03/04/2026
Vietnam 🇻🇳
Welcome to Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia located on the eastern edge of the Indochinese Peninsula. Known for its long, narrow geography, it borders China, Laos, Cambodia, and the South China Sea. Hanoi is the capital city, while Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in the country.
Vietnam's history is a millennia-long saga of resilience 💪 characterized by a thousand-year struggle against Chinese domination, followed by independence, French colonization, and a, 20th-century war for unification 🙌. Emerging from foreign rule in 938 CE, it developed as a distinct culture, eventually overcoming internal divisions, colonial rule (1858–1954), and the Vietnam War (1955–1975) to become a unified Socialist Republic, today operating as a growing economic power.
I travelled for 34 days from South of Vietnam, all the way to the North. The amount of days I spent in the country allowed me to experience a lot of it and most of its famous cities. This is a country that deserves at least one month and nothing less than that. I fell in love with its tranquillity, its sweet and kind hearted population, and the very delicious food they make.
I hope this guide will be very useful for you in the future if you decide to visit Vietnam. Let's categorise this article to small topics where I share with you general information, and what I experienced about this special country.
The Weather ⛅
The country of Vietnam offers a unique geography, creating a range of weather patterns, with both tropical and temperate 🌡️zones. While March to May offers the best weather countrywide, there is no bad time to visit Vietnam, as there is always some part of the country with holiday skies. This is the period when I was in Vietnam, from mid-April to mid-May, where cities like; Ho Chi Minh, Nha Trang, Da Nang, and Hanoi were very 🌞 hot. In fact, so hot that your own skin becomes sticky. Meanwhile, cities like; Dalat, Sapa, Ha Giang, and Cao Bang had much cooler 🌤️ temperature.
Currency 💴
With a wealth of affordable cuisine, hotels, and things to do, Vietnam is an excellent destination if you’re looking for value for money
The country has one official currency and it’s the Vietnamese D**g, where 1 Dollar = 26000 VND, 1 Euro = 30000 VND, and 1 British Pound = 35000 VND. They only have bills and no coins. Even though you can use your bank 💳 cards in many places to pay for things, bear in mind that this is a cash 💴💵 society, which means, having a lot of cash on you is important and don't you worry, no one is going to rob you. My favourite and most convenient Bank 🏧 I used to withdraw money from is TP Bank and it is easy to spot, it has a purple colour. At this bank I was able to withdraw the maximum amount of 5 million VND which is about 166 Euros. Even though I heard that some other banks give a maximum limit of 10 million and I needed that, but I never found those banks to withdraw this amount of money using my foreign Bank 💳 Card.
If you happen to have cash like Euros 💶 or Dollars 💵 you can exchange 💱 it at major banks or reputable gold shops which often have better rates.
Population 👨🦳👨🦱👧👦
Vietnam's population is estimated to be over 100 million, with close to 6 million living in the Capital City Hanoi, and over 10 million living in the largest city of the country, Ho Chi Minh.
While I fell in love ❤️ with their kindness and simple clothing styles, I found some behaviour especially when it comes to the females, really strange. The obsession with Fair Skin, when you walk around the streets, you will notice that girls in Vietnam, especially those riding 🛵 motorbikes, cover themselves from head to toe to protect their skin from the sun 🌞 avoiding tanning. As soon as I noticed this, I said to myself while laughing, "They look like Ninjas" 🥷 and doing a Google search about this now, it literally says that female scooter riders are often jokingly referred to as "Ninjas" or "Ninja 🥷 Leads".
This "cover-up" style often involving masks, long gloves, jackets, and long skirts, is a major part of local street culture. Light skin is associated with high social status and working indoors, while tanned skin is traditionally linked to manual labour, such as working in rice 🌾🌾 fields. To find this out for me was bizarre, it is a bizarre way of thinking. I spoke to someone who is also a traveller and the person told me that if I wanted to find a girl here, I will not have a chance being a fairly brown middle eastern guy, because they are interested in Fair Skin, the White Man, with other words the French and Americans for example, the same nationalities that invaded and colonised them, how ironic.
Language 🗣️
Moving on, when you visit Vietnam, you will quickly notice something different with the writing style of their language. Vietnam is the only East Asian country that uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics and not an Asian script like the other nations.
If we go back in time, Vietnam used Chinese ㊙️ characters for official documents, literature, and education for nearly 2,000 years, from 111 BCE until the early 20th century. But why did this change take place?
Classical Chinese was complex, making literacy accessible mainly to scholars and elites. While it worked, it was not the most efficient tool for widespread literacy. In the early 17th century, Portuguese and French Catholic missionaries arrived to Vietnam to spread Christianity ✝️ in the country. One notable missionary was Alexandre de Rhodes, who used the Roman alphabet to transcribe Vietnamese sounds. This led to the creation of Quoc Ngu, the alphabet they use in Vietnam today. Rhodes also went to publish a Vietnamese-Latin-Portuguese dictionary in 1651, solidifying the system. The main goal here was to make it easier for locals to read the Bible, and the new alphabet was a much simpler and more effective way to teach people to read, and learn than Chinese characters, opening up literacy to a much broader segment of the population.
Cuisine 🫕🥗🍜
There is a story to be told by the country of Vietnam through its flavours. From the fragrant street food of Hanoi to the spicy 🌶️ and rich dishes of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnamese cuisine is a celebration of fresh ingredients, bold aromas, and culinary traditions passed down for generations.
The country's national dish which you probably heard about before is Pho. It is a fragrant noodle 🍜 soup consisting of a rich, slow-simmered broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat. The Vietnamese kitchen consists of dishes like; Vietnamese Hot Pot, where you cook meat, seafood and vegetables in steaming hot broth. Com Rang Dua Bo, is a Vietnamese fried 🍚 rice featuring stir-fried beef and pickled mustard greens. Additionally, for something light you have Goi cuon (Fresh Spring Rolls), made from rice paper rolls filled with cooked shrimp, lettuce, rice noodles and cilantro. You will also find something called Banh Mi, this combines French influence with local flavours. At its most basic, it's a sandwich made with a French baguette 🥖 with different fillings. They also have this dish (Com Chien Trai Thom) featuring stir-fried jasmine rice, succulent shrimp, sausage, cashews, and fresh pineapple, served inside a hollowed-out pineapple 🍍 shell, and many more to try and enjoy the flavours.
Furthermore, the desserts of course, and while they don’t seem to be big in desserts but some things I tried were Banh Da Lon, is a steamed layered small rectangular cake that is infused with pandan leaves, coconut milk, and mung beans! It is soft, and chewy. They also have something called Che Troi Nuoc, this is a traditional favourite dessert of glutinous rice balls and ginger syrup.
Drinks, I will have to admit that I am not really a coffee ☕ drinker. But lord, I have to confess. They have the best coffee I have ever tried, and some real unique twist and blending to them. I was hitting a coffee day and night; Coconut Coffee, Caramel Coffee, Salted Coffee and of course Vietnam's number one, the Egg Coffee. What I just named here is a must; you need to try all of them.
Beside coffee, beer 🍺 making is their other speciality. Different regions have different brands and so, just buy and try I guess.
Transportation 🛻
Transport in Vietnam is diverse, offering options from budget-friendly sleeper buses and scenic trains to quick domestic flights and ubiquitous 🛵 motorbikes. For city travel, ride-hailing apps like Grab are reliable, while long-distance travel is well-served by the Reunification Express train and "open-tour" buses.
Let us have a look at each one of these;
Motorbikes/Scooters🛵: The most flexible, popular, and cheap way to travel, especially for local exploration. You can rent your own scooter; this is the most effective method to reach remote areas by yourself and at any time. Especially if you are two then you can split the cost and it will be even cheaper, so cheap, you don't even need to worry about the cost of this. Just make sure you have an international driving licence to avoid fines.
Grab Taxis 🚖: Best for urban, short-distance transport. Download the app, connect your bank card to it and from here you can order your taxi to come and pick you up either by scooter or car taxi.
Buses and Trains: Extensive network of long-distance "open-tour" buses 🚌 with deep reclining seats, also called sleeper bus, and trains.
To travel between cities, your best friend will be this website called (12go Asia), here you can book your ticket online for bus 🚌 and train 🚆 sometimes I did it this way and other times I went and bought the ticket 🎫 at the station which could be a bit cheaper as this website is a third party.
Lastly, a Vietnam trip like the one I did concludes as a deeply rewarding experience blending vibrant, chaotic city life with profound, tranquil natural beauty and a rich, complex history. This country left me with memories of friendly locals, iconic cuisine, and a sense of dynamic growth. I hope you find use of this journal and the information I have provided for you and stay tuned for the next country.
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