Noisy Neighbours

Out my way on the edge of the countryside, it seems anyone can make as much noise as they like until about 9pm or 10pm. After that the police will accept a complaint if they are not too busy partying themselves. So I find it way easier just to let my good wife politely sort it out with a visit.  She does not approve of my proposal to "rock their roof", an old standby in country Australia.

The better way you should go with someone who speaks Vietnamese and just tells them, you can't stand this noise till late night. They will accept it as Vietnamese Not too bad, and they understood there mistake. That's is the best way you can deal with this problem.

Collwing wrote:

The better way you should go with someone who speaks Vietnamese and just tells them, you can't stand this noise till late night. They will accept it as Vietnamese Not too bad, and they understood there mistake..

Not always though ... 
VN Express international
( December 12, 2017)

That's the good thing about leasing a place.
If the neighbours are a problem,,tell your landlady your moving out.

She'll soon tell them to behave,,because as a foreigner she's getting ABOVE what she'll get from a local , and won't want to lose that.   Plus the foreigner in most cases will look after the place better & fix things themselves. 

If you buy the place.....harder to move isn't it.

senwl wrote:

Collwing wrote:

The better way you should go with someone who speaks Vietnamese and just tells them, you can't stand this noise till late night. They will accept it as Vietnamese Not too bad, and they understood there mistake..

Not always though ... 
VN Express international
( December 12, 2017)

That news story says:

Thanh Hung said he realized the local authorities would not help him when they told him to either move or try to endure the noise.

Actually, this option was mentioned by someone elsewhere. They've said,  ask a vietnamese friend to speak with the neighbourhood Council head, arrange a meeting with plenty of fruit on offer, with mandatory tea drinking.  (Similar to the coffee and biscuits meetings in the West I guess. The Vietnamese way is probably healthier)

Perhaps Thanh Hung did not take fruit to his meeting! 

Talking to a drugged out nutjob wont go far.

colinoscapee wrote:

Talking to a drugged out nutjob wont go far.

You mean like this (former) Councillor in New South Wales, Australia.

sanooku wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Talking to a drugged out nutjob wont go far.

You mean like this (former) Councillor in New South Wales, Australia.

Not sure I would compare that to a neighbour on ice wielding a machete, but maybe the drug connection has some merit.

colinoscapee wrote:

sanooku wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Talking to a drugged out nutjob wont go far.

You mean like this (former) Councillor in New South Wales, Australia.

Not sure I would compare that to a neighbour on ice wielding a machete, but maybe the drug connection has some merit.

I don't know if using meth is a crime in Vietnam (or indeed a crime where the law is enforced -
Generally, Vietnam has quite severe penalties for drug offenses), but seems causing a public nuisance could get you arrested:

https://tuoitrenews.vn/society/39970/vi … lve-survey

Well, at first I will try to talk with them then if things don't get better, simply report it to the authority.

I have not experienced a day without noise here in HCMC.
Before I moved to HCMC, I was a few times here and stayed in hotels.
It was crazy, but each time they built a new building next to the hotel I stayed.
And they worked also Saturday and Sunday, also until late in the night.

After I moved to HCMC we rent an apartment in the 3th floor in a dead end street.
The acoustic insulation of the doors and windows are generally bad in Vietnam.
So we had the full program of noise: Barking dogs, crowing cocks (not only in the morning ), screaming children, even in a dead end street constantly motorbikes, private karaoke (as always extrem loud and wrong), karaoke from a bar not so far from here, bum-bum bass drums from another bar not so far from here, and finally after some weeks an elephant family moves to the apartment above. And Vietnames (and some tourists) are not able to climb stairs and close doors in a normal way, also late in the night.
And also near here a new building was built (what else  ) . Sometimes they began to work in the night.

Some weeks ago we could move to the 6th floor (the top floor).
Now we only have to endure the noise of the bars (the noise level depends on the wind direction).

If I can not anymore handle the noise, we will resolve the problem by looking for a new apartment. Because it is simply not possible to complain about all noise disturbances.

Moreover, not everyone is equally sensitive to noise.
Only I can not sleep because of the noise. 
My wife does not feel much disturbed by the noise.

I have lived/worked in 37 Countries and Vietnam ranks in the top five as the Noisiest:
1.  Bangkok Thailand, inner city and countryside
2.  HCMC Vietnam - everywhere
3.  Tokyo Japan  -  Never sleeps
4.  Seoul Korea  -  Same Same Tokyo
5.  Manila, Phillipines - Same Same all the above.

@ Andy

I don't think anyone can live anywhere without the noise of you had mentioned. I don't think you can avoid those sounds changing the apartment.

tunnelrat69 wrote:

I have lived/worked in 37 Countries and Vietnam ranks in the top five as the Noisiest:
1.  Bangkok Thailand, inner city and countryside
2.  HCMC Vietnam - everywhere
3.  Tokyo Japan  -  Never sleeps
4.  Seoul Korea  -  Same Same Tokyo
5.  Manila, Phillipines - Same Same all the above.

I thought Japanese always care of others and living with peaceful am I wrong??

Andy Passenger wrote:

...
And also near here a new building was built (what else  ) . Sometimes they began to work in the night.

I hear ya I used to live in a place in D1 (Saigon), where there was a huge building being built on the opposite side of the street. It must have been something that was built on a tight schedule because they were actually working throughout the night every night.

Thankfully, my apartment was on the other side of the building, so wasn't affected. (I was aware of the building work as it was already underway when I moved in). The landlord did show me an apartment facing the building works. It was not only noisy, but looked awful (overlooking the building site).

I think the rent was lower for that apartment. Everyday, I used to walk past it when heading out, and it was unoccupied. With this one the building works was obvious, but sometimes it's less obvious. You might not become aware until you've moved in, because you didn't spot it, or the work started after you moved in. I guess the landlord wouldn't exactly break it to you if there was building works due to start next week next door.

I'm surprised to see Tokyo in the list of Tunnelrat 69 as I found it quiet and serene during my trip to Japan last year.

If you move into a brand new house in Vietnam, you should immediately go on holiday for two years because the houses around you will not be finished and even they are finished the new owners will gut them and reinstall everything.

The dust, dirt and noise will be incredible and the workers will steal anything not bolted to the planet if you don't watch them very closely.

Collwing wrote:

@ Andy

I don't think anyone can live anywhere without the noise of you had mentioned. I don't think you can avoid those sounds changing the apartment.

Maybe you are right.
But I think it depends also on the price level of the residential area.
If you stay in a modern housing complex or a tower with expensive houses or apartments, your neighbours will be more educated. From my experience, better educated people are less noisy and are more considerated of neighbors.

But I don't want buy epensive properties in Vietnam.
My new plan is now to buy a cheap big piece of land in the countryside near my wife's hometown.
Then I can built a big wall arround the property and the distance to the neighbors is not to short .
The money I save, I will use to travel, to avoid that I am not bored in the countryside  .

Andy Passenger wrote:

Collwing wrote:

@ Andy

I don't think anyone can live anywhere without the noise of you had mentioned. I don't think you can avoid those sounds changing the apartment.

Maybe you are right.
But I think it depends also on the price level of the residential area.
If you stay in a modern housing complex or a tower with expensive houses or apartments, your neighbours will be more educated. From my experience, better educated people are less noisy and are more considerated of neighbors.

But I don't want buy epensive properties in Vietnam.
My new plan is now to buy a cheap big piece of land in the countryside near my wife's hometown.
Then I can built a big wall arround the property and the distance to the neighbors is not to short .
The money I save, I will use to travel, to avoid that I am not bored in the countryside  .

Thats what I would like to do too. When we lived in an apartment in Q8 we had a noisy neighbour. I found that an hour or so of retaliation with AC DC at full volume and with the base wound up to near max was quite effective. As was noisily sweeping the floor and banging the skirting boards with a wooden headed brush at about 05:30 was quite effective too.

There are rules about noise in Vietnam and by and large people abide by them, but for the odd puckered orifice, some counter procedure is sometimes necessary.

eodmatt wrote:

If you move into a brand new house in Vietnam, you should immediately go on holiday for two years because the houses around you will not be finished and even they are finished the new owners will gut them and reinstall everything.

The dust, dirt and noise will be incredible and the workers will steal anything not bolted to the planet if you don't watch them very closely.

Yes, I think too.
But for that you don't must move to a new house. 
In the short 4 months we stay now in this apartment (in a small dead end street), the neighboring hotel was modified, 2 houses were compoletly rebuilt, one is rebuilt to a cafe shop and not far, a 6-floor house was buit. 

Andy Passenger wrote:

eodmatt wrote:

If you move into a brand new house in Vietnam, you should immediately go on holiday for two years because the houses around you will not be finished and even they are finished the new owners will gut them and reinstall everything.

The dust, dirt and noise will be incredible and the workers will steal anything not bolted to the planet if you don't watch them very closely.

Yes, I think too.
But for that you don't must move to a new house. 
In the short 4 months we stay now in this apartment (in a small dead end street), the neighboring hotel was modified, 2 houses were compoletly rebuilt, one is rebuilt to a cafe shop and not far, a 6-floor house was buit. 

Yep. Thats the way it is here.   

Sorry, want not post here.
But I can't delete.

Obviously you didn't live in the Ginza Area of Tokyo, its lit up like Las Vegas all night long, flashing lights but no honking of car horns for no reason, sirens yes.  I limited my comments my experience in Asia only.  Don;t get me started in latin America or Africa.

tunnelrat69 wrote:

Obviously you didn't live in the Ginza Area of Tokyo, its lit up like Las Vegas all night long, flashing lights but no honking of car horns for no reason, sirens yes.  I limited my comments my experience in Asia only.  Don;t get me started in latin America or Africa.

Well, Ginza is like District 1 of HCMC so it would never sleep for sure. I just mean that in general Tokyo is quiet and serene while HCMC is covered with noise all the time.

Andy Passenger wrote:

Collwing wrote:

@ Andy

I don't think anyone can live anywhere without the noise of you had mentioned. I don't think you can avoid those sounds changing the apartment.

Maybe you are right.
But I think it depends also on the price level of the residential area.
If you stay in a modern housing complex or a tower with expensive houses or apartments, your neighbours will be more educated. From my experience, better educated people are less noisy and are more considerated of neighbors.

But I don't want buy epensive properties in Vietnam.
My new plan is now to buy a cheap big piece of land in the countryside near my wife's hometown.
Then I can built a big wall arround the property and the distance to the neighbors is not to short .
The money I save, I will use to travel, to avoid that I am not bored in the countryside  .

Well, I like to rent big land in the countryside and grow up vegetables as an organic and this case I will have some extra income rather than build a castle.

We live in a 21-unit / 6-story building where it's absolutely quiet at all time.   No cellphones, no music, no TV noise, no rooster, no horn, no motorbikes, no food peddler.  It's almost like living in the States, for in the 3 months since our move into the building, I saw only one tenant walking out of the elevator when I was already at the building front steps.  No time to say hello.  I've never seen my next door neighbour, don't even know the gender and ethnicity.   We've also never seen anyone at the gym,  the two terraces, or the solarium.  We practically have all the amenities for ourselves since it seems that no one uses them.

Walking out of the lobby door, there's nothing to be heard either.  There's a very small coffee shop that caters to the staff of the buildings on that street, with a handful of people at lunch time -- not enough of a crowd to create a buzz.

However, a dozen steps to the corner, turn, and there it is, a major street, but a rare street with wide to very wide sidewalk and without street vendors or motorbikes blocking pedestrians' way -- except between 5pm and 7pm when motorcyclists ride on the sidewalk to get ahead of traffic.  The sidewalk is wide and empty so they have enough room to pass each other or ride two abreast.

Collwing wrote:

Well, I like to rent big land in the countryside and grow up vegetables as an organic and this case I will have some extra income rather than build a castle.

That sounds good. 
I like organic healthy food.
If I can find a nice piece of land I can imagine also to grow up organic vegetables.
But probably more for self-consumption.
When the time comes, I'll ask you for your advice. 

Ciambella wrote:

We live in a 21-unit / 6-story building where it's absolutely quiet at all time.   No cellphones, no music, no TV noise, no rooster, no horn, no motorbikes, no food peddler.  It's almost like living in the States, for in the 3 months since our move into the building, I saw only one tenant walking out of the elevator when I was already at the building front steps.  No time to say hello.  I've never seen my next door neighbour, don't even know the gender and ethnicity.   We've also never seen anyone at the gym,  the two terraces, or the solarium.  We practically have all the amenities for ourselves since it seems that no one uses them.

Walking out of the lobby door, there's nothing to be heard either.  There's a very small coffee shop that caters to the staff of the buildings on that street, with a handful of people at lunch time -- not enough of a crowd to create a buzz.

However, a dozen steps to the corner, turn, and there it is, a major street, but a rare street with wide to very wide sidewalk and without street vendors or motorbikes blocking pedestrians' way -- except between 5pm and 7pm when motorcyclists ride on the sidewalk to get ahead of traffic.  The sidewalk is wide and empty so they have enough room to pass each other or ride two abreast.

Do you really speak about HCMC? 
Which District?
Or is it very expensive?

We are going to look for a new apartment. Maybe in D7.
D9 looks also more quite and not so crowded. But D9 is too far.

Andy Passenger wrote:

Ciambella wrote:

We live in a 21-unit / 6-story building where it's absolutely quiet at all time.   No cellphones, no music, no TV noise, no rooster, no horn, no motorbikes, no food peddler.  It's almost like living in the States, for in the 3 months since our move into the building, I saw only one tenant walking out of the elevator when I was already at the building front steps.  No time to say hello.  I've never seen my next door neighbour, don't even know the gender and ethnicity.   We've also never seen anyone at the gym,  the two terraces, or the solarium.  We practically have all the amenities for ourselves since it seems that no one uses them.

Walking out of the lobby door, there's nothing to be heard either.  There's a very small coffee shop that caters to the staff of the buildings on that street, with a handful of people at lunch time -- not enough of a crowd to create a buzz.

However, a dozen steps to the corner, turn, and there it is, a major street, but a rare street with wide to very wide sidewalk and without street vendors or motorbikes blocking pedestrians' way -- except between 5pm and 7pm when motorcyclists ride on the sidewalk to get ahead of traffic.  The sidewalk is wide and empty so they have enough room to pass each other or ride two abreast.

Do you really speak about HCMC? 
Which District?
Or is it very expensive?

We are going to look for a new apartment. Maybe in D7.
D9 looks also more quite and not so crowded. But D9 is too far.

Ciambella talking about another world because it can't be in HCMC or whole Vietnam

Those of us who saw the movie knows what happens in district 9...

  In other worlds..?       Perhaps...     

Bazza139 wrote:

Those of us who saw the movie knows what happens in district 9...

  In other worlds..?       Perhaps...     

For nondedicated: What you talking about? 

Collwing wrote:

Andy Passenger wrote:

Do you really speak about HCMC? 
Which District?
Or is it very expensive?

Ciambella talking about another world because it can't be in HCMC or whole Vietnam

Nope, not another world, although it's not an expat's enclave.  It's Saigon, or specifically, off Nguyễn Văn Trỗi in Phú Nhuận, a block from the border of Q3.   

I don't know whether or not you consider our rent expensive.  It's 12.5 million.

Ciambella wrote:

Collwing wrote:

Andy Passenger wrote:

Do you really speak about HCMC? 
Which District?
Or is it very expensive?

Ciambella talking about another world because it can't be in HCMC or whole Vietnam

Nope, not another world, although it's not an expat's enclave.  It's Saigon, or specifically, off Nguyễn Văn Trỗi in Phú Nhuận, a block from the border of Q3.   

I don't know whether or not you consider our rent expensive.  It's 12.5 million.

Lucky you! 
Quite and not aloof.
12.5 million is in my budget range. 

Ciambella wrote:

.. It's almost like living in the States, for in the 3 months since our move into the building, I saw only one tenant walking out of the elevator when I was already at the building front steps.  No time to say hello.  I've never seen my next door neighbour, don't even know the gender and ethnicity...

Just a gentle reminder about the young frenchman you've seen in your building now and then. Also, that you exchanged greetings not once but twice. I'm just going by one of your previous posts on another thread:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 70#3967474

Thank you for the reminder.  The man moved out, BTW, I didn't know when.  Didn't even know which floor he lived in.  I asked the bookkeeper/manager, and she said he married a Vietnamese  woman (slightly older than he, so it's not the typical Westerner-Vietnamese marriage) and took her home to Tournefeuille.

Andy Passenger wrote:

Lucky you! 
Quite and not aloof.
12.5 million is in my budget range. 

For that price you can find a nice plush apartment, complete with full kitchen, gym and swimming pool. No worries. Eat healthy (vietnamese food is always healthy) and lead active lifestyle. 

You're right about the clientele. Generally, I would say that if the building attracts businessman, engineers, lawyers, doctors.. retired folk, then it's likely to be a quiet building. Maybe even a quiet area! (as they are usually drawn by serenity. They probably wouldn't live above a noisy cafe right?). So, it works both ways I guess.

BTW, what is the contract length of the place you are at now?

And what about the place you are looking for?. Keep in mind that most places ask for minimum contract length of 6 months. If you want to rent for three months you would reduce your choices quite a bit. Some landlords agree if you negotiate or agree to a slightly higher rent.

If you don't have a specific reason to live in Saigon itself (e.g..work requires it or need to be close to the airport), then how about explore a bit further out like Thủ Dầu Một. I believe it takes only 1hr-1.5hrs to drive to/from Saigon. Probably a longish commute, but otherwise it's okay, i reckon.

There are lots of posts on here about expats curious about the place.

@sanooku
Today we had a look to an apartment in D2 (in the upper river bend) and signed the deposit contract. It's a little far (maybe the new river taxi is an easy way to go from D2 to D1), but it seems to be more quite, not so crowded and with better air than in Cau Ong Lanh, D1.
It's a serviced apartment for 9 Million a month, 3 month minimum rental.
And we can also rent a parking lot in the same house when we buy a car.
And I hope I am able to drive motorbike in D2. 
Here in D1 or other also Districts, I really scared driving motorbike. 

There is no contarct for the current apartment, but the landlord agreed that we can move already next week (maybe we loose the deposit of 7.5 Million).

Our plan is to buy a piece of land in the countryside in Long An (home province of my wife).
Until we have found that land (and built a house), we want stay in HCMC at a quite place but with street food and small markets near.
I know D2 is a little far for to go to Long An. But we will see.
When we see it is too tiring always to drive to Long An, we can move again. 

Andy Passenger wrote:

@sanooku

And I hope I am able to drive motorbike in D2. 
Here in D1 or other also Districts, I really scared driving motorbike. 

@Andy Passenger:

Riding Motorbike. I eased into it by riding pillion on Grab/Uber, then hired bike in D7 and rode in to D1 (in the afternoon when it's not busy). Howevr, scene similar to pic below is perfectly normal in D1 during rush hour:



and this, anywhere in Vietnam: