Vietnam actually has excellent internet. It’s cheap enough that I can’t even tell you how much it costs me. Literally every cafe supplies free wifi which is amazing. There are cafes everywhere in Vietnam, ranging from fancy Starbuck like cafes to a roadside stall with plastic stools, but all of them have great wifi. It’s super convenient and you’ll always find a few Vietnamese people playing MOBA games on their phones at every cafe.
I personally think that Vietnamese internet is better than Australia’s internet. In my experience travelling in both countries, Vietnam has way better internet. Honestly Australia is annoying as fuck to travel in without a SIM Card with 3G, and those are kind of expensive to make you consider going without. But it’d be hopeless. You would need google maps or something and would be fucked. Whereas in Vietnam you could literally just drive until you don’t know where you are then stop at the cafe that is probably within 10 meters of wherever you stopped. Buy a $1 coffee and use their wifi and then you’re back on track. In Australia the coffee would be $5, and they probably wouldn’t have wifi, or they’d be dicks about it.
The only issue is that occasionally the internet goes down. Some people say it’s because “Sharks eat the cable”, meaning the submarine cable connecting Vietnam to the rest of the world. I always assumed this was a joke, but actually it does happen sometimes. Check this video for the dickhead shark who is responsible for your internet going down. Shark Bites Fiber Optic Cables Undersea
More likely it’s just due to the shitty cabling system Vietnam uses. I have no idea how this ‘system’ works, but it does somehow. Vietnam doesn’t seem to have power outages any more often than anywhere else from what I’ve experienced. But still, just look at it. And it’s like this pretty much everywhere.
Oh, there is also some internet censorship. But it’s really mild compared to China’s. On my computer twitter is blocked for some reason, whereas facebook and every other social media site isn’t. If they did ban facebook the whole country would revolt I think, or at least every Vietnamese woman would, they love “fay-bu” more than anything. When I lived in China a VPN was essential, in Vietnam I only need to use it once every few weeks.
