Vietnam
03-03-2015, 04:32 PM
I was trying to figure out a place to post my general impressions about Vietnam because I had gone on an 18 nights and 19 days tour of the country (in late January to mid February).
Surely my impression of the whole place was somewhat skewed by the fact that I went with my girlfriend who served somewhat (when she was willing) as my personal assistant and translator. She is a native Vietnamese speaker who is in her early 30s who grew up in the country (in Buon Ma Thuot) into her early teenage years, but had NOT been back to the country for more than 15 years.
We went on a tour for the first nine days from HCM to Hanoi (2 days) and passing through and staying in various other locations, Ha Long Bay (1 day), Ninh Binh (1 day), Dong Hoi (1 day), Hue (1 day), Hoi An (1 day) and Da Nang (2 days). Then we went to Buon Ma Thuot for 4 days and then to Nha Trang for 3 days and back to HCM for 3 days.
We rented several motorbikes in our last 10 days of the trip in each of three cities (Buon Ma Thuot, Nha Trang and HCM), so got to experience lots of aspects of the driving and traffic dynamics, country location and foods because we were both interested in driving around to different areas and trying out various foods - even if the experimenting meant that we ate 5 times in a day (which happened once in a while). By the way, renting a motorbike was generally between $5 and $10 per day, depending on location and how much you could bargain or whether the bike was manual shift or automatic.
I found that prices were really great, especially given the then exchange rate with the dollar (a little more than 21,000 dong). I am NOT sure how much my personal translator/ assistant saved me money, because frequently, she wanted to stay in the higher end hotels in order to get more luxurious treatment (so for example, we would stay in a $50 or $60 dollar a night location that was 4 or 5 stars rather than staying in a $20 dollar a night location that would have covered the essentials including air conditioning), yet many times, it seems that I was fairly spoiled by having her to spontaneously ask prices and to figure out what foods we were going to try out at any random location that we came across.
Sometimes, we were spoiled in some of the locations outside of HCM city because we would spend less than 100,000 dong ($5) on a fairly elaborate meal for the two of us, and then in some of the tourist areas of HCM city would have prices that were 2x to 3x higher (but still fairly reasonable compared to westernized prices). For example, in some areas of LA or even outside of LA if you try to get roasted duck, you will pay $30 or more for the whole duck. In parts of LA, I am able to find decent locations to sell me whole roasted duck for $17. In a place outside of HCM city, we bought a whole roasted duck for 180,000 (less than $9). We also ate dog, and snail and balut (duck in the eggs), and a variety of other on the street combination of dishes that included a large variety of cuts of meats (pigs blood, chicken liver etc). Also, I am used to paying between $1 and $3 per coconut in the USA, but in Vietnam, we would frequently find coconuts being served for 30 to 75 cents per coconut (6,000 to 15,000 dong).
I'm thinking that if I ever go back, I would probably want to need to learn a sufficient amount of vietnamese to get around to ask about the bathroom and prices and attempt to order off of the menu (if they have a menu) or attempt to ask what foods are available to order. Also, if I went back, I would probably attempt to find various local personal assistants/interpreters, by asking around. Girls seem fairly anxious to meet westerners, but I did NOT get to experiment too much with meeting girls since my girlfriend was keeping a pretty close eye on me.
Nonetheless, through the whole time, I did NOT see very many westerners with Vietnamese women, which saddened me a bit regarding some social stigma obstacles that could exist. We did spend a lot of time outside of tourist areas, and there seemed to be a few more Vietnamese women hanging around westerners in the tourist areas, but even then such hanging out did NOT seem too prevalent because I would see quite a few caucasian men that were with various shapes of caucasian women (rather than with Vietnamese women).
GF was NOT too affected by the stares of locals towards us, but it was clear that there were times when she was bothered, and we discussed some of this regarding her interactions with the locals. She frequently asked for directions and sometimes got into various conversations with locals and those conversations were frequently affected by the fact that she was with me. In some cities, including Da Nang, locals would do a double take when they would see me, and they would try to say "hi." I think that the double take was the most noticeable in Da Nang, yet my timeline was pretty short in each of the various cities... and accompanied by GF.
I am thinking that if I do travel in the near future to SEA locations (within the next 6 months to 2 years), i will likely go to the Philippines on my first next destiny. It seems that English would be a plus in the Phils - however, I am thinking that the weather in Vietnam may be much nicer for certain times of the year... and maybe learning some vietnamese would not be that impossible as it might seem to be in the beginning. I was pretty comfortable with the climate in various parts of Vietnam, but then again I was largely traveling in February.. hahahahaha.. which may be a bit non-representative.
I would like to hear about whether any other guys have had recent experiences in Vietnam to partake in a sort of overview traveling session similar to mine.
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