A synonym for Vietnam? That’s simple:
- Saigon – Hanoi
or: - Hanoi – Saigon
depending on your political or magnetic disposition…
I went 2x through Vietnam:
Saigon – Hanoi – Saigon
Why?
Saigon - Hanoi = Vietnam = Hanoi - Saigon
From Saigon in the south, I traveled for 2.5 weeks to the north. From Hanoi in the north, I traveled for 3.5 weeks back to the south. Southbound, I had very nice company.
It’s not the places you go.
It’s the people you meet.
In life and in travels it is about other people. For me, this is especially true in this case. My company from Hanoi was the heartbreaker girl from Laos.
Vietnam with Hanoi - Saigon axis © 2010 Google
My heart is whole again, but now I’ve lost it. To see my heart and the new owner again, I have to travel back to Bangkok.
That means, no China and no Japan.
That means off to Bangkok, the city of cities (and angels).
That means a flight from one to the other City of Angels (Bangkok to Los Angeles).
The Bangkok price spiral has burst after all, but for once this was not about saving money anyway..
Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt, Vietnam 
[...] 6 Wochen war ich in Vietnam, doppelt so lange wie die meisten Touristen. Ich habe mich trotzdem nur auf dem Banana Pancake Trail bewegt und kenne nur Touristenvietnam. [...]
[...] Themen” denkt man gar nicht, wenn man mit Reisen beschäftigt ist. Leider hat meine Vietnamliebe mir bei unserem Wiedersehen in München einen Korb gegeben. Es war vorbei, ehe es angefangen hatte. [...]