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Are Vietnamese people friendly?

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As an African American male traveling alone through Vietnam I thought I’d have a rough time.

But I could not be more pleasantly surprised. Initially people are wary, but s single interaction make them your best friends.

Male, female and especially kids are extremely friendly and the service rivals and exceeds that of other neighboring countries.

i just took the night train from Saigon to Hue and by the time I got to Hue, even though I and my roommates did not understand a word of each other, we shook hands - a pregnant lady and two older men - all strangers to each other and knew that if we came across each other again everyone would remember.

From the smallest town to the biggest city, expect to make friends and just be accepted no matter who your are.

The atmosphere is unhurried, like the bikes on the street. It’s like a symphony of everyone just moving together in harmony. I’m highly impressed on this my first visit. I’ll be back again many more times in the future.

UPDATE - June 7, 2019

In Vietnam again. This time in Ha Noi. Even more friendly than HCMC. This time I’m traveling the country with my 15 year old daughter. Hospitality in the north is very very good and many people just approached us to welcome us to the city without needing anything.

One downside is that we did get scammed (a small one) but it was so nice that we did not realize that it was a scam until it was over! But you live and learn.

As an experience we did take the train from Hanoi to Saigon (33 hours) and the staff on the train took extra special care of us - not to mention our fellow passengers too!

I will be attempting to spend a year here beginning next year because of all of this.

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In 2012 My ex-boyfriend and I did a motorcycling tour on the Hoh Chi Min trail from Hanoi to Da Nang. We passed through tiny villages of people who hardly ever had Western visitors and who were very, very friendly, greeting us all the time with big smiles. One time, we stopped at a tiny house which offered food for lunch. The woman started speaking Vietnamese, but we couldn’t understand her, yet she didn’t understand that we didn’t understand her. First, she very considerately let us wash our hands in a bucket of water, before providing us with something to drink and making us Phõ. She sat with us and talked to us the whole time. After we finished, she assumed I would probably have to go to the bathroom and she disappeared somewhere just to come back with toilet paper (!) which I hadn’t seen in weeks and which she must have saved for some special occasion (as most Asians don’t use toilet paper but water to clean themselves), so I felt very special ;) She lead me to a toilet with about 200 spiders but I appreciated her confidence in me not being scared of them (arachnophobia is a Westerner’s “luxury” phenomenon entirely anyway, I guess) . Afterwards I went on to use sun screen and she started helping me put it ok my back while happily continuing to talk . As at that time I was not wearing shoes and only shorts and a tank top due to the heat, she wanted to offer me her shoes and her jacket. She must have assumed I didn’t have enough clothes, as normally the Vietnamese were wearing a jacket with a hood, long pants, socks, gloves, sunglasses and a hygiene mask to protect themselves from the sun, especially while riding a motorbike. After we finished preparing our depart, she even called her husband from the living room who had been watching TV all along and both of them stood at the door step to wave us goodbye until we couldn’t see them anymore.

This was one of the best, most genuine, heartwarming, interesting and memorable human encounters I have ever had. This extraordinarily warm and caring woman made me feel at home on the other side of the world and despite not understanding a single word from one another she treated me like her daughter. She made me feel understood on a basic level beyond language barriers and cultural differences. She created a brief moment of true connection and meaning for me that I will never forget.

Please judge for yourself if Vietnamese people are friendly, but I would certainly say I experienced them as one of the most friendly and hospitable of all the countries I have been to (44). This impression has not changed even 5 years later, as I am traveling through Vietnam right now!

Greetings from Da Lat :)

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Yes!

But then I get along with everyone.

I live here near ‘Little Saigon’.

One of my very few ‘friends’ in USA is a Vietnamese, Vinh. We now work in separate companies.

Last time I met him, his wife told me something like I am his ‘only friend in USA’, lol welcome to Individualistic society of America. I am trying to meet him again as I need to pay his 20 $ back.

I work and worked with so many Vietnamese.

Nguyen is Ofcourse the most famous Surname but Hyunh, Tran and Le are also other surnames.

They are mostly in the age range 30–60, so everyone speaks Vietnamese and I hear that language a lot.

Just few weeks back I went with them to a Vietnamese Pho place and liked it. I ate the Vietnamese Fried Rice too. Few times we got authentic Vietnamese food but that was too much for me, lol as I am not a huge meat eater, the Duck was something very new.

I have had many Vietnamese Sandwiches though and Lee’s Sandwiches are famous stores here.

One time I went to a Vietnamese exclusive Party, they seemed to like their Alcohol a lot(Just like my Punjabi people), also both Men and Women liked to wear Gold jewelry and expensive watches!, Ofcourse not all but that was a feature, at-least at the party.

The Men like to smoke also, coming to work little earlier and smoking/talking in a Group.

Vietnamese Coffee is pretty strong and Coffee Shops are famous among Men.

Westminster and Garden Grove here have extensive Vietnamese Population.

I think there are 3 Dialects North,Central and South. Historically the Language used Chinese derived script but today it uses a Latin Derived Script with lots of diacritics as the language is very Tonal in nature.

Christianity, Buddhism and Caodaism are the main Religions but some know about some Hindu cultures also like Champa, and Shiva Linga.

Beauty of Southern California is that you can meet people of all Races,Ethnicities and Nationalities within a small amount of area.

Ofcourse, most of us today are ‘Americans’.

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Vietnamese people are the most hospitable and giving. I should know as I met a lot of them at university, and LIVED with them for almost three years.

My best friend invited me to live with her. I did not know her well then, but we became instant buddies after that. After we lived together for a year, I went to Hanoi for a holiday and stayed at her family home. I had the best time of my life!

The following year, I shared a bedroom with her and we went to classes every morning. Her friends were always inviting, and I would end up making more friends whenever I was with my best friend.

My memories of the Vietnamese people were of having dinner altogether as a “family” even when we were not blood relations. My husband( boyfriend at the time) even had dinner with them once, and they were so friendly towards him.

I became so close to the Vietnamese people I eventually learnt some of their language. They even taught me how to sing Vietnamese songs and it was great fun.

These are just from my experience. However Vietnamese people have the tightest community and a great sense of tribe. They always look after each other. Sometimes when they have immigrated, the locals dislike the fact that they do not assimilate. Some of them do assimilate, but the Vietnamese people I knew held onto their culture and identity pretty strongly. I respect them for that.

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Indeed, and unbelievably friendly, as friendly as every time I leave from Vietnam, I can’t stop thinking about coming back.

I came to Vietnam in 2014 for a six month stay. The hospitality, friendliness, kindness and politeness of Vietnamese has mesmerised me and it’s 2018 now and I’m still in the country, married to a Vietnamese woman and speak (to some limited extend) Vietnamese. That’s for locals enough to treat me equal as if I was one of them!

By respecting the local culture you get an open warm heart approach in return.

Here in Vietnam, you get so many small treats from the locals and literally every day. Small helps to get out of trouble are normal, getting presents just out of blue from people you even hardly know or briefly met is another thing happening quite frequently.

I’ve never had any conflict with anybody of the locals and I’ve never had a single argument, nobody has ever insulted me.

I feel at home!

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Thailand likes to claim the “land of smiles” tag. Truly the Thais should surrender this handle to the Vietnamese. Not that the Thais are unfriendly, but their comportment and demonstrations of amiability are just not as genuine and sincere as that of the Vietnamese people. Their friendliness is not driven by their country’s dependence on tourism as it it is still in its infancy when compared to Thailand. Probably one of the most “civilized,” mannered and polite societies I’ve encountered. Just hope that this doesn’t change as the country devotes more and more time, effort and money in making this a major tourist destination.

I have hundreds of stories to prove my point, but I’ll use the one that happened to me this week, my last night in Vietnam, in a very non-touristy far-flung suburb of Hanoi. I walked into a typical neighborhood small store, smaller than your average 7–11 but crammed wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with everything a family might need. I was probably one of very few Americans (Westerners) to have ever set foot in this place. Store was crammed with people. They see me as I walk in and almost in unison say “hellooooooo!” customers and clerks alike, with wide smiles on their faces. Mind you, I’m a middle-aged male and not most approachable guy (so my wife tells me). Had to carefully navigate my way through the store in order to not step on toes or trip over produce and boxes. Every time my eyes met someone, they just beamed and said hello again. Every time I lingered a little too long looking at packaging as to discern exactly what it was I was holding (packs of curry), a small crowd gathered around to me and mustered all the English they had at their disposal to help, arguing with each other which was the best. Everyone who knew some English attempted to make conversation. An elderly man saw that I had gathered more than a few items and grabbed a basket and motioned to me to put the items in. I politely refused, but he followed me around with the basket, pulling items out of my hands and throwing them in the basket and following me throughout the store. I thought he might be the owner but learned , no, he was just doing his own shopping and thought he would help me out. Went to pay for my things, discovered I didn’t have my glasses and couldn’t see the money (money’s confusing anyway with all the zeros). Multiple persons grabbed the money out of my hands and pulled out the bills necessary to pay the exact amount (I’m a long-time expat from Colombia, and on heightened alert at all times for possible dangers, but was never once worried about getting robbed or shorted in the store or on the street for that matter). EVERYONE said goodbye and waved as I opened the door to leave. Elderly man wanted to help carry my bags. I declined (I had only two bags). Smiles broadly, pats me on the shoulder and returns to the store.

Now, tell me please, where else in the world would something like this occur? Certainly not in the USA.

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