District 4 is the most dangerous one and probably the dirtiest one. It's where the old mafia used to live. HCMC is one of my favorite cities in the world.

Fair comments. I've not been to Vietnam but I've spent extended periods on India. After a while your standards do tend to shift down to meet your reality. It could be argued that this isn't a good thing, but it's kinda necessary in order to keep your sanity.

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

Interesting perspective. I suppose it is difficult to keep up with your standards while traveling since you have less control and you're not around the things you're used to when you're at home.

for me this is just a part of travelling. you are of course allowed to complain, but everything cant be excactly like at home. some places are worse than others, but seeing the different standards of things give perspective when you go back home and make you appreciate the small things

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

Great perspective! Appreciate your take on this.

@slXD100

Ай бұрын

this wasn't a video to complain though, they're just sharing their experience and telling other people to be cautious, which is a good thing. also, going somewhere, even as a tourist, doesn't mean there shouldn't be human decency or that you can't expect it to be there.

Is it visa exempt for the USA? Like Thailand where they just stamp you in and you go? Or do you have to apply for a visa to get in to Vietnam? I’m headed back to se Asia end of July and wanna check some other places out.

@fulltimeabroad

24 күн бұрын

You should double check the VISA requirements for Vietnam for US passport holders, but I believe you will need to apply for a VISA to enter.

Thanks for being straight forward. Its refeshing as too many are afraid to expose negatives. Ive been to Vietnam on business many times. I did not like HCM. Too much of a tourist trap. Hanoi is much more pleasant. Overall though, Vietnam was my least favorite country to visit in SE Asia.

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

I wish we knew a lot of these things before we went, because we really would have reconsidered and instead would have gone to a smaller place perhaps.

The same thing really bothered me in India. People toss their garbage everywhere. I would walk kilometers without seeing a single garbage can. When I asked some people why there were so few garbage cans outside in the cities of India, I was told it was because people steal them. Tossing garbage in public onto the street is a cultural problem in parts of central and southeast Asia.

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

Totally correct! It really bothers us because it's take zero effort to throw it in a trashcan, but it takes so much more effort to clean it up afterwards. I guess growing up in a society that really promotes recycling and not to litter,, it always comes as a shock to see it.

Can confirm although most of my experience is in Hanoi where it's double the fun complaints. 1. Vietnam and that garbage. As you noted in this video this is compounded by sidewalks used as cafes and bike parking and garbage hills. and hence rats and then the animal cruelty slingshotters and so on. 2. Vietnam traffic does not work by 'right of way' but rather 'right of space'. 3. The noise is utterly insane with the honking. Drivers in other countries honk when someone else is doing something wrong maybe but in SE Asia they honk as a courtesy to you that they are coming through and declaring 'right of space'. ........... seriously, if they did nothing else but rid the streets of garbage then Vietnam would become a much better place. the fastest, easiest and cheapest thing for the biggest tourism payoff is simply clean up garbage piles all over the place.

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

We were in Nha Trang for a month before HCMC, and we loved it. We didn't really notice the things that we unfortunately notice in HCMC. We're going to go back to Vietnam because there is more to see. However, I don't think we will ever get used to the scooters/driving habits. Its just horrible and dangerous.

@theasianjaywalker4455

Ай бұрын

@@fulltimeabroad The French Quarter in Hanoi is just packed with character, history, everything you might love but.. and you can see it in my videos and other vloggers - the streets are chaos, they rip up and down the otherwise charming sidestreets, horns blasting. IF Hanoi could ever bring that into something less than death-defying circus levels of madness, and, ANY level of garbage removal. Actually that would be a helluva wonderful little tourist destination and maybe one of the bests vlog-spots and photographer hot spots. Anyway, there are good things but cheers for a video with a kind of 'fair warning' because would-be visitors need to know that and prepare.

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

Appreciate the feedback! We thought about Hanoi before HCMC, but after Saigon, we're done with the larger Vietnamese cities lol.

hi guys Iam from Sydney Australia I can handle snakes and spiders and many other animals but not RATS I would have been on the next flight back to Sydney lol😊😊

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

That's says a lot coming from an Aussie lol! We know rats are every where, especially in big cities, but to see it so out in the open and during the day, we had never experienced that before. We literally saw rats running to a cafe's kitchen and the staff inside started to scream lol. We still drank the coffee, but, it was the most uncomfortable coffee we'd ever had lol

Countries seem to go through transitions about trash. In Japan years ago the trash on the streets could be pretty bad, especially at the rest areas on roads through the mountains. It wasn't so uncommon to sometimes see cars stop and the person inside would dump their ash tray full of cigarette butts out the window. I even called out a few people on such a disgusting manner, I couldn't handle it. I think people knew it was a bad habit to be so inconsiderate, but expediency or ease to get rid of something, overpowered dealing with their trash in an appropriate way. Fortunately, it is very clean now, it seems like the government first has to implement anti-litter policies,, then the people's consciousness comes around to no longer be jerks about it. Sometimes still jerks about other things though.

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

Thats very interesting because you wouldn't think that about Japan. We were in Tokyo years ago and we did notice how clean the streets were, but at the same time, they weren't as clean as we thought they would be. However, much better than most big cities (I guess in Tokyo's case, massive city)

@f9qo

Ай бұрын

Sometimes in the big cities like Tokyo, especially in the entertainment sections, you will see a fair amount of trash left out around restaurants and drinking places and such. Not so much in the way of personal litter I don't think, just stuff from the nights activities at businesses. By the next day, I suspect in the early morning, it pretty much all mysteriously gets cleaned up. I understand that there can be a rat problem in the big cities, not surprising i suppose, given all the people going out for food and drink at night. Fortunately, Karaoke places are much in decline compared to past years, the sound pollution used to be everywhere. I'm thankful to not much hear all that moaning going on into a microphone anymore, like the person "singing" has eaten something very disagreeable to their stomach.

I'll save you guys some time and money... you probably won't like Manila either (except Makati and BGC)

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

We're actually planning to go to the Philippines, not sure where, though we already knew Manila wouldn't be on our list (but only because we're looking for a smaller beach town type of place). Thanks for the advice!

@tomiesto240

Ай бұрын

@@fulltimeabroad Dumaguete is probably the sweet spot for you guys, but there might be too many other expats for your taste, other spots could be San Carlos or Leyte

@fulltimeabroad

Ай бұрын

@@tomiesto240 we've been looking exactly there lol. Thanks for the tips!

Never again to travel to HCM city just because people throwing trash ???

@theasianjaywalker4455

Ай бұрын

and how it piles up into trash and how those piles of trash become garbage smeared streets with rotten smells and how that's all over your shoes and then rats have garbage parties in the trash and yes that's a pretty good reason tourists would not want to return to a city.

TLDR: Inexperienced travelers encounter poverty.

@slXD100

Ай бұрын

poverty doesn't equal indecency and carelessness for the enviroment.

@WhyteHorse2023

Ай бұрын

@@slXD100 Yeah it does. Have you seen the trash/poop rivers in Indonesia?

@slXD100

Ай бұрын

@@WhyteHorse2023 you can still be a decent human being even when in poverty

@portlandGTR

24 күн бұрын

@@slXD100that’s synonymous with poverty. When was the last time you saw a clean homeless person? Poverty in other countries is way worse than in the west. Like 10 fold worse. Philippines for instance have issues with black market baby sales, and worse things. Poverty brings out the absolute most animalistic sides of humans.

@slXD100

23 күн бұрын

@@portlandGTR I have met plenty of people who will go out of their way to help you even though they live in poverty. who won't be careless towards the enviroment due to poverty, or their fellow human beings. people who don't choose to go with evil deeds due to poverty. it's the human behind, not the circucmstances.

Why I won't return to this channel... Never again.

@danroux4010

Ай бұрын

And they won't go back to HCM, ever.