Friendly Locals in Vietnam

Everyone here makes an effort to be friendly and courteous. The language barrier is prominent here (and google translate is laughably inaccurate at times), but every now and then you run into a local that can speak English and wants to socialize a bit.   This morning I was dropping off my laundry at the local pack and fold and the lady who works there smiled and greeted me “Hello Ben!”. It surprised me to be greeted by name and put a smile on my face. It’s so easy to take those micro interactions for granted at home, but it’s really nice to be seen.  

Later in the day, I hunted down what I thought was a Viettel store – I needed to get my cell phone SIM card plan renewed. It just so happened that the “store” was just the reception / lounge area of a private homestay & the woman who owned the house was the telecom rep.

She started giving me the run down of where the affordable neighborhoods are that the locals visit.

She mentioned, “oh yeah the area you are in is the expensive tourist area” which is sort of funny because I’ll go out to eat sometimes and Michelle and I will both eat Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) and have a beer and it can be easily less than $10 USD all in.

But to the locals that’s ‘expensive and overpriced’ and she was trying to help me to not get ripped off (lol). A lot of meals near our apartment are 50-70k dong (for reference: 25k dong is about 1USD) & a beer costs 25-50k on average .. but I’ve definitely had a couple beers at this one local business for 10k.

She gave me a couple pointers for places to try that she likes and also recommended a street full of good restaurants. I immediately walked there because it was near by and stumbled into a pretty nice bakery. It’s the best one I’ve been in so far in Vietnam.   I’ll be back to thank her and renew my Viettel cell phone plan.

Torino Bakery
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gkmw45GK5EM8SBaG6