What gifts and souvenirs to bring from Vietnam? Medicines, cosmetics, coffee, pearls, fruits - a ready-made solution for those who do not want to waste time on long thoughts and shopping.
Shopping in exotic countries is a pleasant experience, because it is always interesting to explore new items. However, sometimes the choice of gifts for loved ones and loved ones can significantly spoil the rest - who wants to spend precious time in endless shopping? Shopping in Vietnam is good (besides, prices are pleasing), and the abundance of goods on offer makes your eyes run wild, so we wrote an article that will help you decide what to bring from Vietnam as a gift.
So, tourists from Vietnam bring not only souvenirs, but also jewelry, clothes, shoes, medicines, cosmetics, tea, coffee, fruits. Especially popular are exotic tinctures with alcoholized snakes, spiders and other representatives of the local fauna. Tinctures are rumored to have a number of miraculous properties. More on all this below.
Coffee and tea
The first and most important thing to bring from Vietnam is coffee. Here he is simply divine! We are big fans of him. In Vietnam, Arabica, Robusta, Excelsa and Cooli grow, the main variety is Robusta. Vietnamese do not brew coffee, but brew it using special metal filters that can be purchased at any souvenir shop. The coffee itself is inexpensive (from 30 thousand dongs for 500 g) and is of high quality. The most popular coffee producers are Trung Nguyên and Me Trang. Often coffee is sold in blends - the taste depends on it.
The most expensive variety is the elite Luwak coffee. The very high cost is due to a special production process: coffee beans are fermented in the stomachs of musang animals (also civets), then the raw materials are collected and processed by hand on farms in the Daklak province. Tourists go there on an excursion with tasting. In supermarkets you can buy artificially fermented grains (Chon - Chon), such coffee in supermarkets costs from 200 thousand dong for 500 g
Vietnamese tea is presented in various varieties, there is pure one from $ 4 per kg, and with additives - with artichokes, lotus petals, jasmine, chrysanthemum, ginger, mountain herbs - from $ 6.5 per kg. The Vietnamese themselves are more fond of green tea, the most popular variety is Than Nguyen. For tea, you can buy Vietnamese sweets made from coconut milk or with lotus seeds, without dyes and chemical additives.
Clothes and footwear
Good quality clothing can be bought in Vietnam. There is a sewing production of sports brands Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and the prices for products are lower than in Russia. To avoid counterfeiting, it is better to purchase clothes from brand stores. Popular local Vietnamese clothing brands include Blue Exchange and Nino Maxx.
The goods sold in the markets are also of good quality. The problem may arise with a suitable size. Our citizens are taller and denser than Vietnamese, so finding a domestic size, even 46-48, is already quite difficult.
For people overweight or with a non-standard figure, tourists are advised to conduct their searches in Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, where there are goods of European sizes. If you need winter clothes, you cannot find them in the south of the country, it is always warm there, and down jackets and sweaters are not in demand among the local population. All clothes are sold strictly according to the season.
In Hoi An, you can sew clothes or shoes to order, there are many workshops. They sew quickly, within a day, use expensive natural materials - satin, silk, suede and leather. A classic suit or dress will cost $ 50-150, a pair of leather shoes will cost from $ 15-20.
It is better to buy the famous Vietnamese silk in special stores, in the market they can sell artificial silk under the guise of natural.
Fruits
The choice of tropical fruits in Vietnam is rich, so tourists often bring them as a treat for relatives - these can be mangosteen, longan, lychee, rambutan, pineapples, durians, dragon fruit, etc. - those fruits that will take the road well. You can also buy unripe fruits that will ripen on the road.
How to bring fruits from Vietnam? Tourists usually buy special plastic baskets, which can be seen, for example, at fruit stalls in Nha Trang. The sellers will pack and pack the fruit upon request.
However, remember that theoretically problems may arise at customs - without special permits, seeds, fruits and vegetables are prohibited from being imported into the territory of the Russian Federation. According to tourists, many people carry fruit without problems in their luggage or carry-on luggage, but it also happens that the officers find fault and take away the fruit.
Check out the list of fruits in Vietnam (description and names) to choose what to bring home.
Jewelry
Many people buy pearl and silver products in Vietnam, as well as precious stones - amethysts, sapphires, rubies, aquamarines, jade. Pearls are grown on farms in South Vietnam, so they are plentiful and relatively inexpensive. At the same time, as tourists write, the market or the beach can sell fake pearls or simply poor quality. As for precious stones, it is still not worth buying them without a certificate or specialist advice.
We can advise you to buy pearls and other jewelry in Nha Trang - there are many shops here that will issue a quality certificate upon purchase or can check the items already purchased. For example, Princess Jewelry and Angkor Treasures are popular.
Alcohol tinctures and medicines
Medicines that are usually brought from Vietnam are alcoholic tinctures with herbal ingredients, ointments and balms. Vietnamese balm "Zvezdochka" (for coughs and colds), ointment with snake venom (helps with osteochondrosis and radiculitis), as well as balms based on tiger or python fat are very popular among tourists.
In the markets and shops of Vietnam, bottles with alcoholized animals are sold, however, the quality of alcohol and its origin leaves much to be desired. Cobra tincture with black scorpion is in high demand among men, as it is considered a strong aphrodisiac. Not everyone dares to drink this, therefore, most often, exotic is bought not as a medicine, but as an original souvenir from Vietnam.
Vietnamese cosmetics
Women love buying Vietnamese herbal masks, scrubs, soaps and natural coconut oil. Manufacturers add whitening ingredients to some cosmetics, so you need to carefully read the composition. As for the quality of the products, the opinions of tourists are divided here: some write that it is great, they praise the serums, masks and shampoos of Lana Safra, Thorakao, others are more restrained in their reviews. Some girls complain about the limited range of decorative cosmetics.
Souvenirs
The most popular souvenir from Vietnam is the pointed non hat. Women often buy a silk national costume (Ao Dai), which is loose trousers with a long, tight-fitting blouse, or the famous flip-flops. Products made of python and crocodile skin are in great demand - belts, bags, wallets.
You can also bring the following souvenirs from Vietnam: silk paintings, porcelain dishes, figurines and boxes made of bamboo or mahogany, a fan, ivory products, dolls and masks, bronze products, tablecloths, napkins, silk lanterns, wicker products, natural jewelry boxes. stone. Various musical instruments made of bamboo and brass are bought not only by musicians, but also by those who want to decorate the interior with original things.