Kaoboi Bebobp

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. 

Read the long-running thread on Cambodia Expats Online on S'ville. It's been destroyed. The photos portray massive stinking garbage piles, open sewage runoff, Chinese signs everywhere, no-go zones for non-Chinese, noise and dust from unregulated construction and Khmer and foreigner-owned restaurants and businesses bought out by Chinese for their own kind. Hundreds of expats have left for Phnom Penh, Kampot and Vietnam.

I will assume you will use a credit card to pay for the hotel. But $100US will not cut it for expenses over 3 nights/4 days. That's about 2.2 million VND. A bar/food bill at Phatty's Sports Bar in D1 will hit you for about 500,000-700,000 VND. Bottled beer is 50,000, pints 100,000. A bit cheaper in the Saigon craft beer pubs, 70,000 to over 100,000 for not-quite-pints. 

Taxi from SGN airport (Mai Linh or Vinasun --  stay away from the others) will run about 150,000 down to D1 depending on traffic.

There is NO arrival card for entering Vietnam. As a UK citizen, you go straight to passport control. I don't know if Viet immigration will ask to see a return flight ticket, though. 

Where are you flying from? if Thailand and you're using Thai baht, you can buy Viet dong at the exchanges in Bangkok. Vasu on soi 11 Sukhumvit and Super Rich on Ratchdamri near Central World. But you might call to see if they have enough VND. 

If arriving at Ho Chi Minh (SGN Airport), you can buy VND at the exchange counters. The best one is Exim Bank, to the right after you exit customs. Nearby counter AgriBank is not bad either. The airport rate is the same as the one listed on Exim's ForEx web page. English pounds should be fine. Today's rate at Exim is 28,500 VND to the pound. 

I would not change everything over at the airport. The downtown gold shops have pretty good rates. There's one on Ho Tung Mau, about 150 metres north of the Bitexco Tower, beside the Greek Hellas restaurant that's good. 

I've had a yellow/orange Rabbit card for several years. You can keep buying credit as you need it. But, as above, you have to have your passport or Thai driver's licence (which I used) to register it before you can put money on it. The Rabbit card is also like a cash card. You can use it many places although I don't use it as such. 

On 7/13/2019 at 10:49 AM, phuketrichard said:

I am moving back to Cambodia, ( Kep) next year, My khmer gf has been here for the last 8 years and although loves her job and the food, wants to be closer to family and with all the regulations, leaving money in bank, ( an next year  am sure required health care) changes and costs, Well time for  a bit of a new adventure

Easy visa, cars double the price and less selection, but motorcycles about the same,

Accommodations more an terrible value compared to Thailand,

Local food is ok and cheap but as we own a restaurant with her sister in Kep eating well will not be a  problem.

Cambodia is not for everyone, just about everything, except drinking and smoking cigarettes, cost more, its rough an dirty an the roads, hospitals and such suck  but,

it does have its own charm.

 

AND 7/11 announced they will start building  stores over there!!!!

Now if only Big C will begin construction!!

I see Circle K is in Cambodia now and expanding at a huge rate. 7-11 is starting to build stores in Vietnam and now Cambodia. But I can't imagine the Cambo 7s to be anything like the Thai ones until they build up the supply chain, Or, import everything they sell from Thailand. Which sounds more likely. Still, 7s would be a big improvement on anything I've seen from the Cambodian convenience store chains. 

PS I'm moving from Vietnam back to Thailand next month. Don't know if I can/want to deal with the miserable immigration system BS. Will see. If not, see you in Cambodia. 

So the Aeon MaxValu is closed? That's a big shame. Well, that rubs out the only reason for going to Harbor Mall. But I'm not surprised. All the times I went to the Aeon in the afternoons there were perhaps 2-3 customers, and 2-3 cashiers and a couple of other clerks in the back. The rest of the mall, of course, was empty. 

Well, I wasn't going to contribute anything to this topic, because folks are creatures of habit. What the heck. I haven't used shaving soap/gel/cream/foam/whatever in more than a couple of decades. I use a good quality bath soap made with vegetable glycerin, but nothing particularly special in terms of natural additives. First rule is not to use a soap that dries your skin, which most mass market soaps such as deodorant and detergent types tend to do. First the wash, then the rinse, then lathering. Shaves just fine in the shower. Three of my friends have been doing the same thing for years. 

18 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

7-11 24 hours fresh grind/brew.

Agree 100%. Remarkably decent coffee for 25 baht. But I only drink americanos since I can't have milk. 

It seems though not many Pattaya 7-11s have the coffee machines on the beach side. On the Darkside, most 7s have the machines. Seems like most Bangkok 7s have the coffee service. 

As I'm always just a visitor in Thailand, I favour the 7s. Otherwise, I make my own coffee at home in VN.

On 7/2/2019 at 6:22 PM, Bazt said:

I take it this is different to Visa on arrival as per this site ?
https://vietnamvisa.govt.vn/


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

This is a commercial site, not the VN government site. With the government service, you bypass the Visa on Arrival window and go straight to passport control with a printout of the government issued permission. 

In the set of photos, not one single CCTV monitoring station is manned. Guess the cops can't earn any extra pocket money sitting at a terminal. 

1 hour ago, Katipo said:

I used the fingerprint scanners when I arrived 2 weeks back. Their are clear pictorial instructions that show what needs to be scanned and when. It was unnecessary for the immigration official to say anything. Having said that, the extra 10 seconds or so it takes normal people to use this machines could worsen queues. When you take into account the idiot factor, I can see how delays could be substantial.

And think of the "high season." Europeans and North Americans flooding into Thailand for winter break. What lineups! Oh, wait, they all went to Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar and Bali, Indonesia, Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Costa Rica. 

5 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

So they're doing some fingerprint scanning on exit as well?

 

What four fingers on exit?

 

Four fingers on the right hand for exit. 

5 hours ago, kralledr said:

do they  Scan also on exit?

10 fingers on entry, 4 fingers on exit. Just went through it this week for the first time. 

Regarding water rinsing of veggies and fruits. Multiple studies in Canada and US concluded specialty veggie washes are no more effective than simple mechanical action of water in reducing surface contamination. They do not seem to mention the action of using the hands to help the process along but I imagine it would help. One source: Consumer Reports, March 2015

17 minutes ago, balo said:

You just have to look for imported fruits/veggies and try to avoid any locally produced stuff. Apples from NZ, Blueberries from S-America. Frozen veggies from Australia. There's plenty of options if you look for it. I cook food at home most days anyway.   

Same here when I was cooking at home a lot when living in Pattaya and Bangkok. Best food import source was Villa in Bangkok on Suk soi 33/1. I had switched to imports after repeated reports of produce contamination. Veggies from NZ, OZ, US, Israel, Malaysia, etc. were regularly available on the Villa shelves. I recall another thread a couple of years ago being castigated for buying only import produce when the commenter said he can get great Thai grown veggies in his provincial town. Well, now you know the bad news. 

I noted in the Thai PBS report this little nugget: 

Quote

The lab also found contamination of 33% of imported fruit was over the standard, while 48.7% of locally grown produce exceeded acceptable contamination standards.

That says more than enough to me to stay away from market and supermarket veggies. 

Also, you will need a passport to check into a hotel so they can report you online to immigration. Used to be you could use the driver's licence, but some recent experiences prove that licences are no longer acceptable.

And banks and currency exchanges require a passport. I always take mine with me.

12 minutes ago, blackcab said:

 

A schooner should be 425ml, or three quarters of an imperial pint (568ml).

Very good. Still, the tall "schooner" (the glass was very narrow at the bottom, growing straight up to a wider mouth) at the Aussie Pub sure didn't look like they'd hold much more than a standard 330 ml/12 oz bottle of beer. And I recently was told by an Aussie that schooners can have different volumes depending on the location in Oz. Never been but I am surrounded by Aussies in Vung Tau, VN. All to the good. Mostly. ????