This is a two-part post about my impressions of Vietnam so far. Let’s end with….
The good:
The food is delicious, simple, and cheap. Curiously, more often than not - the cheaper - the tastier - my best meals so far were in the EUR 1-3 range at street food stalls with plastic chairs or at local bistros with crowded tables, while often when I sat down in “proper” restaurants with English translations and visuals of the food, I not only paid quite a bit more (typically in the EUR 10-20 range) but had sub-par or average taste experiences. Is the Vietnamese street food and all the noodle dishes becoming a bit overhyped, though? Perhaps. It’s not orgasm in a bowl, it’s just something well-flavored and tasty to satisfy your hunger. It has its place in your diet, much like a salad or a steak have their place too, for other occasions and reasons.
Now this is going to sound weird, but I appreciate the sort of cleanliness that exists in Vietnam. Don’t get me wrong, there are heaps of trash in too many places and lots of practices of dubious hygienic quality, but I didn’t come across any spots of rotting trash, smells, inappropriate treatment of street food, or any of that. People also seemed to take care of their own hygiene enough. The “shoes off” policy similar to Japan’s, when entering a home or a temple, helps. I was amazed to learn that Hanoi City started requiring separated trash collection from businesses, eg. restaurants, as of 2026.
The Vietnamese. Generally very cool and modest people. They remind me more of the Japanese, than of the Chinese - humble, respectful, wise, down-to-earth, quite reserved, and seemingly lacking confidence to socialize with Westerners, but still friendly, polite, and helpful. They are what the Portuguese are to the Spaniards (in this case - the Spaniards being the Chinese). The kids are particularly wonderful - they often shout “Hello!” to Westerners or even high-five them.
What convinced me the most that the Vietnamese were cool people was how they respond to conflict. On the few occasions where I witnessed - or was involved in - negativity (deservedly) directed at locals - always due to bad service on their end - I saw them disengage and retreat like turtles in their shells, seemingly overcome with stoic shame and self-deprecation. What an amazing reaction to fucking up! I’d argue it’s better than apologizing or compensating because it shows genuine modesty and self-disappointment with messing up. Because of this, I felt bad about my one semi-negative reaction to a local the whole day after and have resigned to consciously avoid reacting negatively afterwards even when circumstances warranted it.
Hydration. Drinking water is plenty available - bottles of water are stocked and restocked at hotel rooms, lots of drinking fountains can be stumbled upon in city and hiking areas, and cheap and accessible water bottles are found for purchase everywhere. Gotta respect people who look after hydration.
Toilets. Public toilets are clean and plentiful - and nearly always free. Irrespective if toilets are public or private, they nearly always feature a hose that you can use both to spray your ass to clean it after number two, and to spray the toilet bowl if after said number two you’ve left a mess that cannot be flushed out (toilet brushes subsequently don’t exist). I do have a gripe with the toilet paper, though, it’s quite ephemeral for me - feels like it is produced to dissolve in water (kudos actually if that’s the case!)