50 Things I Hate About Vietnam!

Some people like to accentuate the positive and leave out the bad experiences in their travels. But I think it's important to let you guys know the good and the bad (especially for those who may want to visit Vietnam one day). But be aware every traveller is different and of course will have different experiences. While I think Vietnam is a beautiful, fascinating country, there are also a lot of things that I don’t like about it. Here I present to you...

50 things I hate about Vietnam

1. Dirty streets - The concept of bins and recycling totally eludes the Vietnamese. The roadside and the rice fields will do just fine to dump all your crap. Streets are covered in crap. And there are no bloody bins anywhere. 

2. The streets are also smelly.    

3. The bumpy road - Random puddles and potholes can be found all over Vietnam. 

4. It’s so hard to cross the road - There’s way too many motorcycles. 

5. Traffic Law (or lack of it) -What few traffic rules there are, they are largely ignored resulting in the country having a high rate of traffic injuries and deaths.   

6. The Visa price to get in the country.  

7. The Pollution – This includes Air, Noise, Land, Water pollution. And it’s not just the bad pollution but lack of environmentalism. There’s so much junk in Halong Bay (and I’m not talking about the boats). The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site yet I could see the water is pretty dirty and polluted and there’s lots of floating rubbish.  

8. Mosquitoes / Bed Bugs in hotels.  

9. Poor hygiene – A lot of the things I see in Vietnam just don’t seem very hygienic. For example many street side food vendors don’t cover their food well and it can get exposed to pollution from traffic or I see flies land on their food but they just don’t really care.

10. The small colourful plastic chair found in streetside restaurants which are designed for little kids.    

11. Taxi Drivers- As mentioned in my earlier blog post, I was ripped off by a taxi driver in Hanoi. Taxi drivers will do anything to get more money from you including taking the long way to a destination and changing the price at the end of the trip. I have also heard stories of some using rigged meters that count faster than they should. 

12. Motorcycle obstructing shopfronts – The Vietnamese like to park their motorbikes in front of a store or restaurant blocking the sidewalks.  

13. Lack of tourism infrastructure (especially outside the big cities).   

14. Tacky designs – I find the hotels have very tacky interior. Also they like to put random objects like colourful lighting and penguin bins inside caves or Mickey Mouse furniture inside a War Museum.   

15. The unsafe drinking water. 

16. Lack of regulations and disregard for safety – e.g. I’ve seen workers fixing the power lines on a busy street with no warning signs or fenced off area. I’ve also seen a lot of kids on motorbike with no helmet on and some parents bringing along their baby for a ride.   

17. Tour guides taking the group to a “rest” stopover on the way to our destination. We would stop at an overpriced souvenirs store or restaurant. The tour guide would hope we spend some money so that he can make some commission. 

18. Ho Chi Minh is everywhere! 

19. Internet censorship e.g. Facebook is blocked.  

20. Overcharging tourists - Ask any traveller about their experience in Vietnam and you will guarantee to hear them complain about how they overpaid for this or were lied to about that. It was funny hearing stories of other people getting screwed over. You cannot avoid being scammed in this region.

Most foreigners are seen as targets of opportunity. And it can happen anywhere on anything from an hotel room, a ride on taxi, coffee, meal, clothing, basic grocery stuff, etc. It’s actually reasonable for foreigners to assume they are being overcharged because it does happen a lot. 

And I have a lot of examples of this from personal experience. I had a tour guide quoting exorbitant prices and when I called him out on it he just shrugged and said I have a lot of money and that the inflated prices are still cheap. Another time, in the hotel I was staying in Sapa, they wanted me to pay extra for a heater even though it was suppose to be included in the price. I might haggle for a bottle of water, but my ending price is still higher than that of a local buying it next to me. And finally there is dual pricing on some tourist attraction e.g. Cu Chi Tunnel entry prices are 4 times more expensive for non-Vietnamese. 

21. North Vietnamese accents  

22. The Vietnamese Dong – There’s too many zeroes  

23. The bad weather screwed me over especially in Sapa and Halong Bay.

24. Being treated like a walking ATM. 

25. Constantly being lied to - Liars lied about when we are leaving, lied about the price of tour, closing times of shop, price of taxi fare, hotel quality,etc

26. The Vietnamese have no concept of queuing.

27. The lack of public toilets – It’s so hard to find a public toilet in Vietnam, even harder to find a clean one. I once had to go to a restaurant to use one only to find out afterward it will cost me money for it. 

28. All the honking - Horns are repeatedly honked by every motorist, on average, every five seconds. They honk when passing someone; they honk when turning; they honk when people aren't moving fast enough; they honk when they're driving the wrong side of the road street; they honk when pissed; they honk when happy; Honk! Honk! Honk! That's what you hear all day long.

29. Public Spitting  

30. Aggressive selling – I’ve seen shoe shiner going into restaurants to ask tourist (while they were eating) if they wanted their shoes shined. I even seen one ask a guy if he wants his sandals shoe shined. I find some of the sellers are extremely pushy sellers. I had some follow me down the streets and pulling on my shirt.

31. Communist Propaganda and also the Communist Government.  

32. Early curfew in Hanoi - Hanoi nightlife is non-existent as all bars and club close early due to a midnight curfew influenced by the still-present communist party.  

33. The corruption in the country.  

34. Crowded sidewalk – A lot of the streets in Vietnam are packed full of vendors who would bring their business right to the path of a walkway. This obstructs the path of pedestrians and forcing them to walk on the road.  

35. The bad public transport.  

36. The feeling that every other person seems to be cultivating some kind of scam. I had to be continuously on guard to the endless scams and rip offs that is so rife in this country.

37. Being stared at by locals.  

38. There are many illegitimate businesses with the same name and logo of a competing business (there are no copyright laws in Vietnam). Many of the less reputable travel organizations often re-sell the services of the real one and at a huge mark-up. So you have to be sure that you used the right one.  

39. Rude shop keepers – While buying souvenirs, the seller would laugh and brag to her assistant in Vietnamese that she was going to overcharge me.  

40. The poor translations/engrish in signs  

41. The bad fashion – Some of the clothes the local wear are laughable. Vietnamese men with pink hello kitty helmets but the thing is they don’t give a ****.  

42. Small tube houses – A lot of the houses (also shops, restaurants and hotels) in Vietnam are really tall, really long but very narrow in width. This is due to limited space and because the buildings are taxed by the width of the building. As a result, a lot of cheaper hotels are built at the width of a single room. This meant I had to climb flights of stairs (with my entire luggage) just to get to my room in level 8 (since a majority of them don’t have any elevators).  

43. The electric power lines in the streets.  

44. The way Vietnamese drive – It’s crazy scary especially when you have a driver who likes to speed and is so eager to overtake every vehicle on a narrow one lane (in each direction) road on the mountain side.  

45. The really hard beds in a lot of Vietnamese hotels 

46. Locals giving incorrect change - Not only do they not give me the correct change, I had a taxi driver pretend that he doesn't have any money with him so that he can keep my change.  

47. Poverty – It’s depressing to see  

48. Constantly being hassled - All too common street scene is a tourist walking down the street with a motorbike or cyclo in pursuit, with the drivers yelling 'hello, motorbike', 'hello cyclo', 'hello, where you from?', ‘Hello where you go?”... I was also hassle all the time by the locals offering to sell street snacks, sunglasses, souvenirs and services like shoe shine and even sex.  

49. The dodgy raw meat that is sold in the market  

50. Leaving the country – Despite all the hate I've just mentioned, I really enjoyed the country and had a great time there. So I would say coming back home is what I hated the most!