My girlfriend and i recently went on a ”church-hunting“-drive in Vietnam’s Nam Dinh and Nin Binh provinces. These provinces, renowned for their churches and cathedrals (with very lavishly decorated and grand exteriors), were the first to “welcome” Christian missionaries and still are Vietnam’s Christian stronghold. We thought it would be interesting to see these religious structures, so often associated with Europe, in a more tropical and Asian setting. When driving we couldn’t help but notice another type of lavish building: tacky, whimsical, ostentatious, over-the-top,… whatever you want to call it-mansions. A couple per village or small town, these mastodonts felt strangely out of place compared to their surroundings. After asking around the locals told us it all started with a cement factory’s owner visit to the St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Mesmerized he longed for a home in a similar style once back home… giving birth to a new trend among Vietnam’s new countryside rich. A story and a side of Vietnam you may not have heard of before, so maybe worth sharing in this sub! These often unexpected stories and little encounters are what make travel so special to us, there’s a whole vast world to be explored:)