Walkabout Yen Bai, Vietnam
It was a late Saturday morning when we awoke in Yên Bái, a small but lively city about two hours northwest of Hanoi. Located in the northern highlands of Vietnam, Yên Bái is known for its lush mountains, winding rivers, and terraced rice fields that stretch across the hillsides. The city itself sits in the Red River Delta, making it an important transit and trade hub for the region. It doesn’t get a lot of international attention, but I’ve always liked it—fun driving roads, rivers everywhere, and just enough activity to keep things interesting. The weather was perfect, but there was a large storm heading for Da Nang the next day, so I wasn’t sure if we’d make it back on time as the flights were destined to be canceled over the weekend. In the meantime, we were here to celebrate a birthday for a family member, eat great food, and take it easy for a bit.
Finding a good hotel in Yên Bái isn’t easy. While the city has a growing economy, it’s not exactly a major tourism destination. The place we stayed was clean but basic, with rock-hard beds that made sleep nearly impossible for me. As a westerner I favor soft beds. The previous day, after flying from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City for the auto show, then flying to Hanoi and driving north, I was already wiped out. So, the day’s agenda? Recover, eat, and just enjoy being here.
Every morning started at the same coffee shop, across from a small city park, where we’d sip Vietnamese cà phê sữa đá and watch the world go by. Yên Bái isn’t a huge city—its population sits at around 100,000 people, making it significantly smaller than Hanoi or Haiphong—so mornings are slow, with locals heading to work, kids riding e-bikes to school, and the occasional street vendor setting up shop. The city is also a major hub for the ethnic minorities of northern Vietnam, including the Tày and Dao people, who bring their own unique cultures, traditional clothing, and local handicrafts to the markets.
The city is still cleaning up after Typhoon Yagi, which hit two months previous to our arrival and left behind a mess of flooded streets and broken infrastructure. Some areas were still covered in dust, mud, and debris, and construction crews were working to fix roads and buildings. The Red River, which flows all the way from China through Hanoi, had flooded several districts, washing out businesses and homes along the riverbanks. You could see exactly how high the water level had been by the watermarks left behind on buildings. Despite all of this, the city was bouncing back fast. Shops were open, schools were running, and life was going on as usual.
We passed by a local school—bright, well-kept, but still showing signs of the storm. The streets weren’t gridded like in bigger cities; they curved around hills and wove between buildings. Even with the dust and construction, the place had a relaxed, small-town feel. The region around Yên Bái is famous for its bamboo forests, tea plantations, and rice terraces, and if you head a bit further out, you’ll find some of the best hiking and trekking trails in northern Vietnam.
We eventually made our way down to the Red River, where the damage from Typhoon Yagi was still obvious. A restaurant right on the water had part of its deck washed away, and there were still piles of wreckage along the shoreline. Fishing has been a part of Yên Bái’s economy for centuries, as the river has long been used for trade, agriculture, and transportation.
The Red River Delta is one of the most important regions in Vietnam, historically serving as a lifeline for farmers and traders moving goods between China and the rest of Southeast Asia. Today, it’s still a major transportation route, with cargo ships and fishing boats constantly passing through. The riverbanks are lined with rice paddies and small villages, where locals still follow traditional farming and fishing techniques that have been passed down for generations.
After a couple of hours on foot, I was ready for something different, so we headed for a blind massage parlor. If you’ve never had a blind massage in Vietnam, you’re missing out. These therapists, who have little to no vision, rely entirely on touch, and they’re incredibly skilled at working out muscle tension. This session was one of the best I’ve had in a long time, and after days of travel, it was exactly what I needed.
Then came dinner. And a lot of it. A table covered in grilled meats, steaming bowls of vegetables and other goodies, fresh spring rolls, and enough side dishes to feed a small army. Vietnamese food is already one of my favorites, but eating it family-style in a small town just hits differently. The flavors were bold, fresh, and perfectly balanced, and we sat there for hours just eating and talking.
Our time in Yên Bái was short, but the storm in Da Nang meant we’d be spending an extra night in Hanoi before heading home. Not a bad way to end the trip. I thought about how much this city had been through in just the last couple of months. Despite the storm damage, the recovery was already in full swing, and people weren’t sitting around waiting for things to get better—they were making it happen. That’s what stuck with me the most. This wasn’t just a place to pass through. It was a place worth coming back to.
