All right, so it's been about a year since I came to Vietnam, and I'm basically going to talk a bit about how I came here and what I've been doing since I came. Since I'm using voice to text, it could be a little bit raw, but I'll come back and edit this later.

The good

Low costs of living

I initially came to Vietnam for the first time back in 2017, and after trying to find a couple of places to live, one that stood out was District 7, especially Koreatown. I was looking for a place where it would be easy to walk around, where there would be lots of green spaces, and I wanted to be away from the noise and the city center. I just wanted a calm environment where I could focus and get work done.

So that's where I wanted to come back last year. I came back once again, and the first place I found, after about a day of searching, was a small serviced apartment studio right next to the street where I used to live a couple of years ago. The rent was about 8 million VND a month (roughly $313), including laundry and cleaning once a week. What I really liked was that it was on a small street and I could hear the birds sing in the morning.

I stayed there for a couple of months until I moved out and found another building to stay in with my girlfriend. We're paying just a little bit above 10 million VND, including utilities, and we are now in a 50m2 apartment with a small cat and a dog.

I would say the neighborhood is great because there are lots of trees and big walkable streets, as well as a park where we sometimes go in the evening to have a walk and sometimes do our runs too.

Food

Having grown up in a Korean family, it's also great to just live in Koreatown. It's convenient for me personally to just shop and be able to eat out at Korean restaurants whenever I feel like it. But there are also other options like Italian restaurants and other Western-style types of foods.

So a typical meal at a Vietnamese outlet might cost between $3-$4, which is around 60,000-100,000 VND, and for most other foods (Japanese, Italian, burger shops etc.), you should expect to pay above the 150,000 VND price point.

For grocery shopping, there are tons of supermarkets around. Some of the places you may want to go are the following:

• Bach Hoa Xan (local supermarket chain, not really high quality but okay for a quick run to grab some missing vegetables)
• Aeon Citimart (Japanese-owned chain, not that cheap but okay to find anything you want)
• WinMart (local/mid, has got anything you need)
• Annam Gourmet (expat-focused, western-style food, higher price points but just great since I can find any French or Italian food I want)

Most of the shopping places listed above are easy to find in most districts of Ho Chi Minh.

Drinks and Social

For drinks and social, there are now more and more cool places in Saigon and price points vary, but you should usually count between 100,000 to 200,000 VND for a drink or a cocktail at most "fancy rooftop bars" and "hotel lobbies" and so on.

Transportation

In terms of transportation, I initially didn't rent a bike, but a couple of years ago, and even now, a monthly bike rental might cost you between 1 to 1.5 million VND. For fuel, one time replenishing your gas tank might be around 60,000 VND as of 2025.

Otherwise, take a Grab bike — it's pretty cheap usually.

If you want to buy a bike, try looking into Facebook groups in the usual groups.

Making Friends

What I really liked about Saigon was how easy it was to make friends. There's a really active social scene. There are tons of entrepreneurs in the food industry, startups, big companies, and everyone mingles together — it's usually pretty diverse and actually vibrant. There are tons of parties, people invite each other, and it's usually very easy to find things to do if you hang around the right Facebook groups and check Facebook events.

I know I haven't done it myself, but I've also got some friends who usually use language exchange meetups for finding a girlfriend or boyfriend, etc.

• Active social scene, tons of entrepreneurs (food, startups, big companies, etc. all mingle together)
• Language exchange meet-ups
• Facebook groups for events

Beautiful Beaches

Vietnam also has a lot of great beaches. You can go to Da Nang, Nha Trang, in the south you have Mui Ne. I haven't been there yet myself, but I want to visit Phu Quoc one day too. Depending on the season, it's usually more or less crowded, but for sure you have breathtaking views.

Mountainous Areas

There are also a lot of mountainous regions, and one of them that stood out for me was Da Lat. In the north, there's the Sapa region and all of the Ha Giang area, which I also have yet to explore and discover.

The Bad

Noisy Cafes and Coworking Spaces

Trying to find a place to get work done didn't prove that easy. Coffee shop environments and co-working spaces have been more than distracting, and I actually didn't feel quite productive working out of those places unless the coffee shop was completely empty. Even then, they usually blast a lot of loud music and it's really hard to get work done.

It's as if co-working culture and remote work culture and deep work culture in general still haven't found their place yet here. A lot of people still come to those coffee shops, pretend to get work done, but actually try to look for someone to talk to and be social. It's not like Europe where people actually come to the coffee shop to get work done, be focused, and try to get into flow state. Here, it's more like people come, pretend to get work done, but actually secretly stare at each other and try to find someone to mingle with — at least that has been my impression from my time trying to work in various places here.

So if you find one place where you find yourself going back, I just say don't change any of that. Stick to that habit and keep going back to that place once you find it.

Air Pollution

Air pollution is pretty terrible at times. I know that now I would never go and live in Hanoi, but Ho Chi Minh City is a little bit better, and especially in the area where I live, AQI is around 60 most of the time.

If you want some clean air, you're better off going to Da Lat, but even then, a lot of people in the countryside still have that habit of burning their trash, and sometimes they burn plastic so the air is pretty toxic and polluted too.

Noise Pollution

One thing that I really hated from my time here so far is just the karaoke culture and the noise pollution in general.

If you are unlucky, you may end up in a street where there is a small shop owner who sometimes invites friends to do open-air karaoke, and it may prove terrible until they decide to end it. By law, they are required to finish by 10pm at night.

There's also a lot of noise from the traffic, so trying not to live next to the road might be something to keep in mind.

Finally on the noise, Ho Chi Minh City is still a place where tons of construction work happens, so it may happen that one day out of the blue people decide to create a new building right in front of the place where you live. And it's going to be a lot of noise for a couple of months (usually 3 months for a medium-sized townhouse building).

Visa Runs

I've had to do several trips out of the country every 3 months since the Vietnamese visa is valid for 3 months only. It's usually a bit of a hassle. For that, each time I chose to go to Cambodia, and one time I went to Thailand. Usually, it's wiser to just book the visa through an application process with a specialized agent. Feel free to DM me if you want a list.

Conclusion

Overall, I'd say if you choose to live in Ho Chi Minh City, you should be mindful of the place where you choose to live as it will affect your experience greatly, and the quality of your work really will depend on how much distraction there is around you at any given time.

Overall, Vietnamese people are pretty friendly, but it may also depend. People here are real hustlers, so everything they do may not always be out of kindness or generosity. Some of the negative aspects include the fact that there's a lot of "it's my way" kind of behaviors, and sometimes stuff like karaoke or driving habits may feel like some people are very inconsiderate, so your experience might vary.

I'll continue to post more updates as I go.