Why I left Vietnam

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So as

you can see, I'm back in Thailand. I've

been away in Vietnam for about a week,

and I wanted to explain in a 4-part video

about why I left Thailand, why I went to

Vietnam, why I left Vietnam, and why I

came back to Thailand.

So first of all, I had to leave Thailand

because, as you know, I came to Thailand

on a 90-day tourist visa, and obviously 90

days had passed, so I had to leave. And I

wanted to come back to Thailand, so I did

this special thing which I read about on

the internet called a visa run, where

basically you go to a different country

and then you come back to Thailand, and

then you can stay in Thailand for a few

months extra. And the reason why I chose

Vietnam is because out of all of the

countries in Indochina, Vietnam is

probably the second most developed and

most modern country next to Thailand. I

mean, I'm not going to go to Laos or

Cambodia or Myanmar because, not to sound

rude, but they're kind of poor countries

that are very underdeveloped. And isn't

Cambodia and Basically just a massive

jungle full of wood huts and not really

much else. And I don't really want to get

kidnapped or anything. I could have gone

to Malaysia, but I already went to

Malaysia last year in July. I didn't

really want to go again. And I've actually

been to Vietnam before, back in 2012. I

went with my family, and I thought it'd be

interesting to go back to Vietnam 12 years

later, or 13 years later, and see if

anything's changed, see how the country

has developed further. And unfortunately,

it came to my conclusion that Vietnam has

not really gotten any better from when I

last remembered it. Honestly, I didn't

really like Vietnam, and I'm really glad

that I'm back in Thailand because going

from Vietnam and then coming back to

Thailand has made me realize that Thailand

is a much more developed and better

country with better organization and

better traffic. And everything in Thailand

is just much better than in Vietnam, and

I'm going to explain why I didn't really

like Vietnam and I would hate to have to

live there. First of all, the most obvious

thing is the traffic in Vietnam is

absolutely horrendous.

Wow, the amount

of motorbikes and mopeds is just insane.

There's just swarms of mopeds and

motorbikes everywhere, all over the place,

all of the time, especially in the

evening. And all over the footpaths, it's

just parked motorbikes all over the place,

and it just makes walking around the city

of Ho Chi Minh not very pleasurable, not

very pleasant. I really have no idea

why everyone in Vietnam rides a moped or

motorbike instead of just getting a car,

or instead of just walking. I don't know

why you'd want to be stuck in traffic,

because the traffic gets so congested and

jammed up that the motorbikes are barely

moving any faster than people just walking

around. In the UK, no one rides mopeds or

motorbikes unless you're a 16-year-old.

In the UK, when you're 16, you can get a

moped license, and that's when a lot of

school kids buy their first motorbike and

get a moped license. But then as soon as

they reach 17, which is when you can get a

car license, no one rides a moped anymore.

They just buy a car. In the UK, you would

never see an adult or a middle-aged person

riding around in a moped. They would have

a car by then. And if they don't have a

car by the time they're over 20, society

just kind of thinks of them as a bit of a

loser. Imagine having a family and a house

and 2 jobs and working full-time every day

all week long, and you still can't afford

to buy at least a cheap car, maybe like a

Ford Focus from 2001 that costs about

£400. I just find it kind of insane.

You've got Vietnamese people who work

really hard, probably working 2 jobs, 60

hours a week. They've got a family,

they've got their own kids, they've even

got a home, but they can't afford to buy a

cheap car. I've seen families on mopeds

where they've got the dad riding it with 2

kids in the middle and the mum sitting on

the back. And how can they afford

everything else in life, like a family and

a home? And they work and they've got

income, and they still can't afford

something better than a moped, which is

what a 16-year-old kid in the UK would use

transport. It's just such a shame because

Ho Chi Minh is a very nice city full of

French buildings, French colonial

architecture from the French colonial

times, and it's a very nice city to look

at. It's got a nice atmosphere and vibe,

but it's completely ruined with all these

swarms of mopeds and motorbikes, which

makes walking around and trying to enjoy

the evening really difficult, especially

when the footpaths are full of motorbikes

that are parked up. You've got these guys,

they look like security guys, they're just

sitting around and their entire job is to

park mopeds. People would pull up park the

moped, and it's these guys' jobs to line

them all up nicely and neatly. It just

makes walking around in Ho Chi Minh a

complete nightmare. There's no room on the

footpaths because it's full of parked up

motorbikes. You end up having to walk in

the gutter on the drains on the roads

because that's the only space where you

can walk. And it was really nice coming

back to Thailand after being in Vietnam

for over a week, and the taxi ride from

the airport back here to the apartment was

so strange not being surrounded by swarms

of motorbikes and mopeds. It really made

me feel like It really made me realize

that Thailand is actually a very nice

country and much more developed and

organized than Vietnam is. I was starting

to feel a bit fed up with Bangkok and all

of the non-stop overhead motorways and

overhead railways and monorails and 8-lane

roads, but I've come to appreciate that

that really helps with congestion and

easing the traffic jams. In Vietnam, they

don't have any of that stuff. They don't

have an underground train, they don't have

overhead trains or monorails, they don't

have multiple-lane roads where there's

like 6 or 8 lanes. So what happens is the

traffic gets really bad. They also barely

have any traffic lights in some parts of

the country. After a week in Vietnam, the

traffic and the noise was just driving me

crazy. Also, people just honk their horns

and beep their horns constantly, all the

time, for no good reason. They're just

constantly beeping at each other. The

Vietnamese people were quite nice and

friendly and helpful, but I found them

kind of annoying when it came to

marketplaces and people trying to sell us

stuff. I felt like they were so desperate

to make a sale and to make money all of

the They'd just constantly walk up to us

and speak to us in Vietnamese, and we

didn't know what they're saying. And it

was kind of awkward because we knew they

wanted us to buy whatever they're selling,

but we weren't interested. And they didn't

speak English and we didn't speak

Vietnamese, so we just had to kind of

ignore them every time they came up to us

and just walk on by. 2 things really

irritated me. This one time, a guy selling

coconuts followed us, and he seemed really

helpful and friendly and helped us cross

the road by putting out his arm and

stopping traffic and giving us directions

to the marketplace. And he was carrying

this stick which was carrying coconuts,

and he passed the stick with coconuts to

me. So I was carrying the coconuts on my

shoulder, and I thought it was kind of

funny, like a Vietnamese cultural

experience. And then he started taking

coconuts out of it and started chopping

them. And then I was like, oh my God,

he's gonna sell us coconuts now and we

can't say no because he's already taken it

out and he's already started chopping them

and putting straws into it. And we were

kind of forced to buy some coconuts even

though we didn't really want any coconuts.

And it was just kind of annoying. I felt

like I was robbed and I didn't have any

choice because if I said no, he might be

angry because he's already started

chopping the coconut. And then this other

time, me and my girlfriend were exiting a

park, and as we exited the car park of the

park, there was a man at the exit of the

car park handing out these little cards.

And he gave us a card, and on the card

there were pictures of strawberries. So

it's just a card advertising a place

selling strawberries, and we just took the

card and started walking up the road. And

then a guy opposite the road started

yelling at us, shouting, hello, hello,

Hello, hello! And then we kept walking and

ignoring him, and it was obviously the guy

who was selling the strawberries. The

people there are just so desperate to make

a sale. You can tell they're so poor and

hungry for money. Even if we're obviously

showing no interest in what they're

selling, they'll just yell at us and

follow us and come up to us and try to

make us buy whatever they're selling. And

it just became really stressful and

frustrating. It just started to get really

annoying when I'm trying to have a nice

peaceful walk, having a look around the

marketplaces and stuff, and walking around

touristy areas, and then constantly having

Vietnamese salespeople trying to come up

to me, trying to make me buy stuff, was

very stressful. As for the food, I didn't

really find the food to be that special.

There's a pho or pho which is famous, but

it's just like beef noodles. Didn't really

taste that special. I prefer pot noodles,

to be honest. And they also have this

sandwich called banh mi, which is

basically just a sandwich in a French roll

because it used to be a French colony.

The French colonized Vietnam for nearly

100 years, and because of this, the

Vietnamese really love the French Baguette

sandwich rolls. They're okay, but it's

just like a sandwich. It's not really that

special. To be honest, I didn't really

enjoy my time in Vietnam that much. I

couldn't see myself living there. It's

just way too noisy, too chaotic. The only

thing I enjoyed were the war museums and

going to the war tunnels and just learning

about the history of the country. Like a

rat. Wow, this is so weird.

Oh no, how much more?

And I feel kind of glad to be back in

Thailand. It's really made me appreciate

how much more developed and progressed

Thailand is when it comes to traffic, and

just the quality of life in general just

seems much better in Thailand. So I

managed to get back in Thailand. This was

a bit risky, and I was worried if they

would actually let me back into Thailand

because it seems kind of suspicious to

leave Thailand and then try to come back

in just a week later. If it was the UK, I

think they would have been kind of

suspicious. They would they would have

asked you a lot of questions like, what

are you doing here? How come you're back

so soon? But they just let me straight

back in without any questions asked. I

just showed them my passport, they looked

at it, they gave me a 45-day stamp, which

is very generous considering I don't have

a visa anymore. And I can stay for 45 days

and I can extend it for another 30 days,

so I can stay for a maximum of 75 days

now, which is just over 2 months. And my

plan is I'm going to stay in Thailand for

2 months and then go to Japan when I have

to leave Thailand again. And I'm not going

to try and just stay there for a week and

come back to Thailand again, because I

think they would start getting a bit

suspicious if I kept trying to do this

visa run over and over again. The first

time it works pretty well without any

problems, but I think the second and third

time you try and do it, they will start

getting a bit suspicious and getting

unhappy, and they'll just say, wait, you

need to get a proper visa if you want to

live in Thailand. Honestly, I just really

want to go to Japan now. I wanted to go to

Japan last year. I've been waiting to go

to Japan ever since the lockdowns began.

And then somehow I managed to accidentally

get myself into a pretty serious

relationship. And I'm trying to think,

what is the best way that I can get out of

it whilst causing the least amount of

damage psychologically? Because I feel

kind of bad if I just left her without

saying anything. So I'm trying to think,

what is the best way? My plan currently is

I'll just stay with her for the next 2

months and then say, well, I have to go to

Japan now. I'll figure out a way that I

can come back. And then I'll have to

decide then if I prefer staying single in

Japan, or if I actually miss her and want

to come back here and stay in a

relationship. I can't really decide right

now, so I think I'm going to have to wait.

I think financially speaking, it would be

better if I just stayed in Thailand for

the next 2 months because rent here is

really cheap and I've got a really nice

apartment. And it would be very expensive

if I just went to Japan now, especially

after the Vietnam trip, which was quite

costly. I think it cost me nearly £1,000

in Vietnam for the plane tickets and the

hotels and the food and the taxis, and I

had to pay for everything. She paid about

£60 or £70, and I had to pay for

everything else. So my plan is to try and

keep my head down for the next 2 months,

try and keep costs down, trying to save as

much money as I can for when I can

eventually get back to Japan. Actually, I

was kind of hoping they wouldn't let me

back into the country. I was crossing my

fingers and hoping that when we come back

from Vietnam, they'll say, sorry, you

can't enter the country so soon, and then

I'd be able to go to Japan. Straight after

Vietnam, but it seems like that didn't

happen. It would have been pretty

stressful if that did happen. I've never

been denied entry into a country, and I

can imagine it would be kind of scary. I

don't know what the process exactly is,

and I would have been very tired. I was

already really tired from traveling from

Ho Chi Minh back to Thailand. If I had to

then sit around in an airport all night

and then get another plane to a different

country without getting any sleep, I would

have been so tired and so exhausted. So if

you were hoping for me to return to Japan

soon, bad news because we have to wait

another 2 months and then I'll be able to

go to Japan.