Back to Germany after 6 Months in Asia. What Shocked us Most?

After 6 months living in Southeast Asia, we’re back in Germany — and the culture shock is real! From chaotic Vietnamese traffic to Germany’s rules and routines, here’s what surprised us most about coming home. We share our raw experiences and observations about what it’s like to live in both countries. We’ll cover some funny cultural differences when it comes to traffic and commuting, compare our medical experiences in each country, and end with the thing we miss the most about living in Vietnam.

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Stag Beetle image by Muséum de Toulouse, CC BY-SA 4.0 from Wikimedia Commons via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cerf-volant_MHNT_male_et_femelle.jpg

Video chapters

00:00 In this video
01:26 Commute: The Culture Shock of Traffic
10:14 Medical Help in Germany vs Vietnam
16:22 Food: Eating ‘Asian in Germany
22:15 Conclusion: Pretzel or Spring Roll?

#Vietnam #Germany #LivingInVietnam #ExpatLifeVietnam #ExpatLifeGermany #MovingToVietnam #MovingToGermany #GermanCulture #vietnamculture #DailyLifeVietnam #travelvlog #vietnamtravel #travel #digitalnomad #asiafood #CultureShock #ReverseCultureShock #LivingAbroad #DigitalNomadLife #ExpatsInGermany #VietnamTravel #Europe #LifeInGermany
#Asia #TravelCouple #DaNang #GermanCulture #TravelVloggers #ReturnToGermany
#Travel

are Marola and Ali and with this channel we 
take you along in our biggest experiment yet, exploring interesting places to live and work from 
and escaping the cold German winters. 2 years ago, we quit our apartment, packed away almost 
everything, and set off with just our self-built camper van. But right now, we just finished 
half a year of living in Southeast Asia. Kind of our favorite spot so far and just landed 
back in Europe again. So after an interesting two months in our last destination there, the 
lively and colorful Da Nang City in Vietnam, we went from the land of noodles, gorgeous 
coastlines, and flexible traffic laws to Germany, land of mighty forests and mountain ranges, 
currywurst and order and rules. This time the reverse culture shock felt different. as 
a Dutch person kind of feel incomplete. So, what is actually easier in Vietnam than in 
Germany? And what shocked us the most about coming back? It seems like Ali is stress 
gaming. Stick around because the answers might surprise you. I just feel so happy being 
here. I feel like a kid in the candy store. We just came back after half a year in Asia and 
now you’re back in Germany. How do you feel? I think it’s pretty tough to say. I’m really happy 
that I have my friends and family nearby. Did you have culture shock when you came back here 
even though you’ve lived here your whole life? I think there’s always like a little bit, but 
I mean so far it’s been nicer than I expected to be honest. Of course, you don’t completely 
forget what it feels like to live in Germany again after living there for many years. But after 
getting used to life in Asia for so many months, some things just immediately stand out. Like 
we don’t have to be scared of the spiders in our house or worry about accidentally drinking 
tap water and potentially getting sick. And once you leave your house, the differences are 
even crazier. Isn’t it crazy how like getting around in Germany is completely different from 
getting around in Vietnam? Like there’s no grab scooter picking you up in front of your house, 
right? Yeah. I mean, you can bike everywhere, which is pretty nice, but the public transport 
is very unreliable as far as I have experienced, but biking is really fun for sure. 
Biking is really fun. Woo! Oh, the brakes work. The brakes work. All 
right. Nice. I just got myself a bike. I like it. 50 bucks for this mountain bike. 
Super happy with it. Especially because as a Dutch person without a bike, you just kind of 
feel incomplete, you know? And to be honest, if you live in um Germany or the Netherlands, 
getting a bike just ups your mobility level by like 3,000%. Right. Yeah. That’s just the way 
to get around here. You have public transport, but it’s not always on time. It’s pretty 
expensive. Then, of course, you have cars, but the bike is just the way to go, unlike in 
Vietnam. You could also bike. Vietnamese people love their motorbikes and so did we cruising 
around Da Nang City. And yet cycling is also more common in Vietnam than you would think. 
And part of why we loved exploring this little charming town of Hoi An. But the way in which 
people use their bikes and what you’ll find in the streets is completely different in Germany. 
And the best way to show you that is by taking you along on our little bike trip to the city. 
I just don’t really know what to film because everything is so organized. Nothing crazy 
is happening. Oh, here’s the green light. Right now it might get more exciting. Enter 
the roundabout. Are we turning right? Yeah. What do we have here? Ribbons. Look how many. What 
do you do with that though? Measuring tape. That’s funny. What you just witnessed is the classic 
German street phenomenon of tufena or to give away. Germans love to gather up things they don’t 
want or need anymore and put it alongside cycling or walking waste for potentially interested passer 
by. So you never know what you will find on the streets. This ghosty and sometimes what you find 
even requires action there. So, this is a female stag beetle. Uh, they’re endangered, I think. So, 
when you’re in Germany and you see any of them, the male ones look super fancy with a like 
really big like pincers. I don’t know, horns or something. And like like that Pokémon. 
So, if you find them, you should report them even if they’re dead. And now I should actually 
make sure this is really what I’m saying it is. This picture insect. It’s pretty cool. 
You just go there, take a photo of it. for this lesser stack beetle. So, this was a 
lesser stack beetle and not a stack beetle. It’s of course really bad of me to confuse these. Um, 
but if you see one like that, you should probably identify it. And if you send it, you have to send 
them a photo anyways and they’ll recognize it, I guess. But before we paint a two idelic 
picture of cycling the roads of Germany, there are some more grim stories worth sharing as 
well. Okay. What’s the craziest experience you’ve had as a cyclist in Germany or on the street in 
general? I mean, Germany, the craziest thing was one guy like on a scooter just overtaking a friend 
and I when we were biking next to each other like this because he thought you’re not allowed to 
even though you are and he just like tried to start some [ __ ] Um, and we didn’t take it. So, 
but just the fact that when I was when we lived in Darmstadt, I basically not once was able to go out 
on a bike ride without some guy like road raging at me or honking at me or like I mean I’m not even 
counting like people overtaking you without any distance because that’s just like normal. Uh the 
insane thing is Germany is still better than most places with uh for cyclists. Yeah. I mean, but is 
it though? Yeah. You come from the Netherlands, which is like number one in the world, but it’s 
just it’s pretty insane. I was shocked coming to Germany how little respect there is for cyclists. 
Yeah. It’s by people who drive cars. Yeah. Road raging here is just part of the culture. People 
are just so mad like all the time. It’s just like, why are you crying so much? If the roads are 
so clearly organized for all participants, then why do Germans display so much road rage? 
Could there be such a thing as too many rules? I would take Germany’s safe streets over Vietnam’s 
dangerous intersections every day. But taking part in the chaos of Vietnamese traffic does teach you 
to stay calm and be less rigid. Because if taking the right of way and cutting corners is the norm, 
it’s impossible to get mad every single time it happens. It’s so funny how much we can learn about 
ourselves by looking at our roads and traffic manners. So the small traffic light for cyclist 
turns off a little bit earlier than the big one because they assume you don’t can’t drive as fast 
as the cars drive there. No, definitely could. Do you prefer the chaos of the streets in Vietnam 
or the rules of Germany? I think I like the chaos quite a lot. Yeah, I mean you have different 
you have organized chaos here. We pit stopped to pick up a typical German on the-go lunch 
and then made our way to our final destination. I just went through red H 
highlebag’s famous necker river. Why not to the right? Another love coming back to Europe in springtime and 
spending the warm summer months with friends and family. Even though it seems to be harder 
and harder to find accommodation here that we can actually afford, the huge housing shortage 
in Germany and the Netherlands is very real. In Vietnam, we don’t struggle with finding a place 
to stay. Although it must be said that housing affordability is a problem for many Vietnamese 
people, but that’s perhaps a topic for a whole other video. Besides friends and family, our 
second reason for coming back to Europe is well that our jobs are based in Germany, which means 
our health insurance is too. And unfortunately, Ali and I both have some health stuff to figure 
out over here over the summer. But that has not been that easy to get done so far. It seems like 
Ali is stress gaming. He just came home from a medical experience and I knew I had to get a tea 
and a nice sugary sweet ready because it did not go well. So, what happened? Well, it’s so annoying 
because I found this appointment with this specialist like a few weeks ago already and I went 
on a 40minut drive to like this city a little bit outside of here. Then I was there. I filled out 
like some information and they basically made me wait an hour there and then they were like, “Yeah, 
okay. We can do this procedure on you.” I’m like, “Can I talk to the doctor first or like what’s 
going on?” And the doctor comes and he’s like, “Yeah, so you’re not sure if you want to do it?” 
I’m like, “Yeah, well, I want to know whether I need to do it because I mean I don’t want to go 
like in a whole ass procedure if I don’t need it.” And he’s like, “Yeah, well, we don’t want 
to do any half measures, so either you do it or you don’t.” And that’s it. And then he went 
away. It’s like, that guy was with me for like less than a minute after I waited for like an hour 
and 15 minutes or so. Yeah. So, how many of your questions about your health got answered by this 
specialist? He didn’t talk to me. This was like the whole exchange almost in real time. All right. 
That’s very frustrating. Yeah, unless you’re among the 10% of Germans who can afford private health 
insurance, you’re likely going to have to wait a couple of months to see a specialist. But when 
I needed medical care in Vietnam, the help I received was kind of mind-blowing. Okay, this 
is the story of my hospital experience in Daang, Vietnam. And it’s a little bit crazy. As you may 
remember from previous videos, we flew to Daong right after I got sick with CO and I was very much 
in need of quality rest. But that we did not get in Daang. And you won’t believe why. Behind our 
apartment window, there was a huge rooster making a lot of noise every morning, very early and 
throughout the night. So until we got to switch rooms, I did not get my necessary rest. On one of 
those nights, I started to see a zigzag pattern in my vision. Within half an hour, I could barely 
see anymore, and it was really scary. So I asked Ali to take me to the best hospital in Daong. 
By the time I arrived there, I could see again, and they advised me to come back in the 
morning and see an eye doctor. The next day, I was thoroughly examined by this eye specialist 
and he found out that I have weird looking veins in my eyeballs. Just 20 minutes later, I was lying 
in an MRI machine getting my brain checked out. Luckily, everything was fine with my old brain 
and the visual episode was probably caused by uh exhaustion from COVID and sleep deprivation. 
But a couple of weeks later, I had to return to that hospital because I was still not feeling 
okay. Again, I could see a doctor right away and they put me through a series of tests to see 
if my lungs were okay, if my heart was okay, and if my blood was okay. Within 1 and 1/2 hours, 
I went through all of these tests and we found out luckily that I was fit to fly and I was okay. This 
whole process was very stressful but every person I interacted with in the hospital from nurse to 
doctor to payment officer was so helpful, so nice and I felt really cared for. And of course we are 
grateful for the system in Germany as well because not every country in the world can say that they 
have a functioning health care system. However, the hospital experience in Vietnam really stands 
apart when it comes to its efficiency, the speed with which they acted probably because we paid 
for it as well. This comparison is kind of unfair because we are comparing, you know, top-notch 
private health care in Vietnam to normal uh German public healthcare. Public healthcare. Yeah. And 
even though Germany and Vietnam have like similar systems of private versus public, there’s still 
a ton of differences depending on in which system you are, right? Yeah. 100%. As foreigners, we 
get to we have the privilege of using the private system in Vietnam. Yeah. And I mean if you have 
private health insurance here, I mean now I can go into a very strong political rant, but like if 
you have private health insurance here, you also have no problems, right? And I mean there’s just 
like a two class system in Germany. Uh definitely. We also don’t know what it’s like to be in the 
public system in Vietnam. Yeah, exactly. But what I read about it and and heard about it from 
people over there is that it’s also crowded, long waiting times, not all your medicine gets covered. 
Yeah. Yeah. One big difference I got to say though is that I find the bedside manners of Vietnamese 
doctors and nurses and whatever just the best. They’ve never made me cry unlike several 
independent occasions in Germany where some sort of German doctor made me cry because of making 
me feel guilty or some sort of rudeness. Uh, and that was not a nice experience. Going to the 
hospital is already stressful enough, you know. So Ali, we’ve now talked about, you know, 
the traffic, some cultural differences, medical, healthcare differences, but 
we forgot one really important topic, especially to us. Oh yeah, I know where 
this is going. Food. Food. I knew it. So, which food do you prefer? German dinner or 
Vietnamese dinner? I think there is no contest. that I prefer Vietnamese dinner. We can keep 
this very short. Yeah. By like a long shot. The fun thing about being in Germany though is that 
unlike in Vietnam, we cook our own meals again. So regular trips to large grocery stores are a 
must here. But no matter how big the lidle is, it won’t have everything. But there are ways 
to solve that issue here in Germany. Yeah. Um, if you are Asian and you’ve never been to 
Europe, you must know that there are places here in Europe, well, I don’t know about 
the rest of Europe, but in Germany for sure, where you can go and buy quality, authentic um, 
Asian ingredients. And we call it the Asian store. And it’s um literally a store that has like a 
collection of all kinds of uh Asian cuisine. It’s actually kind of funny when you think about 
it that that exists. But we arrived at one now and I’m super excited to go in because I think it 
will feel like coming home a little bit. You know, there are so many instant noodles. Oh my god. 
From entry-level flavors and textures to the more advanced and really funky tastes that 
Asia has to offer, the Asian store has it all. So much fun to snoop around here, get 
inspired again, Konjac, and make sure we score some high quality stuff that you won’t 
find in regular German supermarkets. Wait, is it Thai? Yeah, royal pie. What are 
you making with that? Mango sticky rice. I just feel so happy being here and seeing all 
these products that we eat all winter long. All those flavors. I feel like a kid in the candy 
store. We’re looking for some noodle dishes, right? Is it these ones? Okay. For Pope Thai, you 
want like a medium sized kind of flat rice noodle, right? But for summer noodle salad in Vietnam, 
you want a thinner rice noodle. If you’re also an immigrant or have ever been abroad for a long 
period of time, you know how important it is to taste the food of your home. What are you getting? 
The classic. Yeah, I didn’t know this was Thai product Thailand. Food is connected to experiences 
and emotions. And finding specific ingredients or dishes that you miss elsewhere can be as 
comforting as a warm embrace. How do you say it? Oh, nice. By now, we spent so much time in 
Thailand and Vietnam that it feels a little bit like our second home. And whether it 
was in Okinawa, Daang or Cola, so far, Ali and I both felt incredibly well here on 
the Asian continent, especially food-wise. So when we’re not there, we miss all 
its different delicious flavors. Wow. You can just smell it through the hole and 
like to bring back those good memories by buying and cooking them here. Reminds 
me of Thailand. I bought this in uh in Vietnam before we left. I was like, 
“Oh man, this they’re probably going to be less than I’ll see this for a year or 
so.” And I’ll get that here, too. So funny. We bought way too much. And I’m really happy 
to have our own kitchen and our own food. And it can be really good. But like I mean I I 
never in my life I it it took me like almost 30 years until I ate German food for the first 
time while living here all my life. So yeah. So yeah, even though we live here, I can’t tell you much about real German 
food. It might look something like this. I can tell you that my heart skipped 
a beat when I found mangosteen, a uniquely Asian fruit here in a German 
supermarket. If you ever come across it, you must give it a try. But for now, 
mangosteen would just be the dessert to a Vietnamese dish that we’ve been 
dying to taste again here in Germany. So, so this all boils down to the age-old 
question. Are you choosing a pretzel or a spring roll? I mean, the pretzel is pretty fresh 
and the spring roll has been out for like 2 hours, but I’ll still eat it because I don’t 
like to throw away food. Yeah. Obviously, the point of this video was not to like piss 
anyone off or to like pick a clear winner or something, but just to give an insight into 
the difference in experience in both places. pretty dry already after one day. Just 
like our humor. Come. Subscribe if you want to come along. Okay, that’s pretty funny. 
Please. All right. In the middle almost. Yeah. Oh, get your Marola and Ali sticker now. Just 
comment and we’ll send some to people. If you ever see us on the street and talk to us, 
we’ll give you a sticker merch. Yeah. Holy. Five bucks. Doing a trendy now. Holding 
the lav mics in our hands. So cool. Um, what did I want to say again? From 
nurse to doctor to payment officer. What do I got to do to get some quietness 
around here? a lot of [ __ ] that public officials don’t have to be publicly insured. 
Yeah. In Germany and they keep deciding like, oh yeah, we’ll increase our salary. Oh yeah, 
and all of us are privately insured. Also, the taxpayer pays now. We’re drifting off 
a little bit, but um uh nice and short. Heat. Heat.