u/718822

I’ve seen some sentiments of distaste towards, Korean, Chinese, American, Russian, French and Israelis while I’ve been traveling and was curious to know what the general opinion of kiwi tourists is. Of course every country has assholes but has anyone had bad experiences with New Zealanders visiting Vietnam?

Edit: I had one of the nicest experiences of my life while I had severe food poisoning in rural Vietnam. My homestay host look unbelievably good care of me while I was in a bad state. She fed me delicious healing clear soups made from her home grown vegetables, gave me medicine, was constantly checking in on me and let me extend my stay for two nights insisting it’s free of charge. We don’t tip in New Zealand but she nursed me, fed me and housed me while I was sick and I had to literally force her to take extra money when I checked out, it was only a small amount of money for me 1,000,000 dong but I couldn’t not pay for having a nurse, free food and accommodation. It felt like an angel looking after me at the time, I already loved Vietnam and its people but that experience confirmed it for life. Thank you Vietnam!

When I was similarly sick in India they kicked me out my hotel and didn’t refund me for the days a I had booked in advance, house keeping also stole my shoes while I was glued to the toilet lol

We’ve just spent the few days Tam Coc staying in a little homestay about 20 minutes from the main centre and have just come to Trang An and literally every person we have interacted with has been so lovely it feels surreal, from our hosts, cafes, restaurants, grab drivers, random people on the street. Every Vietnamese person we’ve met or interacted with so far on the trip has also been very nice but it’s another level up here.

We’ve been traveling a long time and aren’t easy marks for a scam so I think we’ve just genuinely come across good people, no one has asked us for money and when cafe owners were forcing free snacks, fruit, tea etc on us we were expecting to have to pay at the end despite saying no but, there was never any extra charges.

I had an upset stomach when we arrived and our host told me off almost like she was my mother for not telling her straight away, got me a range of medication and cooked me an amazing homemade soup with vegetables from her garden which was the first substantial thing I was able to hold inside for more than 5 minutes without lots of Imodium, it felt genuinely healing and felt good knowing there is someone to look after me if I got worse. I’m not from a tipping country but when i checked out I had to pretty much force the husband to take a little be extra than just the room charge due to all the free food, medicine, water and help I got during the stay.

It feels like I’m inside some kind of sickness induced fever dream where everyone is just genuinely lovely people combined with the beautiful scenery it just feels so bizarre.

I am sleep deprived, probably a bit dehydrated and haven’t had a proper meal in days from being sick which probably makes it all feel a bit stranger but my girlfriend who isn’t sick has experienced the same thing. Are we just lucky?