- Everyone has a motorbike or scooter… seriously there are millions of them.
- You can get an uber bike or a “grab” – you jump on the back of a motorcycle!
- You have to walk out in front of traffic to get across the road and trust that the scooters will go around you!! You also have to be brave and walk in front of cars… the trick is to put your hand out so they know you’re going to keep walk, then just hope for the best!!!
- A lot of houses have a tap outside the front door where you see people washing stuff.
- Apparently people stand on the toilet as there are signs in a lot of the toilets saying “Don’t stand on the toilet” – I can only assume it’s for our squatting neighbors!
- My UK plug worked and again US works.
- You will be a millionaire! 50 Euro got me 1.3million local VND!
- The accent was the hardest so far to understand as the Vietnamese struggle to pronounce a number of letters. I also felt myself wanting to say “sank you” every time they said it to me!!
- The people of Saigon prefer that name over Ho Chi Minh city.
- There is definitely a more liberal feel to Saigon than Hanoi and the people from the south (i.e. Saigon) are very clear that they are different to most from the North!
- Motorbikes don’t follow the rules of the road – they will go straight through a red light – they do this all the time.
- Motorbikes park on the footpaths.. not just one or two but rows of them and they take up most of the space so a lot of times you have to walk on the road… by the last day in Vietnam I had a little rant shouting at traffic and people lying on their motorbikes on the footpath!
- People drive their motorbikes on footpaths (not the ones covered in parked motorbikes) and they will beep you to get out of their way… you, the pedestrian on the footpath.. arghhhhhhh… OK enough on the motorbikes.
- My hair is still bad in Vietnam!
- In north Vietnam they eat cho…. that’s dog!!
odohertyelaine 