Vietnam: Ha Long & the North

The journey.

Northern Vietnam layers three masterpieces within a day of each other: a thousand-year-old capital, a bay of drowned mountains, and highlands cut into ten thousand terraces. We take them in the right order, at the right hours.

The capital Hanoi's old quarter on foot with a food writer — pho at the correct stool, egg coffee where it was invented, and the lake at tai-chi hour.

The bay Then a private junk into Bai Tu Long — Ha Long's quieter sister bay — kayaking beneath the karsts, squid fishing off the stern, and an anchorage shared with no one.

Finish in the terraced hills, where the rice writes contour lines on every slope.