Hanoi - Post Report Question and Answers
What do you wish you had known about this particular city/country before moving there?
Kids are incredibly busy with school, after school activities (often daily at the school and they don't get home til 4:30 to 6), and (particularly if attending Concordia) homework. It is very hard to get together socially with kids (or their parents) because of all they do. It makes a social life outside of school challenging. I rarely see the people on my street and my kids rarely see others in the afternoon or on weekends. We have had to fill up with way more planned activities (soccer, swim, horseback riding, music lessons, etc) than I normally would ever do so they have things to do and people to see. - Dec 2025
I wish I had know how bad the pollution was. The air quality is the worst I have ever experienced. The overall pollution, not just the air, is also bad. - Jun 2025
Visiting versus living here is quite different. It's not hard living, most things are available, but it is also not particularly exciting after you get used to the frenetic traffic and the chaotic disorder. - Aug 2021
We came in eyes open, with no surprises, though I would have liked to have foreseen how rapidly the air quality was going to deteriorate. - Dec 2019
This was our first post in Asia; SE Asia is very different from other parts of the world. There is definitely culture shock. The traffic here is the craziest I have witnessed; the motorbikes outnumber people and cars and swarm everywhere. Crossing the street as a pedestrian is challenging. Enjoy the people, the food and the culture. - Jul 2019
How useful a car would have been for day and weekend trips. That the winter pollution is bad. I wish I read up more on Vietnamese history and watched more documentaries on the topic. - Dec 2017
I wish post would have been upfront about the air quality. We wouldn't have come here. - May 2016
