Spring on the road across Vietnam

Having the opportunity to drive along the length of the country, we can see how quickly the cities, villages, and roads have changed, especially the coastal strip of the Central region. Although not yet seamless, the North-South expressway axis of more than two thousand kilometers, like a winding dragon, has taken shape, bringing the country into a new era, greatly shortening the travel time between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi .

A section of highway passing through the Central region. Photo: Doan Xa.

I thought that there was no more beautiful tourist destination than driving along the length of the country, even if the route was only from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and vice versa. And there was no more interesting tourist route than the journey of sitting on the steering wheel and experiencing the length of the country. From the high-rise buildings, skyscrapers in the new city of Thu Duc to the vast dragon fruit fields of Binh Thuan, wind power fields, herds of sheep and goats quietly on the vast grasslands of Ninh Thuan to the deep blue bays of Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen or the undulating mountain ranges of Bach Ma, Hai Van, all were wonderful experiences. The more I traveled, the more I saw that the country was as beautiful as a painting with countless colors and unique characteristics. When passing through the Hai Van mountain range, I also felt the clear change of the sky and earth. It was not only the North and the South but also the transition between spring and summer, between hot and cold lands. From South to North, when passing Hai Van mountain range, you can feel the cool air flowing through the glass windows, signaling the transition of heaven and earth in the coastal area of ​​Thua Thien Hue. It is very different from the hot and humid weather on the other side of Da Nang city. The further north you go at the end of the year, the more dry and cracked fields and bare trees of winter are waiting for the spring drizzle to sprout. And if the journey from South to North on the days before Tet is to enjoy the cold and winter season of the North, on the contrary, the journey from North to South on the days after Tet will be extremely interesting, with lush green forests in the color of young rice in Ky Anh, Dong Hoi, Dong Ha or Huong Tra, Phu Vang... to the bright sunny beaches in the South Central region. It feels like on that journey across Vietnam, the four seasons of heaven and earth have passed, running from the front and far behind, not just spring. It is an interesting thing that is not easy to find elsewhere.

These days before the Lunar New Year 2025, many groups of classmates, fellow countrymen, colleagues, friends... on social networks have been enthusiastically discussing and sharing experiences of driving across Vietnam to return home. People share with each other the route so that they can both drive safely, have a place to stop, stay overnight or even eateries, places with "beautiful views" to stop for a while to rest and visit the sights. Although not complete, the journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi is often called roughly "crossing Vietnam". For me, a person born and raised in a small village on the banks of the Day River in the suburbs of Hanoi but living in Ho Chi Minh City for the past 15 years, driving across Vietnam on the last day of the year to return home for Tet is an interesting and memorable experience. Truly, driving across Vietnam has never been as easy and convenient as it is now. Because the North-South expressways are being extended every day. If the first expressway in the South (also the first in the country) from Ho Chi Minh City to Trung Luong ( Tien Giang province) is nearly 65km long and was put into operation in 2010 and 10 years later, in 2020, in the Southern region, there will be only 100km more expressway. But just from 2020 to now (about 4 years), this distance is more than 650km. That is to say, the speed of expressway construction is faster than ever, helping the lands seem to be brought closer together. But the experiences on the road are more. Besides, the ease of owning a personal car is making it more and more popular for many people in the Southern provinces to drive to the Central and Northern regions. In a way, expressways not only connect cities, villages, mountains, forests, seas... but also bring everything closer.

A section of the North-South highway with hills, bays and solar fields.

Just five years ago, when we made a business trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Quang Ngai Province, we had to plan for a whole week. Because there were no flights, the only options were trains and buses, with a travel time of about fourteen hours. Adding the travel time to the train station, it took me almost a whole day to get to where I needed to go. However, on my recent cross-country trip, the time it took to drive from Ho Chi Minh City to Quang Ngai was surprisingly short. Starting from Ho Chi Minh City early in the morning, I still had time to have lunch on the banks of the Ve River with the famous braised goby fish with pepper, a bowl of sweet Don soup and golden corn rolls. The expressway has not only shortened the travel time but also made the journey much smoother and less stressful than traveling on the same route on the national highway.

But what is even more special about the journey across Vietnam is the typical spring in the lands we pass through. Even if we don't stop or sit down directly with the local residents, it is easy to see or buy specialties along the way. For example, when we pass through Cam Lam (Khanh Hoa), there are tons of bananas and mangoes, and then in Phu Yen at the end of the year, there are gladiolus flowers. Thousands of red, pink, and yellow gladiolus flowers are sold along the national highway. If gladiolus is a specialty of Phu Yen, then more than a hundred kilometers away, yellow apricot flowers are a specialty of An Nhon, Binh Dinh. Thousands of pots of yellow apricot flowers are lined up along the national highway to be transported to the South and North for consumption. With advanced care techniques, yellow apricot flowers are no longer a typical flower of the "hot" Southern region, but many people in Hanoi also display them during Tet. I remember the early morning of the last day of the year, the weather was chilly and the whole sky and earth in An Nhon town, a small urban area in the Central region, seemed to be dyed yellow by the brilliance of apricot pots. From small, meticulously pruned pots of apricot flowers to "grandfather" apricot trees several decades old, waiting to bloom several meters high. Yellow apricot flowers seemed to be everywhere, not just along the roadside because behind them, mixed in with the fields and houses, were apricot gardens being cared for and waiting to be consumed. An Nhon yellow apricot flowers were gradually becoming a brand of this land. Then driving through Hue, Dong Ha, Dong Hoi... there were also countless other specialties that kept people coming back. Da Nang beef rolls, Hue sesame candy, Nghe An cu do candy... were not simply dishes sold by local residents to passersby. It was like wrapping the whole spring in those typical flavors, then following the national highway from North to South, spreading to all regions of the country.

The country, all over the country, is reaching out to enter a new era. And nowhere is the shape and change more evident than on the long, endless highways stretching out across the country. In particular, the North-South highway axis is a journey that not only makes cross-Vietnam driving easier and more convenient, but is also a place for us to have more experiences about the country, about spring and special things. Because the feeling of sitting on the steering wheel, crossing fields, cities, villages, grasslands or blue seas... on a spring day is truly something special.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/mua-xuan-tren-duong-xuyen-viet-10298950.html