We went to Vietnam over Christmas and New Year, I think 20 days all together. Everything else was a stretch due to schedules. I went to Japan on a separate occasion
It was a lot of fun, eye opening, stressful, sometimes made me home sick...but the first few days was quite "meh" for me as I was getting a lot of attention due to my locs and being black. Just being out for a few mins I was getting people touching me or my hair, stroking me or pointing and staring. But when we saw some other black folk it was the same as them, and tbh when our tour guide was talking to me he just said they only get to see black people on TV (not the immigrant African brehs) so a lot of the attention was just shock
Overall I liked it, but it is quite an old country. It's not clean, it is dirty, its warm and sometimes smelly. But waking up to some warm weather, having some nice native food, some Vietnamese coffee, then doing a tour of some historical palace, then riding a moped to another restaurant, site seeing, etc. for about £15 really made me like the place after all. The people are really fukking interested in you lol. If you don't like to talk to people, then I'd avoid it. It's also a great place for groups of friends or partners. There's lots to do when you go up north like Halong Bay, Sapa, Hanoi, or in the middle like Hue and Hoi An.
We did more adventures up north such as kayaking, exploring through massive rock caves, boat tours and seeing proper blue water, went to some of the old jungles where the war was too and tried to go into the underground tunnels..but I was too scared to go in, them things are tight!
...shot some masssssive guns that rock your whole body back and just had general fun. The hotel we stayed in was one of the weirdest experiences as it was obviously a gambling hotel built by and for the Chinese. Ran by some random English guy who was sitting 3 tables away from us in an empty restaurant with some young ass hoes...it felt like Rush Hour 2. We had the whole hotel to ourselves maybe due to the time or year or Chinese people being quite introverted...but we were in the gym, swimming pool and never met one person.
We then took an overnight train from Hanoi to Hue and boiiiii...man struggled with the cleanliness of the train. It was pretty dilapidated, dirty, and we heard complaints about little friends, but I never saw any. Basically I didn't pee or poo for the whole train ride which was 13 hours. We had a 4 bed carriage with an American and some Swiss guy (my Mrs and I are British and she's Asian/white) played some cards, etc. But you mostly sleep or just listen to podcast or read. It was quite and experience to have - can't say I'd do it again but it was more interesting and cheaper than flying
When we went down south to HCM/Saigon, it was like a modern city. We spent New Years watching a fireworks show and some random performers. Had a few drinks in the hotel, meal and chilled. Much more westerners so it was a lot more lit
Overall, if you like travelling and not too boojie and love adventuring, then it's amazing place to go. If you're coming from the US Id suggest putting another country on the Hitlist too, such as Thailand or going to Cambodia. The flights internally are cheap (fly Air Vietnam) and to surrounding countries, you won't need more than $60-70 for some return flights.
Not sure what's going to happen with Corona, but this year we are looking to hit Japan again over New Year with the Mrs' family and to get married. I'd personally put my pure enjoyment and comfortability in Japan way above Vietnam. It was more enjoyable too and I'd recommend it first as an Asian destination
, but that's what they had so we had to get over it!
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