Guides and writing for a long stay in Vietnam: city guides, the country-level long-stay guides, and cornerstone pieces on how Wu and Kin inspects and prices its homes.https://wuandkin.com/https://wuandkin.com/journal/47-point-inspection/https://wuandkin.com/journal/47-point-inspection/Wu and Kin's 47-point inspection is a 60-to-90-minute walk one named inspector, Trang, makes through every home before it lists, across seven categories: safety and structural (8 checks), locks and security (6), plumbing and water (7), electrical and connectivity (6), furniture and fittings (8), environment (5), and a final neighborhood walk (7). Six categories produce pass or fail results and two hard measurements, internet speed and 9pm noise in decibels; the seventh is an hour spent outside on the street. A failure on safety or on the neighborhood walk means the home is not listed at all.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTJournalhttps://wuandkin.com/journal/dalat-where-to-live/https://wuandkin.com/journal/dalat-where-to-live/For a six-month stay in Đà Lạt, the practical choice is between four areas. Ward 1, the centre, puts the market, lake, and cafes at your door but is loud with tourist coaches on weekends. Ward 3, around the Chicken Cathedral, is the quietest central option, older villas within walking distance of everything. Ward 4, the Lê Hồng Phong area, is calm and residential with the centre a ten-minute walk downhill. Ward 8 and the airport corridor are cheaper and greener but need a motorbike for daily life. Furnished long-stay rent runs roughly 5 to 18 million VND a month depending on ward and size.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTJournalhttps://wuandkin.com/journal/six-months-vs-airbnb/https://wuandkin.com/journal/six-months-vs-airbnb/A nightly rate on a short-stay platform is not just rent divided by thirty. It bakes in the cost of turnover: cleaning between guests, vacancy on the un-booked nights, the platform's service fee, and the premium a host charges for the risk and effort of constant churn. A resident staying six months creates none of that churn, so paying a per-night rate for a per-month life means paying for a service you are not using. Wu and Kin prices at residential rates instead: an all-in monthly figure (rent, building fees, and basic internet), utilities billed at usage of roughly 20 to 50 USD a month, a one-month deposit, and no broker or platform fee.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTJournalhttps://wuandkin.com/guides/danang/https://wuandkin.com/guides/danang/Đà Nẵng is a coastal city of about 1.3 million people in central Vietnam, split by the Hàn River into a downtown west bank (Hải Châu, Thanh Khê) and a beach-side east bank (Sơn Trà, Ngũ Hành Sơn), with Đà Nẵng International Airport (DAD) inside city limits. For a stay of six months or more, expect one-bedroom rent from 5 to 18 million VND depending on the ward, a real Korean and Japanese expat community, workable but thin healthcare centered on Vinmec Đà Nẵng, hot and humid weather most of the year, and a sharp typhoon season from September to November.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTCity guidehttps://wuandkin.com/guides/hcmc/https://wuandkin.com/guides/hcmc/Hồ Chí Minh City, still called Saigon in everyday conversation, is Vietnam's commercial capital: close to 9 million people across the metro area, hot year-round at 28 to 35°C by day, rarely below 25°C at night, with a rainy season from May to October where afternoon thunderstorms arrive at 3pm and clear by 5pm. For a stay of six months or longer, expect furnished one-bedroom rent of 10 to 30 million VND depending on district, a Grab-and-motorbike transport culture, two international-grade private hospitals, and Vietnam's deepest expat community.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTCity guidehttps://wuandkin.com/guides/hoian/https://wuandkin.com/guides/hoian/Hội An is a small UNESCO-listed river town in Quảng Nam province, 30 kilometres south of Đà Nẵng, with a preserved 17th-century Ancient Town and around 100,000 residents. Most long-stay residents live in An Bàng beach village, the newer Cửa Đại developments, or the rice-field villas north of the river. For a six-month stay, expect residential rent of 5 to 25 million VND a month, a slower and more tourist-coded pace than Đà Nẵng, workable but thin healthcare, and a real flood season from October to November that shuts down the Ancient Town most years.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTCity guidehttps://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-money-and-tax/https://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-money-and-tax/Wise and Revolut cover most banking needs for the first six months in Vietnam: near-mid-market FX on ATM withdrawals and one- to two-day transfers from home accounts. A Vietnamese bank account becomes necessary once salary is paid locally, direct debit or full QR access is needed, or transaction volume exceeds Wise's limits; a Temporary Residence Card is the cleanest path to opening one. Tax residency turns on a 183-day rule: cross it and worldwide income becomes potentially taxable in Vietnam, at progressive rates from 5 to 35 percent, with credit available under most double-tax treaties.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTVietnam guidehttps://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-living-long/https://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-living-long/A long-term stay in Vietnam adds five things a short one skips: a motorbike, rented monthly or bought and registered; a domestic-help arrangement; enough spoken Vietnamese to clear the tonal plateau; a pet import or export process if there is a pet; and a fork at month eighteen to twenty-four that forces a choice between committing deeper and leaving cleanly. Motorbike rental runs 1.5 to 3.5 million VND a month; a used scooter costs 8 to 25 million VND to buy. A foreign licence covers the first 30 days; past that, a Vietnamese licence or a temporary residence card is the legal path.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTVietnam guidehttps://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-healthcare/https://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-healthcare/Vietnam runs three healthcare tiers: international-standard private hospitals (Vinmec, FV Hospital, Family Medical Practice, Raffles Medical Vietnam, Hanoi French Hospital) with English-speaking staff and direct billing for major expat insurers; Vietnamese-owned private hospitals (Hoàn Mỹ, Tâm Anh) at roughly half the cost with thinner English coverage after hours; and the public system, led by teaching hospitals such as Chợ Rẫy and Bạch Mai, which has the country's strongest trauma capacity but runs Vietnamese-only at the front desk. A continuous GP relationship is the hardest gap to close; prescriptions, mental health support, and dental care each follow their own learnable pattern.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTVietnam guidehttps://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-society/https://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-society/Vietnam is home to about 100 million people, roughly 85% ethnic Kinh with 53 recognized minorities concentrated in the northern mountains and the Central Highlands. Three generations often share one roof, face (mặt) governs most social friction, and Mahayana Buddhism blended with ancestor reverence shapes daily ritual even though most people mark 'no religion' on a census form. Tết Nguyên Đán, the Lunar New Year, is the single biggest disruption to the calendar: a 3-to-5-day shutdown before the holiday and a slow reopening after, with red-envelope gifting, family visits, and closed banks and government offices.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTVietnam guidehttps://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-visas/https://wuandkin.com/guides/vietnam-visas/Short stays in Vietnam typically run on a 90-day e-visa or a visa-exemption stamp of 15 to 45 days, neither of which extends easily inside the country. A stay of six months or longer usually moves onto a long-term visa category, such as LD (work), DT (investment), or TT (family), which can convert into a Temporary Residence Card valid for one to five years. Regardless of visa type, every foreign resident must also register the address where they sleep with local police, a separate process known as tạm trú.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTVietnam guidehttps://wuandkin.com/guides/dalat/https://wuandkin.com/guides/dalat/Đà Lạt sits at 1,500 metres on the Langbiang plateau in Lâm Đồng province, the one city in Vietnam that stays between 15 and 25 °C year-round and has no mosquitoes at altitude. It is small, about 250,000 people, walkable in the centre, and built around a lake and a French hill-station past. For a six-month stay you can expect residential rent of 5 to 18 million VND a month, a real specialty-coffee culture, thin but workable healthcare, and a genuine cold season from December to February when you will want heating.Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTCity guide