Vietnam -- Off the beaten path?

For those of you who have been hitting that refresh button time after time again in anticipation of my next post that has been long coming, I assure you all is well. Thanks to 3 final exams this weekend I had little time to devote to anything but. I am happy to say now that I have completed them and am currently typing from the friendly confines of the Singapore Airlines airport lounge.



This evening I am flying to Vietnam for two weeks with my girlfriend, frequenting a few cities in the north. I would put myself in the upper middle class of experienced travelers (class referring to the intensity of travel and not the expense of travel). Although I have never traveled for months on end through the rural towns of India on my own, I have been to places and tried things that many have not (goat head soup on the streets of Kashgar in the Xinjiang province of China to name the one I'm probably most fond of).




So I question, is Vietnam still considered off the beaten path? Over the last few weeks when telling people it seems that half don't believe I'm going there, and the other half make it sound like its going to Munich as they talk about their trip to Myanmar. I guess it doesn't really matter, but I'm throwing the question out there anyway. I think it really comes down to perspective.

Stay tuned for interesting thoughts from Vietnam. I promise not to waste any of your time with pointless posts updating you about getting off the airplane. In the meantime, check out the video, although I'm biased I really think this is pretty fantastic and is an interesting perspective on Xinjiang (the Northwest province in China that borders Pakistan, Tajikistan, and a few other central Asian countries). Also, the commentary on You Tube is pretty engaging.