A young man from the central city of Danang has travelled across 10 countries over nearly one month to get a look at Vietnam through the eyes of others.

Bui Quang Binh, 26, started his journey in early May, beginning in Laos and ending at Myanmar. His idea was to visit the capital cities of each country he visited, taking along with him some Vietnamese specialties and photos of his homeland to introduce people from other countries to what Vietnam is really like.

Bui Quang Binh (on the left) with the Vietnamese flag

But he also wanted to know what those people currently thought. So, with a small camera in hand and a head full of questions, Binh set out to ask young people around Asia to describe their impressions of Vietnam and its people.

While many had very nice things to say about the people and natural beauty of the place, there were also some common complaints, such as that Vietnamese people are too loud and the country is not very sanitary.

One male student from Cambodia remarked, “Vietnamese people do things too loudly, including speaking and listening to music. They also drink too much, they love to scream while talking. I don’t understand why they act this way.”

In Binh's own opinion, after comparing life here with what he saw in nine other countries, Vietnamese people waste too much time in cafes. He says that after school, the average young persons in most of the other countries he visited spend time studying or working part-time jobs.

His other impression was that much of what people in other lands knew about Vietnam was formed by President Ho Chi Minh and the American War.

His stop in China focused on the illegally-placed oil rig. He wanted to get actual Chinese citizens' take on the issue. He recorded several people talking about China's actions. Most believed that the issue would be settled peacefully.

However, many young Chinese were shocked to hear that the reality of the situation was much different from the information they had heard.

“I’m a Chinese student, and in school they told us that the spot where this oil rig is placed belongs to China, so I just assumed that China was in the right. I never knew that other countries disagreed," said one overseas Chinese in Singapore.

What do ASEAN people know about Vietnam?

Binh plans to make ten different clips to document his trip. The first, “What do ASEAN people know about Vietnam?” and the second, “What do ASEAN people think about Chinese Action in the East Sea?” have been completed and widely spread on the Internet.