Here are some videos of some of the fun times I had during my time in Vietnam:
I wanted to take the slow travel approach when I planned this trip.
Slow travel is a deliberate, unhurried approach to exploring destinations, emphasizing meaningful experiences, and cultural immersion. Here are some benefits of slow travel using my experience to date:
– I learned more about Vietnam and its culture other than just the tourist traps. ✅
– Slow travel can help you save money on accommodations as I rented monthly and took local transportation. ✅
– It allowed me to relish my surroundings, build a routine, and live like a local. ✅
– Slow travel reduces stress levels as you are not always on the go (I took too many road trips). ❌
– It promotes me visiting local restaurants and engaging in local cultural events (TET – Chinese New Year). ✅
– It is the polar opposite of an all-inclusive vacation resort vacation as you’re living like a local. This is a strategy that I need to prioritize now that I am taking a run at full-time travel!
I did well on the Vietnam leg of my trip but there is always room for improvement. I took too many road trips which brought the cost up. I knew I could do that as it happens the first time, I visit a new country.
Here is a summary of the approximate costs to see how they stack up against my USD $2K monthly budget.
~ USD 600 for accommodations ($420 for Homebase and $180 for road trip Airbnb’s)
~ USD 750 for credit card. (broken down below).
~$800 cash ($200 a week cash for incidentals).
~$2150+ (I would assume this is a bit higher, but this is a summary).
Here are my Airbnb accommodations:
(I rented the first one for the whole time and the others were road trips)
I stayed at some of these places for a few nights, but this gives you an idea of what you get for a very low nightly price. I will use an average price of $15 a night for the 12 days I was on road trips away from home base HCMC.
I used my credit card, when possible, to track my spending after the fact:
This allows me to see where some of my money was spent.
Credit card charges: ~$750
Since I spent a lot of money on my road trips, it skews the actual cost of living in Vietnam. I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that I could live like a king for $2K a month in any of the cities in Vietnam I visited.
Here is the order of cities I would choose when returning to Vietnam:
1. Phu Quoc Island (one of the most beautiful Islands I have ever visited).
2. Da Nang (there was a huge EXPAT community making it feel domestic)
3. Nah Trang (there was also a huge EXPAT community making it feel domestic)
I would choose one of these for one month each the next time I return to Asia.
One month in The Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and, Thailand. I would just need to decide which cities in the other three Countries to keep my costs down with monthly rent.
Since I have visited all of these Countries, here are my current choices as of today:
– Thailand (Koh Samui – it is also an easy ferry ride to Koh Phagan and Koh Tao as they were all my favorite islands).
– Philippines (Siquijor Island – it was also my favorite place I visited).
– Vietnam (Phu Quoc Island)
– Cambodia (Phnom Penh – it is the only place I have visited but it is very nice and inexpensive).
The key is to pick a place that also can access other places for inexpensive road trips. This keeps things from getting boring being stuck in the same spot for the whole time.
