I Live in Saigon, Vietnam on $1,500 a Month — Here's Why I Stayed

I wanted to get closer to my roots. So I was in Vietnam last year, three week trip, just visited like all of Vietnam. I just wanted to dive in and deepen the culture a little bit and then after about two weeks here, something in my mind just clicked and was like, this is home. And it kind of like brought me together with me. This is home for me. All that for $4.55 U.S.V. Yo, my name is O'Ryan Tinh Tinh Vehicle Toilet Cung. That means my Vietnamese name is Cung and I'm living $1,500 a month here in Saigon, the best city in Vietnam. This is my apartment, I pay like $700 a month. I feel like it's perfect for me. I was only supposed to be here for like 30 days. It felt like home, my friend, like no foreign at all. Everybody's so friendly here too, man. Every Vietnamese household has the nook mommy. If you don't have nook mom in a Vietnamese household, I don't know if it's a Vietnamese household, okay? I feel like it's the energy, like you come to the park and you see so many people just hanging out in the park, playing soccer, kicking the ball around, having food, talking, like you never find that in America. I just feel like it's so like homebody and family oriented here. It's beautiful. Yo, my name is Orion Grove. I am from Houston, Texas. However, I live here in Saigon. I'm half Vietnamese, so Ten Tinh Viet Cuon La Cung. So my Vietnamese name is Cung and my name is Orion. In America, I have real estate, so Bat Dam San in Vietnamese. So I got rentals in America, but down here I also do some content creation. And then I have some ideas flowing up in my mind right now that I want to create, but hasn't manifested just yet. So I've been living in Saigon for about three months now. So Bat Tang Roi, but this is home to me, my friend. It's like Saigon is the best. So I'm half Vietnamese and now I'm in my thirties and I'm only getting older, but at the end I'm still a young baby. I wanted to get closer to my roots. So I was in Vietnam last year and I just did like the three week trip, just visited like all of Vietnam. And then, I don't know, it's just something inside me wanting to get closer to my culture. So I actually came down here to study and I was only going to be here for 30 days, but two weeks in, I was like, I'm moving here. And I made that decision. So three months later, I'm still here. Rent here, it's about $700 USD. So like all land, I'm like $800 in. So I go to Dietel. I pay for like six gigs a day, $230. So about $8 USD. Lately, I've been trying to cook as much as I can just for one, the skillset. And also I feel like it's convenient just because you live at the place where you can cook any time you want. But like, just to put a figure on it, I probably should know this really. I should probably budget a little bit better. However, I'm not doing that right now. Less than $200, I really feel like. I really feel like that. Like some boom ball ways, like $2. You can get three in a day for six bucks, you're good to go, you know what I mean? So your boy likes karaoke. And sometimes those karaoke bars can rub a tab because you know, you got an oombia, then you got the chai kai, the fruit. And then sometimes you overextend a little longer because you're having a good time. But realistically, like entertainment, and I'm a single guy. So like sometimes I like, you know, going on a date and make it a nice little fancy date. But after the night, I'd say less than 500 bucks. I've only been taking grabs lately. That's my problem right now. I've been looking at my bank statements and there's literally like three, four, 500, just grab, grab, grab, grab, grab. I mean, less than $300 a month though on that. But I feel like I could probably save some money if I just get a scooter, which I am gonna get a scooter, or say am I, get a motorbike here soon. I spend around 15 to $1,700, give or take. But you can live comfortably here with like $1,500 for sure, 100%. I can't afford the same lifestyle back in America. Because if you go to the karaoke bar in Houston, Texas, a beer is 20 bucks, bro. And then all of a sudden, you're gonna sing karaoke for two hours. You're gonna leave the karaoke bar like 500 down. It's not even worth it. But at the end of the night, no, not for sure. Like my rent, well my mortgage in America right now is like $1,500. Oh, what's up, my friends? Come on in. So we're in Landmark right now. This is like Binh Thanh, Binh Thanh District. There's other districts in Saigon, but this is Binh Thanh District. It's centrally located, so you literally go to like all the districts, and it's only like either minutes away or 30 minutes away, really. But literally, so we got the kitchen area right here, my friend. And I just live here, so moment. I only live here, so it's plenty enough for me. And I would say I only stay here probably like 30% of the time. It's usually just to sleep, really. But kitchen, and as you can see, I've been trying to cook. I have some ingredients. I got my rice cooker right here because I've been trying to chop up some Vietnamese food. Don't hang Vietnam, try it, okay? Actually, the other day, we cooked some bún thịt nướng. Bún thịt nướng. I cooked some bún thịt nướng, my friend. But I had some friends come over, we ate it. But see, my friend, I'm not playing around, okay? It's not empty, okay? We're trying to do some things over here. Look, in the refrigerator, my friend, every Vietnamese household has the nuoc mamie, okay? If you don't have nuoc mam in a Vietnamese household, I don't know if it's a Vietnamese household, okay? This is a birthday cake because it was my birthday the other day. But this is a little kitchen area. It's plenty and big enough for me. We got this area over here. This is where I put my paddle ball, my paddle for my pickle ball, man. We like to play pickle ball in Saigon, okay? Pickle ball is really, really big here in Vietnam. So after I get done cooking the bún thịt nướng, I sit it down here on my nice little kitchen table right here. Sometimes I sit down here, I write my goals and stuff in the morning or just whatever. Just chill here, drink a coffee or whatnot. And then over here, I honestly probably spend most of my time on this couch because sometimes I just chill like this. Boom! Get on my phone and I just doom scroll, bro. Just doom scroll. Letting the social media fry my brain. Good afternoon and night, my friend. And then usually I have YouTube playing because I'm learning Vietnamese right now. I have YouTube playing always in the background of like Vietnamese movies or Vietnamese lessons. As you can see right here. See the little Vietnamese movie? See that? I don't know what they're saying, but I will, okay? Over here, this is my little balcony. As you can see, I got, there's no dryers in Vietnam, okay? You always hang dry your stuff, which I think that's how you should do it. So I got my little dryer right here. Nice little view. This is the Vinhcom Center over here. It's the, like one of the probably nicer malls in Saigon. And over here is the, a nice park as well. But it's a cool little view. And then it got my washer right here. I probably wash, wash clothes like every day. You gotta be careful though. Cause sometimes I like walk around naked. You know what I mean? So you gotta close this bro, because all the homies over here, all the mọi người, they can see you, okay? So make sure you close your curtains. But at the end of the night, little balcony, okay? This is where no magic happens. This is my room. So just chill, bro. There's nothing special about it. Cool, cool bed, okay? Try to be, you know, kind of aesthetic with some art. And then I got closets, it's fine. You know what I mean? Closets up there, big enough. Again, it's just me. I feel like I've had a wife. I need a bigger place, but at the end of the night, this is perfect for me. This is all I need. Sometimes when I'm not feeling dirty, I take a shower. This is the bathroom, bro. It's chill. There's a nice hot shower. Here's the thing. So when I came down here to Saigon, I kind of moved around until I found a place that I kind of wanted. So I've stayed in Airbnbs for maybe a week or two, then I moved to another Airbnb. This is something that I've noticed. Some of these Airbnbs, they don't have hot water. Like, they don't have hot water. It's like warm or kind of cold. So it's nice to have like an open shower. And this is more modernized because a lot of Airbnbs you probably get around here, they might have just the toilet and the shower in one room. We've nothing wrong with that, but that's mostly how it is. But this is kind of more modern, so it's cool. Really, you know what I mean? But this is my apartment. I pay like $700 a month, and I feel like it's perfect for me. I like the fact that when I go outside, the location is perfect because I can walk across the street and get some boom ball away from a local vendor, or I can just walk across the street to the mall right now, and it's kind of more Western modernized. But this is the home, my friends. Looking back in Texas, I feel like it's boring and routine where you wake up, you kind of go to work, and then I'm a single guy, so I'm kind of maybe on the prowl for a wife someday. But at the end of the night, it's just kind of a boring routine, which I do kind of miss in a sense because I do have two dogs, and my mom and dad live down there. I love them so much. But at the end of the night, down here, I just feel like the city's vibrant. There's something new happening every day. There's people to see, smiles to smile back to. It's just a beautiful city. It's very vibrant, a lot of good energy, I feel like. My whole life completely felt less fulfilling, 100%. I feel like when I came down here, that thing that I was missing, I found it. I feel like I'm more complete down here than I was in America. Nothing wrong with America, by the way. I'm just saying. Vietnam's so mulch, oh yeah. Americans are burned out. Hell yeah. I'm American, I can say that, okay? Yeah, they're burned out. Maybe not all of them. I can't speak for everybody, but a lot of the people that, you know, nine to five, retire at 65, and then they die five, six, seven years later because they have nothing else to do. It's like you gotta keep your mind active all the time. You gotta do things. I feel like down here in Saigon at least, Vietnam in a whole, there's so much things to do. Keep your mind occupied and keep you busy. When I started learning Vietnamese, maybe like three years ago. So I'm half Vietnamese. My mom's Vietnamese. She was born in Saigon, but she married my dad, American, and when we grew up, she never taught us Vietnamese, which no blame on her. I'm a grown ass man, so I have full responsibility to learn these things on my own. So the past three years, this is what I've been doing is learning Vietnamese, or past two years been learning Vietnamese, and now I just wanted to get closer to a culture and dive in deep, and the only way to do that really is just to move down here, and that's what I did. I think I just, growing up in America, you grew up American, so it's like, I had no Vietnamese friends. The only thing I really learned about Vietnamese is the food, and then my mom would yell at me sometimes in Vietnamese. Con tai lai, you know? Other than that, I just didn't really know much about my culture, and then it's half of my blood, so I just wanted to get closer to my culture growing up and getting a little older. I feel like building my life in general, but just kind of break that down. I got the real estate back in America, which is okay, but down here, I feel like there's so much opportunity that we can do, especially with the content, but then I feel like there's so much business opportunity too, where Vietnam is growing, growing, growing like crazy, and I want to be a part of that growth as well. Dude, I do feel more Vietnamese. Bro, I'm half Vietnamese, and I grew up in America, so I just felt American. I'm half Vietnamese. I mean, I'm Vietnam, my friend. I feel completely more Vietnamese. I'm doing the Viet squad every day, dude. I'm taking motorbikes everywhere. I'm eating pig brain. You know what I mean? It's like, I'm Vietnamese. Let's go, baby. So I came down here last year, Nam Thuoc, and it felt a little foreign, because I'd never been here before, just seeing what you've seen on YouTube and whatnot, and hear from my family, because I'm half Vietnamese. However, the second time around now, it felt like home, my friend. Like, no foreign at all. Like, everybody's so friendly here too, man. So I was only supposed to be here for like 30 days. I was taking a class down here. I just wanted to dive in and deepen the culture a little bit, and then after about two weeks here, something in my mind just clicked. It was like, this is home, and it kind of like brought me together with me. Like, this is home for me. I feel like it's the energy. Like, you come to the park. Like, we're at a park right now, Cong Vinh, and you just see so many people just hanging out in the park, playing soccer, kicking the ball around, having food, talking. Like, you never find that in America. I just feel like it's so, like, homebody and family-oriented here. It's beautiful. So I wake up early. I'm an early riser. So I wake up at like five, five o'clock in the morning, and then I do something with my mind, my friend, get my mindset for the day. Write down in my journal, and I usually go to the gym. After that, I usually meet some homies at the coffee shop, and then whatever the day has, sometimes I gotta go work. I gotta make some content sometimes for brands, or just visiting new places around town, experiencing new cuisines. That's something I enjoy as well. They're just doing new things every day, my friend. I'm happier. I'm 100% happier. It's like, sure, there's like routines that you do every day. I wake up, meditate, read, whatever you do, but at the end of the night, it's just like there's something to do every day. I got friends at the coffee shop. I can go over here. There's more people. It's just like so friendly. You can go to a coffee shop by yourself and just join a group, and they're just so welcoming. It's like, the people are so great here, my friend. Bro, it's made me so much happier, bro. Like, in America, I feel like I was just routine, you know, I had a couple of friends, whatnot, but down here, it's like, oh my gosh, I got a good group of friends now that actually care about, like, love me, I feel like. I feel like, look, flowers over there right now. Somebody got me a flower for hitting $100,000 on TikTok. Like, nobody would ever do that to me in America. The only thing I miss about America is really my parents. I don't feel lonely at all. Even though I came down here by myself, I don't feel lonely at all. Like, the first two days, I met great people, and now, like, I hang out with them every day so I can call them friends. And then, like, just meeting everybody is just, like, so welcoming and friendly. I came here by myself, but I feel like I came here with everybody. So, with friends, I feel like it brings, like, happiness in your life, because it's, like, community. Back in America, I'm not saying I didn't have any friends, but I'd feel like it was lacking. Like, relationships were lacking in America. And I take full responsibility for that. However, coming down here, it's just like, it's almost impossible not to meet good people. It's like, there's good people everywhere I see, my friend. I feel 100% more connected to myself. I feel like I have something missing in America. Like, down here, I just feel like, for sure, connected to myself. And I feel like I'm connected to the people as well. It's like, we're working as a team to become something great. And Vietnam is great. I really feel like if you live in a space where it's a different language, at least try to understand some things. But, like, for sure, me being half Vietnamese, I think it's kind of expected that you speak Vietnamese. However, just trying to talk to people every day, yeah, it's given me confidence just to, like, mill around and operate my day every day. For sure. I think they love it. Every time I try to speak Vietnamese to somebody, they always laugh. They always, like, encourage me. They always say, like, a good job. Even though I know I'm not pronouncing everything right. But at the end of the night, they're so friendly. They're very encouraging. Very encouraging. And the girls love it too, my friend. If you're a single guy and you come down to Saigon, you need to learn a little bit of Vietnamese, my friend. I'm telling you what. I think it's improved my confidence, or increased my confidence, because I'm living in a country where, you know, some speak English. However, you know, the main language is Vietnamese, which I'm learning. So every day I got to go out and put myself out there to learn. And then, you know, sometimes get embarrassed, per se, because I don't know how to say words, which, you know, ultimately just rejection builds your confidence as you keep going. So I feel like I've gotten more confidence. Yeah, I feel like I'm finding out who I am a little bit more as I, as every day I'm here in Saigon, 100%. I feel like I'm growing into who I need to be to do the things that I need to do in this lifetime, my friend. My whole life completely felt less fulfilling, 100%. Like, I feel like when I came down here, that thing that I was missing, I found it. So it's like, I feel like I'm more complete down here than I was in America. Nothing wrong with America, by the way. I'm just saying. Vietnam's a mulch, right? Yeah, 100%. I feel like everybody's still discovering who they are in some way, shape, or form. But at the end of the night, me being, you know, in my mid-30s, I feel like this is a great opportunity for me to learn more about myself. The war, for sure. That probably has something to do with their outlook on Vietnam. And then unknowingness, so they don't know anything other than America, so they don't know anything about it other than what they read or see in the news or whatnot. Which, by the way, might not be true sometimes. But at the end of the night, I just feel like the only way you're gonna know is if you go out and do it yourself sometimes. So it's like, if there's something itching in your heart to go this place or that place, I think you should just do it. Dude, they've never been here before. It's like, if you've never done anything, how would you experience that thing that you're talking about? Like, the only way to do it sometimes is just dive in. Like, how are you gonna learn to swim? You can learn all the lessons in the educational class, but at the night before you jump in, you really don't know how to swim. So sometimes you just gotta jump in. I think they're missing, they don't know, knowingness. So either they just grew Westernized, which there is a huge difference from like an authentic Vietnamese in Vietnam compared to a Western Vietnam. And I can say that because Houston, Texas is a huge Vietnamese community. I just feel like they're Westernized. And kind of like me, you just wanna get closer to your culture. You just gotta, I think you gotta come back. And if you've never been to Vietnam and you're Vietnamese, I feel like you need to book that ticket right now, my friend, right now. Bro, stop going to karaoke bars so much because it's burning your pockets, bro. But at the end of the night, I'd probably tell myself a little bit more. I was taking Vietnamese lessons back in America and I didn't really do any of my homework and whatnot. I wasn't really showing up to class. I was kind of slacking off. And I wish I kind of could go back then and learn what they were trying to teach me. So now come back into this country, I could speak a little bit more and be a little further than where I'm at right now with my language. But at the end of the night, my friend, Vietnam's so much better. I think if priorities are straightened out and you can do it, I think you should just do it. Because you'll never know unless you go try. So at the end of the night, if it's in your heart, it's something you've been thinking about, just go out there and jump in the pool, my friend, and learn how to swim.