Living Like a Local: How Vietnam Is Teaching Me to Travel Again
There comes a point in every journey when you stop behaving like a tourist.

You stop chasing landmarks.

You stop looking for the highest-rated restaurants.

You stop trying to squeeze every attraction into a single day.

Instead, you begin to live.

That's where I find myself now.

Da Nang.

And, in a few days, the road will take me north to Huế before turning south again towards the lantern-lit streets of Hội An.

I'm in no hurry.

The best stories rarely arrive on schedule.

I've deliberately stayed away from the tourist districts.

Not because I dislike them.

But because they aren't why I travelled halfway around the world.

My hotel sits in a Vietnamese neighbourhood overlooking Da Nang Bay.

Every morning I wake to fishermen untangling their nets, pensioners practising tai chi beneath the palms and families already sharing bowls of steaming phở before most visitors have finished breakfast.

Nobody seems interested in selling me anything.

I'm simply another face walking through their day.

I like that.

Travelling this way is also remarkably cheap.

People often ask me how much it costs to visit Vietnam.

The honest answer is...

Less than most people imagine.

Far less.

A single traveller can live comfortably here for somewhere between £330 and £590 a month if they embrace local life.

Even in Da Nang, one of Vietnam's most desirable coastal cities, everyday living costs remain low compared with Britain.

But those numbers don't tell the real story.

The real story begins every time I walk into a neighbourhood supermarket.

Instead of overpriced hotel bars, I buy cold cans of local beer for a fraction of the price.

A carton of cigarettes costs less than one packet back home.

Breakfast is usually a bánh mì bought from a pavement stall where nobody speaks English, and nobody needs to.

Lunch might be a bowl of phở or bún bò Huế, eaten on a tiny plastic stool beside builders, office workers and old men discussing football.

Dinner depends entirely on where my feet carry me.

Sometimes rice or Chinese

Sometimes grilled pork.

Sometimes whatever smells best.

I've learnt to trust my nose.

It hasn't let me down yet.

There are no reservations.

No dress codes.

No Instagram moments carefully arranged before anyone takes a bite.

Just good food.

Good coffee.

Cold beer.

And life unfolding around me.

I've realised something while walking these streets.

The less money I spend, the richer the experience becomes.

Luxury creates distance.

Simple living removes it.

When you eat where local families eat...

Shop where local families shop...

And wander streets where hardly another tourist appears...

You stop observing the country.

You begin participating in it.

Every day brings another tiny adventure.

An elderly woman insists I sit down while she prepares coffee.

A shopkeeper laughs as I struggle with my handful of Vietnamese words before refusing to let me overpay.

Children wave from bicycles.

Builders shout cheerful greetings.

Even without sharing a language, people somehow understand each other.

A smile still translates perfectly.

I've travelled through Southeast Asia since the 1980s.

I've watched cities transform beyond recognition.

Some have surrendered completely to mass tourism.

Others still hold onto their rhythm.

Da Nang, especially this side of the bay, still feels really authentic.

I hope it stays that way.

Soon it'll be time to move on.

Huế waits to the north.

A city of emperors, ancient walls and forgotten stories.

Then comes Hội An.

A place I've heard described so often that I'm almost afraid reality won't live up to the legend.

We'll soon find out.

The road always decides.

I've never travelled to collect passport stamps.

I travel to collect moments.

The smell of charcoal drifting through an open doorway.

Dominoes clicking outside a corner shop.

The hiss of fresh coffee dripping through a metal filter.

A supermarket beer carried down to the sea wall as the sun slips behind Da Nang Bay.

These are the memories that stay.

Not because they're expensive.

Because they're real.

People spend fortunes chasing luxury holidays.

I'm discovering something rather different.

Vietnam rewards curiosity far more generously than it rewards money.

Travel light.

Buy your beer where the locals buy theirs.

Eat what they're eating.

Walk without a destination.

The guidebook will show you the sights.

The streets will show you the country.

And if you're lucky...

They might even change the way you travel forever.

The journey continues.

Next stop: Huế.