First time in Vietnam: Things to know before you go | Vietnam Travel Guide

First time in Vietnam: Things to know before you go | Vietnam Travel Guide

Vietnam is an intriguing country famous for its Coffee Culture its specialty chocolate made from local beans its French influences its resilient people and much more if this is your first time in Vietnam we share everything we learn during our month in hoian city and Hanoi welcome back to find G Marie where share our lives as full-time Travelers and the connections we make along the way if you’re new here welcome I’m Judy and I’m Kevin this was our first visit to Vietnam and our first time to be in Southeast Asia previously we’d been in

Japan for over a month so arriving in Vietnam was a bit of a cultural shock let’s talk a little bit about what’s involved in getting here first of all you need an e Visa which you can apply for online and it’s good for up to 90 days give yourself

Enough time because it’ll take at least three full working days to process and and then you may need to resubmit it if there’s any errors or problems with it you don’t want to be turned away at the airport because you don’t have your Visa the E visas cost $25 for single entry

And $50 for multiple entry we traveled on Via jet which is a very Budget Airline they weigh everything so you won’t be able to get away with heavy bags even if the dimensions of your bags are within limits and we weren’t able to check in the First Time online so we had

To check in at the airport which meant they checked everything that we had weighed our backpacks weighed everything and we had to pay for our luggage to be checked we didn’t have to worry about our backpacks they worked out fine as a personal item and for our next flight

When we were able to check in online in advance we didn’t offer to have them weigh our backpacks and they didn’t ask our first stop was hoi Min City where we spent 3 weeks I was surprised on exiting the airport that it had such a huge area

For the exit where people were waiting to meet someone it kind of felt like a big Plaza almost a little sweaty out here today lot more Mony than it was in Japan are hotter too and to get to our Airbnb we use grab which is an app for your phone don’t get

Scammed similar to our experience in Egypt someone wanted to try to take our bags to help us get situated you need to be firm and not allow a stranger to control the situation in order to avoid being taken advantage of by an overpriced taxi grab works great now that you’re here there are

Several things to know about number one is that ATMs are pretty much everywhere so you don’t need to rush get money when you first arrive you can wait until you find something local and if you’re using a grab you don’t need to have cash all

That can be paid through the app for a whole time in Vietnam we used a combination of cash versus cards and we really didn’t know the Rhyme or Reason of when a particular vendor would take cash versus cards so you should have both on hand and be ready to use either

One their currency is the Vietnamese dong the denomination runs in the thousands so when you see a cost on a border or on signs you may need to add a few zeros to to it they may just say 20 but that means 20,000 so $1 us is equal to

24518 Vietnamese Dong as of the day recording this video as for language 855 to 90% of the people living here are Vietnamese of course that’s the official language however English is spoken in the touristy areas and major cities we could nearly always communicate what we needed to by gesturing or using Google

Or Apple translate as far as water safety do not drink the tap water drink bottled water or filtered water only Vietnam is known for its drinking culture specifically beer if you can get liquor you’re allowed to drink it there’s no minimum age to drink Vietnam is a long narrow country and there are

Very different weather conditions depending on where you’re visiting we visited from mid October to Mid November and we were very hot in hochan city but in hinoi we were cold and needed jackets and long pants and of course we couldn’t travel to dang because there was so many

Floods and torrential rains you you may know hoian City better as Thon in fact the airport abbreviation is sgn but the signage all says hoian City its name was changed hotan City to honor the Prime Minister from the north who had declared independence back in 1945 there’s a lot

Less sensitivity now which speaks to the resilience of the Vietnamese people and you’ll still see plenty of Saigon signs throughout the city Christmas isn’t a national holiday but it’s one of the four main religious festivals celebrated in Vietnam if you’re looking to escape cold weather or looking for an

Inexpensive family holiday getaway hoian city has a christmy atmosphere with loads of decorations honoring the season traffic is a very big part of Vietnam so let’s dive into it there are 65 million registered motorcycles in Vietnam equaling about 2third of the population and that was in 2020 so you

Can imagine it’s even worse in 2024 and hoochi Min City is the largest city in Vietnam and his traffic reflects that it can be intimidating as a pedestrian so here are a few tips cross at the crosswalks just your with your hand to show where you’re going and if you need

Traffic to slow down or stop walk decisively the traffic will be anticipating your next move because it’s somewhat of a frenetic dance so don’t hesitate or Retreat because that’s not what they’re expecting you to do people don’t really care that it’s green for pet no doesn’t matter and don’t be

Surprised if you see motorbikes driving on the sidewalks as well so you need to be paying attention tied to the motorbike culture there’s a huge number of people whose job it is to offer security for parked motorbikes Hanoi isn’t as big and although there’s still a rampant motorbike culture it’s not

Quite as congested as hoian City I think that has to do with Hanoi not being as spread out as hoochi Min City we haven’t been to Central Vietnam yet but in response to all your great feedback and recommendations we’d like to go back and visit the central part of

Vietnam Next month right now we’re thinking our home base is going to be in hoan and we’re going to spend about 3 weeks there so if you have any recommendations especially if you have some non touristy things for us to do please let us know in the comments we’d

Love to hear from you our goal is always is to make a deeper connection with the people of every country including Vietnam if you’ve been here for any length of time you probably know that we’re huge coffee fanatics but did you know that Vietnam is the second largest

Exporter of coffee after Brazil much of the coffee is iced and sweetened with condensed milk in the north it’s called brown coffee and in the South it’s milk coffee it’s even more popular in hinoi but we had delicious egg coffee in hoochi Min City too and I really am not

Quite sure what it’s supposed to taste like but it’s hot and I didn’t have to ask for it to be hot so um but it’s very thick and creamy okay my understanding is that it has sweetened condensed milk in there I could believe that cuz it is very sweet

Um but it’s not like it’s layered where I’m getting a drink from the top and it’s all all sweet and frothy and then I’m getting liquid underneath somehow it actually tastes all mixed in would you order it again I don’t know how many calories it is but calories aside it’s

Quite tasty what we didn’t catch on camera was my hilarious reaction to the bitterness after ID gotten through the top layer of the coffee which actually was layered after all and not sweet the most traditional and popular coffee is called fin coffee the fin is a device

Used to brew coffee and it’s typically made of stainless steel and fits over the mouth of a cup because the coffee used with a fin is coarse ground it takes about 5 minutes to drip through the device taking such a long time to drip combined with the high ratio of

Coffee to water gives it a stronger and Bolder flavor similar to Espresso yeah it is bitter and it’s not terrible actually just like that but I will add something to it and here the condensed milk and then St and you can try again it wasn’t so bad I mean it’s it wasn’t

So bad it it will probably grow hair on your chest but no I like it actually yeah really good flavor yeah wow so strong well I mean if you’ve had uh a shot of espresso you know that’s pretty strong too yeah yeah yeah espresso our favorite place in hoim Min

City was this obscure restaurant that you would miss if you didn’t know where to look called ghee Kevin had something called cheese coffee it’s clear though we never heard of it and they had the most amazing quason that were served fresh and hot so delicious definitely a French influence

There our favorite coffee shop in Hanoi was this coffee shop on the second floor called hidden alley and it squeezed between two very prominent shops if you blink you’re going to walk right past it but there’s a great hip survive energy and really great coffee sadly Vietnam has experienced its

Share of War including the Vietnam war that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its main Ally the US here the war is called called the American war there’s a bit of propaganda at the war remnants Museum in District 3 but we encourage

You to stop by and spend some time here it’s always enlightening to understand history from the other side to get a fuller perspective the agent orange exhibit is especially powerful there’s an impactful Monument nearby to commemorate the Buddhist monk that calmly allowed himself to be set on

Fire in 1963 in the middle of a street to protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the us-backed South Vietnamese government it’s worth taking a guide with you to experience it we covered this site during our three coolest neighborhoods in Saigon tour which is linked in the description

Below if you’ve never been to Southeast Asia but you spent time in Europe it may give you some familiarity that there’s a good amount of beautiful French architecture and influence from the period when Vietnam was colonized by France beginning in 1877 the French brought urbanization to

Vietnam but at a cost to the local Vietnamese just a few places where you’ll see French architecture include hoian City’s post office the Opera House City Hall and many other places and know has a French Quarter with wide Treeline streets that contrast with the more traditional Vietnamese narrow alleys of

Vietnam there’s also hanoi’s opera house and its presidential Palace before we talk about Vietnam’s amazing chocolate culture we’re excited to share that we’ve started our own absolutely free community Forum that we are calling La Familia you can ask questions about trip planning and all things related to

Travel there a video with the details is linked in the description below so if you know anything about Judy you know that chocolate is a good part of any trip and in Vietnam we learned that soola means chocolate one of the places we think is worth visiting is

Mesa Maru we didn’t initially realize that it’s a chain scattered throughout all of Vietnam but that’s okay it was great chocolate we stopped in for lattes and a cookie or muffin it’s not a cheap meal but it will give you the luxury chocolate fix if you’re craving one and

I’ve been trying to get this the entire time we’ve been here and it just hasn’t worked out so I’m delighted to get to sample some everything you wanted anymore I’d say it’s worth having good wind for all the walking today yes I definitely earned it today right outside

Our hotel in Hanoi was alovia chocolate which is not as being proudly crafted in the mayong Delta it’s also worth a visit we brought some chocolates back to our room as a delici ious midday snack one of the most local experiences to have is to eat at one of the many

Many open air restaurants that have small colorful tables and chairs you’ll save a lot of money this way when seeking out a place to eat similar to food carts go to places that are busy where you’re seeing food made fresh and not sitting out some of the food we saw

In District 1 made us a little more cautious about where to eat and these very local places aren’t on Yelp or have Google reviews you’ll find Western food here like burgers and pizza but we hope you make an effort to enjoy the local flavors if you go to a conventional

Vietnamese restaurant it’s a little unexpected and a little unnerving just how many people are standing by your table a waiter or server may be staring at you while you’re looking at the menu waiting for your response rice paper rice paper um ra FL mean Fred pop yeah R so very good thank you also note that orders arrive at the table as the ready not all at once the flavors in Vietnam are as diverse as the weather in the North most of the food has fairly moderate seasoning and flavors a calculated Harmony between yin and yang food is

Spiciest in the central region though in the tropical South food Foods here tend to be sweeter and it’s cold it feels like it will be refreshing which I think is pretty common here one of my favorite meals was at 82 Cafe rooftop and it included grilled pork on noodles with

Fresh herbs vegetables and comes with a dipping sauce I me it’s quite good flavor is excellent spicy no no on our tour we learned that the Vietnamese people typically go out to eat for breakfast but it’s usually one of the local neighborhood food cards people would stop by the Market each day for

Ingredients for lunches and dinners and that they’d cook at home and we learned that people are really focused on fresh food fresh meats fresh vegetables everything very fresh so they don’t really shop for a week’s worth of groceries at a time we’re surprised by the takeaway culture our guide showed us

This huge Market where people stay in their motorbikes order and grab a bag to take with them so they don’t have to park their bikes southeast Asia doesn’t really have a bread culture but thanks to the French influence bread and baguettes are very popular here bonme is

A quintessential example and it is a common breakfast food a visit to Vietnam wouldn’t be complete without enjoying F A flavorful soup made with aromatic spices herbs and slow cooked bones that have been simmered for hours to extract nutrients and flavors the medium por uh beef will continue to cook and will

Infused with the uh flavor from the Bron here and if you have a more adventurous palette than ours you’ll find an assortment of coconut worms ant eggs Grasshoppers and crickets but your mileage may vary regarding these Delicacies we had no intention of finding out what we might

Be missing and when it comes time to leave Hanoi their International Airport has one of the nicest lounges with some of the best foods we’ve eaten all right let’s talk about what we paid our hman city Airbnb was $675 19 or $22.51 per night our vet Jet flight to

Hanoi was $151 98 our single entry visas were $25 a piece our grab from the airport was $100,000 dong or $4 our hotel in Hanoi in Oldtown was $538 or $71.98 per night the War remnant’s Museum entry fee was 40,000 dong the three coolest neighborhoods in Saigon

Tour was $742 for both of us we spent 190,000 dong at ghee coffee and then included a coffee and a Quant a piece lunch at A2 Cafe rooftop cost 178,000 dong for both of us which included fried rice and seafood for me and Judy’s grilled pork and spring rolls with

Noodles we spent about $11 for a visit to mesan Maru lattes were 150,000 dong or $615 a piece and their muffins and cookies were about 60,000 dong expensive but a nice treat if you can fit it in your budget onread at the street were 185,000 dong for my fried rice with

Seafood and 125,000 for Judy’s fa Kevin’s broken Rice with pork ribs and sausage was 140,000 and my brazed roasted pork with brazed pork hot pot and sour soup set was 150,000 dong Kevin had strawberry tea and mine was lemongrass each for 880,000 dong three chocolate bars from Alia were 300,000

Dong and they were worth every bit of that price our Hanoi beef noodle soup was 135,000 dong fried spring rolls were 95,000 dong and Kevin’s galow noodles dish was 135,000 dong a 2 L bottle of water was 10,000 dong or about 4 once again you’ll find cheaper food

Options at the informal food stands with colorful plastic chairs as we mentioned we’re going back to explore Central Vietnam from hoan and we’d love to hear your suggestions and comments and anything you have to tell us in the comments below we’d love to have you subscribe and follow along with us on

Our trip back to Vietnam and all of our travels and check out finding gen.com where you going to find our lot Familia forum and a lot of great articles until next time till next time

Ep.83 We had very different experiences in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, but there many tips apply to both. Join us as we explore the history, food, culture, chocolate, and coffee of Vietnam. This is everything you need to know as a first-time visitor to this country.

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Chapters:
00:00 – Start
00:49 – Visas and traveling to Vietnam
02:20 – What to know when visiting Vietnam
04:34 – Traffic troubles in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
05:40 – Please share tips about Central Vietnam
06:07 – Vietnamese coffee culture
08:45 – Vietnam has survived several wars
09:37 – French architecture and influence in Vietnam
10:31 – Delicious Vietnamese chocolate
11:30 – The many cuisines in Vietnam
14:44 – What we paid in Vietnam

Finding Gina Marie is where we share our lives as full-time travelers and the connections we make along the way.

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