As my time here in this interesting country comes to an end, I start to think back and try to realize what Vietnam was to me. To be honest, it was not a country that captured my heart. It didn’t astonish and wow me with it’s natural splendor or friendly people as places like New Zealand and Bolivia did. Yet even still, it was a unique experience and a country that contains an interesting culture.

As with most southeast asian countries, it’s packed full of mopeds. Hardly anyone has cars and that’s a good thing because if they turned all the moped into cars there would be gridlocked traffic everywhere at every time!

It’s sidewalks are usually crowded with these parked 100-125cc bikes, so often you walk on the road. Traffic rules don’t really exist, and I’ve ridden on xe oms (motorbike taxis) where more time is spent in the oncoming traffic lane than in the right one (makes for quite a ride!).  It’s all part of the thrill of taking these taxis. That and with 18 deaths/day in Saigon from accidents, well…you just sort of hope you have a good driver hahaha

There are no giant stores like we have back home. Strip malls with Foot Lockers and Future Shops don’t exist.  Instead, small 4x10m stores and restaurants line the sidewalks of  it’s city streets, it’s proprietors usually living in the floors above it.  Each store has a specialty and the specialties are usually grouped together along certain roads. Looking for lighting fixture? Head to the lighting fixture street! Want to add some decals to your moto? Head over there to the moto decal alley! It’s fascinating and such a stark contrast to our cities back home.

Its natural wonders aren’t as majestic as other parts of the world, but still have their own charm. Ha Long Bay with its thousands of limestone karsts and isles provides a beautiful backdrop of relaxation after exploring the MASSIVE Thien Cun cave, while Hoi An’s giant beach is a great place to relax (although prepare for old ladies to constantly try and sell you stuff and if you’re lucky have your chest stroked by an old toothless man if you’re hairy!) while waiting for A Dong Silk to finish your custom suits.

Making any sort of real money here is only possible if you are an owner of a business. If you are an employee, your wage is about $100-120/month (working 10hrs/day, 6days/week).  A shared single room in a larger house in Saigon takes over half of that, and the rest is spent on moto petrol and food. It’s interesting in the larger cities knowing people have the bare essentials and then you see a Bentley or Audi R8 drive by, the juxtaposition of affluence and poverty creating a most interesting scene. I can’t think of a single working employee Vietnamese I met that had actually been outside of Vietnam, as there’s just no way to actually save the money to do so.

Because of this, buying anything in the stores, or taking a moto taxi anywhere requires you to always start the haggling by dividing the listed price by 3 and never going over half the asking.  Even then, when it’s still certainly favourable to the local, they will make you feel like you’re ripping them off for not paying their massive markup as you’re a foreigner with (relatively) lots of money. You can’t really fault them for this hahah…but it is still annoying to constantly have to haggle for everything every time.

City nights in Vietnam are my favourite time. When evening comes the locals flock to the sidewalk and parks, setting up their small plastic chairs and tables, drinking their iced teas and coffees while eating from one of the many women frying up an assortment of meat and strange vegetables on their small coal fired bbq’s. It’s a nice scene to watch as the older Vietnamese are chatting and catching up with each other, while young couples in love hug and kiss atop their mopeds beside the park.

So although Vietnam hasn’t been my favourite country I’ve been to so far, it has certainly been fun. It’s provided me with an interesting perspective of a country that was war-torn for so many years and struggles to reboot it’s economy and global presence under its conservative communist regime.

Here’s a Vietnamese proverb I’ve seen that sums up this country’s philosophy quite well:

Duc toc bat dot

Go slowly and steadily and you will eventually achieve what you desire.