We came into Vietnam overland from Cambodia and ended up staying a year, based in Da Nang and traveling to fourteen different parts of the country — the whole coast from the south up into the northern mountains. At first Da Nang felt like a good place to land and live.

About six months in, that started to change — partly the crowd that was moving in, and partly what we noticed once we’d traveled north. For us, the locals were the least friendly of anywhere we’ve been: cold, and looking out for themselves first. There’s some genuinely amazing nature here, but the beaches don’t hold up next to the rest of Southeast Asia, and the food started to blur together after a while. We’d honestly not go back. It felt industrial and a bit dirty, like a lot of the culture had been lost along the way.