Vietnam

Vietnam is 1,650 kilometres from north to south and narrow enough that you can cross it in a morning, which means the geography changes faster than almost anywhere else on earth. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are cities that share a language and almost nothing else. The central coast holds Hoi An, Hue, the Marble Mountains; the north holds the karst formations of Ha Long Bay and the rice terraces of Sapa, which turn gold in September in a way that photography cannot adequately prepare you for. The food changes every hundred kilometres and is worth following that closely.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: Hanoi's Old Quarter, central coast heritage routes, Mekong Delta boat logistics and the pho variations that differ enough between cities to justify eating it daily for a month.