The problem with traveling to Vietnam just because it’s cheap

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Tourists love the country because it’s cheap, but low costs come with risks.

Yet another travel list has named Vietnam among the must-visit places in the world because it’s cheap.

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This time, it’s Emily Zemler, a writer from Refinery29, who describes Vietnam as one of the best “super cheap” destinations in the world.

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“Asian destinations like Japan and Singapore can be pricy, but Vietnam is notably budget-friendly. The food, which is just as good from a street cart as it is from a sit-down restaurant, is cheap (usually less than 10 bucks a pop) and hotels are reasonable, with luxury properties averaging around $80 per night…

Don’t be afraid to sample the street food, which includes signature dishes like beef pho and bun cha, and make sure to spring for a countryside bicycle tour from Hoi An, which run $17 and up.”

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 To be fair, cost-based recommendations like these are what Vietnam, still an emerging travel destination, needs now.

It’s perfectly fine to love something when it doesn’t bankrupt you – it’s even better when that something is also good. “Cheap” is not a dirty word. We don’t need to avoid it and replace it with pretentious phrases like “budget-friendly” or “best value for your buck” when we promote a product or a travel destination.

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But “cheap” does come with a connotation: some sort of compromises must be made and accepted.

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For cheap travel, the biggest compromises are on quality and safety. In Vietnam, this can mean anything: drinking a beer that tastes like water, sleeping on a hostel bed with a dirty sheet, getting food poisoning after a meal at a delicious sidewalk joint, drinking toxic moonshine, or falling from a waterfall. And the list goes on.

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Many travelers will take these risks without blinking an eye. Ask any backpacker in Saigon and they will tell you how happy they are when they only need a few hundred bucks to travel in Vietnam. Diarrhea and those serious travel safety warnings don’t faze them one bit.

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BBC says Thailand is among 7 top places in the world to live after retiring

Thailand is among the world's top seven countries for retirees to live as it has everything they need and want to make retirement life affordable, according to BBC. 

A travel article written by BBC’s author Rob Budden this week said a growing number of pensioners are seeking far-flung destinations.

They’re lured by hours of sunshine, a slower pace of life, favourable tax rates, and the prospect of a more fulfilling lifestyle where their income goes much further than it does at home.

Considered carefully, retiring abroad can deliver all of the above without compromising home comforts or quality healthcare, he wrote.

He then guided seven best countries to retire from from tropical towns in Thailand to coastal comforts in Central America where he said they have it all.

The seven best places to live after retirement are Panama, Ecuador, Malaysia, Spain, Malta, Portugal, and Thailand.

For Thailand, he wrote that “Known as the “The Land of Smiles”, Thailand offers expats retiring here plenty to smile about — a low cost of living, tropical clime, culture that respects older people plus no tax on RETIREE income from abroad.

International Living magazine ranked the country as one of the cheapest in its cost of living index, buoyed by competitive property prices. Eating out remains reasonable with a typical Pad Thai lunch available from just $1.

As well, the country’s retirement visa, which is renewable annually, is available to all retirees with monthly pensions of 65,000 Thai baht ($1,800) or to pensioners depositing 800,000 baht ($22,125) in a Thai bank account.

While the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office rates many private hospitals in Thailand equivalent to western standards, it says standards at local  hospitals can vary. Retirees should therefore budget to pay for local health insurance.

Further he wrote that a low cost of living, no tax on retiree income from abroad, a tropical climate and a culture that respects the elderly — what’s not to like in this retirement destination known as “The Land of Smiles”

Thailand is also the land of affordable living, according to International Living magazine. It ranked the country as the second least-expensive in its cost of living index, pointing out that an “over-the-top” luxury two-bedroom condo with great views can be rented for less than 40,000 baht ($1,200) per month. A Pad Thai lunch can be had for $1.

However, you should budget to pay for local health insurance as, while the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office rates many private hospitals to western standards, the group notes that standards at local hospitals vary, he noted.

Source: Thaibps

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