You're Coming?

Some of you have said you're hoping to come for a visit and we are so excited!

So here's all the things some of the many things to think about:

Tourist Visa

First of all, you can get your e-visa up to 6 months ahead of time, so the time is already now:  https://vietnamchases.blogspot.com/2025/07/vietnam-e-visa.html

Buying Tickets

When you're arranging your flights, check flights to DAD from your originating airport, but don't be alarmed if the cost is super high.  Next check flights from SEA/SFO/LAX to DAD, because usually if you get a domestic flight to that outgoing city (keep several hours of bumper time to allow for luggage retrieval and checking in for the international flight) it's a lot cheaper to just do your international flight from one of those three hubs.  Three to six months ahead is usually your sweet spot for buying tickets, but don't panic if the prices bump up somewhere in there, because they usually level out again.

You'll usually be flying through Korea or Taiwan.  I haven't developed a preference for either option, and I'm able to recommend nice ways to spend long layovers in either place.  Let me know about your flight numbers.

Phones and Apps (do this before departing the USA)

While you're still home (using your own phone and phone number) please download these apps and then create a login and authenticate your USA phone # for each of them: 

1. WhatsApp is the #1 app for communicating with expat/foreigners and many businesses and some local people.
2. Zalo is the #1 app for connecting with local people and also many businesses.  It's possible you have to wait to authenticate this one until you get here.
3. Grab is the least expensive way to hail a taxi (either car or moto) or order food delivery.  

Allow/authorize those three to send you Notifications, and also give Grab your credit card info, too.

And as always, don't leave home without downloading Google Translate and the local language pack for your destination.  

Is your phone unlocked?  Some phone companies (especially in cases where they give you a "free" phone) have your phone on a tight lease and may have "locked" your phone so it can't be switched to another provider.  It's worth a little checking, potentially, because sometimes people come to Vietnam and find that they can't use their phone, and that's a bummer.

Electrical 240V

None of your hair dryers or curling irons (suitable for 120V, an electric current unique to the USA) are going to do the right thing here.  If the device has a DC conversion brick (like a laptop charging cable does), then it will say on the side that it can input AC 120-240, and it's nearly always fine.  Your chargers for phones and laptops are going to be fine with the 240V power here, but if the grounding prong of the laptop plug makes it three prongs, that's not going to fit into the sockets.  I accidentally brought one and I had to chop off the grounding prong.  Similarly if your plug has a wide prong and a skinny prong, so it can only go in one way into the socket, that won't work here.

Credit Cards and $$

You'll want to verify that you're carrying a primary credit card that charges no international use fees, but you won't get to use it all that much here.  We mostly use cash or if we have a local bank account we can scan QR codes to transfer money, but for you it will be cash unless it's a big/tourist-friendly store.

Most debit cards (only use them in ATMs--nothing else) will hit you with a small international use fee from home as well as a 2% fee charged by the local machine, but if you get a checking account at Charles Schwab they 1.) don't charge an international use fee and 2.) they repay the fee charged by the ATM here.  So it's a double win, and if international travel is something you'll do a lot, I can heartily recommend Schwab. 

Bring cash, and bring the most pristine, unmarked, crisp, clean, new-style $100 bills you can find.  You can get 2.5% better rate with those crispies at the gold sellers than anything you can do at a bank (including wire transfers, ATM withdrawals, and currency exchanges).  Conversely, if your currency is less than $50 or if it is at all worn or even a little bit marked or has a tiny tear, just leave it at home--it has no value in Vietnam.

Packing for the Plane

As you pack your carry-on, you'll want to make sure to have a change of clothes in case you miss a connection and spend unplanned-for time in an airport terminal.  We also each have a compact airmat that we carry (and usually don't use).  If you forget earplugs or an eye mask, the airline can usually provide them.  Neck pillows have advanced beyond the old inflatable donuts, and it's worth getting one you like.  Noise-cancelling headphones are valuable.

Meds each person carries: 4-6 hydration packets (salt/sugar to help you drink more than you "feel" like drinking), 4-6 sleeping-aid doses (you want this in your own carry-on, not just one person sharing to others).  

Airplane-clothing: We always recommend loose lightweight long-sleeves and slacks, year round.  Extra pockets are good--it's easier to reach a thigh pocket when you're trapped sitting for 12 hours, and it's nice to know which pocket your passport is zipped into.   We used to travel in bare feet and sandals, but then we got old--now we're "of an age" and it's not smart to travel without knee-high compression socks.  Even on the shorter flights it's getting to the point where puffy feet are indicative of cellular damage that takes a couple of days to recover from.  

Sleeping on Airplanes

We think Tylenol PM is a good thing, because you get a bit of sleeping aid and also your pain receptors are affected so that the discomfort of a long flight is more manageable.  But in addition, a dedicated sleeping aid (one that goes beyond diphenhydramine hydrochloride's subtle effectiveness) can be super helpful to have on hand if you really NEED to sleep but your body-clock insists that you should be wide awake.  

We boarded the plane Stateside and listened to an audiobook and took a sleeping pill before they came by with an airplane meal, and then we put on eye masks and dropped off for something like 6 hours of sleep.  When we woke up, we only had 3-4 more hours of flying to do before landing.  Then we slept a little on the final flight to Da Nang.  Basically, sleep as much as you can, with help from sleeping meds, while you are flying.  Don't try to get your clock adjusted until you arrive--just sleep as much as you possibly can.

Hydration

We've had visitors who arrived badly dehydrated, and it wrecked up those early days of their visit.  "I was in an inside seat and the guy next to me was sleeping, so I didn't drink anything."  Here are some keys to success: Begin the travels fully-hydrated (cups--not liters--of water drunk in the 2 hours leading up to your flight).  Each time you land in an airport, drink a lot as a first thing to do.  Especially in the layover airport in Korea or Taiwan--sometimes it's not easy to find free drinking water, but it's SO important to get rehydrated first thing in that airport.  I'm the original cheapskate, but I'm telling you to BUY WATER in that airport and get your cells replenished.  Hydrate in airports more than you think you need to--liters, not cups.  We also like electrolyte packs that can be added to a bottle of water--use those on your travel day and one or two a day for the first week. 

Neighborhood Ride

Dear Mom,

The sound quality isn't great ... if you watch on your phone you might have better luck hearing our explanations.

Video 1:  https://www.loom.com/share/f9b3e167bb3b4924a3eaceea18442834

This 5 min video starts in our local business district neighborhood across the busy high road to the west.  We drive around the north side of the market and up to the high road to head back down toward Vincom.

Video 2:  https://www.loom.com/share/66cdd7f7198a412abd161fc6d4ef6522

These 4 minutes continue on the high road south to where the enormous Vincom roundabout used to be, we hang a u-turn at the light, and proceed onto our street and stop and buy some items from a lady who sells veggies like a one-woman mini market just 5-6 doors down from us.

Love,

Tim and Janet

What's that on your front porch?

Dear Mom,

I am pleased to tell you that I provide no end of amusement to my neighbors.  They think my attempts to speak Vietnamese are precious and hilarious, and we're just generally inexplicable as people.  For example, I recently saw some of the older women of our neighborhood dressed up fancy in their Áo dài (careful, that d is pronounced like a Y and Z at the same time) and I went over with my friend, Google Translate, to talk to them.  They had rented a large van to take them to an amusement park for Vietnamese Women's Day.  I think it's probably a new Japanese-themed park over on the west part of the bay, and I did confirm that they weren't going to Bana Hills, which is the only other park I know about.

Oh, but they were giddy.  They laughed and said I should jump in the van with them, and wondered if I had bought them any gifts for Women's Day.  They were buying little snacks and treats from the corner vendor before loading up in the van for their excursion.  When we were done with our breakfast noodles and walking back to the house, the van passed and we waved and they all waved back with big grins.

But while I consider it something of a duty to provide the occasional chuckle, I don't want to be a laughingstock, or offensive.  Like this:

Do you see what's going on there, in that photo?  Take in the grass mat outside the house at the front door.  Seriously?  What are the foreigners DOING?  Zoom in so you can appreciate the cultural gaff.

We bought two of the colorful grass mats at the local market.  Rolled them out and found that they perfectly fit the entry.  Pretty much awesome!  Such a great patio vibe, right? Then one of our old friends (a 10-year friend, as opposed to some of the ones who are newly entering our lives) came over and stopped, screwed up her face, tilted her chin to the side, and VERY tactfully said, "What's your vision here?" She listened as we told her our idea for making the front area more attractive, for changing shoes and putting bags down, etc. She listened, then over lunch she said, "I think I really do have to tell you something." 

We are so grateful to have friends who will keep us from unintentionally offending people! After many reassurances that we wanted to hear everything she had to say, that she wasn't hurting our feelings, she told us that those grass mats have a lot of underlying cultural meaning and value. They are a traditional handicraft, and there's a feeling that the hand-made crafts need to be protected and honored. They are meant to be sleeping mats, and the elderly and people from the countryside often prefer a grass mat on a hard surface rather than a mattress to sleep on.  

Grass mats are also a floor-level table cloth.  You can host a party and invite everyone to sit on the mat and share food and drink, on the floor but separated from the floor's surface by the grass mat. The grass mat is a place to sit or lie down, not a place to walk and certainly not a place to put your shoes. 

Some of this we already knew--such as that people sit and sleep on the mats--but we didn't already know the "vibe" attached to them, and what it feels like to people if you use them the wrong way. 

It's a little bit like having a quilt made by your grandma or great-grandma. You recognize that its first purpose is for covering a bed. And maybe, if you don't need it on any of the beds in your house, you use it as a picnic blanket so the family can keep enjoying Grandma's quilt. But what you definitely would not do is use it as a covering for your front porch so people could take their shoes off on it, wipe their feet a bit, then come into your house. 

That's what it felt like to our friend. We don't know how many of our neighbors saw this display for the half day that it was there, but the next day, when I saw a grandma pushing a baby stroller past our open gate, and I watched her watch our house, I was glad to know I wasn't dishonoring a cherished handicraft!

Love,

Tim and Janet