Travel & Nomad
The Ho Chi Minh City problems that actually hit visitors: price gouging at Ben Thanh, disputes and snatch-and-grab around Bui Vien, motorbike bag snatching and the fake Grab driver outside the pickup point. Dated cases, official advice and what to do.
Travel & Nomad
Hanoi's Train Street is still serving coffee beside the tracks, but it sits in a legal grey area, police fined and warned in 2025 and 2026, and the trains have been cut back. What is allowed, what is not, and how a visitor pays in the Old Quarter.
Travel & Nomad
Hanoi's Old Quarter scams come down to a handful of patterns: the shoe-shine that starts before you agree, the fruit-pole photo, the cyclo ride priced per head, the sweet seller and the fake tour desk. Dated 2025 and 2026 cases, plus what to do.
Travel & Nomad
Grab sells a visitor-only bundle of ride, food and shopping vouchers, called the Travel Pass or Tourist Pack. What Grab's own pages say about who can buy it, how, and for how long, what I could not confirm for Vietnam, and how foreigners pay.
Travel & Nomad
The central Vietnam list is short and specific: how much deposit a tailor takes, boat and basket-boat upsells, candle and lantern photo fees, the Old Town ticket, and Da Nang taxi tricks. Dated cases, official ticket rules and what to do.
eSIM
Grab wants a phone number and you only have your home one. Here is when Grab actually sends a code, what to do when a driver calls in Vietnamese, and how to set up a data-only eSIM so the app works from the arrival hall.
eSIM
Globe and Smart sell tourist SIMs in the NAIA arrival halls, and every one has to be registered with your passport. What the counters offer, what we could and could not verify on price, and the no-queue option.
eSIM
Siargao is easy to romanticise and hard to plan around. What we can verify about signal, banks and ATMs, and QR Ph, with traveller tips clearly labelled, so you land with data, pesos and a backup.
Travel & Nomad
The Philippine travel tax is a Filipino and long-stay-resident levy, not a tourist fee. TIEZA's amounts, the exemption foreign tourists use, how to pay if you must, and where the abolition bill stands.
Travel & Nomad
A dated checklist for entering the Philippines: eTravel (free, official site only), who gets 30, 14 or 59 days visa-free, the onward ticket, passport validity and the fake sites to avoid.
eSIM
Most people searching for a Philippines eSIM with a phone number want one of three things: a bank code, a GCash account or a Grab login. What a travel eSIM does and does not give you, and when a local number is worth the paperwork.
eSIM
Unlimited sounds like the safe choice for the Philippines, and for some trips it is. For many it is more than you need. Who benefits, how fair use works, and the six lengths of Fizen's unlimited Globe plan.