Terminal Notes

The Prompts

These are the sixteen prompts from Chapter 2 of Vietnam, Planned with AI, plus the daily budget tracker from Chapter 9, so you can copy and paste instead of typing from a screen. They're written for ChatGPT and work the same in Claude or Gemini. The book explains what each one is for and what to check in its answer.

Route and structure

I'm planning a trip to Vietnam. Here are my constraints:

- Total days on the ground (excluding international flights): [X]
- Arriving into: [Hanoi / Ho Chi Minh City / not decided]
- Travel style: [backpacker / mid-range / comfort]
- Non-negotiables: [e.g. Ha Long Bay, beach time, food focus]
- Things I don't care about: [e.g. museums, nightlife]

Before you build any itinerary, do this first:

1. List every place you're considering, with the approximate travel time and distance between them, and the realistic transport options for each leg.
2. Tell me how many hours of that itinerary are spent in transit, as a total and as a percentage of my trip.
3. Only then propose a route.

Do not include any location that requires more than [4] hours of travel unless you flag it explicitly and explain why it's worth the time cost.

Here is a draft Vietnam itinerary:

[PASTE ITINERARY]

Audit it for pace, not for content. Specifically:

- Which days involve changing accommodation? Mark them.
- On those days, how many usable hours are actually left after check-out, transit, and check-in?
- Which days have three or more scheduled activities in different parts of a city?
- Where is the first full rest day?

Then tell me the two changes that would most improve this itinerary, and what I'd lose by making them.

Be blunt. I'd rather cut something now than be exhausted on day five.

I'm considering travelling in Vietnam during [MONTH/DATES].

Do not give me a national answer. Instead:

1. Break Vietnam into North, Central and South.
2. For each region, tell me what that specific month is typically like — rain, temperature, humidity, and any typhoon or flooding risk.
3. Tell me which of the three regions is the weakest choice in that month, and what I'd be risking by going anyway.
4. If my route crosses regions, tell me which direction (north-to-south or south-to-north) makes more sense for those dates.
5. Tell me whether those dates touch Tet (the lunar new year) or a Vietnamese public-holiday weekend, and what that does to transport and prices.

Finally: name the specific activities that are most likely to be cancelled or degraded by weather in that month.

Treat Vietnam as four building blocks:

A) The North — Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Ninh Binh, Sapa, Ha Giang
B) The Centre — Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An, Phong Nha
C) The South — Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong Delta
D) Islands — Phu Quoc, Con Dao

For each of these trip lengths, tell me which blocks fit and which specific places inside each block I'd have to drop: 7 days, 10 days, 14 days, 21 days.

For each version, give me:
- The internal flights or long journeys required
- Roughly what the transport alone would cost
- What kind of traveller that version suits

Do not try to fit all four blocks into anything under 14 days. If a version is a bad idea, say so.

Transport

I need to get from [A] to [B] in Vietnam, on [approximate date].

Compare these options in a table: domestic flight, train (specify class), sleeper bus, and private car.

For each, give me:
- Door-to-door time, not just the vehicle time
- Approximate cost range, and say clearly whether that's a wide range and why
- What it costs me in usable daylight hours
- Comfort and safety notes
- Whether it needs advance booking, and how far ahead

Then make a recommendation for my situation: I have [X] total days and my priority is [time / money / experience].

Important: if published fares for this route vary widely between sources, tell me that explicitly rather than giving me a single number.

I'm in [CITY], Vietnam, for [X] days, staying in [AREA or "not booked yet"].

Cover the following:

1. Which ride-hailing apps actually work in this specific city, and roughly what a short ride costs in VND.
2. Whether paying by cash or in-app card is better here, including any foreign-card surcharge I should expect.
3. Which journeys in this city are walkable and which only look walkable on a map.
4. Anything specific about crossing the road, motorbike traffic, or getting around at night that a first-time visitor gets wrong.

Give me VND amounts, not just US dollars.

Money

Build me a daily budget for Vietnam at three levels — backpacker, mid-range, and comfort — for [X] days.

Break it down by: accommodation, food, local transport, long-distance transport, activities, and a buffer.

Then, separately:

1. Which of these categories has risen most in the last two years, and by roughly how much?
2. Which single line item is likely to be the largest one-off cost of the trip?
3. Where does spending more genuinely improve the trip, and where is it wasted?

Give me VND and USD, converting at [RATE] dong to the dollar — today's rate from my converter, not your own. State clearly which figures you're confident about and which are rough.

Before you give me any figures, tell me roughly what period your cost data comes from. If your prices are more than two years old, say so and flag which categories have likely changed most.

I'm travelling to Vietnam with a [debit/credit] card from [COUNTRY/BANK TYPE].

Cover:

1. How much cash I realistically need per day at a [backpacker/mid-range/comfort] level.
2. ATM withdrawal fees in Vietnam — the range, and whether some banks charge less than others.
3. Typical per-transaction withdrawal limits, and why that matters when there's a flat fee.
4. What Dynamic Currency Conversion is and what to press when an ATM offers it.
5. Which notes are most commonly confused with each other, and what that mistake costs.
6. Where cards are genuinely accepted versus where I'll need cash.

Answer in VND with USD equivalents.

What are the most common tourist scams and overcharging patterns in Vietnam right now?

Organise by situation, not by city:
- Arriving at the airport
- Taxis and ride-hailing
- Street vendors and markets
- Booking tours and cruises
- Accommodation
- ATMs and money changing

For each: what it looks like, what it costs, and the exact sentence or action that shuts it down.

Then tell me which of these are aggressive-but-normal haggling that I should just handle, and which are actual fraud where I should walk away entirely.

Food

I'm in [REGION/CITY], Vietnam.

1. Which dishes are specifically from HERE — not generic Vietnamese dishes available nationwide?
2. For each, what's it actually made of, and is there anything in it that surprises Western visitors?
3. What's the local name, written as it appears on a menu or a street sign?
4. Roughly what should it cost from a street stall versus a sit-down restaurant, in VND?
5. What time of day is each dish normally eaten? Which ones will I not find at dinner?

Skip anything that's on every "Vietnamese food" list. I want what's specific to this place.

I want to eat street food in Vietnam and I don't speak Vietnamese.

1. Give me 8-10 phrases I'll actually use at a food stall, with pronunciation written for an English speaker.
2. How does ordering physically work at a typical stall — do I sit first, pay first, order at a counter?
3. What are the real hygiene signals worth paying attention to, as opposed to nervous-tourist superstitions?
4. What should I do about ice, tap water, and raw herbs?
5. If I have [DIETARY REQUIREMENT — e.g. vegetarian, a peanut or shellfish allergy], how do I communicate that, and what hidden ingredients should I ask about?

Be practical rather than reassuring. If something is a genuine risk, say so.

Booking and verification

I'm choosing an overnight Ha Long Bay cruise.

1. Explain the price tiers and what genuinely changes between them — cabin, food, route, group size.
2. What is typically NOT included in the advertised price?
3. What questions should I ask an operator before paying, that would expose a low-quality boat?
4. What's the weather cancellation policy situation, and what happens to my money if the boat doesn't sail?
5. Is a day cruise a reasonable alternative for someone short on time, or is the overnight the point?
6. What are the alternatives if Ha Long is overcrowded or the weather is bad?

Do not recommend specific operators — I'll check current reviews myself. Give me the criteria instead.

I'm booking accommodation in [CITY], Vietnam, for [X] nights. Budget: roughly [AMOUNT] per night.

Don't recommend specific hotels. Instead:

1. Break the city into the 4-5 areas travellers actually stay in.
2. For each: what it's like, who it suits, what's within walking distance, and what the trade-off is.
3. Which area is the most common first-timer mistake, and why?
4. Which is loudest at night?
5. If I'm only here [X] nights, which area minimises transit time given that I want to see [PRIORITIES]?

Review everything you've told me in this conversation about my Vietnam trip.

Now sort it into three lists:

1. FACTS THAT ARE STABLE — things unlikely to have changed in the last two years.
2. FACTS THAT GO STALE — prices, opening hours, schedules, visa rules, anything time-sensitive. For each, tell me where the authoritative current source is.
3. THINGS YOU'RE NOT SURE ABOUT — anything where you were working from limited or conflicting information.

Be honest about list 3. I'd rather have a short reliable plan than a long confident one.

On the road

My Vietnam trip has changed. Here's the situation:

- Original plan for the next [X] days: [DESCRIBE]
- What's gone wrong: [flight cancelled / weather / illness / closure / other]
- Where I am right now: [LOCATION]
- Hard constraints I can't move: [flight home on DATE, booking I can't cancel, etc.]
- What I've already paid for that's non-refundable: [LIST]

Give me three options:

A) The minimum-change fix — what's the smallest adjustment that works?
B) The reroute — if I abandon the original plan, what's the best use of my remaining days from where I am?
C) The salvage — what's still worth doing today, right now, while I sort the rest out?

For each: what it costs me in money and in time.

Tomorrow I'm in [LOCATION] and I want to do roughly: [LIST]

Give me a realistic running order that accounts for:
- Where these things are relative to each other
- What time each typically opens and closes
- Heat and weather at different times of day
- Where I'll eat, and roughly when

Then tell me: what's the one thing I should do first if I only get half a day, and what's the first thing to cut if I'm running late?

Bonus

Use [RATE] dong to the dollar — today's rate from my converter, not your own.

Yesterday's summary, so you have the running total: [PASTE YESTERDAY'S ANSWER, or "day one"]

Here's what I spent today in Vietnam, cash and card: [LIST, in VND]

I'm on day [X] of [Y]. My on-the-ground budget for the trip is [AMOUNT] — that excludes flights, the cruise and anything I paid before I left.

Tell me:
1. Today's total in VND and USD
2. The running total, and whether I'm on, under or over pace
3. If I'm over, which single category is doing it
4. What I'd need to average for the rest of the trip