What you need to know about visiting Vietnam

There's no doubt that Vietnam has been one of my favourites places to visit. I've been lucky enough to travel around Vietnam twice now, each time is equally as amazing as the last.

This second time visiting the country I have definitely noticed more than I did before. Maybe because it was my second visit or maybe because the first time was with an organised tour so I was probably walking around in a world of my own not needing to pay as much attention, other than needing to follow your tour guide.

Vietnam will always be a top favourite, so I've put together some points of what you need to know before visiting this beautiful, cultured country.

You’ll feel like a millionaire

The Vietnamese dong makes you feel like a millionaire. Around £33 literally gets you one million Vietnamese dong! Saying you’ve got one million in your purse can be quite amusing. Of course, it’s not actually that crazy but it does feel good. And from the price of food and drink over here that one million can go very far whilst you’re in Vietnam. It does take you a while to get your head around the different currency, paying 15,000 for a drink or 100,000 for a meal can seem a lot but actually is super cheap.

The food.. of course!

The food is not only fresh and tasty but also very cheap. They have loads of dishes to choose from, rice, noodles, meat or fish dishes and including of course spring rolls, Vietnamese pancakes and dishes served in pineapples (a personal favourite)! A meal can cost between £3 - £6 depending on what you’re ordering. Andy and I managed to have a starter to share, a main each, a dessert and two drinks for £10 each. Which in England would probably be around £25 at least for a nice meal out and of course the food was so good, worth every dong spent!

Their Culture

Throughout Vietnam, you have memorials, museums and moving exhibitions all about the Vietnam war. We visited the Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi which is fascinating, talking about both the Vietnamese prisoners but also the American prisoners who were captured after their aircraft was brought down by the Vietnamese army. Throughout the prison, it talks about both their living conditions, cells they stayed in, information about the prisoners and also allowing you to actually step foot in the cells! And for a price of 20,000 dong each, it's definitely worth a visit.

Some other popular memorials of the Vietnam war is the Cu Chi tunnels and war remnants museums, both in Ho Chi Minh city. Both offering extraordinary history for the Vietnam war. The Cu Chi tunnels allow you to see where the army stayed and fought, as well as allowing you to physically crawl through the tunnels yourself (they are small)! Then you have the remnants museum with beautiful but traumatic images from photographers who photographed throughout the Vietnam war, along with their stories. As well as this you have Vietnamese tanks, helicopters, planes and a whole lot of history to explore! So not only is Vietnam a beautiful country but you also have so much history to learn.

Motorbikes, mopeds and madness

Motorbikes are pretty much everywhere, especially in the busier places like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. Pavement and paths don’t really exist (like their health and safety), so trying to walk anywhere especially the centres can sometimes be a challenge. You are constantly met with parked motorbikes on the pathways, so are constantly having to step off and back on to the pathways, as well as motorbikes driving on the pavements! Crossing the road is the toughest. We’ve got used to it now but basically the way to cross a road is to just go and trust that the motorbikes will go around you, which they actually do (luckily). There have been a few times where we’ve had to wait for our moments to cross, especially waiting for cars but if it’s just motorbikes you just have to go, otherwise you'll be waiting weeks to cross. The use of traffic lights doesn't exist for motorbikes so there is a constant flow of bikes and the sight of yourself (a traveller) trying to navigate through safely to the other side! They actually have t-shirts made for sale around Vietnam with reference to their traffic light system written on... green - I can go, Amber - I can go, red - I can still go...which really sums up Vietnam! But this all part of the fun and excitement… and of course, we had to jump on the back of their 'grab' motorbikes (like an Uber but on a bike) to get a ride through the chaos back to our hotel.

Health and safety

It doesn’t exist here. We actually went for a bike ride, just on push bikes and I asked if I could have a helmet and the gentleman at our hotel where we hired the bikes from, just said no no no you won’t need one. Little did we know that further down our bike ride to the beach was a busy main road with lorries, coaches, cars and motorbikes all driving past us. This made me a little uneasy and I shouted out to Andy ‘my mum would go mad if she found out we weren’t wearing helmets'! Luckily we were all ok but I’m so used to wearing a helmet at home when on a bike it just comes as second nature so it’s odd that it’s just non-existent here. Thankfully they pretty much all wear helmets on their motorbikes! But compared to the UK health and safety just isn't a worry or issue here, a very relaxed atmosphere!

Hotels

Through Vietnam, we booked our hotels through Expedia because hotels are just incredibly cheap. You can book yourself a 3 star for about £9 a night for two people, with WiFi, air conditioning and free breakfast, what more could you want! We tended to book 3-star hotels as their pretty high standards compared to the 3-star hotels we have in England. Of course, some are better than others but we’ve had a couple that has been lovely, with helpful staff, a great breakfast buffet and the luxury of a hotel pool and spa! Compared to some of our hostels we've had before or even cheap hotels in England these hotels were really pretty great. The majority of 3-star hotels in Vietnam I could definitely mistake for a 4 star! It's always a bonus coming back to your bed made, fresh towels and two free bottles of water in your room after a long day exploring (it's the little things)!

My favourite part... cheap beer

What more can I say other than that the beer in Vietnam is as cheap as chips... even cheaper than chips! We grabbed ourselves a beer each for a tiny 62p and another bar for £1.15! We’re not used to those prices in England so of course, we took full advantage and ordered a beer at every opportunity. Even Andy started drinking beer because of just how cheap it is, and he’s usually a cider boy! Definitely going to miss the beer prices and it being acceptable to drink beer with every meal.. well until our next stop in Cambodia!

Now as I said before Vietnam is one of my favourite places I’ve visited from all the points mentioned above, even the chaos of motorbikes but also because of the beautiful scenery, towns and people. The Vietnamese locals are so welcoming to the tourist that come over and it is so interesting to see how they live, how different it is to us Westerners.

The rice fields, yellow buildings, rivers, boats, motorbikes, hats, water puppet shows, the war memorials, the language, the street food, the water buffalos and also the simplicity of how simple they lead their lives, relaxed and family orientated. As well as so much more it all makes Vietnam such a vibrant and interesting country to visit and I would definitely recommend it to anyone and it's definitely a place you could visit for a two week holiday if you're unable to travel for a long time.

Amy x