I don't think there are a great many people that are faced with this situation of "which country should I live in? Vietnam or Mexico?" but there are likely a few.
I'm only in this situation, and no, it isn't immediate, where my family pressures me to move here to be closer to them and this is understandable. Vietnam is about as far away from Mexico as a country can be and it is a huge pain to get over here to visit. This is why I only do it once a year and stay for a very long time. For my one sister that lives in USA, it is a direct flight and only takes 4 hours or something very reasonable like that. For me, it took nearly 40 HOURS in total travel time to arrive here and it was one of those things that I never thought it was going to end.
Whatever though, I got it done.
Being here in Mexico has opened my eyes to a couple of things about the differences between the two countries though and I'll point them out now. There are pros and cons to both places and these are just the ones that I have experienced. I am sure there are many more.
[src](https://georank.org/size/mexico/vietnam)As you can see, Vietnam is dramatically smaller than Mexico in terms of landmass. By the way this comes from an interesting website called Georank and if you want to compare a bunch of things about two countries you can do it there. I found it interesting.
Mexico being so much larger than Vietnam comes with a wonderful little thing that I get very little of in Vietnam, which is where I call home these days.
You can find peace and quiet in Mexico
Despite the fact that Mexico is 6 times as large as Vietnam in terms of landmass, Mexico only has about 20% more population. Therefore, Vietnam is much much busier almost anywhere that you go. This is something that if you read my writings, you know is a constant source of frustration for me. It is nigh on impossible to get so much as a little bit of personal space in Vietnam and this just encourages me to stay at home a lot more.
Moving on
People are just "nicer" in Mexico
Don't get the wrong idea. The people in Vietnam are not rude or awful or anything like that, but the culture in Mexico just seems to be one of pleasantries that you don't really bet in Vietnam. If you walk around the two countries, nobody is going to harass you in either outside of the people in tourist areas that are trying to sell you something - but that is global.
People in Mexico will say buenos dias, buenos tardes, buenos noches to you on the street. There is no loaded objective here, they are a just friendly. In Vietnam, this is so rare that if someone on the street says anything to you at all it is more often than not because they want you to buy something or come into their shop. It just isn't a culture of saying hello to strangers. I'm not sure why that is.
[src](https://travelmexicosolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/dancers-Guelaguetza-Festival-Oaxaca-Mexico.jpg)Mexico also has a ton of community events that have no financial incentive. Let me give you an example. On multiple occasions in my short trip here, I have seen multiple parades. I don't even know what these were for but the people were all dressed up with smiles on their faces and just celebrating being alive. There was tons of food and some fireworks and bands in the street playing music and it was just general merriment. As I said before, this was not a money-making scheme either, it was just people getting together and having fun.
I have met people at these things that were just talking to everyone and even though my Spanish is really poor, they still talked and laughed and a few people spoke some English to me. This was nice and I realized that after 20 years of living in SE Asia that I am kind of defensive when it comes to strangers talking to me because over where I am it is often someone trying to get you to buy something. When the people were talking to me here there is no objective other than meeting someone and having a good time. I have not once experience someone trying to con me or direct me to purchase something in the various trips I have taken to Mexico outside of tourist areas where it is evident and ubiquitous globally that this sort of thing is going to happen.
I enjoy being able to walk around with my guard down. In Vietnam and even most of the places I lived in Thailand I didn't really experience this and NO, this is not saying negative things about Thailand or Vietnam. I think they are just more commerce oriented when it comes to social situations. The Mexicans that I've been around seem to just want to welcome people.
I'll leave that be before I talk myself into a corner and offend someone. I'm just saying that generally speaking, Mexicans are more courteous.
The roads are more organized in Mexico
In Vietnam as well as most of SE Asia, the roads are absolute chaos. They are dangerous and packed with people all day every day. They also honk the horn so much there that beeping no longer has any meaning to me when I hear it (this is Vietnam I am referring to, not Thailand.)
[src](https://yesd.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/tac-duong.jpg)I've been in a car inside both Mexico City and Guadalajara and while there are a ton of cars on the road there, there is also a sense of order. People let other cars merge, people wait their turn (for the most part, there are still some assholes) and while traffic can be slow during peak hours, it still moves even if you are not an aggressive driver. In Vietnam, if you don't put your nose out there and take the space that is in front of you, you will just sit there until you car runs out of gasoline. In Mexico there is some sort of order and considering that I have never seen anyone pulled over in either country I can't see how that could be outside of cultural differences.
Now let's get to a part of Mexico traffic that I do not like
You basically have to have a car here in Mexico
With great size (of the country) comes great need for transport.
I don't know anyone in Mexico that doesn't have a car or at least a motorbike for getting around. In Vietnam, I only now 1 single person that even has a car.
You have to have a car here in Mexico. Things are too spread out to do it any other way and there are not an army of cheap taxis at your disposal at all times no matter where you are like it is in Vietnam. Vietnam has absolutely excellent transport options for people like me that don't want to drive. In Mexico? Well, you better have some good walking shoes and plenty of free time if you don't have a car.
[src](https://www.blogdelaautoescuela.com/america/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/66df871f-f187-4b28-843a-ad4c4550ab3e2.jpg)Traffic is controlled in Mexico by "topes" or speed bumps. They are EVERYWHERE. This prevents people from driving like lunatics unless they want to purchase a new suspension for their cars twice a year. I don't know exactly what prevents people from driving like mad in Vietnam, perhaps fear of huge penalties. In Thailand, nobody is afraid of shit and this is why they have very high road death rates, some of the highest in the world actually.
now lets get to the next part which is probably one of the major reasons why despite what I say I am unlikely to move to Mexico
Mexico is dramatically more expensive than Vietnam
This is not my personal opinion, it is confirmed by a wide variety of stat-collectors on the interweb. According to most sources and averaged among quite a few of them, Mexico is 65% more expensive than Vietnam in a general sense.
I tend to use the price of a beer as a good gauge of the overall economy.
That my friends, is a regular-ass beer in Mexico. Quite a good one actually. That beer is around $3 in any bar or restaurant that I have found it in. A similar beer in Vietnam would be about half that and that is the price I pay living in an extremely tourist area of Da Nang.
Food is more expensive here as well. On our family outings for dinner, we are averaging around $20 a person. Much of this can be attributed to the fact that we kind of go to fancy places in celebration of me being here, but we have fancy places in Vietnam as well and they are at least half the price. I am kind of astounded at things that my family thinks are cheap but they only feel that way because they are comparing the price of Mexico to the price of USA. USA is obviously more expensive than Mexico but I am comparing it to the price of what I would spend in SE Asia, which, outside of Singapore, are all much cheaper than Mexico.
It isn't just food and drinks either, the rental rates of property are much higher here as well. The place I am visiting in Mexico is not a large city but you would still be very hard pressed to find a 2 bedroom apartment that is furnished for under $1200 a month or so, and according to people that I know that live here that would be a very good find indeed.
In Da Nang, the 4th largest city in all of Vietnam, I can easily find an apartment matching those standards for half that much. This is even with the recent uptick in prices for property that have taken place over the last year.
This is too long and I originally meant to do this in one entry. I am going to make it a two-parter because I have much more to say. Some of it is in favor of Mexico and some is in favor of Vietnam.
There are good and bad aspects to living in both and we will dig more into that in part 2!
