Prelude
Vietnam was a wild ride filled with loads of memories, unusual situations, and exciting adventures. I’m glad I made it that far and that everything worked out just as it should. While I’ve already shared several individual posts already, this one will be an overview of my entire time in Vietnam.
It all began when I went to Japan for an exchange semester in 2019. Until then, I had only taken occasional trips, but this was my first time staying in a different country for an extended period. Over the following years, I always occasionally thought about how much I wanted to experience that feeling again—being the “minority” in a foreign country. On top of that, my flatmate from Slovenia once shared stories about traveling across her country. Plus, whenever I talked to people, they always seemed so excited about me having Vietnamese roots and kept telling me how beautiful the country is and where they have been. But to be honest, I’d never really traveled Vietnam myself, so I couldn’t relate to what they were saying. That pretty much settled it—the next big adventure had to be Vietnam.
I had been saving up money for a couple of years, working a bit more than usual during my lecture-free time, with the plan to start my trip once I finally finished my studies. However, everything came differently as expected. In late 2022, our Japanese teacher told us about a short-term study program in Yamanashi, Japan. It was only 10 days long and scheduled to start in mid-February 2023. I wouldn’t have finished my studies by then, but I thought, why not apply and see what happens? The process was pretty straightforward, and to my surprise, I actually got accepted. The real question now was whether I should take the offer.
The acceptance email came in just after Christmas, which made it really hard to find anyone who could help me with things like insurance, thesis submission, and other details. I think my past self would have hesitated a lot, but after “only” two days of nervous back-and-forth and talking it through with some friends, I decided to go for it. My Vietnam adventure was going to start a bit earlier than I had hoped for.
Finishing my thesis.
On February 10th, I left Germany, with my friends and my mom seeing me off at the train station. Arriving in Vietnam felt exciting and a bit overwhelming with the fresh change of language and culture, but before I even had time to fully settle in—or let the jetlag wear off—I was on my way to Japan for the Yamanashi program.
Yamanashi University Culture Exchange Program | February 2023
When I got back to Vietnam from the program, it was time to focus on my thesis, which I needed to finish by June. I had been preparing since October and thought I had most of the coding done. In my mind, it was just a matter of running the experiments and analyzing the results. But, of course, things didn’t go that smoothly—I ended up doing way more coding and running more experiments than I’d expected 💁🏽♀️. Smartly, I had already given a signed declaration that my thesis was my own work to a friend before departing. Their only job was to hand it to the printing company so it could be added to the books before binding everything together. In March, I also planned another trip to Japan with Lanny and Tinh, which meant I really only had about two months to finish writing my entire thesis. Looking back, all in all, everything went pretty well and was relatively smooth.
Finally a Japan Vacation Trip | April 2023
During the time I was working on my thesis, I lived at my uncle’s house in Hanoi. His household included his wife, his son and his wife, and their two children, making it a three-generation household—plus me. It was a really interesting experience and one I knew I might never have again, so I tried to soak in every moment. That said, it was also pretty annoying at times.
The cultural differences were obvious right away, especially around meal times and habits. On top of that, there was an 11 PM curfew—not because they didn’t want me to go out, but because the main house gate would be locked, and I didn’t have a spare key to get back in. There were even two occasions where they forgot I was out, and I had to find a hostel to stay overnight. Eventually, we came to an agreement—I was given the main key, but only after solemnly swearing to lock the gate properly every time I came home. Still, there were some really good memories, especially with my niece and nephew. At first, there were the usual cultural clashes and curious questions, like why I had long hair that “looked like a woman’s.” But later on, they even started defending me when other kids asked the same thing, which was pretty sweet.
Since this was one of the years after COVID restrictions had eased, a lot of friends came to Vietnam, which meant I never really lost my connection to Germany. I even made a new friend, Huyen, through an online platform called Jodel, where people post anonymously. It turned out she was also from Dresden and was already friends with one of my other friends. Some honorable mentions include Ngan, who was born in Vietnam, studied in Dresden, and later returned to Vietnam, and Victor, who was doing an internship there. Both of them were introduced to me by Linh. Even my childhood friend Coco visited Vietnam in late spring! She mostly stayed in Hai Phong but made a trip to Hanoi just for fun.
Finally travelling through Vietnam
I occasionally applied to internships across Vietnam, but it turned out to be harder than I expected. Most places didn’t accept short-term internships, wouldn’t offer pay, or officially required some kind of work visa. Still, I managed to land something by googling data science papers published by Vietnamese scientists. I reached out to a few and got referred to OUCRU, a university clinic in Ho Chi Minh City. After a short Zoom call, they suggested I just drop by while I was in Vietnam to introduce myself upfront. Honestly, that sounded a bit absurd—an unpaid, one-month internship that required a 1600 km trip to the south. But I saw it as a great excuse to kick off my travels. Plus, I had already handed in my thesis and didn’t have much else to do besides presenting it online one last time at a later point in time.
So, in June, I headed south to introduce myself. Afterwards, I stayed a couple of days in a hostel, where I finally felt like a real tourist—no family members hovering over me. Of course, my family still called to check in and made sure I was doing okay. I also reported back occasionally, mostly to share stories or ask about local fruit prices and how much I’d probably been scammed.
While I was in the South, I thought, why not start the cross-country trip from here? My plan was to visit some of the most popular tourist spots, like Mui Ne, Da Nang, Hoi An, Quang Tri, and Phong Nha-Ke Bang. As luck would have it, I met a guy named Dave, who was also heading to Hanoi for business. He originally planned to travel with me for a short while before flying north, but we ended up sticking together for the entire trip.
During that trip, on a random Tuesday, in a random city in Vietnam I gave my online presentation and officially wrapped up all my studies. Ironically, that same day, I also lost my passport. So that was a situation with very mixed feelings. Once Dave and I reached Hanoi, we parted ways, but we’d end up seeing each other many times afterward.
Vietnam Across the Country – HCM, Mui Ne, Da Nang and more | June 2023
Visa Runs
Losing my passport set off a chain of pretty interesting events. Initially, I tried to figure out a way to extend my stay in Vietnam beyond the 14 days allowed for German passport holders, but there didn’t seem to be any solution. Luckily, a new legislation was set to kick in later that year, increasing visa-free entry for German citizens from 14 days to 45 days—I just had to hold out until then.
So, I did what everyone would do in this situation. For the next few weeks, I ended up doing visa runs to Thailand and Cambodia every two weeks. Since I wanted to visit neighboring countries anyway, it wasn’t a big deal—just a bit inconvenient 🙆🏾♂️.
Travelling Vietnam for the second time with the family
As it just so happened, my mom and brother came to Vietnam, and it was my mom’s first time traveling through the country. She arrived in Vietnam right around the time I got back to Hanoi, so after I tried to deal with the whole lost passport situation, we set off to explore Vietnam together.
We revisited some of the spots I’d already been to, like Da Nang and Hoi An, so this time I could actually show them around. I felt a bit like a tour guide since I’d already seen a lot of these places and knew some of the coolest spots to visit. We also added some new destinations to the list, like Hue and Nha Trang. Some of our relatives joined us as well, making it a truly enjoyable and interesting trip—from the perspective of both a foreigner and a domestic traveler.
Internship in HCM
From August onwards, I began a new phase of my journey with that one-month internship. During the weekdays, I stayed in a hostel across from the hospital where I was interning. On weekends, I switched things up by staying in different hostels around Ho Chi Minh City. One weekend, I even took a trip to Cambodia for a visa run. Considering that the internship and my stay in HCM only lasted about a month, this setup—while it might sound bothersome—actually flew by pretty quickly.
Visa Run To Cambodia | August 2023
Going back to Ha Noi
Before heading back to the north, I made a few more stops. I visited Vung Tau and caught up with my study friend Nhung in Da Lat. Looking back, a lot happened during that time—it was definitely eventful!
Visitin Jesus in Vung Tau | September 2023
Da Friends meet in Da Lat | September 2023
Once I returned to Hanoi, I reunited with some friends from Germany. I also met with Hai, who was born in Vietnam, went to Germany to study business information systems where we met. Back then, we were part of the same study group, and now he already had a kid—time flies! Lien, another study friend, along with her boyfriend and cousin, were visiting Vietnam and planned a short trip to Thailand. Even before the whole lost passport and visa run saga, we had already been planning to travel together, and in September, we finally made it happen. In between all that, I managed to visit Ninh Binh as well. The days flew by with so much going on—it felt like there was always something happening!
(Un)Planned Trip(s) to Thailand | September 2023
Ninh Binh – Short Trip To Where My Father Hit His Head | September 2023
Departure to Germany
Finally, my budget was running out, and I’d actually managed to fulfill everything I wanted to do. So, I set my departure for October 15th, exactly eight months after arriving in Vietnam. My flight had a layover in Singapore, and I scheduled it specifically so I could do a short city trip and experience the famous world’s tallest indoor waterfall at the airport.
I arrived at Singapore’s airport in the early evening, with my flight to Frankfurt scheduled for 9 AM the next morning. Unlike what I had imagined, the waterfall wasn’t actually inside the airport but just outside. So, I came up with the following masterplan: I’d head to the city center to do some sightseeing and grab some food, then come back to the airport for some sleep. In the morning, I’d visit the mall to see the waterfall before my flight – perfect. However, when I woke up at 6 AM, ready to head out again, I learned that the layover visa only allowed me to leave the airport once. Since I’d already used it the night before, I couldn’t go out again. Somehow, I wasn’t too bothered—I was too tired to stress over it. Luckily, there’s a transit train that goes from Singapore platform 1 to 3 and passes through the mall, which would give me an opportunity to get a glimpse of that well known waterfall – if only it had been turned on! It turns out it wasn’t active in the morning and I probably should’ve checked it out the previous evening. Well can’t be helped, there is always a next time =)
When I arrived in Frankfurt, not only was my best friend Lanny (who secretly moved from Dresden to Frankfurt) waiting for me, but a few friends from Dresden were there too, purely by coincidence. Coming back to Germany felt surreal after everything I’d experienced in Vietnam. Now, as I write this diary, I can truly process and appreciate the incredible journey I had.