Vietnam is not just bloody awesome, but one of my favorite countries in the world. And it is not just me, with the country developing to such a degree that much of the country acts as a magnet to tourism.
Not everywhere though, after all you do not spend many years as a Communist state without some ugly industry, ecological problems and squalor. Here’s the top 11 Shit Cities in Vietnam that practically no one visits.
Click to read about Saigon street food.
11 Shit Cities in Vietnam H2
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Having over 110 million people means that Vietnam has a lot of cities of varying degrees of development and pollution. It is though in fairness not as big as China, meaning the lower end of the shit cities in Vietnam are not all that bad really.
As always we are counting sequentially from 11 to 1, with us saving the shit till last.
11 Quang Ngai (Quang Ngai Province)
Quang Ngai is a dusty port and industrial town that feels like getting off a bus into a brick factory complex. Heavy trucks rumble through the centre, roadside dust never settles and the whole place seems to exist to make cement and goods for the rest of the country. Pollution here gets into your eyes and lungs and there is almost zero reason for a normal traveller to bother.
10 Vung Tau (Ba Ria Vung Tau Province)
Vung Tau has beaches but they are grimy, the air reeks of oil and the offshore rigs that should make it rich leave it looking like an industrial refuse dump. Locals work hard but the city is essentially a waiting room for oil workers and day trippers from Saigon. Most of the good coastline looks better from a bus window as you fly past.
9 Bien Hoa (Dong Nai Province)
Bien Hoa is a heavy industrial satellite of Ho Chi Minh City and one of the most polluted spots in Vietnam. Factories spew smoke, chemical works are everywhere and the river reeks. There is little to see apart from warehouses, exhaust and line after line of lorries. If you want beautiful Vietnam this sure as hell is not it.
8 Thai Nguyen (Thai Nguyen Province)
Thai Nguyen is Vietnam’s steel and coal town. Big sprawling plants and mills dominate on every horizon and the sky often looks like a worn out rag from soot and dust. The city feels devoid of charm and the only reason locals hang around is because most of their families have lived there for generations. For visitors it gives you grey teeth and nothing to remember fondly.
7 Ha Tinh (Ha Tinh Province)
Ha Tinh is flat, austere and surrounded by heavy industry including steel, chemicals and thermal plants. The ambient smell of exhaust and burnt earth lingers all year and there is little in the city that makes you want to stay beyond a quick meal. Even the locals look at you with that expression that says you should be somewhere else.
6 Dong Nai City (Dong Nai Province)
Dong Nai City is another industrial basin with petrochemical plants, factories and the constant racket of machinery. Pollution is visible on the horizon and the river looks like a used bath towel. There are suburbs and blocks with families but for a visitor there is little to justify it other than a transit point to somewhere else.
5 Vinh (Nghe An Province)
Vinh is known in Vietnamese travel circles as one of the loudest, dustiest, least inspiring provincial capitals. Long dusty roads, heavy truck traffic, persistent exhaust and a general feeling that no one bothered to finish building anything properly make it a grating place to stop.
4 Haiphong Outskirts (Hai Phong Municipality)
Haiphong is a major port city and industrial zone but the outskirts especially are brutal. Container yards, steel factories and endless cargo traffic make strolling around feel like walking through a yard full of rust and exhaust. The canals are clogged and the air never feels clean. It has friends it could hang out with if it got out more, but it never does.
3 Bac Ninh (Bac Ninh Province)
Bac Ninh is another industrial satellite where massive factories and electronics plants dominate everything. The centre is serviceable but everywhere you look there are gray industrial parks and commuter housing blocks. Locals go about their business but travelers tend to pass through quickly to somewhere else with actual character.
2 Phu Yen City (Phu Yen Province)
Phu Yen gets ignored because it never really found a reason to develop into anything worthwhile. The industrial bits here are dusty and bleak, roads are congested with trucks and the waterfront feels like leftovers from something that was supposed to be nicer but fell off the production line. It’s quiet, aimless, and more depressing than charming.
1 Cam Pha (Quang Ninh Province)
And the champ of shit cities in Vietnam goes to Cam Pha, an old mining town that is literally built around coal extraction and industry. Mountains have been cut back for mines, black dust coats everything, and the harbour feels like it was designed to spit out machinery rather than welcome people. The air here carries a constant whisper of soot and grime and if you think you might find something pretty, think again. Cam Pha is ugly, gritty, polluted and earns the top spot on this list because it feels like what happens when a city exists for industry and nothing else.
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