This started out as just a thing I was going to quickly summarize and then the first part quickly got to nearly 2000 words. I had a lot to say about it and thus decided to divvy it up into 2 parts. I suppose it is more fair in a way, because I wrote the first part while sitting in Mexico and am writing the 2nd part while sitting in Vietnam.
So we can have an equal amount of opinions that hopefully aren't affected to much by what happens to be right in front of me at the time.
[src](https://textileexcellence.com/uploads/2020/06/Mexico-Versus-Vietnam.jpg)I already covered roads, general kindness, a bit about costs, and then wrote an entire separate article about safety, but I'm going to focus on some other things that are quite important for people in a way. This is not meant to be the LAW, it is just my interpretation from living in Vietnam for 6 years and having family that has lived in Mexico for over a decade. So don't get your panties in a bunch if you disagree with me a bit, ok?
English is much more widely spoken in Vietnam
This might surprise a few people out there doesn't it? One would think that Mexico, being the USA next-door neighbor and all, would place a great deal of importance on learning English but strangely, they haven't really done that. When I was wandering around the various parts of Mexico, there simply wasn't very many people that spoke English at all, let alone on a fluent sort of level. While I am sure this varies depending on where you are in the country - certainly the tourist-rich areas would have a ton of English speakers just like anywhere - Vietnam just tends to have people that speak English all over the place. I include places that tourists don't go and don't really have much business being in too.
I live in a very expat environment: It is Chinatown in reverse. The foreigners outnumber the locals in my hood about 5 to 1. But if you go over to the other side of the river in this town, there are virtually zero expats living there and virtually zero businesses that are so much as even trying to get foreigners as customers. Yet, these places always have someone that speaks some level of English working there and they are quite proud of this knowledge as well. When I was in Mexico, it was very common even in a place filled with tourists like a busy international airport, that nobody in the staff speaks English in a meaningful capacity. I don't know why this is but it has been my experience that if you don't speak Spanish or Vietnamese, you are more likely to have a better time communicating in Vietnam.
[src](https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/cvr9781609911096_9781609911096_hr.jpg)Vietnam has easier shopping
I'm going to have to clarify what I mean here: Vietnam caters to a wider range of tastes than Mexico does. If you want french baguettes, specialty cold-cut meats, pickles, whatever it is that the locals don't generally use, Vietnam, as strange as it sounds, has better access to this an Mexico does.
I'll give a few real-world and recent examples: We wanted some lunch meats in Jalisco while I was visiting. Just some ham, roast beef, and turkey. Standard stuff in American circles. I thought that this would be easy as pie to acquire in Mexico it being next door to the cold-cut capital of the world but nope! It was really difficult to find and when we did find it, it was expensive and substandard. In Vietnam you will pay a premium for these things but they are always available. I can get all of the aforementioned things in my city and actually have a range of stores to choose from.
A lot of people in Mexico, foreigners that is, will rely on Wal Mart and Costco for foreigner sorts of products but as far as local smaller stores are concerned, they are just too unreliable to bother with for the most part. It has been my experience by "comparing notes" to my family's, that Vietnam wins in this regard.
Now let's move onto something a lot more important than a sandwich.
Ease of visas: Mexico easily wins
[src](https://www.vietnam-immigration.org.vn/files/upload/image/Visa-news/immigration-counter-at-airport.jpg)I talk often about how great the visa policies are here in Vietnam but my glee about never-ending visas is only on a high because I used to live in Thailand where Immigration is routinely as difficult and as big of jerks as possible. In Vietnam the rules are clear, the people involved are efficient, and bribes are not a regular part of the process as far as I have seen. That being said it still isn't anywhere near as easy as visas are in Mexico.
In Mexico when you arrive they basically ask you how long you are staying and a free visa on arrival for a lot of countries is 6 months and that is just nuts. In Vietnam some countries get 45 days for free but many countries such as my own have to pay for a 90 day visa and that is the only option. Americans are not entitled to any free visas in Vietnam and any country that wants a longer visa in Vietnam has to be willing to pay for the privilege. For people that have never-ending visas that don't incorporate silly mandatory travel in order to maintain it, this cost will be over $1000 a year, sometimes substantially more. If you are maintaining a never-ending visa in Mexico, at worst you have to fly out once a year and get another free 6-month visa. Also, people from certain countries can apply for permanent residency that is actually pretty easy to acquire and once you have it you never have to get a visa ever again in your life. There is nothing remotely like that in Vietnam. You will always be paying for your visas here, no matter how great they seem.
Mexico wins hands down in this regard.
You can buy property in Mexico, not so much in Vietnam
Vietnam is very protective of their own people, as they should be. One of the things that you are basically never going to pull off over here is buying property other than a condo that is all but guaranteed to go down in value. You can buy property in a wife or husband's name, but you have no legal claim to it should things go south in your marriage. It's a risky game.
In Mexico, there are some hoops you have to jump through to buy property, but none of them are extreme. Loads of expats own houses and land over there in their own names and this is 100% legal. I don't know what you have to do in order to qualify for this, it's probably a residency card and a police background check or something simple like that.
There is nothing you can do in Vietnam that will enable you to legally own land or a house in it.
This isn't really a factor for yours truly because I have no intention of buying any property over here, but for many, this is a very big thing.
There are plusses and minuses to living in both countries as an expat and I suppose a lot of it depends on you. I like the cheap nature of Vietnam even though I make enough money to live in Mexico. Another huge factor to me is that in Mexico, unless you live in one of the ultra-populated cities, you basically have to own a car. I only know one person in Vietnam that even has a car and he rarely uses it.
Both are better options to me than living in the country that is on my passport though, and I will always live in one of them, or another like them, before I move back "home."
