For the most part I really enjoy living in Vietnam and don't want to not be living here any time soon. I tell this to a lot of people including the people that I recently met up with in Thailand. I lived in Thailand a lot longer than most people that aren't Thai and after revisiting there a little while ago I now know that I do not want to move back there but would rather stay here in Vietnam. I say this even though I can speak a meaningful enough level of Thai to get things done in banks in Thailand, whereas I don't even know any numbers past 3 in Vietnamese. The only reason why I know 1-3 is because those numbers are in one of the most popular ways to "cheers" before you drink some beer.
The other people that I know that live her also enjoy doing so and it is for a number of reasons. The main one being that this is one of the cheapest safe places to live in the world. One can easily live here for under $1000 a month all in. This would include all living expenses including rent. I've lived some places that are pretty cheap, but unless you were eating ramen noodles exclusively and living with several roommates I don't think this is possible at all in the USA.
It's a pretty wonderful country but I realize now that it is not for everyone because two of my friends that I have known for over 10 years and have visited in multiple countries as well as being a groomsman in their wedding, moved here to live and work and didn't even make it 6 months before they packed up and left.
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I'm not going to say that Da Nang is perfect because it certainly isn't. The architecture is boring (everything is a rectangle), there are a ton of people living here, and it is almost always very noisy. I think we could say that is true for almost any densely populated area in the world though, especially in South East Asia.
My friends experience is a little bit different than most people because they came here to be teachers and they kind of got screwed around by the schools a little bit and I think that when the 2nd round of BS came around, they were just like "fuck this, we are outta here." They came here without jobs thinking that their more than 10 years each of experience teaching in Thailand and Korea would make them in high demand. They did get some leads very early on and were hired by a language center pretty fast. Unfortunately this language center seems to be full of crap as far as processing work visas, work permits, and residency cards though because when they were first hired they had to leave the country for nearly 2 weeks for the visa to be processed. I have no idea why it takes so long or why you have to be out of the country for this to happen but it does seem to be the case.
They just went to Thailand for 2 weeks and finally came back with all the paperwork to provide to the equivalent of and "HR" department that was meant to be processing their extended visas as well as work permits. Well 2 months of their 3-month business visa go by, and they still haven't received any word from said HR department about the status of their paperwork. When they started to get a bit worried about running out of time they ended up finding out that the HR department hadn't even submitted their documents to government officials. They had other problems with this language center as well such as them not delivering on their promises of a certain number of hours per week. Teaching in a language center pays somewhere between 10 and 20 US dollars per hour so you need to be actually working if you are going to make a living.
At this point they had their fill with the language center and decided to quickly look elsewhere. They were almost immediately hired by a local public school with a salary that they were happy with and things looked like they were going to turn around. That was until they got hit with more red tape and they just weren't in the mood for it anymore. The school said the Education Department or whatever it is called here was requiring them to fly down to Ho Chi Minh City in order to prove that they are who they say that are and that it is in fact them in the passports.
I can understand why this would piss them off because they already had a mountain of paperwork that they have acquired over the past 5 months and we have tons of government offices here including police stations and a full-fledged Immigration building. Why make them fly all the way down to HCMC for something that can easily be done here. Basically they started feeling as though they were being made to jump through hoops just for the sake of jumping through hoops and they weren't going to do it anymore.
Their decision to leave was abruptly made, and even though I am one of their best friends in the world I was made aware of their departure just 2 days before it was going to happen. I think it was a decision made out of frustration, but I didn't try to talk them out of it. If you are not happy somewhere, then there is no reason for you to stick around in that place.
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To me, living in Da Nang is one of the most effortless places I have ever lived but then again, I have never tried to get a job here. I am fortunate enough that I am one of those remote workers or digital nomads that you have been hearing so much about ever since Covid. Hell, I was one of them long before Covid was even a thing.
I guess the point here is that this city isn't going to be for everyone and it is the people that actually need to work here that seem to have the biggest problems. I think that this is something that is frustrating about most countries because it certainly was for me during the 10 years or so that I was legally employed in Thailand: There seemed to always be a few more pieces of paper that I needed to provide to government officials basically all the time. I can only imagine that it is like this almost everywhere in the world.
Another factor for my friends is likely the fact that they were making pretty fantastic money in Korea before they ever moved here and nature was a lot more accessible there than it is here. This is one downside of Da Nang in particular. There actually IS nature here, but you are going to have to drive 20 km to just get to the entrance of a park or nature trail or something like that.
I'm disappointed to see my friends go, partially because of the fact that a bit part of the reason why they moved here in the first place was because I lived here and talked about how much I enjoyed living here. I think this is just a very good sign that people are different, and not everyone is going to agree on these sorts of things.
So if you are a teacher and think you would like to come to teach in Vietnam, just know that this case is proof that it isn't as easy as just rocking up and wanting to work. These 2 are much more qualified than most people and even they experienced difficulty so maybe if you are considering coming here to teach, to be prepared for a lot of headache along the way.
I hope they are happy wherever they end up going next. I would bet money that they end up simply going back to Korea because they are already familiar with how things work there and can demand quite large salaries because of their experience.
Bon Voyage friends!
Quite the story and drama for your friends. I hope it doesn't put them off living in sth east Asia. We arrived in Thailand with a 45 day visa and are now applying for a retirement visa as we love Thailand so much. We're lucky in that we have retired from work so we can stay as long as the money lasts lol
make that money last! I know a few people that let their spending get out of control and then had to return to the workforce at nearly 70 years of age. I think that would be my own personal hell.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ
Very interesting. I am happy to hear that you are finally settling in there and you think it is someplace you would like to stay for a long while. I remember when you were kicking around some other spots. It has to be a hard decision to make.
having a dog makes the decision making process a great deal easier because it is a huge undertaking to move a dog from one country to another as each country has their own rules regarding import/export of animals. For example: There is this couple I know whose original plan was to relocate to Australia but then they found out that in order to import a dog you have to have the dog in Australian quarantine for months before the dog is allowed in and of course, you pay a lot of money for this. To make matters worse Vietnam is not considered a country that you can import a dog from to Australia so if they wanted to go that route they would have to move to Singapore or some other similar "1st world country" before even trying to move there. In the end it was going to cost tens of thousands of dollars for them to move so they just decided it was more financially prudent to just stay here.
Wow, that is crazy. I mean with the diverse ecosystems I understand, but still pretty crazy. I can see how that would make the decision much easier.
Guess they will go back to Korea as one can only put up with so much nonsense before you start questioning why you are even trying. Bummer for you as you have 2 less mates with you now.
I have plenty of more friends so it'll be fine. I've just known this couple for a very long time and am disappointed that it didn't work out for them. The good news is that it is very easy to move in and out of Da nang or other parts of Vietnam with very little issue since the standard here is that all condos are fully furnished.... so it's not like they had to acquire a bunch of stuff and then sell it off before they took off.