10 things Australian tourists ‘can’t decipher’ when coming to Vietnam

Travel writer Brian Johnston shares in the newspaper Sydney Morning Herald about real-life experiences and 10 things he considers most “confusing” when visiting Vietnam.

How to prepare street food

Johnston believes that Vietnamese street food is a miracle. Visitors can hardly imagine how chefs prepare dishes in small, narrow, rudimentary kitchens. Local chefs are able to balance flavors and textures precisely right on the sidewalk. The highlight dish is bread, with unique processing standards and flavors that are hard to find elsewhere in the world.

“Art” of traffic control

Circulation in large cities is a combination of large numbers of motorbikes, cars and street carts. At intersections without signal lights, the flow of vehicles still maintains continuous movement through the driver’s ability to observe and react. Many foreign tourists learn the rules for crossing the street for pedestrians, including walking slowly, evenly, and not stopping suddenly.

The plastic chair paradox

One of Johnston’s strangest experiences was enjoying delicious food on “the world’s lowest set of plastic tables and chairs”. Diners must sit hunched over on small plastic chairs, with their knees bent close to their bodies. Although the Vietnamese body shape has changed over the generations, these tiny chairs still exist as a characteristic.

Cargo loading capacity of motorbike

Johnston was surprised to see that motorbikes in Vietnam are used to transport many bulky goods such as gas tanks, fresh food, furniture or transport many people at the same time. The vehicle driver performs loading and unloading and maintains the balance of goods with high precision.

Culture of using car horns

Car horns are the main sound on the street. People use horns to signal danger, request overtaking or show impatience. According to Johnston, a noticeable feature is that the horn often sounds immediately when the traffic light turns green if the vehicle in front has not yet moved.

Hospitality

Staying in Vietnam for a few days, visitors will feel the friendliness of the local people. An open and welcoming attitude is applied to all travelers, regardless of nationality or skin color, creating a safe and accessible travel environment.

Overhead wire network

While big cities like Ho Chi Minh City are gradually switching completely to underground power lines, in many suburbs and towns, the network of electric wires and telecommunications cables is still tightly woven into large clusters on electric poles. The Australian male tourist described the network of electrical wires as “floating like giant bird’s nests” and obscuring the facades of buildings.

Challenge with currencies with many zeros

Pricing goods becomes complicated for tourists because currency denominations have too many zeros. Polymer bills with similar colors also cause frequent confusion in cash transactions.

Popularity of the Nguyen family name

About 40% of the Vietnamese population has the surname Nguyen, followed by the surname Tran and surname Le. To avoid confusion, Vietnamese people use their first name as their main title in communication instead of using their last name like Western culture.

Misleading advice online

Many travel websites often warn visitors not to touch other people’s heads when coming to Vietnam. In fact, this is the minimum courtesy in most places in the world, not just Vietnam. Johnston believes that some rules spread on the Internet are sometimes exaggerated compared to real life.