Relocating to Vietnam ?

[White Christmas13]

4 minutes ago, sanemax said:

What I meant was that your statics and road deaths in Thailand and Vietnam doesnt show that Thai roads are more dangerous than Vietnamese roads .

  If you get hit by a motorbike , you probably wouldnt die and thus wouldnt be counted as a road fatality .

  What are the motorbike accident statistics for Thailand and Vietnam ?

Look I don't like to argue leave it at that we can sit here all night

and argue I am not a person who likes to do that just accept

what I think and I accept yours

[White Christmas13]

24 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Re speaking to young women, I've always found the speaking part to be highly overrated....

 

Re the photo above, the one on the left looks kind of Thai to me....

yes the one one the right looks much better

[sanemax]

1 minute ago, White Christmas13 said:

Look I don't like to argue leave it at that we can sit here all night

and argue I am not a person who likes to do that just accept

what I think and I accept yours

Have you been to both Thailand and Vietnam , thus giving you a valid opinion about the situation ? 

[geoffbezoz]

2 minutes ago, White Christmas13 said:

yes the one one the right looks much better

But there again you never look at the mantle piece when poking the fire as they say.????

[White Christmas13]

3 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Have you been to both Thailand and Vietnam , thus giving you a valid opinion about the situation ? 

yes I lived in Thailand for many years and in Vietnam for a few I lived in Laos as well

but not for very long and I visited China many times I been all over Europe I am not a newbie

[White Christmas13]

3 minutes ago, geoffbezoz said:

But there again you never look at the mantle piece when poking the fire as they say.????

Come on don't be like that

[amexpat]

38 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Re speaking to young women, I've always found the speaking part to be highly overrated....

 

Re the photo above, the one on the left looks kind of Thai to me....

You mean chubby?

[sanemax]

6 minutes ago, White Christmas13 said:

yes I lived in Thailand for many years and in Vietnam for a few I lived in Laos as well

but not for very long and I visited China many times I been all over Europe I am not a newbie

OK, disregarding road fatalities , because they mostly involve cars and trucks , IMO , you are far more likely to come into collision with a motorbike in Vietnam than you are in Thailand .

  As many of the streets in Vietnam are unwalkable ,  you often have to walk on the road and driving standards in Vietnam are much worser than in Thailand and there reason why there are more road fatalities in Thailand is because there are more cars and thus more deaths because car accidents have more facilitates than motorcycle accidents 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

52 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Isn't there still some kind of law in Vietnam making it illegal for a foreigner to stay overnight in the same place with a Vietnamese woman other than his wife???  Doesn't that crimp the recreational activities a bit?

 

Here's what I was thinking of above:

 

Quote

You Technically Can’t Hook Up with a Local

This might sound like something right out of an old school “How to Be a Proper Asian” guidebook – which may or may not exist – but it’s actually against the law to engage in a non-marital sexual relationship and cohabitation with a Vietnamese citizen if you are a foreigner. Of course, this might come across as a major paradox if you consider the dodgy happenings right out of Bui Vien. The good news is: the authorities are not that bothered by it these days.

If you decide to take your relationship to the next level by getting married or having kids, make sure you get permission from the Vietnamese authorities. Any children born in Vietnam to unmarried parents cannot have the father’s name on the birth certificate.

 

 

https://www.citypassguide.com/en/living/ho-chi-minh-city/real-estate/blog/20-vietnamese-laws-every-expat-should-know

 

 

Quote

 

2. Re: Hotel rules for engaged Vietnam lady and me from US-Saigon

Nov 1, 2010, 3:37 AM

 

While you can get away with it in mini hotels and sometimes 3 star hotels anything above and you really are in the land of the unknown. Only in the mini hotels have I not had a problem or when on a tour, even staying in 4 star hotels. But booked separately it's quite often a no go area. Yes, she could visit during the day but stay after 10pm. No chance!

 

As the following shows on various booking sites i.e. hotel.com when dealing with Vietnamese hotels (Sheraton in this case) hotels.com/ho208411/… and the same also from A&EM Corp tripotic.com/AEM-Corp-Le-Prince-Hotel-Ho-Chi…

 

Notifications:

Under Vietnamese law, a guest who is not a Vietnamese citizen cannot share a room with a Vietnamese citizen without proof of marriage to each other. Otherwise, a second room must be booked.

 

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293921-i8432-k4025971-Hotel_rules_for_engaged_Vietnam_lady_and_me_from_US_Saigon-Vietnam.html

 

Just how often this rule is enforced seems to be a bit of an open question, though clearly it has created problems for various people at various times in various places.

 

 

 

[IraqRon]

just returned from da nang, hoi an, wei, and sai gon. in d a, did not see any grotty rest., plenty of convenience stores, atms, no motor cycles driving wrong way, just walk and they miss you. never saw one accident, but yes they park on sidewalks, as do thais.  wide streets clean, lots of roundabouts where traffic flows , not like thailand.  hotels cleaner, better fitted and serviced than thai ones in same price range.  in hoi an, of course lots of tourist, many of which were viet and chinese.  in short, i have to think your post is bs to the max.

[White Christmas13]

5 minutes ago, sanemax said:

OK, disregarding road fatalities , because they mostly involve cars and trucks , IMO , you are far more likely to come into collision with a motorbike in Vietnam than you are in Thailand .

  As many of the streets in Vietnam are unwalkable ,  you often have to walk on the road and driving standards in Vietnam are much worser than in Thailand and there reason why there are more road fatalities in Thailand is because there are more cars and thus more deaths because car accidents have more facilitates than motorcycle accidents 

I thought we finish, it is to late for me to search for all the details

 

[BritManToo]

8 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Just how often this rule is enforced seems to be a bit of an open question, though clearly it has created problems for various people at various times in various places.

Those links all have 2010 written on the, the world moved on, Thailand got more restrictive, Vietnam eased up.

My hotel in Saigon (January) had a sign on the wall, "visitors in your room must leave ID at the front desk"

Which is exactly what the waitress from my local Viet restaurant did when she came to visit me one afternoon.

The other two massage girls I made friends with (April) had very nice private upstairs rooms in their massage parlour, with aircon and a lock on the door (I didn't need ID to visit their rooms).

 

Zero problems.

[Spidey]

6 minutes ago, sanemax said:

OK, disregarding road fatalities , because they mostly involve cars and trucks , IMO , you are far more likely to come into collision with a motorbike in Vietnam than you are in Thailand .

  As many of the streets in Vietnam are unwalkable ,  you often have to walk on the road and driving standards in Vietnam are much worser than in Thailand and there reason why there are more road fatalities in Thailand is because there are more cars and thus more deaths because car accidents have more facilitates than motorcycle accidents 

75% of road fatalities in Thailand involve a motorcycle.

 

If crossing the road in Saigon, get upwind of a local and stick close to them as they cross the road. Works for me.

 

I founds the locals keen to take an interest in me in Vietnam. Friendlier than Thailand.

 

The women are stunning but not as availiable although I never had a problem finding a friend for the night. The guys coming up to you on their motorbikes and offering you a girl are generally straight. Bargains to be had there.

 

The various noodle dishes were delicious but I also got addicted to the baguettes from the street carts. A legacy from the French colonial days but the Viets do them even better than the French now.

[sanemax]

1 minute ago, IraqRon said:

just returned from da nang, hoi an, wei, and sai gon. in d a, did not see any grotty rest., plenty of convenience stores, atms, no motor cycles driving wrong way, just walk and they miss you. never saw one accident, but yes they park on sidewalks, as do thais.  wide streets clean, lots of roundabouts where traffic flows , not like thailand.  hotels cleaner, better fitted and serviced than thai ones in same price range.  in hoi an, of course lots of tourist, many of which were viet and chinese.  in short, i have to think your post is bs to the max.

I was talking solely about Danang , There were just a handful of 7/11 Style convince stores , if you stayed by the beach , you may not have seen any grotty restaurants , because everything is new in that area , but there were many grotty restaurants in the city .

   I did see numerous motorbikes speeding going on the wrong side of the road , dont know how you couldnt have seen any .

  Although Thais do indeed park they bikes on the streets , it happens to a greater extent in Vietnam , some streets are like car parks and there is also many other things cluttering up the streets , meaning that you cannot walk along the streets .

   There were some big wide roads , I didnt say that there wasnt , but these roads were even more difficult to cross , due to bikes speeding , going the wrong way and not always stopping at red lights .

   A photo taken last week in Hoi An

[Inn Between]

2 hours ago, Mahseer said:

How about elsewhere in Vietnam? Hoi An down the road from Danang is far more laid back and consider Da Lat which has more of a temperate climate.

 

 

 

I'm also curious about this general idea. I've thought about exploring some areas of Vietnam with the intention of finding a suitable location for a longish stay to test the water. I don't like big or crowed cities and hope to hear about some positive experiences in more laid-back areas that don't feature trying to dodge flying scooters.  

 

As for the road danger in Vietnam compared to Thailand, a quick search returns this info: 

 

Thailand has the second highest road traffic fatality rate in the world at 36.2 per 100 000 with an annual estimate of over 24 000 deaths or 66 deaths every day.

 

According to the World Health Organization, on average, road traffic accidents kill approximately 14,000 people in Vietnam every year (38 per day, btw) and are the leading cause of death among those aged between 15 and 29 years. Motorcyclists account for more than half of the fatalities.

 

So, if Vietnam has a population of 95 million, and Thailand has a lower population of 69 million people, yet Vietnam sees 10,000 fewer road fatalities a year, wouldn't it indicate that Thailand's roads are approximately twice as dangerous?

 

The last bit of info about Vietnam and motorcycle deaths seems to easily confirm comments made about a lot of reckless idiots there riding them  

 

 

[CanuckThai]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

You make eye contact with the m/c drivers and step into the road at a steady pace while maintaining eye contact.

Magically they all miss you (cars and busses as well), while in Thailand they would have run you down.

 

It's very easy once you know the rules, you just need to gather your courage for the first few crossings.

I've been back and forth (Viet/Thai) quite a few times now.  I find the motorcycle traffic congested, but everyone seems to go with the flow.   Strange, I'm actually impressed with the traffic flow, and folks showing courtesy, considering the overwhelming traffic.   I find the food situation....amazing.  Very similar to being in Bangkok or Pattaya, as far as selection and various street food vendors.  It just takes a little rooting around, to find your bearings and where the concentration of the style of food you're hankering, is.   Are all things better?  To each their own, but it's definitely a solid and viable plan B. 

 

IMO, I've always made my village or borough (in a bigger city) mine.  4 or 5+ square blocks, that has everything I want or need close by.  Things have changed, but my only must haves within walking distance, used to be my bookstore, my coffeeshop and my pub that served breakfast.  Anything above and beyond, was a semi planned hunter/gather expedition.  

[sanemax]

14 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Those links all have 2010 written on the, the world moved on, Thailand got more restrictive, Vietnam eased up.

My hotel in Saigon (January) had a sign on the wall, "visitors in your room must leave ID at the front desk"

Which is exactly what the waitress from my local Viet restaurant did when she came to visit me one afternoon.

The other two massage girls I made friends with (April) had very nice private upstairs rooms in their massage parlour, with aircon and a lock on the door (I didn't need ID to visit their rooms).

 

Zero problems.

Would it be possible not to get onto the subject of prostitution, sex and massages in this thread ?

[rumak]

5 hours ago, sanemax said:

Just a few photos .

First one that was 10 000 Dong per portion , 2 ND 15 K per baguette , local beer 15 K per can (nice beer) , food in a better restaurant 100 000 K , forgot how much the other photos costed

I only see one photo out of the whole bunch which has something that would give me an appetite.

[sanemax]

19 minutes ago, IraqRon said:

just returned from da nang, never saw one accident, in short, i have to think your post is bs to the max.

There you go , a photo taken of a motorcycle accident last week in Danang

[Spidey]

3 minutes ago, sanemax said:

There you go , a photo taken of a motorcycle accident last week in Danang

Saigon is a very cosmopolitan city. There you go a photo of a cosmopolitan friend in Saigon.

 

[geoffbezoz]

7 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Saigon is a very cosmopolitan city. There you go a photo of a cosmopolitan friend in Saigon.

 

Looks like she could give Miss Whiplash a run for her honey 

[Mahseer]

5 hours ago, GeKoSc said:

Next time in Hanoi I would look for a hotel near the lake where traffic and noises are lesser and it would be easier to find a large supermarket

Check the area around St Joseph's. It's 5 minutes walk west of the lake and plenty going on around there at night. 

[ballpoint]

I've been travelling to Vietnam for work and pleasure fairly regularly since the late 80's, and did an extended assignment there from 2006 - 2010, where I alternated 4 weeks working in VungTau and 4 weeks home in Thailand for 3 years, followed by the same in HCMC for 2.  Since then I've worked a week or 2 there every 2 - 3 months.  It's a nice place for a holiday, and I enjoyed travelling there for work, but I wouldn't want to live there full time.  The infrastructure is far poorer than Thailand, and these days many Thai provincial cities are better equipped for "western living" than even HCMC is.  Of course, some may find that a benefit, but anyone making a decision on where to relocate to based on a short holiday needs to take a step back and reconsider their decision.  (And that goes for anywhere, not just Vietnam).

[watcharacters]

1 hour ago, White Christmas13 said:

road fatalities in Vietnam is about 24 Thailand 36

 

Is that per hour, per day or per month?

 

Yeah the motorcycle driving patterns in Vietnam are not very pleasant to deal with, but other than that is is a very attractive country.

[tideout]

Whatever view you have of Ho Chi Minh from the tourist/backpacker district is limited. HCM is a growing sprawl of districts but most of it wouldn't be particularly interesting to foreigners I wouldn't think. 13 million and growing by 200,000/year without any real city planning. The traffic is suffocating for the volume of traffic and the growing pollution problem. People will say that the Vietnamese don't walk anywhere and it's true. The sidewalks are often filthy or just impassable which means a typical walk to the store will involve you walking half of it in the street. There is some good food here but you have to be careful regarding the food safety handling issues. It's a pale version of what you'd find in BKK, Pattaya for foreign food etc....

 

I wasn't surprised to see how beautiful Thai women are but you might be surprised to see how many pretty Vietnamese women there are. Unfortunately, I'd guess the failure rate might be in the 80%-90% range. It's really a very untrustworthy environment that way. 

 

The effect on people's socializing and getting out can be substantial due to the congestion, heat, pollution etc....a lot of foreigners I know who have been here for 4+ years, barricade themselves inside and try to deal with the outside world as little as possible. The older guys who retire here all seem bored to me. I wouldn't want a retirement here regardless of the visa situation.

[White Christmas13]

4 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

 

Is that per hour, per day or per month?

 

Yeah the motorcycle driving patterns in Vietnam are not very pleasant to deal with, but other than that is is a very attractive country.

can you add the girls

[tideout]

Just now, ballpoint said:

I've been travelling to Vietnam for work and pleasure fairly regularly since the late 80's, and did an extended assignment there from 2006 - 2010, where I alternated 4 weeks working in VungTau and 4 weeks home in Thailand for 3 years, followed by the same in HCMC for 2.  Since then I've worked a week or 2 there every 2 - 3 months.  It's a nice place for a holiday, and I enjoyed travelling there for work, but I wouldn't want to live there full time.  The infrastructure is far poorer than Thailand, and these days many Thai provincial cities are better equipped for "western living" than even HCMC is.  Of course, some may find that a benefit, but anyone making a decision on where to relocate to based on a short holiday needs to take a step back and reconsider their decision.  (And that goes for anywhere, not just Vietnam).

This is really true and you can add places like Da Nang, Hoi An etc....really lovely for a couple of days but what are you going to do after that? Most people I know love the break from HCM but realize that the stay in the outer areas is a break and not a great place for many people.

[smo]

7 hours ago, sanemax said:

 

The hat and pouty lips remind me of Maria Schneider (gone too soon...) in "Last Tango in Paris."  A second career as fashion photographer or a portraiturist awaits (if it wasn't your first already.) Basically the ability to evoke beauty from just a few essentials (white skin, red lips, hat strategically adorned...) Something a man can hang up in his living room and fantasize - without invoking the wife's wrath...

 

Re eye contact when crossing the street in VN, I remember several instances I had to do that with (mostly) VNmese (car)drivers when crossing the streets in Little Saigon, California. Their eye contact means something else, an acknowledgement that you, the one on foot, realize the impact of metal upon flesh, therefore that tactic of a second is the time allotted you (in my case as a visitor) to literally jump out of the path of a coming car, no matter I was stepping inside the zebra markings of a pedestrian crosswalk. Then I started noticing something else, the local papers would post one or two pedestrian fatalities every other day. Usually it involved a senior, probably someone who was too slow or too weak to save themselves.

[Beggar]

6 hours ago, sanemax said:

Not possible to make eye contact with 50 different motorcycle drivers , when they are coming from six different direction at speed and driving on the wrong side of the road .

   You are putting yourself at risk everytime you cross the road

No need to make eye contact. Just cross the road in a predictable way and nothing will happen to you. When I cross the road here in Pattaya I am really scared. But I never had this feeling in Vietnam since they are used to drive in such a way. I was always fascinated to watch crossings where no one stops and nothing happens. You can find videos on YouTube showing this. 

[madmen]

3 hours ago, IraqRon said:

just returned from da nang, hoi an, wei, and sai gon. in d a, did not see any grotty rest., plenty of convenience stores, atms, no motor cycles driving wrong way, just walk and they miss you. never saw one accident, but yes they park on sidewalks, as do thais.  wide streets clean, lots of roundabouts where traffic flows , not like thailand.  hotels cleaner, better fitted and serviced than thai ones in same price range.  in hoi an, of course lots of tourist, many of which were viet and chinese.  in short, i have to think your post is bs to the max.

coming from Iraq anything would be a major improvement. You sure you were in Vietnam? Thats the total opposite of my experience