Hey, guys what’s happening it’s Lissa here coming to you from down by the river in Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon, as it’s known by locals. Now, Vietnam opened for tourism on March the 15th or two weeks ago, and I arrived about a week ago. So I was lucky enough to be one of the first tourists to enter the country. And in this content, I’m going to share a little bit about what my experience coming into the country was like. And talk about my first impressions being back here in Saigon for the first time, since 2019.

Vietnam is currently launching a pilot e-Visa system for citizens from 80 countries.

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Vietnam Visa And Health Declaration:

And over the past week, I’ve slacked a little bit. There’s been so much going on here that it’s honestly, it’s fallen to the bottom of the priority list, but it is stacked back up to the top now. So here I am, and let’s talk about what it’s like to actually get into the country. And if you are planning to travel to Vietnam, this is super important. Okay. Now obviously you’re going to have to get your Vietnam e-visa or maybe you’re going on the visa exemption program check: Vietnam e Visa Eligible Countries. And that’s basically the health declaration form is some details that you’ve got to fill in and you’ll get a QR code as well. When you finish that, now it will come in the form of a PDF.

I recommend you print that PDF. I also took some screenshots on my phone. Now I got it prepared, but there were some people in front of me on the queue to the plane who didn’t have it prepared. And they were having a mess on their phones. One day, this one guy looked, hungover. He couldn’t get it done and they wouldn’t let him board the plane. Okay. So make sure that you do the health declaration before you go. Now, when I did it, you can only do it 24 hours before you leave. It’s not like the Thailand pass where you’ve got to do it days or weeks in advance. This one it’s only 24 hours before you leave. So it’s super simple to do. I’m not going to have to do a screen share because it’s so simple, but that is one piece of advice that I would give you guys, make sure you do that before you go.

Do I need travel insurance to Vietnam?

Lots of people are asking about insurance too. I wasn’t asked to show it. I got it. Anyway, I’m going to get something a little bit more fully comprehensive, shall we say? So? Yeah, insurance, some people are saying that it’s not required on the list of requirements to travel to Vietnam. I personally wasn’t asked to show it. So,yeah, that’s the insurance question that a lot of people have been asking on arriving into Vietnam, gotta say very slick operation, Well done Vietnam

Required to show upon arrival at Vietnam airport:

I was, our flight was the only one to be coming in. We touched down, and they asked to see my rapid test. They asked to see my health declaration and I showed them my e-visa. There were about two people in the queue to get a stamp and straight through my bag was already there. The longest thing was they scan your bags before you go out. There were some people with big cardboard boxes of stuff. They were scanning all of them. So that maybe took five minutes. And that was the longest part of the whole process. So really the entry process was very, very smooth. and first impressions of Vietnam. What are they? Well, You tell me about absolutely beautiful places.  

My Experience in Vietnam:

I mean, from having spent a couple of months in Cambodia, or I’ve got to say Vietnam is far more advanced, the infrastructure is better. The roads are better. It’s a cleaner, much nicer place to actually be a much nicer place to live. Certainly, I was here last time in 2019 before all this ridiculousness kicked off and back then there were a lot of foreigners here. A lot of Westerners. I certainly am not seeing as many as I used to a couple of three years ago. You know, it was wow. Time flies. There don’t seem to be as many Westerners around now. I know they had a visa cull and they kicked a lot of people out of Vietnam. So yeah, it’s not so easy to stay in Vietnam. Long-term really, unless you’re working legitimately and you’ve actually got a legitimate sponsor for your business visa.

So I think that was what the government was quite cracking down on a few years ago, but thankfully I’m sorted. So I’m going to be here for certainly the next few months, if not longer. What else? I mean, yeah there seems to be certain businesses that have closed down certain places that I used to go a couple of years ago are no longer there, but the quality places seem to have remained, you know, the places that were always busy seem to be still busy. So a lot of people, a lot of locals here, we’re also saying, you know, kobe kind of acted as a cull for the businesses that weren’t so good, so to speak. So anyway, guys, that’s my two cents about traveling to Vietnam.