6 Years in Vietnam changed how I see America

After living in Vietnam for more than six years, coming back to the U.S. feels kind of weird. Some things are amazing, but some things are not so great. So today we'll talk about the pros and cons of Vietnam versus America after living in both places. We'll talk about the big things like healthcare and cost of living, but also cultural things that you've probably never even considered. So the first pro for America, something that I really enjoy when I come back here, is all the green space and parks. So right now we're in the suburbs outside of Chicago, and look at this field of grass right across the street. So much room for activities. Sometimes you just want bare feet on the grass. It may seem like a little thing, but it's something that we do pretty well in America that just doesn't exist in Vietnam. All over Vietnam, you will find AstroTurf football pitches, lots of badminton courts, little play areas for kids, but nothing like we have here in America. Dude, they got a straight up water park back here. Basketball courts, baseball fields, it's all free and open to the public. Hey, what's up? I'm making a video. Oh, look who's here. Who's that? Did you finish camp? Yes. Oh, did you say hi? Did you wave to the camera? Okay. So the next thing is kind of a pro and a con. So you gotta listen. You hear that? It's silent. Out here in the suburbs, there's hardly any traffic. There's barely any people around. So it's really quiet and peaceful. But at the same time, I kind of miss the chaos and action of Vietnam. Over there, everybody's out and about all day. The community feels alive. But here, everybody sat in the house with the AC on or they're at work. I feel like I've hardly interacted with any human that's not a family member since I've been in America. Now to be clear, the suburbs compared to downtown Chicago are two completely different stories. In the city, you'll find more people walking around. There's plenty of coffee shops and food and things to do. Public transportation is really good, but still most people are probably taking expensive Ubers to get around. And it can take you 30 minutes to get somewhere that's not too far away. So when it comes to transportation, I prefer Vietnam. I like just jumping on my motorbike and cruising wherever I need to go. The gym, the beach, coffee and food, everything's a couple minute drive away. And plenty of things are within walking distance. Here in America, you've got to get in a car and drive anywhere you need to go. You can make an argument for or against both places. As I said, public transportation is definitely better in America. And there's tons of chaotic traffic in Vietnam, but there's plenty of traffic and never ending construction in America. You can be stuck on the highway, not moving for an hour. In Vietnam, you're never stuck in traffic. You can always just drive up on the sidewalk if you had to. This is actually funny. I just realized another pro for America, sidewalks. I was making a joke earlier, but sidewalks don't exist in Vietnam. The area on the side of the road is for parking or driving your motorbike, or maybe for eating lunch on some plastic stools. But it seems like the sidewalks aren't getting much use because three out of four Americans are obese or overweight. Why do you think that is? Take a guess, which country has the lowest obesity in the whole world? That's right, Vietnam. The food in each of these countries couldn't be further apart. Crappy food in America is making this the most unhealthy country in the world. So you would hope there'd be pretty good healthcare, right? This might be the area where America fails the worst. Healthcare sucks in America. Sure, the quality is decent, but the price you pay and the loops you have to jump through with insurance is pretty embarrassing for the richest country in the world. I'll give you an example. My dad's been dealing with an ankle injury for weeks now since I've been back in the US. He had to wait to get approval from the insurance to get a CT scan done. Once that finally happened, now he has to schedule an appointment for two weeks later to actually get the scan done. After that, he'll schedule another appointment with a specialist, who's probably gonna give him a bottle of painkillers and send him on his way. In Vietnam, he could have showed up to the hospital without an appointment, paid out of pocket for the scan, which would have been maybe 50 bucks. Then he could see a specialist in the same day and actually have a plan to get better. Healthcare in Vietnam is cheap, convenient, high quality, and I would choose Vietnam over America for everything except the most extreme life or death situation. And speaking of healthcare, this is a good time to mention the partner of today's video, which is Safety Wing. Safety Wing has Nomad insurance, which comes in two versions. So if you're only traveling short-term, the essential plan is great because it covers unexpected medical and travel emergencies. But if you're living abroad long-term, like I know a lot of you watching are, their complete plan is even better because it includes routine checkups, mental health support, and even serious stuff like cancer care. On top of that, it also covers things like delayed luggage, canceled accommodation, and theft. For anyone living or traveling in Vietnam, the medical insurance from Safety Wing is great because it works in over 175 countries. So wherever you're bouncing around to, you're gonna be covered. You can sign up on the day that you're traveling or even if your trip has already started so you don't have anything to worry about when you're moving in between countries. So check out the link. It's gonna be in the description underneath the video or you can scan the QR code right here. Shout out to Safety Wing for sponsoring the video. It really helps me be able to keep making videos like this. So let's talk about food for a minute. Say I'm hungry and I wanna get something to eat. You've gotta get in the car and drive outside of the residential area to get whatever you need. There are plenty of grocery stores around, but fresh, healthy food is gonna be pricey. The other option is an unlimited selection of fast food, which tastes great, but it's also garbage. In Vietnam, there's almost always gonna be a local market within walking distance where you can buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat. I could buy meat from a pig that was butchered that morning, eggs from a chicken roaming the countryside, and vegetables that were picked yesterday. America, on the other hand, relies heavily on imports of fruits and vegetables. It can take up to two weeks for a vegetable grown in Mexico to arrive to the grocery store in Chicago. That means more chemicals to keep it from rotting along the way. But that's not even the biggest problem. In America, you gotta go out of your way to find healthy food, and it's gonna be really expensive. But trash fast food is cheap and available on every corner. In Vietnam, it's completely the opposite. You gotta drive for a while to find a McDonald's, but there's gonna be 10 aunties within walking distance that are cooking homemade meals with fresh ingredients for about $1.50. Here's something we don't have in Vietnam. Big win for America. They sell weed there, in case you couldn't tell. All right, let's get cost of living out of the way. I'm not gonna spend too much time here because it's obvious that America's a lot more expensive than Vietnam, but I'll give you some real world examples. My mom pays up to $200 per month for the electricity bill. That's because in America, we demand comfort. So the AC is running 24-7 in the summer and nonstop in the winter. The winter part is actually fair because you would die. So in America, most houses have what's called central cooling. So you set the temperature for the entire house and the AC is blowing nonstop out the vents in every room. In Vietnam, we have individual AC units on the wall, usually only in the bedrooms, and you turn them off and on as you need them. So for comparison, the highest my electricity bill would ever be in the peak of summer is about $60. And most of the time, it's a lot less than that. To fill in the gas tank in your car, you might be looking at $50 or $60 at least once a week. I fill up my motorbike in Vietnam for $3 maybe once a week. In Vietnam, the government subsidizes fuel and electricity to keep the prices stable and affordable for most people. One more pro for America. I was gonna say blue skies, but it got a little cloudy on me. But there's pretty much no pollution here. America wins this one hands down and it is a big one. Even in a busy major city like Chicago, the air is still really nice. That's because we have way stricter emissions laws. There's no factories, no agricultural burning in the countryside. Pollution is a major problem for Vietnam, but it is something they're addressing pretty aggressively. So I feel pretty good about where they're headed in the future. I made a whole video about the pollution issue in Vietnam if you wanna check that one out. And while you're at it, you might as well subscribe to the channel if you're at all interested in Vietnam. So one cultural thing that I've noticed, no one even thinks about taking their shoes off when they go inside the house. In Vietnam, you would get slapped if you tried to walk in somebody's house with your shoes on. That's why everybody wears slippers. One more thing that's been causing me some issues over the last couple of weeks, there's no bum guns in America. I don't know how you can call yourself a civilized country without some way to spray your butthole with water. You might as well go take a ---- in the woods. That, with the type of food I've been eating for three weeks, yeah, we've been having some problems. All in all, there's pros and cons to both places. I know that growing up in America gave me the opportunity to travel the world and be able to choose wherever I wanna live. So I love Vietnam, I plan to be there forever, but it has plenty of flaws and it's definitely not for everyone. So if you made it this far in the video, I really appreciate you watching. I'll be back in Vietnam soon and I'll catch you in the next one. Peace.