The best cafés and restaurants aren’t along the main road. They’re hidden away behind it, in the small streets and alleys. That’s what makes Vietnam so exciting to explore on foot. You constantly stumble upon something unexpected and exciting. In Thao Dien (Ho Chi Minh City district 2) I found a small bakery, where I had a conversation with a café owner. He owns the café together with his wife. He looks after the café full-time, and his wife bakes in the evenings alongside a day job as a nurse. I asked about the rent and was told it was around $2000 USD. About 12k DKK and 52 million VND. That’s expensive for Vietnam, but only a mid-range price in Ho Chi Minh City. In the shop you could buy coffee and pastries for under 200k VND. Quick mental math tells me they need around 300 customers a month to break even. I talked with the owner for 1.5 hours and was the only customer.

The café owner was friendly and had fluent English, so I took the opportunity to get more in-depth information. He had lived and studied in the USA for 7 years. Due to the current political winds in the USA, their immigration case had been put on hold. He himself didn’t think they’d be able to emigrate to the USA, and as he put it himself, he’d probably never go back to the USA. We talked back and forth a bit about job opportunities and the important things surrounding a job. For him it was important to be close to his family. Not just his wife and parents, but also brothers, sisters, cousins. The USA could lead to a richer life for him, but he couldn’t see himself living there forever.

We talked a bit about elections, since the Danish and Vietnamese elections fell a week apart from each other. The Vietnamese election was on March 16th. Vietnam has a communist government and holds elections for representatives every 5 years. Candidates for the election have to be nominated by their local area. The café owner said the election felt artificial, but at the same time something you had to take part in. There’s actually a law that you have to vote in elections, with the possibility of jail time if you don’t vote. But having watched the American primary election twice while he lived there, he felt Vietnam’s system made more sense.

Ultimately I asked him whether he trusted the Vietnamese government, which he certainly did. Not naive trust. There were definitely problems, such as conflicts of interest standing in the way of reform in, for example, the housing market. But broadly speaking, he felt the government was moving Vietnam in a sensible direction.

Several times during our conversation it was important for him to emphasize how he wasn’t just acting for his own gain, but also for his wider family, friends, and acquaintances. The café wasn’t a business meant to make them rich, but was meant to be a foundation and a part of the local area, that others in the area could benefit from too.

That conversation has stuck in my head the past few days. I hope their business and plans go well. At the same time I’m struck by their life and how they navigate it. Opportunities in a foreign country vs. closeness to family. It touches on parts of my own situation. From what I understood, it was mostly about the risk of betting on the USA right now, which we also had a bit of a laugh about, when I told him I was Danish.

Afterward I’ve reflected further on the cafés and restaurants I visit. I wonder whether I’d be able to find the same restaurants, cafés, and bakeries if I came back in 1 year.

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