Vietnam’s culture, cuisine and natural beauty make it a popular travel destination. But what should be on your must-do list? Here’s what Bill Bailey recommends…
Ed Grenby - 24 February 2026
It’s been 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War, notes Bill Bailey – and about five years since his last comedy tour of the south-east Asian country. So his new programme is really about “how Vietnam is recovering from both those cataclysmic events”.
In truth, the show is a lovely, light travelogue through a nation that today welcomes millions of holiday-makers every year – and here are the host’s six unmissable experiences:
Have your fortune told
“In Hanoi I went to see a shaman from the old Vietnamese folk religion – and it turns out I’ll be lucky if I make it through to the end of this month. He was very specific that I would have a problem with my small intestine in October. So when I got home I actually went to get checked out – without telling them I was there because of a fortunte-teller in Hanoi, obviously. The shaman gave me some good advice about my work-life balance, but he was generally very downbeat. You have to bring offerings in exchange for your reading, so maybe he didn’t like the biscuits I brought. My advice would be to take something really nice, like bourbons, and you might get a better fortune…”
“This was in Hanoi too. It’s a wonderful old place, the ancient capital, on the banks of the Red River – a bit ramshackle, but I loved the chaos and the colour of it. And I joined a ‘laughing yoga’ class: the idea is that it reduces stress, gets the blood pumping, that sort of thing. But as a comedian I was thinking, ‘I work really hard to get laughs’, so I asked the leader, ‘Don’t you need humour for laughs?’ And he looks at me deadpan, and says ‘No, we don’t want any humour’. Should I have shown them an epidsode of Mrs Brown’s Boys then? You never know, that might be very funny in Vietnamese.”
Give meditation a go (but don’t sell your house)
“Da Lat is up in the mountains, with a fantastic climate, and you can do all these activities: hiking, biking, ziplines… And at this temple up there, these monks tried to teach me to meditate. You should absolutely give it a go, but the monasteries can be a touch culty, because they want you to join and cut off ties with your family so you’re more focused; and I suspect you can learn the techniques of meditation without giving up your house and family. And then there’s the lotus position: I could get into it ok, but I couldn’t get out – they almost had to hoist me out with pulleys and leave me in the sunhine for my limbs to come back to life.”
“We didn’t feature it in the show, but if you’re in Ho Chi Minh City – or Saigon, as the locals still call it – the one thing you must do is visit the War Remnants Museum. It’s amazing, but quite harrowing in places: they don’t hold back on the graphic nature of things, and you will be shocked by seeing what ordnance does to the human body, what machines of war do to soft flesh. Then just an hour or two down the river you’ve got the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Viet Cong fighters would spend all day before emerging to fight or farm in the night. They’re tiny, tiny tunnels that housed hospitals, field kitchens, weapons caches, everything. It’s extraordinary, but also a strangely fun thing to do, sqeezing into them yourself as a tourist.”
Don’t swim
“Ha Long Bay is the image you’ll see in all the brochures on the Vietnam page, and it is spectacular. It’s a natural wonder – these huge limestone karsts coming out of the sea – and we spent a lovely few days cruising around it and visiting the fishing villages. The only caveat is that water quality is not that great because environmental issues are pretty low down the priorities list in Vietnam, so it’s not somewhere to go diving or snorkelling. As one of our Aussie crew put it, ‘I saw a Bondi cigar floating there’ – and I think you can figure out what he meant. You could combine it with the Sapa Valley, though, which is a lovely area of rice-growing and hill-tribes not too far away.”
Eat!
“You definitely have to have Hoi An on your list, if only because of the food, which is just knockout. It’s got a very atmospheric old town, all cobbled streets along the riverside. It’s a good base, too, to explore the temples and mountains and Danang and its beaches. Just make sure you leave time to wander the markets and try the food. Best of all is bánh xèo, which is basically a crispy pancake with fresh noodles, prawn and vegetables, or whatever filling you want. They’re pretty special…”
It’s been 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War, notes Bill Bailey – and about five years since his last comedy tour of the south-east Asian country. So his new programme is really about “how Vietnam is recovering from both those cataclysmic events”.
In truth, the show is a lovely, light travelogue through a nation that today welcomes millions of holiday-makers every year – and here are the host’s six unmissable experiences:
Have your fortune told
“In Hanoi I went to see a shaman from the old Vietnamese folk religion – and it turns out I’ll be lucky if I make it through to the end of this month. He was very specific that I would have a problem with my small intestine in October. So when I got home I actually went to get checked out – without telling them I was there because of a fortunte-teller in Hanoi, obviously. The shaman gave me some good advice about my work-life balance, but he was generally very downbeat. You have to bring offerings in exchange for your reading, so maybe he didn’t like the biscuits I brought. My advice would be to take something really nice, like bourbons, and you might get a better fortune…”
Try laughing yoga
“This was in Hanoi too. It’s a wonderful old place, the ancient capital, on the banks of the Red River – a bit ramshackle, but I loved the chaos and the colour of it. And I joined a ‘laughing yoga’ class: the idea is that it reduces stress, gets the blood pumping, that sort of thing. But as a comedian I was thinking, ‘I work really hard to get laughs’, so I asked the leader, ‘Don’t you need humour for laughs?’ And he looks at me deadpan, and says ‘No, we don’t want any humour’. Should I have shown them an epidsode of Mrs Brown’s Boys then? You never know, that might be very funny in Vietnamese.”
Give meditation a go (but don’t sell your house)
“Da Lat is up in the mountains, with a fantastic climate, and you can do all these activities: hiking, biking, ziplines… And at this temple up there, these monks tried to teach me to meditate. You should absolutely give it a go, but the monasteries can be a touch culty, because they want you to join and cut off ties with your family so you’re more focused; and I suspect you can learn the techniques of meditation without giving up your house and family. And then there’s the lotus position: I could get into it ok, but I couldn’t get out – they almost had to hoist me out with pulleys and leave me in the sunhine for my limbs to come back to life.”
Feel the history
“We didn’t feature it in the show, but if you’re in Ho Chi Minh City – or Saigon, as the locals still call it – the one thing you must do is visit the War Remnants Museum. It’s amazing, but quite harrowing in places: they don’t hold back on the graphic nature of things, and you will be shocked by seeing what ordnance does to the human body, what machines of war do to soft flesh. Then just an hour or two down the river you’ve got the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Viet Cong fighters would spend all day before emerging to fight or farm in the night. They’re tiny, tiny tunnels that housed hospitals, field kitchens, weapons caches, everything. It’s extraordinary, but also a strangely fun thing to do, sqeezing into them yourself as a tourist.”
Don’t swim
“Ha Long Bay is the image you’ll see in all the brochures on the Vietnam page, and it is spectacular. It’s a natural wonder – these huge limestone karsts coming out of the sea – and we spent a lovely few days cruising around it and visiting the fishing villages. The only caveat is that water quality is not that great because environmental issues are pretty low down the priorities list in Vietnam, so it’s not somewhere to go diving or snorkelling. As one of our Aussie crew put it, ‘I saw a Bondi cigar floating there’ – and I think you can figure out what he meant. You could combine it with the Sapa Valley, though, which is a lovely area of rice-growing and hill-tribes not too far away.”
Eat!
“You definitely have to have Hoi An on your list, if only because of the food, which is just knockout. It’s got a very atmospheric old town, all cobbled streets along the riverside. It’s a good base, too, to explore the temples and mountains and Danang and its beaches. Just make sure you leave time to wander the markets and try the food. Best of all is bánh xèo, which is basically a crispy pancake with fresh noodles, prawn and vegetables, or whatever filling you want. They’re pretty special…”
Bill Bailey's Vietnam
Saturday 9:15pm C4