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Travel Tips for Vietnam (mistakes to avoid) - YouTube
Channel: Portable Professional
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hi and welcome to the channel my name is
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Megan and in today's video I'll be
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sharing 5 mistakes that I made the first
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time that I went to live in Danang
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Vietnam these five things cost me time
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stress and money and with things that I
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just didn't think about until I ended up
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in some pretty sticky situations the
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good news is that all of them can be
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easily avoided with a little bit of
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prior planning so if you are planning a
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trip to tonight or to Vietnam in general
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this video should be helpful
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[Music]
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the first mistake to avoid is not being
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100% certain on the visa processing
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times and visa requirements for Vietnam
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the way it works as a Canadian as well
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as for many other nationalities if you
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can receive a visa on arrival but you
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need to apply for this visa on arrival
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online before you actually fly into the
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country and if you don't apply online
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and you arrive at the airport you don't
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have your approval letter you're in
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trouble the first time I went to Vietnam
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I was staying for less than one month so
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I applied for a 30-day visa which I
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could do online and I received a letter
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of approval within 24 hours which is
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what I needed to bring with me when I
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arrived at the airport the next time I
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was going to Vietnam I was staying there
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for a three-month period so I needed to
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get a three-month visa I went online
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applied for my visa and then found out
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that it was going to take one week of
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processing times to get my letter of
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approval I was planning on going about
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three days later so I ended up having to
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rebook all of my flights in order to get
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my letter of approval that I needed for
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when I would arrive in Vietnam my
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alternative instead of rebooking all of
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my flights was to instead get a
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one-month visa which I could get the
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letter for in that 24 hour period and
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then flying to Vietnam and get an
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extension while I was already in the
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country what they didn't tell me was
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that getting that extension would mean
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shipping my passport or flying myself up
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to Hanoi then paying over a hundred US
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dollars in Hanoi to get the three-month
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extension it ended up being cheaper for
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me to rebook all of my flights and then
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just pay this
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$25.00 visa on arrival fee for
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three-month visa then it would have been
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to go through the whole process of
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extending the second mistake to avoid if
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you're going to Vietnam or denying in
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particular is not getting a SIM card at
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the airport the first time that I went
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to denying I thought that if I bought a
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SIM card from the airport when I arrived
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it was going to be overpriced so I
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didn't get one and I can't tell you how
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much you rely on data until you don't
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have it for things like Google Maps and
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even being able to book a ride-sharing
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app to get me from the airport to where
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I was staying that first night Vietnam
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is not like many North American
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countries where they charge you an arm
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and a leg if you want a data plan you
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can get unlimited for gene high-speed
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data for around 10 or 11 US dollars a
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month so I knew that I was going to get
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a traveler's SIM card
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I was just adamant on not even looking
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at the SIM card stalls at the airport
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because I was set that I was going to be
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overcharged this instead meant the next
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day I was wandering around the city and
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there were lots of places where you can
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get a SIM card in the city of Danang but
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if you're not able to pull up those
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places on Google Maps
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it just it complicated the whole process
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because I finally got my sim card it was
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the same price as what I would have paid
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at the airport I've been going back year
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after year and I keep using Seattle and
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their plan was 4G it was great coverage
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I got it at the airport for ten US
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dollars for an entire month the exact
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same price as if you wait for the city
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so just get it when you arrive at the
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airport and it will save you so much
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hassle
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the third mistake to avoid is not
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setting up a voice over IP phone number
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before you arrive in Vietnam if you're
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like me and many other travelers you
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probably rely on apps like Facebook
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Messenger or wet sock to stay in touch
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with family and friends the problem with
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these messaging apps is that they don't
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have a dial pad so if you needed to call
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your hotel or you needed to call your
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airline or your travel insurance you
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wouldn't be able to do it through these
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ah another problem that I faced with not
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having a phone number while I was in
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Vietnam was that I wasn't able to
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download the ride-sharing app grab and
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trust me you want to use a ride-sharing
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app grab is similar to lyft or uber if
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you haven't heard from it but it saves
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you from having to hail a taxi risk
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being scammed overcharged or having to
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direct the taxi on where to go because
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grab puts it all into a map for you the
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trouble is that in order to download
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grab and create an account you have to
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put a phone number in and then be texted
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a code to that phone number to activate
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your account having a universal voice
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over IP phone number which means that as
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long as you have data on your phone or
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you have access to Wi-Fi you're able to
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receive and send text messages from a
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phone number this means you can also
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call a landline and you can also receive
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text messages if you need to download an
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app like grab I did a whole video on how
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you can get a voice over IP phone number
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absolutely for free so I'll link that
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down below and won't get into too many
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details with it here I personally use
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fungo another option could be Skype I
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think Google Voice can also give you a
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phone number and then if you're just
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looking for text messaging access so
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again for like downloading an app there
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is a program online called text free
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side note for those of you that have
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been asking about my jewelry in the last
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few videos first of all thank you for
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noticing when I put effort in the
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necklaces are from Ana Luiza and they're
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one of my favorite brands because not
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only are they super simple and I'm like
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very basic but they're also made with
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100% recycled gold and sterling silver I
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don't usually talk about brands on this
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channel but I'm excited to mention Anna
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Louise
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today because I actually partnered with
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them to do a giveaway for a $75 gift
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card and this is not one of those
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giveaways where you will be getting $75
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off four thousand dollar jewelry and
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nunna much of the jewelry starts at
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around $50 so you'll be able to get
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something for free all you have to do is
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watch this video give it a thumbs up and
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then enter in the description below you
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can find all of the details below but it
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really is that simple and then I'll be
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emailing the winner next Tuesday the
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fourth mistake to avoid is not taking
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the time to research how you will access
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and spend money once you arrive in
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Vietnam I thought that I would do what I
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usually do in other countries around the
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world which is use my debit card to
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access Vietnamese dong the local
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currency once I arrived what I didn't
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expect was that the ATMs in Danang were
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going to have very low withdrawal limits
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and very high withdrawal fees this meant
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that for about every two million
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Vietnamese dong which is about
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eighty-five u.s. dollars that I was
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withdrawing from the ATM I would be
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charged a ten US dollar fee if you're
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trying to make three months of rent in
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cash plus the security deposit and
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you're being charged ten US dollars for
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every $85 equivalent or like I said two
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million Vietnamese dong it ends up
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costing you a lot of money to make these
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large sums in cash so at this point I
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thought okay I need an alternative I
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went to a currency converter and tried
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to convert my Canadian dollars into
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Vietnamese dong because they weren't
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charging transaction fees what I found
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out was that they don't accept Canadian
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Vietnam is still a very cash based
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economy so using my credit card was not
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only a security issue but also more
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often but not not even an option so on
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my first trip I ended up spending so
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much money in ATM fees what I recommend
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you do instead is if it's possible to
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get Vietnamese dong before you fly to
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Vietnam do that and then otherwise which
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is what I do is I make sure I have a
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large currency like USD euro or pounds
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with me and then when I arrive I'll go
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to a foreign currency exchange
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and exchange my money that way it ends
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up being the lowest fees there are quite
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a few different foreign currency
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exchange centers around the city of
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tonight and if you type that into Google
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Maps you'll be able to find them
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I can also link the one that I go to
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down below they're very professional
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very quick and they give great rates the
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last mistake to avoid is not getting a
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VPN when I first started traveling I
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didn't know what a VPN was or why I
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needed one
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so VPN stands for virtual private
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network which is basically a service
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that's going to encrypt you Internet
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traffic and then protect your online
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identity so even if you have nothing to
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hide I personally don't like the idea
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that everything I'm doing online is
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being tracked and monitored a VPN hides
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your IP address and then encrypts all
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the data that you're sending and
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receiving online so it's going to
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provide extra security which guys is so
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important especially if you're
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connecting to public Wi-Fi networks
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airports the worst for getting hacked
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and having your identity compromised
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online so please consider getting a VPN
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if you don't already have one and then
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in addition to protecting your identity
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if you are traveling somewhere where web
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sites are blocked like Facebook for
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example in China you can use a VPN to
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bypass this and then still access those
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sites I only recognized that I needed a
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VPN when I was in Vietnam and then went
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to plugged my chromecast into the TV so
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I could stream Netflix I pulled up
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Netflix and I had the Vietnamese version
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of it not my Canadian version at the
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time I believe I was watching Breaking
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Bad so as you can imagine this was quite
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devastating on a sidenote if you know
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any TV show that is equivalent or better
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than Breaking Bad please educate us in
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the comments below I'm very curious
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anyway I couldn't access my Netflix
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account from Canada and I was seeing the
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Vietnamese version which is not as good
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so by getting a VPN which cost a couple
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of dollars a month I'm able to set my
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location to different places around the
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world despite what I was physically
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located so not only could I set my
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location as Canada and get Canadian
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Netflix I was able to set my location as
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US and get the UM
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I can Netflix especially three years ago
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there was a massive difference it was in
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an effort to solve my superficial
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Netflix problem that I started
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researching VPNs and seeing all of the
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benefits of it something else I realized
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is that I could set my my location to
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Canada when I was trying to access
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things like my email accounts or my bank
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account so I wasn't being flagged with
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suspicious activity and then being
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frozen out of those accounts I can link
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who I use down below it ends up being
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only a couple of dollars a month and
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it's so worth it and you can also use it
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on all of your different devices so
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definitely check out a VPN if you don't
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already have one so in summary if it's
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going to be your first time in Vietnam
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Danann in particular make sure that you
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double check those visa processing times
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get a sim card when you arrive at the
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airport and save yourself the time
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review your money plan sign up for voice
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over IP phone number and then sign up
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for a VPN and apply it to all of your
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devices these five simple things can end
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up saving you a lot of time and money
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and stress on your trip so you can get
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back to just enjoying and having fun
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thank you so much for watching
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everything I mentioned will be linked
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down below let me know if you have any
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other tips and then I hope you'll give
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this video a thumbs up and join me again
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for another video next week thanks for
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watching bye
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