Vietnam is not for the faint of heart. But you didn’t pick this country because you want to be shuttled around on air-conditioned buses and treated to five-star hotels. You picked this country because you don’t want an easy vacation. You picked this country for its raw sense of realness, for its crowded, bustling streets, for its breathtakingly beautiful landscapes and its tempestuous history. You picked Vietnam because you wanted to barter with shopkeepers down to the last dong and because you wanted to walk down the streets bordered by French architecture on one side and pagodas on the other. You picked Vietnam for its potential to both fascinate and frustrate—and the country will deliver. Battered but not broken, this is a nation that’s been under the control of the Chinese, the Khmer Rouge, the colonial French, and the Americans. While various foreign powers have occupied Vietnam, the people of this country remain resiliently proud of their heritage and their country. They’ll amaze you with their confidence in Vietnam’s future; indeed, the cities are rapidly developing and their modernization is the root cause of optimism here. You’ll be charmed by the hole-in-the-wall cafes and the puppet theater shows in the capital city of Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) offers you the best opportunity to feel least like a tourist when you explore the seemingly infinite back alleys where the locals reside. And you can’t visit Vietnam and miss out on the cuisine: pho, the quintessential Vietnamese noodle soup. Take your first sip of a steaming broth with cilantro, lime, basil, and sliced beef and you’ll never go back to Top Ramen. Vietnam will stun you with the rugged beauty of its natural scenery and terrify you when you try to cross a street full of motorbikes whizzing by. It is a country where you can stay at a hostel for a few dollars and dine at a first-class French restaurant a couple blocks away. It is a country that tests the boundaries of the most adventurous traveler. But that’s exactly what you came for.