In Summary - Vietnam

Here's an overview of our time in Vietnam.

Length of stay - 3rd February to 1st March (26 days)

Places stayed - Phu Quoc, Can Tho, HCMC, Da Lat, Hoi An, Hue, Phong Nha, Hanoi, Bai Tu Long, Cat Ba, Ta Van village (Sa Pa)

Currency - Dong, at time of writing £1 equals roughly 30,000 Dong

Plug type - European Twin Plug although some hostels had universal sockets

Driving side - Right

Some Vietnamese words:

For the first time since Malaysia, we’re back in a country that uses Latin characters, albeit with various accents. This made it quite hard to type when using a hostel computer as typing certain characters in sequence produced different characters! Some words are based on French e.g. cà phê is coffee, ga is train station, bia is beer, but most things are impossible to decipher.

Our hostel in Hue gave us a very useful list of vocabulary to learn, however the main words we used were Xin chào (hello) and Cảm ơn (thank you). The accents are especially important, as depending on how you say one particular word, it can have three meanings, for example coconut, pineapple and watermelon (dừa, dứa and dưa).

Vietnam, particularly the North, comprises of a number of different cultures, each with their own language. While staying in Sa Pa, we were also taught that “oua chow” means thank you in H’Mong.

Three good

1. Tet - we’d read conflicting messages online about whether it was good to go or best to avoid Vietnam during Tet (lunar New Year), so we were a bit concerned that it would be tricky to get around. But actually, it was really nice to see. OK, so things are more expensive and some things were closed, but the decorations and the festivities more than made up for it. You just have to be prepared and book ahead.
2. Craziness - Vietnam is a crazy place. There are rules, but no one follows them. It’s loud and busy and hot, particularly in the south. But for some reason, this all just adds to its charm. I found myself saying “sure” a lot, as you just expect to see odd things happening in Vietnam. But I loved it!
3. Amazing wildlife and scenery - Vietnam is a diverse country, from the flat lands of the Mekong Delta in the south, to the mountains of Sa Pa in the north. The green colour of the paddy fields has to be seen to be believed and we saw some incredible animals, particularly huge butterflies and moths, the size of small birds in some cases. The benefit of having the time to travel the length of the country is that you get to experience the variations.

Three bad

1. The American / Vietnam War and the fact that its effects are still being felt by people today, particularly from things like Agent Orange. That said, the attitude of the Vietnamese and the focus on peace is inspiring.
2. Pestering hawkers who just don’t take no for an answer. In the end you just have to walk off and hope they don’t follow you!
3. ATM fees. Most ATMs charge you to get your money out, either a fixed amount or a percentage. You can pay on card for some things, but invariably there’s a 3% surcharge and many places only take cash. Saigon Commercial Bank was the only place we found with no fees.

Three odd

1. People constantly saying hello to you, particularly in the South. It was mainly children, but some adults did this too. In Vietnamese, hi means two, so you sometimes get people waving two fingers from side to side while saying hi as well
2. Getting earwormed by a song we don’t understand. This was around Tet, where a particular song was constantly being played on the radio. It’s very weird having a song stuck in your head when you don’t know any of the words!
3. No tuk tuks. Unlike Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, Vietnam doesn’t buy into the whole tuk tuk culture. Instead they all use scooters, which includes being able to hire a Grab scooter driver instead of a car.