Vietnam

Drives on the right

Cambodia: Khmer script → Cambodia; Vietnamese = Latin w/ heavy diacritics.

Philippines: English signage + tricycles → Philippines.

Plates white with black lettering - long and short versions

Vietnamese: Latin script with more diacritics than anything else on Street View; words short, mostly single-syllable

Most common bollard: small square concrete, white with red top

Sign posts painted in a red-and-white stripe pattern; road signs have a yellow-orange background (unique within SE Asia)

The yellow-orange sign background is unique within Southeast Asia - outside the region confirm with the diacritic-heavy language.

Waystones white with colourful (red/blue) top - road number on the side, distances front/back (great for pinpointing)

Thailand: Thai script + left-hand traffic → Thailand.

Cambodia: Khmer script → Cambodia.

Chevrons black-on-yellow or white-on-red, typically with only ONE arrow; directional signs blue w/ thin/no border and oddly-angled white arrows

Distinctly short yellow middle dashes; minor roads of concrete blocks very common

Philippines: English signage → Philippines.

Thailand: Thai script + left-hand traffic → Thailand.

Indonesia: Left-hand traffic + black plates → Indonesia.

A-type guardrails with reflectors red on one side / yellow on the other; red-white striped concrete barriers on mountain roads

The two-coloured (red/yellow) guardrail reflectors are very recognisable - standard A-type guardrails elsewhere use a single colour.

Holey poles (holes on lower half or nearly full length)

Sri Lanka: Big holes + Sinhala script → Sri Lanka.

Round concrete poles with indents + small pin holes near the top; upside-down trapezoid poletops; double poles; light-grey electricity boxes (1-4 indented windows, bottom sloping down)

Cambodia: Khmer script → Cambodia.

Taiwan: Traditional Chinese + scooters → Taiwan.

Indonesia: Left-hand traffic + Indonesian → Indonesia.

Motorcycle coverage (bone-shaped blur, one side higher; sometimes a visible helmet) - Gen3 + Gen4; by far the most in the world

Motorbike coverage exists elsewhere, but rural motorbike coverage almost guarantees Vietnam - no other country has anywhere near this much.

Shitcam exists in a few spots - with the same bone-shaped blur (other shitcam countries have a bigger circular blur); only in parts of the Red River Delta

Grain drying on roads

Philippines: English signage → Philippines.

Thailand: Thai script → Thailand.

Addresses on storefronts run specific→general: number → ward/commune (phường/xã) → district (quận/huyện/thị xã/thành phố) → province (tỉnh) - often abbreviated (H., TP., TB.)

Provinces = the key address part - learn names + abbreviations (TG = Tien Giang)

Area codes start with 2 (+1-2 digits), ordered north → south; plate codes (often painted on truck sides) map to regions; some place-name prefixes are regional

Red River Delta: wide, completely flat fields (less commonly Mekong); single graves in the middle of fields; boxy tall multi-storey houses with Greco-Roman kitsch (pillars, pediments - sometimes near HCMC too)

Mekong Delta: extremely flat & water-rich, dead-straight canals with linear villages, dense population, even more tropical (palms, wetland); houses boxy but single-storey

Central Highlands: hilly w/ distant mountains, red soil, dry rolling fields, drier vegetation; black-pepper plantations (vines shrouding tree trunks) in/around the highlands

Crop metas: rubber plantations (thin trunks w/ plastic wrap, dense grid) → north of HCMC + Central Highlands; tea (trimmed rows on hills) → north + Bảo Lộc/Lâm Đồng; khasi-pine clusters → far NE (Lạng Sơn, Quảng Ninh); dragonfruit (wet-mop look) → Phan Thiết + Long An/Tiền Giang border

Coast NE of Phan Thiết: noticeably dry, sandy, partly rocky; wind-turbine clusters mostly in the south (SE of Dalat, N of Buon Ma Thuot, S of Pleiku, SE of Dong Hoi, E of Quy Nhon, offshore S of HCMC, W-Quang Tri)

North: thin roof spires (almost only northern half); NW: traditional wooden stilt houses w/ corrugated roofs + triangular roof openings; grid-pattern stick/bamboo fences (like NE India)

Pole region metas: full-length holey poles → north (half-length = everywhere); few/no pinholes → north; trapezoid poletops → centre+north (3 off-centre incomplete trapezoids → north); triangle poletop w/ supports under crossbar → south; A-shape above crossbar → centre; uneven/off-centre crossbars → south; bamboo poles → rural NW mountains; black pole stickers (Malaysia-like, simpler) → north

Countryside densely covered in greenhouses

Đồng Văn Karst Geopark (far north): rounded pointy mountains w/ sparse vegetation + exposed dark rock (the wider north has pointy mountains too - the exposed rock is the tell)

Island near Cambodia: Gen3 only, dark red soil, forested ridge in the NE

Coastal roads east of Hải Phòng: pointy rocky islands rising from the sea

A single large mountain in an otherwise perfectly flat landscape (NE of the city)

Northern peninsula: sand dunes hugging the road (mostly divided highway)

Historic town south of Da Nang: old yellow buildings with dark brown doors/details

Mountain resort town: touristy stores, excessive signage, palace-like grand hotels (European-SEA style mix)

Beach resorts east of the city: signs with Cyrillic alongside Vietnamese (Russian tourists)