1. Cars / Motorcycles will not stop for crosswalks. You have to march into the busy street with confidence and hope that you don’t get run over
2. Bring your own pad of paper to the restaurants if you don’t want ordering your food to take 3 hours and if you want to eat what you actually ordered.
3. Pho is the best food ever. Also Banh Mi. Also Mangosteen.
4. Vietnamese coffee is espresso and sweetened condensed milk. So you aren’t sure if your awake because of the coffee or the sugar but you’re wide awaKE AND YOU CAN WALK FAST AND YOU DRANK IT WAY TOO QUICKLY AND NEED ANOTHER ONE AND YOU COULD PROBABLY OUT SWIM A SHARK.
5. You cannot ride your bike on the beach. Or the beach sidewalk. Or the regular sidewalk. But just you, the locals can ride wherever they want.
6. You can do your quiet time on the beach, but only if you’re prepared to take 654 selfies with the local tourists.
7. You CANNOT take pictures of the weird snacks at the corner store. An old Vietnamese security-man will yell at you and make you delete the picture.
8. You would think that the best food would be at local stalls, but the best Pho we have had was at the airport. The search continues.
9. One word in Vietnamese could mean a name, a food, and a curse word depending on what inflection you use. Danger.
10. Vietnamese denominations are super confusing. One US dollar is equal to 22,571 Dong….so seeing a meal cost 60,000 is a little intimidating. We are constantly reminding each other “ok, but thats like $3”.
11. I already know that I won’t want to leave.
