“Are you crazy for travelling to Vietnam when the corona virus was raging?!!”. Many people said that when they knew I would travel to Vietnam. We all know Covid-19 is booming in the world with unpredictable development, especially in Asia. So, yeh, I may be crazy but still in my control. Of course, I had searched for several information about the Coronavirus disease, and I also knew Vietnam successfully cured all 16 patients with covid-19 infection. Besides, the weather in Vietnam at this time is warm, even hot in the South, this is an adverse condition for this type of virus. Below are 3 things that I did and, and believe you will have to do if you want to travel to Vietnam during this time.
1. Plan your trip and apply Vietnam visa early
I had been planning this trip for about a month, when the first patients appeared in Vietnam. After that, I was not in a hurry to cancel my flight ticket, I kept updating new information constantly, and knew that the Vietnamese government had effective preventive measures. As you see, planning will help you to prepare not only enough information about the disease situation at the destination, but also essential items when traveling at this time such as masks, hand wash…
The disease is truly complicated, the process of making a visa therefore becomes more difficult and takes more time. Hence, you should research how to apply for a Vietnam visa and register as soon as possible to make sure your plan is smooth and you have control of your time. I chose to get a visa on arrival through https://www.vietnamvisa.org.vn/. The reason I chose this type of visa is not only because of faster results, but I also had been consulted and answered my questions when travelling to Vietnam this time.
The visa consultant gave me a kit containing information on how to prevent epidemics when traveling, I will share with you later. They also made sure that if I had any health problems, they would help me to extend my visa, giving me peace of mind to stay in their country of treatment.
2. Be honest when medical declaration
Currently, Vietnam does not accept guests from China and Korea. Passengers from other countries, when entering Vietnam will be required to fill out medical declarations and pre-entry medical examination, including passengers from Iran and Italy. Visitors coming from or passing through the epidemic area will be concentrated in isolation for 14 days.
Therefore, you must write a truthful medical declaration when entry. This will make many people feel uncomfortable, but trust me, the more honest you are, the more safe you will be. If you have traveled to or traveled through an epidemic area within 14 days prior to your arrival in Vietnam, you should consider your travel time and monitor your health for informed decisions.
Upon entry, your travel history should not be declared, and it’s gonna be better if you cooperate with airport staff. They are all trying to do their job well and ensure our health.
If your travel history doesn’t matter, you’ll move to the immigration counter. As I mentioned above, I apply for a visa through an agent, so they have staff at the airport to assist me. As a result, my visa and entry stamps are quite pleasant.
3. Proactively protect yourself when visiting public places
Now, I’m gonna share you some useful information that the visa consultant had provided me:
- If there are signs of cough, fever, it is advisable to postpone the travel plan and go to the nearest medical facility for examination.
- Maintain social distancing – maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) distance between yourself and other people, particularly those who are coughing, sneezing and have a fever.
- When visiting crowded places, you have to use reliable masks to cover your mouth and nose, avoid touching once it’s on. Discard single-use masks immediately after each use and wash hands after removing masks.
- Frequently wash your hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water for at least 20 seconds in the right way.
- Drink water frequently to keep moisturizing your throat.
- Avoid shaking hands; touching eyes, nose and mouth.
- Avoid using toilet paper in public.
- If you are sick while travelling, inform the crew, hotel staff and seek medical care as soon as possible.
- In Vietnam, spices like garlic and lemon are the two best natural antibiotics to kill bacteria and will be available at restaurants, so if you can eat, try it. However, their smell is quite strong so if you feel uncomfortable with this smell, you can ignore it.
That is all I want to share about whether to travel to Vietnam at the moment. The answer will be decided by you. If the answer is yes, congratulations, the current number of tourists in Vietnam is not much. Therefore, you can fully enjoy, explore Vietnam without being affected by other travelers. I’m in Danang now and still fine. I’ll update my itinerary soon. See ya~~.