How to ruin your trip to Vietnam

Earlier today I read an amazing article about “How to Ruin Your Trip in Hanoi” and I loved it. It made me recalled my own trip to Vietnam 3 months ago and decided that: Hey, I can write too! So that’s the reason why you are wasting your next 5 minutes reading this :p

Vietnam is a very beautiful place. Southern Vietnam with the chic Saigon, Central Vietnam with laid back Da Nang, and of course the iconic Hanoi to the North. The fact that it is one of the very few remaining Communist states will make you questioning back the propaganda planted in your head. Why? Because communist states are supposed to be full of starving people like North Korea, no? How come a communist state have expensive sports car running around the city or even shops that sell Vertu or Louis Vuitton?

I did not explore Vietnam as much as I wanted to due to bad planning. I made a lot of mistakes. Instead of visiting 10+ destinations from south to north, I ended up visiting 5 cities in less than a month. Instead of continuing to Laos and northern Thailand, I came back to Saigon. But still, I think I am entitled to the right to write a thing or two about the trip ☺

So, here is how to ruin your trip to Vietnam!

Riding a bike

No matter how hard they convinced you to ride a motorbike there, do some reality check before deciding to rent a motorbike in Vietnam. You might want to ask yourself how good you are with a motorbike. And probably, you might want to check whether your insurance will cover motorbike accident. Riding a motorbike in Vietnam is not easy. There are so many motorbikes and most of them almost hit me when I was walking on the pedestrian. Of course many were drawn to the iconic Hanoi — Saigon route promoted by TopGear. But are you actually ready?

Coming during Tet

Tet is the word for Lunar New Year in Vietnamese. It is a big holiday, like the usual Lunar New Year in the east and south-east Asian countries. It is also an opportunity to witness the celebration. Sounds great, eh? It is. Until you realize that everyone in your hostel room stays the whole morning because there was no one selling food… And that almost the whole city was closed… For up to 10 days… If you have any invitation to celebrate the holiday with a local, it would be great. But if you’re not, probably you want to rethink. While you are walking around Hanoi on Tet morning, wrapped in a sweater (which I will explain shortly), looking for a hot breakfast because that toast and egg provided by your hostel tasted more like salt than food. But there is an opportunity for you to be invited to the Vietnamese family celebration. Around the holiday, many of the young Vietnamese look for “contract” boyfriend of girlfriend. Tet is that time of the year where everyone in the family gather under the same roof and questions might emerges, such as:

Do you have boyfriend/girlfriend?
When will you get married?
Do you work or are you still studying?
How much money do you make? Where do you work?
When will you have children?

And so on, and so on….

Expecting to be treated equally as other (read: white) traveler with that SE Asian face

So I was handed a discount coupon because I was strolling with 2 European girls. Hue was cold and we were hungry, so we decided to enter the Cafe. Upon finishing our mediocre food, we asked for the bill. I gave the voucher to the girl and she told me plainly “Foreigner only”. I told her that I was Indonesian but she requested me to show her my passport. In the end, she gave me the discount but she was not pleased at all. Another unpleasant incident took place in a hostel nearby with a similar situation. But I will write about it another time. Seems like if you are SE Asian traveler, you are not quite a foreigner.

Thinking that Hoi An is a small town so spending half a day there was enough

BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY TRIP! I went to Hoi An for only several hours, thinking that it was a small town so it would be enough. I was never so wrong. Hoi An was one of the most beautiful cities in Vietnam, and easily the most beautiful city I have ever visited. Once an important hub, Hoi An is now UNESCO’s heritage site. With only 25 km from Da Nang, you need to visit it. There is no excuse. Hoi An is very popular with their amazing tailors, beautiful buildings, colorful lanterns, and super cheap beer. I am ashamed by the fact that instead of staying there until late and take the colorful pictures, I left with the last bus to Da Nang at 6pm and took nothing but a picture of this dirt cheap beer. I promised myself that I will return to Hoi An again one day.

Thinking that Hanoi and northern part of Vietnam are tropical paradise whole year long

I went to Vietnam in February with summer dresses, shorts, tank top and flip flops. I arrived in Hanoi at 5 am and the temperature was 5 degree Celcius. It even snowed in Sapa. I never felt so betrayed in my life. I even had to buy proper shoes to keep my feet warm. It is very important to check the weather before you travel folks. Speaking of shoes, it gives me an Idea of what to write next

Buying those cheap North Face/Converse/whatever branded apparel and thinking that it have same quality as the expensive one.

It’s not. WikiTravel entry of Hue mentioned that it was the cheapest place where you can get Converse shoes in Vietnam. Not only that, North Face apparel scattered around the cities. I found a very 3-in-1 North Face jacket for $50 in Hue (1 million dong, if you may). And I ended up spending $20 for a North Face hiking boot after my running shoes almost killed me on Ba Den mountain. But of course, it was of different quality. You may find a good deal but most of the time you will find counterfeited goods with a quarter the price and a fifth of the quality.

Being intimidated by “Asian” food and decide to stick with BurgerKing

Dude! You are in Vietnam! The food cannot get tastier or exotic-er! Eat all you can there! I know that it might be intimidating. I mean, how many places can serve you with Balut? (Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia aside). How many places will treat you with a buffet of those mouth-watering Oc? how about the noodles? Have you heard about Vietnamese obsession with noodles? How about the beef and the pork? Bahn Bao, Bahn Mi, Bahn Xeo, Bun, Pho, and all those tasty food with intestines, blood, crab cake, seafood and lotsa vegetables for the salad? How about that sugar cane juice with durian? How about…. How about… Ok, I give up. I am sorry that my meat craving due to my stay in India made me so angry at the thought that people would come to Vietnam and eat exclusively western food/fast food chain because the Vietnamese foods are too much for them. I will move to the next entry to distract myself from my beef craving.

Not trying to find hidden gems of the cities

You have no idea what you are missing. I found this little cute cafe in Hanoi where you can sit on the balcony, sipping egg coffee and admiring Hoan Kiem lake. I found this cute little tea house in Saigon where you can have a proper Tea time while admiring the vibrant district 1. You are missing so much if you stay in the backpacker areas and rely only on the major travel guide. Because Hanoi and Saigon will treat you with a mini adventure, trying to venture around the labyrinth houses.

Travel by air instead of land

Vietnam has a magnificent rail system. It is the last leg of one of the most challenging trip in the world: Portugal — Vietnam by train. Theoretically, you can take a train trip from Portugal to Vietnam. For now, there is no rail system from Saigon — Bangkok (even though it has been planned for some time). But when the rail network is ready, you can travel all the way from Portugal to Singapore on train exclusively. The reunification rail (the name of the rail) is one of the most picturesque train rides in SE Asia. it goes along the coast of Vietnam and is very reliable. With this kind of adventure, why would you travel by air? If a train is not your thing, you can always take sleeper bus or even motorbike (To reenact TopGear trip). Even bicycle if you are crazy enough!

Not making a Vietnamese friend

The fact that I couchsurfed with 3 different hosts is the highlight of my trip in Vietnam. Experiencing Vietnamese warmth and hospitality firsthand was an amazing experience. I was hosted by amazing people which gave me a unique perspective toward Vietnam. It made me fall in love with Vietnam even more. The warmth I received reminds me of the true kindness of the South East Asian. We are people who was torn apart for hundred of years. We were colonialized and we were torn by wars after wars. It was not hard to spot people who lost their limb in Cambodia and Vietnam. Life was not full of unicorn and rainbow. But people are not afraid of sharing and showing kindness. I met amazing people that made me fall in love with ASEAN even more. The kind people who offered me food when they noticed that I didn’t eat because I couldn’t order my food on the Saigon — Da Nang highway, the rickshaw drivers who made my day with interesting conversations in Hue, a friend who took me to climb Ba Den (my first summit!), young students who had a coffee with me and shared their stories with me, and of course my hosts and friends I made during the journey. Befriended Vietnamese people were one of the most treasured experiences in my life ☺

As it has been always the case with lists, of course I will not be able to list everything here. It was only things I noticed during my trip that I wrote here. If you have more suggestions, you can always write to me and I will make sure that this post is updated ☺

Originally posted in medium.com/littlefeet