band plays at the side and the stories are village folk tales — no Vietnamese needed to follow them.

• Sit a few rows back for the best view
• Watch the live musicians on the left
• Stay for the puppeteers wading out at the end

The bay is a drowned limestone landscape, so the islands are the tops of old karst towers with sheer sides and trees clinging to them. Boats follow a set route between the larger groups, and floating fishing communities still work some of the sheltered channels.

• Watch the sail out from the sun deck
• Pass the fishing floats and pearl farms
• Stay up on deck for sunset

Known in English as the Surprise Cave, on Bo Hon Island. A short climb from the jetty leads into two large chambers, the second of them enormous and lit to pick out the stalagmites. Steps are steep and often wet.

• Climb the steps from the jetty
• Walk both chambers on the marked path
• Look back at the bay from the exit terrace

Two-person kayaks are launched from the boat or a floating platform and paddled into the still water between the islands, including through low rock arches into enclosed lagoons. A bamboo rowing boat with a local oarsman is offered to anyone who would rather not paddle.

• Paddle through a rock arch into a lagoon
• Swim from the platform if conditions allow
• Take the rowed bamboo boat instead

A small island with a beach on one side and a stairway of a few hundred steps up to a lookout. From the top you see the karsts spreading out in every direction, which is the picture most people leave Ha Long with. Go early — it gets hot and crowded fast.

• Climb the steps to the viewpoint
• Swim off the crescent beach
• Photograph the bay from the top

Five limestone and marble outcrops named after the five elements, standing on the flat plain between Da Nang and Hoi An. Thuy Son is the one you climb, by steps or by lift, and its caves are the draw — light falls through a hole in the roof of Huyen Khong onto a shrine below.

• Take the lift up and the steps down
• See the Buddha shrine in Huyen Khong cave
• Look back at the coast from the summit

A few compact blocks of yellow-washed merchant houses, Chinese assembly halls and a covered market on the north bank of the Thu Bon. The entry ticket covers a set number of heritage buildings and you choose which to spend it on.

• Walk Tran Phu and Bach Dang streets
• Order from a tailor early in the day
• Float a paper lantern on the river after dark

A short roofed bridge with a small temple set into one side, built by the Japanese quarter to reach the Chinese one across the stream. Stone dogs guard one end and monkeys the other, and it is the single most recognisable thing in the town.

• Cross it and look into the shrine
• Photograph it from the stream bank
• Compare it with the note on Vietnamese currency

One of the longest single-span cable car routes anywhere carries you to the ridge, where a curved gold walkway appears to rest on two enormous weathered stone hands rising out of the hillside. The bridge itself takes minutes to cross; the drop below it and the cloud passing through are what hold people there.

• Ride the full cable car span
• Walk the curve of the Golden Bridge
• Wander the French village and terraced gardens

A white statue of the Bodhisattva of Mercy about 67 m high on the Son Tra slope, facing out to sea. Fishermen treat her as their protector, and the terrace at her feet gives the best view over Da Nang bay and the length of My Khe beach.

• Walk the courtyard and bonsai garden
• Take in the bay view from the terrace
• Look for monkeys on the road up

A steel dragon curling the length of the Han river crossing, lit from within after dark. At weekends it breathes fire for several minutes and then sprays water over the near end, so stand a little back if you would rather stay dry.

• Watch the weekend fire and water show
• Walk the riverside promenade
• Photograph the bridge from the east bank