My girlfriend and I moved to Melbourne this year. It’s a great city, but after a sunny autumn, winter had finally set in and the grey skies were starting to get us down. So we checked a weather forecast, hit the Jetstar website, and before we knew it we were on the way to Vietnam for a healthy dose of sunshine!

Our favourite place in Vietnam was Sapa, which is in the mountains in the north-west of the country. The rice terraces in this area are just beautiful: amazing stripes of green, yellow and brown on every hillside. On our second day in Sapa we went on a guided walk down into the valley, where there are a lot of rice-farming villages. The women from the villages had to help us along the way, as a lot of the tracks were muddy and slippery from the rain. They were incredibly strong and sure-footed, and even carrying babies on their backs they made us look really, really clumsy!

After Sapa it was back to Hanoi, which is Vietnam’s capital city. We particularly liked wandering around the streets of the Old Quarter. Every street is named for what they used to make or sell there, and even though these days the names don’t always correspond to what you can buy there, you still get the feeling that life hasn’t changed in hundreds of years.

We also went to Hoi An in central Vietnam. The streets along the river in Hoi An are full of heritage houses and shops with wooden shutters and tiled roofs. Every street is decorated with coloured lanterns and almost every street has fantastic cafés, complete with fruit drinks, coffee and French pastries. It is also the best place in Vietnam to have clothes tailor-made, so we both picked up suits and shirts for a lot less than what they’d cost in Australia.

Our trip began and ended in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, formerly Saigon). HCMC has awesome markets: you can get anything you want and a lot you don’t, including fresh pig’s ears! While we were in HCMC we tried phó bo – spicy rice-noodle soup with beef – which the locals eat for breakfast. It was yummy, especially with lime and chillies… though I’m not about to give up my Weetbix just yet! We also ate lots of fresh spring rolls, another southern specialty. The food was a real highlight of our trip, it was absolutely delicious and very cheap, so we certainly made the most of it.

If I had to describe Vietnam in one word, it would be easy: colourful! Wherever you looked there was something colourful looking back at you. We also loved the people: no matter how hard they were working, they were always ready to smile (and laugh) at a couple of Aussies.

Well, we certainly got our sunshine, but we’re back in Melbourne now and our tans are fading fast. I don’t know how much longer they’ll last without more sun soon… How much were those tickets to Thailand again?

How to Enter:
If you’ve travelled Jetstar in the past year, we’d love to hear from you! Send in your 500 word holiday story from any Jetstar destination and six of your best holiday snaps. The winning entry will be published in JETSTAR magazine and win 2 JetSaver return tickets flying Jetstar between your closest port and a direct Jetstar operated port. It’s that easy! Send your travel story to: writerscomp@jetstar.com

Terms & Conditions:
Contest will run every month. Entry submissions must be received by the 8th of the month. Maximum prize value is AU$756 based on 2 return flights from Adelaide to Cairns. Entrants must be Australian residents. Ink Publishing reserves the right to edit the winning submission and the judges decision is final. Employees of Jetstar Airways and Ink Publishing are not eligible to enter. For full terms and conditions, please visit www.jetstar.com/writerscomp