Why are you still in Thailand, not in Vietnam?

[fredwiggy]

1 minute ago, baansgr said:

They are either married to a vietnamese or reduced to 90 day border runs..that's how they do it

I was asking him to say why, as I already knew how.

[Patong2021]

6 hours ago, cjinchiangrai said:

My wife doesn't like the food.

 

Neither do I. Obviously your wife knows quality cuisine. 🤫

 

2 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

Just recently came back from Vietnam, and Banh Mi is one of the things I also miss, along with Pho and other Vietnamese food, and of course the coffee.

 

Pho is yesterday's trendy  dish. I do not eat rat, cat or dog and find the Vietnamese wet markets disgusting. There is a good reason why avian flu and pork diseases  have a reservoir in Vietnam.

 

1 hour ago, fredwiggy said:

How do the over 100,000 expats stay there then?

 

Details old boy, details. Most of those expats are Asians. A small portion are "westerners". Vietnam has many factories and  foreign students. In respect to foreign workers, as Myanmar is to Thailand, Laos is to Vietnam. Also, the APEC agreement makes it very easy for  APEC members to stay in Vietnam.

 

1 hour ago, Yagoda said:

No Bangkok, Communist, Weed is illegal, nasty people.

 

The treatment of cannabis is a plus for many people who  have grown weary of the  stinky  potheads who stink up  places. 

 

55 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

I've been living Thailand over 20 years, never been treated like trash. 

 

I don't know why that merited  thumbs down from some. I too have never been treated harshly as a foreigner. Please accept my thumb up to counter those who are envious of your status.

[fredwiggy]

Just now, Patong2021 said:

 

Neither do I. Obviously your wife knows quality cuisine. 🤫

 

 

Pho is yesterday's trendy  dish. I do not eat rat, cat or dog and find the Vietnamese wet markets disgusting. There is a good reason why avian flu and pork diseases a have an epicenter in Vietnam,

 

 

Details old boy, details. Most of those expats are Asians. A small portion are "westerners". Vietnam has many factories and  foreign students. In respect to foreign workers, as Myanmar is to Thailand, Laos is to Vietnam. The APEC agreement makes it very easy for  APEC members to stay in Vietnam.

 

 

The treatment of cannabis is a plus for many people who  have grown weary of the  stinky  potheads who stink up  places. 

 

 

I don't know why that merited  thumbs down from some. I too have never been treated harshly as a foreigner. Please accept my thumb up to counter those who are envious of your status.

Pho is still very tasty. Good food doesn't go out of style. I was asking him to tell me why expats staying in Vietnam was impossible. I know it isn't, as many stay there by doing what is needed.

[NorthernRyland]

I didn't like Hanoi at least. They were more like Chinese than Thai people are. Such a shame because the weather was so nice compared to Thailand.

[connda]

6 hours ago, JoseThailand said:

So the question is: why are YOU still in Thailand, and not in Vietnam?

I don't have two houses on a rai of land, a wife, and an extended family in Vietnam.

[SAFETY FIRST]

36 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

 🤫

I don't know why that merited  thumbs down from some. I too have never been treated harshly as a foreigner. Please accept my thumb up to counter those who are envious of your status.

Ha ha, I agree 👍

 

Sadly there are a few here with a mental illness, they get some weird satisfaction (I'm sure it's sexual) from leaving me a THUMBS DOWN. 

 

I would always get bombarded with confused emoji's before they were removed. 😂

 

Thank you for your thumbs up 🙏

 

 

 

[Briggsy]

My personal experience is that thieving (sneakily not 'barrio gun in your face style') is much much more prevalent in Vietnam.

[ChaiyaTH]

Most I know that did not have a girlfriend or history here already, let alone kids like myself too, left there since quite a few years now already. Like prior covid that started to happen already. Most I know including a few europeans and americans just did 90 day back to back without issues since that time too.

 

I actually have still considered moving there as there is talks about better expat / digital worker solutions in the future as it is even better for housing prices and schools too. Would not be worried as much about myself or my son visa wise but mainly about her as of being Thai.

 

I guess for many older expats here or retirees, they would not fit in that easily there too. Not with what they have here in thailand at least. Like here i generally come across people who are bitter or divorced at least once from the west while in Vietnam it's happy retired couples in their 50s.

[ChaiyaTH]

8 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

My personal experience is that thieving (sneakily not 'barrio gun in your face style') is much much more prevalent in Vietnam.

Happens as much here as there the difference is that Vietnamese will not play games around it. Same if they dislike you, you will know. I actually dig that honesty.

[Briggsy]

3 minutes ago, ChaiyaTH said:

Happens as much here as there the difference is that Vietnamese will not play games around it. Same if they dislike you, you will know. I actually dig that honesty.

Try as I might, I can't quite grasp the meaning of your post.

 

It seems to say Vietnamese are honest because they steal from you whilst Thais are dishonest because they steal from you. And they both steal as much as each other (I disagree with this last bit but we will let that slide)

 

Could you clarify?

[bkk6060]

Girls are much better in Thailand too conservative in Viet.

[JoseThailand]

7 hours ago, Maxbkkcm said:

Vietnam is hell on earth.

 

Noisy, overpopulated, scams all over.

 

Groomy place, truly a hopeless place.

 

i wonder why people are praising it. Very strange and misleading.

 

Thank you my friend. The whole thread was created just for someone to point that out.

[newbee2022]

4 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

Just recently came back from Vietnam, and Banh Mi is one of the things I also miss, along with Pho and other Vietnamese food, and of course the coffee.

I order my Vietnamese Coffee at Lazada

[KhunLA]

Aside from wife & daughter here, Nan doesn't have a retirement visa.  So can't really put any roots down, so future staying would always be in question.

 

Since no retirement visa, you can't own car or motorcycle in Nam.

 

I'd provide proof of those 2 statements, but new AN rule 39a, wouldn't allow my source to be posted.  So Google yourself if you think I'm mistaken.

[proton]

Food is puke and the music is totally uninteresting 

[Cameroni]

45 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

I order my Vietnamese Coffee at Lazada

Vietnamese coffee is cack though. 

 

Thai and Indonesian coffee are much better. 

 

Vietnamese food is good though. 

 

Too many motorcycles and rude people though. 

[BritManToo]

15 minutes ago, Cameroni said:

Vietnamese coffee is cack though. 

I would say different rather than bad.

Got used to drinking black coffee with condensed milk (50/50 or 70/30) fairly quickly, and  ended up liking it.

Coffee and a chicken roll in Highlands coffee was incredibly cheap $1.50 US.

[flexomike]

9 hours ago, JoseThailand said:

Vietnam is getting a lot of hype now, 40% cheaper than Thailand, easy immigration rules, no problem with border runs or "staying too much", friendly and helpful locals, no fake smiles like in Thailand when they only want your money. Tourists are flocking to Vietnam and can't stop raving about how much they like it. So the question is: why are YOU still in Thailand, and not in Vietnam?

none of your business

 

[KhunLA]

Another plus for TH is the infrastructure, and all aspects of it.  Watched a couple Paddy Doyle YT vids on Nam, lovely country, like TH, but infrastructure was a bit dismal at times.   First couple days there, and he had to wait hours when a few main roads had to be cleared of landslides.

 

Internet and electric service very iffy.  I haven't got the patience to live anywhere less developed than TH.

[Airalee]

Why does it have to be one or the other?  
 

I recently spent 3 months in Da Nang and was pleasantly surprised.  It was night and day compared to my visits to Hanoi in the past (7-10 years ago) with the constant pestering by all sorts of trades from the pedicabs, shoe repair con-artists, cigarette lighter sellers who will follow you down the block and won’t take no for an answer.

 

Doesn’t mean I’m giving up on Thailand.  Just expanding my horizons.  Can’t see how that’s a bad thing.

[BritManToo]

10 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Another plus for TH is the infrastructure, and all aspects of it.  Watched a couple Paddy Doyle YT vids on Nam, lovely country, like TH, but infrastructure was a bit dismal at times.   First couple days there, and he had to wait hours when a few main roads had to be cleared of landslides.

 

Internet and electric service very iffy.  I haven't got the patience to live anywhere less developed than TH.

100% solar now in Thailand, I no longer care much about the grid.

Viet power cuts, not that much, Cambodia and PI were randomly out nearly every day for 4 hours.

[BritManToo]

9 minutes ago, Airalee said:

cigarette lighter sellers who will follow you down the block and won’t take no for an answer.

I always asked then for cannabis, they'd always appear later with some, not expensive if you haggled. They wanted $20, I'd offer $5, we'd always settle on $10.

[KannikaP]

17 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Got used to drinking black coffee with condensed milk (50/50 or 70/30) fairly quickly, and  ended up liking it.

Then it ain't black coffee any more!  555

[Cameroni]

16 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I would say different rather than bad.

Got used to drinking black coffee with condensed milk (50/50 or 70/30) fairly quickly, and  ended up liking it.

Coffee and a chicken roll in Highlands coffee was incredibly cheap $1.50 US.

 

You can drink it of course. It' just that 90% of Vietnamese coffee is Robusta. I'm not an Arabica snob, mixing in a little Robusta is always good, but to drink only Robusta is not my thing. Nor is adding condensed milk to cofee, a real nono .

 

There are a few good Vietnamese coffees, but on the whole Indonesia and Thailand have better coffee I think.

 

Food is really good though.

[Nemises]

5 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

But you can.............https://luatminhkhue.vn/en/navigating-vietnam-s-vehicle-ownership-laws-as-a-foreigner.aspx

 

the link mentions nothing about retired expats

[Trippy]

I used to work with a lot of Vietnamese in the US, they were way too serious. No Thai easy going philosophy. 

And I used to live with a Viet girl, the sex was great but she stole from me to fund her gambling habit. no Thai girl has ever stolen from me.

You can keep Communist Vietnam, I'll stay in Thailand.

[BritManToo]

46 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Then it ain't black coffee any more!  555

I had a Starbucks coffee almond Frappuccino a few years back in London.

They actually asked if I wanted any coffee in my coffee.

[KannikaP]

2 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I had a Starbucks coffee almond Frappuccino a few years back in London.

They actually asked if I wanted any coffee in my coffee.

I can believe it too. 555

[amexpat]

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

Since no retirement visa, you can't own car or motorcycle in Nam.

I owned a motorcycle, licensed and legal. 
Three year temporary residence card available if you make a big investment. Or kind of like here you use an agent - mine cost $3000 USD. 
That was when (covid times)  they cancelled the one year multiple entry visas and required MONTHLY renewals that required large bribes (90 - 130 per month) through agents

Pho is like the worst khao soi I ever had. Bahn mi is ok bread. 

[KhunLA]

3 minutes ago, amexpat said:

I owned a motorcycle, licensed and legal. 
Three year temporary residence card available if you make a big investment. Or kind of like here you use an agent - mine cost $3000 USD. 
That was when (covid times)  they cancelled the one year multiple entry visas and required MONTHLY renewals that required large bribes (90 - 130 per month) through agents

Pho is like the worst khao soi I ever had. Bahn mi is ok bread. 

Can own with long term visa, which I would have no desire to qualify for, as I would need to either ...

... work

... support citizen

... invest large sum

 

So as stated, no retirement visa, no ownership of transport, except bicycle, means no desire to live illegally in Nam as many do, simply skirting the rules, as they do here, by using agents.   NO THANKS