After watching all the stuff available on youtube about Vietnam i expected it to be somewhat backwards and uncool. Boy how wrong i was! The food is just great, people are friendly, the coffee culture amazing etc etc. The overall atmosphere of Ho Chi Minh city is not far from that for Tokyo actually. But personally i'd say i like it more then Tokyo because it is more laid back and people are not as socially awkward and alienated. Also, the damage made by ultracapitalist culture (career obsession and consumption frenzy and all the bizarre trends which go with them) remain marginal from what i have seen and heard from my VN friends.
The only issue is the lack of a decent public transportation system (but that is gonna change as a metro system is scheduled to open in 2018) and the noise so there's room for improvement, obviously.