Kaoboi Bebobp

I get off the airport train and go straight to the 7-11 on the same level and have a quick CP/S&P/7 heat-and-eat meal. The prices for everything are a little bit more than the street 7s. 

Before I started snacking at the basement 7, I had the worst Thai omelette ever in an airside eatery. Pretty sure it was the EFGH wing. 240 baht of tasteless egg and dried out rice. Disgusting.

Two things:

1. From Bloomberg: Chinese tour group arrivals plunged 86% in Hong Kong for the biggest travel period in the Chinese calendar. Everything is empty due to the ongoing protests. Taipei won't be a favourite alternative either. 

2. With Golden Travel Week starting Oct. 1, millions are on the road already, avoiding HK, and seemingly some diverting to Bangkok. 

TAT's triumphant report conveniently ignores the obvious conditions. 

Beautiful summary and on point, Subprime Minister. Your speech writer ought to win the Google Award of the month. I dare say every UN diplomat woke up when all the lie detectors leaped into the red.

I re-entered Thailand three times already this summer on two passports: multi-entry re-entry permit and retirement extension, both in old passport. After the third re-entry, I got a new extension and re-entry permit due to expiring extension (in August) for the new passport.

23 hours ago, mrmalkovich said:

US citizen running a company in Hanoi going on two years now. My two cents.

 

. . . (won't quote the whole thing) . . .

 

 

 

Cheap - yes. If you find anywhere cheaper than Vietnam on this planet, duck. They're probably about to start shooting.

Outstanding, well balanced report. IOW, the unvarnished truth, and I mean both the good and not so good. 

Quote

Food - not that great in my opinion, and nowhere near as tasty as Thai food. A Vietnamese friend told me it's basically war food - that's why everything is boiled to hell and there are a ton of sauces, to help people muscle down food that was otherwise unedible. Theoretically their food is healthier than Thai food but in reality much of the food is contaminated with whatever's in the ground and/or whatever the Chinese sprayed on it to make it grow faster. That's why my Viet friends all tell me to never buy the weirdly goodlooking eerily cheap meat and veg the friendly grandmother is selling in front of my house, and go to the supermarket instead, or best of all, find someone who has relatives out of town with a farm and buy food from them. 

Agreed. 100%. Yet even in the supermarkets, such as Lotte Mart and Coop Mart, I was often turned off by both the look and smells of the meat section and veg sections in the ones in Vung Tau. The Viets haven't learned how to make their food displays look good and smell good, except in Annam Gourmet Market in Saigon, which is staggeringly expensive. A Big C or Tops or Villa in Thailand will not have a smell, unless you're near the fish trays. Overall, the smells are often tantalizing in the Thai supermarkets.

2 hours ago, Vacuum said:

Is that a drunk sleeping it off behind the tree?

Not at all. The flip flops come off as soon as Viet men park themselves on a stool and  lazily read their smartphones or wait for a customer or have a coffee, as they invariably do all day. 

On 9/3/2019 at 6:13 PM, phkauf said:

I echo your point. I recently had a great chat with a young fellow over beers at our hotel and his grandfather was killed in the American War (as they refer to it). He had no hard feeling about America, we both agreed it was mess from both sides. What he really got worked up about was the Mother XXXX'in Chinese as he put it. Most Vietnamese I come across have the same feelings.

They sure do. A Viet waitress in Saigon told me outright, "they are trying to kill us." This was after a discussion about contaminated food secreted into VN from China. Over time, I learned not to mention the Chinese.

28 minutes ago, Burma Bill said:

If this was the bar in a side street that was built right against the monks dormitory - then "yes". How the monks put up with the awful racket I shall never know. On my last visit 2 months ago SR was a little quieter as not so many Chinese among the Koreans, Japanese and Westerners. I did notice several bars and restaurants closed with "For Sale" or "For rent" notices. Tomorrow I travel to SR again so will see "how the land lies". I am also considering relocating to SR and I have several "bona fide" property letting agencies to visit.

Thanks. There were some very good, quality apartments in SR when I hunted around about 3 years ago.  I will probably visit in November. Alas, three of my favourite restaurants closed in the meantime: Black Sands, Rosie's and an American place on St 7 (?) whose name escapes me. 

16 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

And finally for all you "bar stool pundits" there is the nightly Pub Street - much more civilized these days now that the clutter of street mini-bars, electric cables and ghetto blasting music have been banned.

Have they silenced Temple Bar, which ruined the whole Pub St atmosphere with its overwhelming audio attack? If so, this will renew my interest in returning to SR for a look at possibly moving there. Although I suppose the overwhelming Chinese tour groups still pollute the streets. 

1 hour ago, RAZZELL said:

I'm assuming this is the same place?

 

https://www.drmacbook.com/

 

Have used them for a computer and a phone.

 

Very good.

 

RAZZ

Yes, one and the same. 

14 hours ago, sanemax said:

They dont tell you about the incessant noise of the motorbikes beeping their horns , the noise does get mentioned , but not to the extent that exists .

    The beeping is non stop incessant and is the min reason why I couldnt live in Vietnam

After about six months, I thought I was becoming immune to the sound of horns. But it didn't last. Every day, there will be several incidents of guys leaning on the horn all the way down the street or an intercity bus with its over-amped horn or multi-tone horn that pierces your spinal nervous system. During which you issue a stream of colourful language or raise an inconspicuous middle finger. Or you can be trapped in a taxi or Saigon-bound limo van while the driver holds his left hand on the horn button the entire route. Bangkok is an oasis of quiet after this.

32 minutes ago, clorox said:

make no mistake HCMC thai consulate is very ruthless, its easy if you have all your paper work in order for mult non o, i have seen many get rejected because missing document, every time im in there's always someone getting reject either for tourist visa or whatever visa they going for.

going to VN you need a visa 2700baht not cheap, hotel are not cheap either, if you're on a budget don't bother going there.

Balderdash! All the posters before your post report good to great experiences. A friend of mine just got an SETV two weeks ago. Absolute breeze, except he had to get one more photocopy. The counsellor told him where to go downstairs. Finished his application, came back the next day at 1:30 pm for his passport and fresh visa. He had income proof if needed but it wasn't.

A 30-day VN visa is $30 or $35/900-1000 baht via government portal, unless you're from Scandinavia or a few other (lucky) Euro nations who get free 15 day visit. I'm not sure of exact visa fee because I was just living in VN for two years on long-term visas.

Loads of hotels for $25-$35 a night in District 1. It's 130,000-150,000 VND from the airport to D1 hotel.

I've had multiple Apple machines repaired -- phones, laptops, desktops -- at Dr. Smartphone in the FICO Building on Asok, north of Cowboy, same side of street. Jobs well done. There are reviews on their FB page and Google. 

If I'm reading the chart correctly, goods and services exports have contracted, i.e., plunged, 6.1% in Q1 and Q2. (Although I don't really know what "by expenditure approach" means). This continues a trend since Q3 2018. And yet, the director is optimistic about the Thai economy? This reminds me of the rusty ferries plying the Gulf islands.

I have taken Saigon taxis to some non-tourist destinations in D3 and D7. I have taken many taxis from D1 to the airport and the route has 90% of the time been exactly the same, and only varied due to heavy traffic before they constructed the flyover before the airport ramp. Always got there on a reasonable fare and routing. 

I used my Thai driver's licence. No big deal, <deleted>.

I use Grab a lot. From my D1 hotel, near Bitexco Tower to the airport it was 98,000 VND, several times at morning rush hour. Typical fare from the airport to D1 is about 120,000-150,000, depending, as always, on traffic.

As noted above, go straight out of the terminal after customs to the left to either a Mai Linh (green logos but not always green taxi colour) or Vinasun, cream white with a bit of red trim. Walk past any tout not wearing either of these taxi company colours.  Or book Grab. Maybe takes 5 minutes for Grab taxi to arrive. Grab map even shows all the terminal pillar numbers. Yes, each pillar is numbered. 

44 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Remember this complaint related to compliance with China's GMP?

• Thai Durian exporters and orchard growers expressed serious concern about China's recent imposition of GMP certification, convinced it will negatively affect durian exports to China and suppress the price of the fruit. https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1110006-thai-producers-complain-of-china’s-imposition-of-gmp-on-durian/

 

Seems Thailand growers and exporters complied very quickly.

Kerry delivered lots of big brown envelopes the last week or two.