Vietnam is the second stop in our trip to Southeast Asia as part of our round-the-world trip. We stayed close to a month there, but we wished we could have stayed more. We loved the food, the culture, the nature, and the highest bang-for-the-bucks travel experience we’ve ever had!

Overview of Vietnam

Vietnam, located in Southeast Asia, is a vibrant and culturally rich nation with a tumultuous history and breathtaking landscape. From its stunning natural beauty, including lush rice paddies and picturesque coastline, to its bustling cities and vibrant street life, Vietnam offers a diverse array of experiences for travelers. Steeped in history, Vietnam has been shaped by centuries of conflict, colonization, and resilience. China has long impacted Vietnam, but in recent centuries, the French and Americans played a big role in its history too. The country gained independence from French colonial rule in 1954 after the First Indochina War, followed by decades of internal strife and the devastating Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. Since then, Vietnam has undergone significant economic reforms, leading to rapid industrialization and modernization while retaining its unique cultural identity. With a population known for its warmth and hospitality, Vietnam welcomes visitors to explore its rich heritage, delicious cuisine, and dynamic cities, making it a captivating destination in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam is developing really fast, and within the past 20 years, it has increased its GDP ten times, which is pretty impressive. Vietnam’s political system may be officially communist, but its economic landscape tells a different story, one characterized by a significant embrace of capitalism. Following the reforms initiated in the late 1980s, Vietnam embarked on a path of economic liberalization and market-oriented policies. This shift opened up the country to foreign investment, encouraged private enterprise, and fostered a burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit. Today, Vietnam boasts a thriving market economy with a robust manufacturing sector, dynamic export-oriented industries, and a rapidly growing middle class. While the Communist Party still holds political power, the Vietnamese government has actively pursued policies to integrate into the global economy, signifying a pragmatic approach that combines elements of socialism with a market-driven economy. This unique blend has fueled Vietnam’s remarkable economic growth and positioned it as one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam is an elongated country, so planning a trip in Vietnam is pretty straightforward, as you either go from south to north, or the other way around. I think the best way to visit Vietnam is by train, though the trains do not go very fast. Some tourists rent scooters to go around the cities, or in the rural areas, since it’s convenient, but that’s not a safe option for families. Instead, you can use Grab, which is an equivalent of Uber in SE Asia, but much cheaper. Short rides cost 1-$2, and a one hour ride is something like $15.

Vietnamese cuisine is famous for its fresh, vibrant flavors influenced by French, Chinese, and Southeast Asian culinary traditions. From the iconic “pho” to “banh mi” sandwiches and spring rolls, Vietnamese dishes are known for their balance of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy flavors. Herbs, vegetables, and seafood play key roles, while dipping sauces like “nuoc cham” add an extra layer of taste. I personally love Vietnamese food, especially the pho, which I can’t get enough of.

King of Value Destination

Disclaimer: I haven’t visited every country, nor have I researched them all. This is based on my personal travels, and what I have read online.

You can get a lot of bangs for your bucks in Vietnam as a tourist. There are of course cheaper countries to travel in, but the quality of service you get in Vietnam is really high. For example, all the places we stayed in Vietnam far surpassed the quality we got in Europe, Iran, and Thailand, and at the same time, it was way cheaper. To put it concretely, in this trip so far, on average, we spent $100 per night in Europe, $63 per night in Thailand, and $46 per night in Iran, but only $36 per night in Vietnam! And again, that’s not for shabbier places, but actually more modern and better equipped hotels and airbnbs! Same thing goes for food and Grab.

Thailand is often mentioned when it comes to traveling cheap, but in my experience, Vietnam beats that by a good margin. If you like getting a lot of bang for your bucks when traveling, you should put Vietnam at the top of your list! Brian and Carrie, who are a couple traveling full-time, also agree with my assessment in their video here.

Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), aka Saigon, via direct flight from Phuket. During the immigration process, I realized that there has been a mishap in our visas: My son got a 3-month visa, but my wife and I got only 1 month, with different starting dates, which made the overlapping period even shorter. We had applied for e-visa online, and I’m not sure how this happened. This was quite frustrating, since we were to stay in Vietnam for 6-8 weeks, and had planned the first few locations accordingly. The officer told us that she can’t do anything, and we should go to the main immigration office in HCMC to extend our visa (which we did the day after, and they told us rather curtly that you can’t extend e-visas). That was a bummer…

Anyhow, the best way to go from the airport to your hotel is Grab. But to use Grab, you need to have internet (and of course you should install the app before getting here, and add your credit card as a method of payment). I typically get an eSIM before going to a country, but it turned out that eSIMs you find online are a lot more expensive than what you can directly get inside Vietnam. Also, there are lots of stories about how people have been scammed in the airport while buying their SIM card there. So here is my top tip to avoid all that, and get the best SIM card with lowest price in Vietnam: 1) Get the cheapest 1 GB/3 day eSIM from say Airalo, and use that when you arrive in Vietnam to get a Grab to get to your hotel, 2) the day after, find an official retailer (Viettel seems to be most liked by tourists), bring your passport, and buy either a SIM card or an eSIM (same price) for the duration of your visit. To give you an example of how much this can save you, if you buy a 20 GB / 30 days eSIM from Airalo, it will cost you $32, and it would only be data (no number, no sms). If you buy an eSIM/SIM card from a Viettel store, you can get a 30 day plan, 4 GB per day (120 GB of data in total) plus a number for only $8. That’s a big difference! Oh and that Vietnamese number can come handy in some places. For example, I got a Netflix subscription for only $5/month, basically paying the Vietnamese price, and for that, I needed a Vietnamese number to receive a confirmation sms.

The first thing you notice when you start driving to your hotel is the sheer number of scooters/mopeds. I’ve never seen so many scooters in the streets in my life! I don’t think the tourists can drive here, unless they have plenty of experience driving in chaotic places. Having said that, it is still not as bad as Iran! HCMC is the largest city in Vietnam with a population of over 8 million people, and I bet everyone has a moped. Another thing you soon notice is that you need to work with bank notes with many number of zeros. Vietnamese currency is called “dong”, or VND, and 1 USD will get you around 25,000 VND. Much like Thailand, Vietnam runs on cash, though most modern places accept credit cards.

We spent 4 days in HCMC, staying in a Vinhome Airbnb. Vinhome is a real estate company that owns a lot of newly built residential and commercial skyscrapers all around Vietnam. In fact, the neighborhood we were staying was a collection of residential skyscrapers (50 floors), with a much taller skyscraper in the middle called Landmark 81. Every building was like a copy-paste of the other, each with a convenient store, bank, spa, and a pharmacy on the ground floor, plus other amenities like pool in the building. There was also parks and playgrounds all over, plus a luxury shopping mall in Landmark 81. It was clear that this was intended for young affluent Vietnamese families who can afford a more modern lifestyle. Talking about Vinhomes, in Vietnam, you soon notice many Vin-something names all over, like VinPearl, VinFast, Vincom, and more. It turned out that these are all subsidiaries of a holding company called “Vingroup” whose owner is the richest person in Vietnam.

We arrived in Vietnam a few weeks before the lunar new year, aka the “Tet holiday”, which is like Christmas and New Year combined. Tet is a vibrant and joyous celebration that fills the streets with festive decorations and colorful displays. As Tet approaches, cities and towns across Vietnam come alive with ornate flower arrangements adorning streets and homes, symbolizing new beginnings and prosperity for the upcoming year. Cherry and peach blossoms are among the most popular decorations, and even if they are not in season, they elaborately decorate bare trees with fake blossoms. People go out with their family to take photos with these beautiful floral displays.

One of the must-visit attractions in HCMC is the War Remnants Museum, which houses a poignant collection vividly portraying the impact of the Vietnam War. Featuring an extensive array of photographs and documents, the exhibits chronicle various aspects of the conflict, offering a visceral understanding of its toll on civilians, soldiers, and the environment. The museum delves into the grim reality of war crimes, notably the My Lai massacre, with exhibits presenting testimonies, photographs, and documentation. Another aspect covered is the devastating use of Agent Orange and chemical warfare, highlighting both the environmental consequences and the long-term health effects on those exposed. Having said all that, the museum is built by the communists, and only tells half of the story, which is nevertheless true, but just keep in mind that it doesn’t discuss the atrocities committed by the Viet Congs and North Vietnam. I will discuss the Vietnam War later in this post.

Nha Trang

We took a day train from HCMC to Nha Trang, taking around 9 hours. We had booked three seats in a cabin of four, and the ride was pleasant, though a bit too rocky. The cabin was relatively clean, but was quite basic. It was interesting that each number in the cabin was associated with a bed, and not a seat. So for example, we had the two lower benches and one on top, and the other guy had the other top bed, where he spent most of his time. We booked all of our train tickets through the official railway website (https://dsvn.vn), which was pretty straightforward.

Nha Trang is a seaside resort town, with plenty of opportunities for beach activities. On the topic of being the king of value travel destination, Nha Trang was quite affordable. We got a tour to go to the island of Hon Tam for $35, and that included the boat ride there, using the beach umbrellas and towels, the boat ride to VinPearl island (which had funky and colorful German/French-inspired copycat buildings and amusement park), and the cable car back to Nha Trang. Another day, we had seafood and meat bbq buffet for $10/person. You can’t beat that!

After Nha Trang, we went up north, but more on that in the second part of the blog.

Vietnam War

The visit to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City sparked an interest in me to learn more about Vietnam War. Of course, we all have heard about it, and have seen many Vietnam War movies before, but I didn’t have a good grasp of how/what/why of the war, and its timeline. If you are in that camp, here is a short explanation of what lead to the war, and how it unfolded.

In the mid-19th century, the French colonized Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, collectively known as Indochina (that’s why the Vietnamese is written with Latin alphabet). During World War II, Imperial Japan took control of Indochina, but after the war, the communists, led by Ho Chi Minh, who called themselves Viet Minh, declared Vietnam’s independence. I want to emphasize on the “communists”, aka the Viet Minh, as not everyone back then was communist or in favor of communists. The non-communists were mostly allies with the French and the royal family of Nguyen, and this sparked the first Indochina war between the communist north and the French, supported by the US.

Despite initial US support for Vietnamese independence during WW2, Cold War concerns led the US to back the French to prevent communist control. The Viet Minh, however, defeated the French in the north by 1954, leading to the partitioning of Vietnam into the communist north led by Ho Chi Minh, and pro-western south with the last Nguyen emperor, Bao Dai, as the head of state (though he was more of a puppet ruler).

Tensions, however, escalated between the North and the South, when the North helped create Viet Cong in the South with the goal of toppling the South Vietnam regime. American involvement increased in 1964, evolving into a full-on guerrilla war fought mostly in South Vietnam. At the peak, around half a million American soldiers were fighting in Vietnam, which is a staggering number. Americans mostly focused on destroying the supply lines from north to south, known as Ho Chi Minh Trail, as well as finding and exterminating the Viet Cong within South Vietnam territory, known as “search and destroy missions”. To this end, Americans even bombed Laos and Cambodia to oblivion, since the Ho Chi Minh Trail passed through them, and communist groups there were helping the VCs. In desperation to deprive the VCs of the jungles that covered and concealed them, the US used a variety of defoliants - most famously the Agent Orange - that destroyed vast swaths of arable and non-arable lands in South Vietnam, resulting in catastrophic environmental and human tolls for generations. The US aimed to ensure the survival of the South Vietnamese government, but by 1969, realizing the unattainable goal and facing antiwar sentiments in the US, President Nixon began withdrawing American forces, gradually focusing on training the South Vietnamese forces instead. However, that did not go as planned either.

By 1973, all US forces had left Vietnam, and within a couple of years, the South fell to the North, marking the end of the war and Vietnam were reunified under communism. Ironically, the US intervention aimed to prevent communism in Vietnam, but by the war’s end, not only Vietnam but also Laos and Cambodia had become communist states. In Cambodia, shortly after the war, the infamous Khmer Rouge regime came into power - partly due to the resentment created against the US after the massive bombings - and committed one of the worst atrocities in human history, which is a story for another time.

The Vietnam War had a profound impact on the Vietnamese people, resulting in an estimated three million lives lost, countless injured, and widespread displacement of millions of people. The conflict devastated the country’s infrastructure, and approximately 20% of South Vietnam’s forests were tainted by harmful agents. Tragically, one enduring consequence has been the birth of children with severe congenital disorders in the aftermath of the war. The conflict was marred by numerous war crimes, including the infamous My Lai massacre, numerous instances of torture, carpet bombing, the use of napalm and nail bombs, and mistreatment of prisoners of war and political opponents in concentration camps. These atrocities inflicted immeasurable suffering on both civilians and combatants.

In the War Remnants Museum, there were many evidences of such atrocities by Americans and the South Vietnam regime, but of course there were no mention of the war crimes committed by the VCs and North Vietnam. After the war, the ordeal of Vietnamese people continued, as an estimated one million South Vietnamese were sent to “re-education” camps. That is just to say the suffering was even much larger than what was depicted in the museum.

As I concluded my visit to the museum, the realization struck me that the people walking around me in the streets are grandchildren of those profoundly affected by the brutal conflict some 50 years ago. Whether their grandparents were victims or perpetrators, the resilience and determination of the Vietnamese people were evident as they moved forward and built a vastly better nation. Moreover, merely 50 years after the war, Vietnamese people have forged a strong bond with their former adversary, exhibiting some of the highest levels of affection towards America - a sentiment I personally witnessed during our visit. Despite residing in a country labeled as communist, the landscape told a different story. The pervasive influence of free-market dynamics, capitalism, and Western impacts is unmistakable throughout the country. History has a dark sense of humor! But most importantly, I can’t help but admire how the Vietnamese people rose from the ashes, and I am sure they will have even brighter days ahead.

Given that I am a photographer, and a data scientist, here are two thoughts from the visit to the museum:

  1. In the War Remnant Museum, there was a photo exhibit of war photographers of both sides and even third party countries who were killed in action during the Vietnam War. That reminded me of the movie War Photographer, a documentary about James Nachtwey who is one of the most celebrated war photographers of all times. The courageous efforts of war photographers play a pivotal role in presenting an authentic portrayal of war to the global audience, bringing to light the harsh reality and sheer horror of armed conflicts across the world. There are many iconic photographs of Vietnam War, but probably the most famous one is the Napalm Girl by Nick Ut. The photograph played a significant role in shaping public perception of the Vietnam War, contributing to anti-war sentiments globally. The powerful and visceral nature of the Napalm Girl photo underscored the human cost of conflict and remains a haunting reminder of the tragedies endured by civilians during wartime.

  2. A geeky learning lesson from the Vietnam War is the critical importance of choosing the right metrics for assessing success or failure in any significant undertaking, be it a business venture or, in this case, a military campaign. Having the wrong metric can lead you off course. Consider this analogy: if a search engine like Google were to measure success, it might seem logical at first to track the total number of searches per user within a given time frame as a metric. After all, more searches typically indicate higher user engagement and potential for ad revenue. However, such a metric could incentivize teams to prioritize quantity over quality, by not showing what users want in the top results, and make them do additional searches, which in reality diminishes user experience. Similarly, in the Vietnam War, conventional measures of success, such as territorial gains, were inadequate due to the nature of the conflict. Instead, the metric of “body count” - the number of Viet Cong fighters killed - was adopted. This proved disastrous, as it incentivized killing civilians, and misreporting them as enemy combatants to increase the body count, while creating the false perception of progress in Washington. Moral of the story: Make sure you track the right metric, and set the right goals!

Random Observations in Vietnam

  • English is not widely spoken in Vietnam, and in some places, even the hotel employees were not able to speak English. People instead proactively use Google Translate to communicate with you, which works pretty well.
  • Sidewalks in Vietnam are either scooter parking, or have been turned into eateries. In city centers, you simply cannot walk on the sidewalks. Forget about bringing a stroller to Vietnam!
  • Crossing the street in Vietnam is no easy task. You have to watch all around you, over and over, and there will be some scooter zipping on the wrong side right at you. In fact, you should keep in mind that the right of way is not yours: it’s for whoever is bigger and faster!
  • Vietnamese food staples are quite different from what we are used to. Case in point, typical breakfast in Vietnam is a noodle soup like pho. As much as I love pho, I cannot have it for breakfast! On the other hand, we sometimes had a hard time finding good bread, cheese, jelly, etc for breakfast.
  • Food delivery is cheap and fast, and we often used Grab to deliver food to our place.
  • There are no coins in Vietnam. Only bills. There are way too many denominations of Vietnamese dong, and all of them feature Ho Chi Min on the front, which along with some similar colors, make for of occasional confusion.
  • Vietnamese love taking photos of themselves! I don’t know if this is only during the Tet holiday, but everywhere we go, there were many Vietnamese people taking photos with pretty much everything.
  • Unlike Thailand, many people still wear masks in the streets, a remnant of the pandemic.
  • Vietnamese language is pretty hard to learn due to its tonal nature, with six different tones that can change the meaning of a word. Even the word “pho” has many meanings based on how it is pronounced, and it was impossible for us to pronounce it correctly! I will conclude the Vietnam blog in another post.