We had a wonderful time in Vietnam. We met the nicest people on Earth. We tasted the arguably the tastiest dishes in the World. The weather was perfect, we were not scammed, we didn't spend too much money, we filled the time with meaningful experiences in which we learned a lot. I warmly recommend to everybody to explore Vietnam. I hope to go back in the next years to visit places we haven't been.
With the eyes of a biased western tourist Vietnam is a different World from what we know. The perception of time is different, a lot of things are more relaxed, while others are crazy tense. Here is a short summary of fun-facts. These sometimes make me smile, sometimes make me upset or worry, all subjective to my experiences.
With the eyes of a biased western tourist Vietnam is a different World from what we know. The perception of time is different, a lot of things are more relaxed, while others are crazy tense. Here is a short summary of fun-facts. These sometimes make me smile, sometimes make me upset or worry, all subjective to my experiences.
- Most people don't speak English. It's worth to have Google Translate or a phrasebook by the hand. They do try sometimes though. However in these cases it's still sometimes hard to tell the language. They don't quite distinguish between "L" and "R". They don't bother pronouncing final consonants either. So when someone says /ɹaɪ/ it can be rice, like, rye, lied, ride, line, etc... Good luck with disambiguation.
- The English menu is another interesting phenomenon. It's typically full with mistakes and with literally translated expressions. Look at "Bo Thai". It says beef. It's under the drink section. Google images give me various shakes like avocado. Google Translate translated it to abortion. My guess is that it's Redbull. Can't think of anything else with beef. Let's not even mention clean water.
- Hotels always provide you with toothbrush and toothpaste. It's similar to what you get on a long haul flight. It's not fun to use it though. It's weak and not especially tasty. Having said that in the same paragraph I must mention that people here especially the older generation have the maximum number of five teeth. They are super nice! Just make them smile on you and you will see what I mean.
- Food is arguably the best in the world. Don't too much dig into how the kitchen or the supply chain work. I was prepared to have stomach issues, however it didn't happen, not even once. And I was quite adventurous with my choices. If you don't see an English menu, not too bad either. We did order stuff we didn't even know what we were ordering. More than that. In some cases after finishing we still had no idea what we were eating. But it was all very tasty.
- Traffic is something you must get used to. Need to unlearn and relearn basics like how to cross a road, or how to avoid heart attack while the motorbike you're riding drives against the traffic, or acts as if it were a pedestrian. The rule of thumb is the bigger vehicle, the stronger honk and the stronger light you have, the better others will obey and let you do what you want. Buses honk everything off the road. Overtaking an overtaking van on a narrow road just before it bends is normal. Just don't look.
- Karaoke is the national sport. It's everywhere. You can't escape listening to horrible over confident "singers" singing out of tune the whole time and not even getting it. It can ruin an afternoon nap.
- Hot water from the shower in hotels is not always obvious. If it's an issue, better ask before booking. Most have it, some don't.
- Never saw a local person reading a book. So I don't foresee a revolution in the near future.
- Non asian looking individuals like myself can be a point of interest especially for children, especially in the villages. They come, laugh, say "hello", and would like to touch my facial hair. Vietnamese men don't have that typically.
- Trying to speak Vietnamese or pronouncing local villages' names to native speakers can be challenging, exactly the way it's challenging to understand their English. If you mistake the tone, you won't be understood in the good case. In the bad case you will be misunderstood.
- A lot of people wear a protective cover on their mouth and nose. This piece of fabric is tied around the ears. I'm not sure about what exactly they want to achieve with this, but no doubt it's extremely popular. Most people who wear this thing never replace it with a new one. So it's dirty most of the time. I personally doubt the health benefits.
- Wet bathroom. The concept is weird for Europeans, but apparently in South East Asia it's everywhere. The shower is not separated from the rest of the bathroom at all. You wet everything while taking a shower, including the toilet paper if you forgot to remove it. The floor is a little steep and leads the water to the drain. We saw some failing attempts to westernize the situation. Separating the dry part with a shower curtain was one if them. But still, you need to step on the wet part of the floor in order to access it. Somewhere else we saw a bathtub draining the water on the floor. Then the floor will take care of it and will drain the water further down.
- Road rage. People are not considerate to each other, at least not in the way we would expect. It's difficult to cross the road even in green light. Motorcycle riders don't pay too much attention to lights. People shout to each other even if they are just 15cms from my ear. I'm not a party in the communication, my presence is neglected. I'm having difficulties getting used to this. After a month it is getting sometimes really close to a threshold at which I'll shout back in an uncontrolled way probably in Hebrew, or I'll push a motorbike rider to the floor. I have this threshold really high, I didn't reach it, but if I stay for another month I probably would.
- Vietnam is an unfriendly country to the handicapped like wheelchair users, blinds or pedestrians. Since all sidewalks are taken by parking motorbikes you cannot really walk on them without detours to the road, where you can meet a motorbike or a car. During the entire month I haven't seen a single blind person or anyone on wheelchair. They probably just stay at home.
