{"id":36606,"date":"2025-10-27T00:31:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-left-a-stressful-job-in-hawaii-and-moved-to-vietnam-its-been-6-years-and-i-have-no-plans-to-move-back-to-the-us\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T00:31:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:31:34","slug":"i-left-a-stressful-job-in-hawaii-and-moved-to-vietnam-its-been-6-years-and-i-have-no-plans-to-move-back-to-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-left-a-stressful-job-in-hawaii-and-moved-to-vietnam-its-been-6-years-and-i-have-no-plans-to-move-back-to-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"I left a stressful job in Hawaii and moved to Vietnam. It&#8217;s been 6 years, and I have no plans to move back to the US."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68e8be9ccc993f9955cff0c6?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A man riding a bike in Vietnam.\"\/><figcaption>Travis Carrasquillo moved from Hawaii to Vietnam for work.<\/p>\n<p>Travis Carrasquillo.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Travis Carrasquillo moved from Hawaii to Hanoi for a job in 2019.<\/li>\n<li>Six years later, he&#039;s still in Vietnam and has no plans to move back to the US.<\/li>\n<li>He says the cost of living is affordable, the food is healthy, and there&#039;s a strong sense of community.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Travis Carrasquillo, 37, a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@TravisTravelsVN\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>content creator<\/em><\/a><em> living in Da Nang, Vietnam. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#039;ve been living in Vietnam for six years now.<\/p>\n<p>Before moving here, I was based in Hawaii, working as a behavior analyst supporting children from military families with autism. It was an incredibly stressful job, and I knew I&#039;d have to find a different path eventually because I couldn&#039;t keep that up forever.<\/p>\n<p>I&#039;d always loved traveling, and after visiting the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam over three consecutive years, I absolutely loved Asia.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ef29fccc993f9955d037df?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A man posing on the beach.\"\/><figcaption>He was working as a behavioral analyst and moved to Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2019, for a job.<\/p>\n<p>Travis Carrasquillo.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In early 2019, I received a message from a retired military doctor who had moved to Hanoi. He and his Vietnamese wife had a son diagnosed with autism and were looking for someone to help teach and care for him.<\/p>\n<p>The timing was great: The offer came two months after I had visited Vietnam for a holiday. I thought, &quot;This is a sign. It&#039;s time to go.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Hawaii never quite felt like home. The cost of living was high, and as much as I loved the landscape, I always knew it wasn&#039;t going to be a long-term place for me.<\/p>\n<h2>I moved to Hanoi six months later.<\/h2>\n<p>I worked with the family for four years, teaching their son after school and helping him develop communication and social skills.<\/p>\n<p>Learning Vietnamese was a priority from the day I arrived. That way, I could interact with and teach the boy in both languages, especially since he was growing up in a bilingual environment.<\/p>\n<p>I took lessons for about a year and a half to reach a decent level. My girlfriend, who&#039;s a Vietnamese teacher, helps me keep improving.<\/p>\n<p>When the work came to a natural close, I decided to stay in Vietnam and moved to Da Nang, a laid-back beach city in central Vietnam.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ef2a0c5dbc4fd10daade7f?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A couple posing for a photo in front of their house.\"\/><figcaption>When the job ended, he moved to Da Nang, a beach town in Central Vietnam.<\/p>\n<p>Travis Carrasquillo.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hanoi is a nice city, full of history and culture, but the pollution is bad. When I moved to Da Nang two years ago, it was still very much an up-and-coming place. Hardly anyone was talking about it yet, but I knew it had a beautiful beach and good weather, so I decided to go.<\/p>\n<p>It&#039;s the perfect balance: It has nice coffee shops, good gyms, great food, and everything you&#039;d want, but it&#039;s not too busy or overwhelming like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.<\/p>\n<p>I live on the city side of Da Nang rather than the beach side because it&#039;s cheaper, and it&#039;s only about a 10-minute drive to the beach.<\/p>\n<h2>These days, my budget is about $1,500 a month.<\/h2>\n<p>That covers rent, food, my gym membership \u2014 even the occasional weekend trip. It&#039;s enough for me to do pretty much anything I want.<\/p>\n<p>People back home know Vietnam is affordable, but they often assume &quot;cheap&quot; means poor quality. That&#039;s not the case at all.<\/p>\n<p>Vietnamese food is incredibly fresh, healthy, and delicious. When I lived in the US, eating out was a rare treat. Now, I can get an amazing meal for about $1.50.<\/p>\n<p>I still cook because I enjoy it, but eating out here feels effortless and communal.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ef2a2acc993f9955d037e3?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A man holding up a plate of rice and meat in Vietnam.\"\/><figcaption>He says food in Vietnam is affordable and tasty.<\/p>\n<p>Travis Carrasquillo.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>People are warm, friendly, and there&#039;s a real sense of community.<\/h2>\n<p>For almost my entire time in Vietnam, I&#039;ve lived in local neighborhoods. No matter what street you&#039;re on, most evenings you&#039;ll see families setting up tables right outside their homes in the alley and eating together.<\/p>\n<p>People here spend time just sitting around, going to coffee shops, and hanging out with friends. There&#039;s a strong sense of community and connection that&#039;s missing in much of the US.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ef2b27cc993f9955d037e8?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A couple posing for a photo in front of a stall.\"\/><figcaption>He says there&#039;s a strong sense of community in Vietnam.<\/p>\n<p>Travis Carrasquillo.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When I visited my parents in the Chicago suburb where I grew up this summer, everything felt very different.<\/p>\n<p>The streets were quiet, the houses sealed up, and everyone was driving from one place to the next, so it felt like a ghost town. I liked the peace, but missed the feeling of simply seeing people out and about.<\/p>\n<p>There are small things I miss \u2014 mostly Chicago pizza and my family. If it weren&#039;t for them, I probably wouldn&#039;t go back.<\/p>\n<p>I love Vietnam, but I&#039;ve heard of people who&#039;ve packed up their lives and moved here, only to realize it wasn&#039;t what they expected.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ef2b43cc993f9955d037ec?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A man holding up a banh mi sandwich in Vietnam.\"\/><figcaption>People should visit for a few weeks or months to get a feel for the country before deciding to move here, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Travis Carrasquillo.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It&#039;s important to have realistic expectations before making such a big move.<\/p>\n<p>My advice: Don&#039;t decide to move here without visiting first. Come experience it for yourself, spend some time, and see if it&#039;s truly the right fit for you.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you have a story to share about relocating to a new city? Contact this reporter at <\/em><em>agoh@businessinsider.com<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Travis Carrasquillo moved from Hawaii to Vietnam for work. Travis Carrasquillo. Travis Carrasquillo moved from Hawaii to Hanoi for a job in 2019. Six years later, he&#039;s still in Vietnam and has no plans to move back to the US. He says the cost of living is affordable, the food is healthy, and there&#039;s a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}