North Vietnam Tour Packages from Malaysia

North Vietnam is where Vietnam begins for most travellers from Malaysia — and where most decide they need to come back. Seven packages from RM688 cover the full sweep of the north, from the ancient streets of Hanoi to the UNESCO-listed limestone wonder of Halong Bay and the terraced highlands of Sapa. Hanoi is the starting point: the Old Quarter's 36 guild streets, Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum, and the water puppet theatre — a uniquely northern Vietnamese art form performed on a lake stage. The food in Hanoi is its own reason to visit: pho bo, bun cha, banh mi and ca phe trung (egg coffee) in a city that takes street food seriously. Halong Bay is the UNESCO World Heritage Site that defines Vietnam for most of the world: 2,000 limestone karsts and islands rising from emerald-green water, explored by overnight cruise. Sung Sot Cave (Surprising Cave) is the largest in the bay. Titov Island has a summit with a 360-degree view of the karst field. At night, the bay is completely still and the stars are extraordinary. Sapa, in the Hoang Lien Son mountains near the Chinese border, offers a completely different Vietnam: terraced rice fields carved into vertiginous slopes, hill tribe villages (H'mong, Red Dao, Tay, Giay), and Fansipan — Vietnam's highest peak at 3,147 metres — reached by the world's longest three-rope cable car. Dhesu has been sending Malaysian travellers north since 1988.