A WEBSITE FOR EXPATS, BY EXPATS

eodmatt wrote:

And along the way I always managed to pick up a smattering of the language of whatever country I happened to be working in at the time.

But there came a time in 2011 when I was working in Laos, I became ill with stress, very ill in fact. And one day at a meeting where the spoken language was German, I realised that I couldn't understand a word of what was being said. It was all just noise. That night I packed up and went to Vientiane, caught a flight to BKK and thence to London.

My German speaking ability has come back, but its still patchy.

After almost three weeks here on several Greek Islands, I'm comfortable with daily greetings (good morning; good afternoon; goodnight; thank you; we really appreciate your help; may I have extra tomatoes, please?, etc.). No one has corrected my pronunciation, so either they're very kind people or I'm not doing too badly.

Today, I've learned to say, "You're so cute.  I absolutely would adopt you as my grandson."  That was the second compliment to the handsome young bartender where we're staying.  The first compliment I gave him yesterday was, "I love your hair!").  All afternoon long today, he supplied us (spouse and me) with endless munchies on the house, so I assumed he understood and appreciated my garble. (He did blush once or twice.)

We've also got free Greek coffee twice,  free raki (anise flavoured alcohol drink) once, and free Mythos beer twice.  Whatever we've been doing must have impressed the locals enough for the good treatment they gave us.

I'll miss this country when we leave at the end of the month.  This is our 3rd time here but the first time I'm feeling at home in these tiny villages.

Ciambella wrote:

eodmatt wrote:

And along the way I always managed to pick up a smattering of the language of whatever country I happened to be working in at the time.

But there came a time in 2011 when I was working in Laos, I became ill with stress, very ill in fact. And one day at a meeting where the spoken language was German, I realised that I couldn't understand a word of what was being said. It was all just noise. That night I packed up and went to Vientiane, caught a flight to BKK and thence to London.

My German speaking ability has come back, but its still patchy.

After almost three weeks here on several Greek Islands, I'm comfortable with daily greetings (good morning; good afternoon; goodnight; thank you; we really appreciate your help; may I have extra tomatoes, please?, etc.). No one has corrected my pronunciation, so either they're very kind people or I'm not doing too badly.

Today, I've learned to say, "You're so cute.  I absolutely would adopt you as my grandson."  That was the second compliment to the handsome young bartender where we're staying.  The first compliment I gave him yesterday was, "I love your hair!").  All afternoon long today, he supplied us (spouse and me) with endless munchies on the house, so I assumed he understood and appreciated my garble. (He did blush once or twice.)

We've also got free Greek coffee twice,  free raki (anise flavoured alcohol drink) once, and free Mythos beer twice.  Whatever we've been doing must have impressed the locals enough for the good treatment they gave us.

I'll miss this country when we leave at the end of the month.  This is our 3rd time here but the first time I'm feeling at home in these tiny villages.

Greece is a wonderful place. a little like Croatia but without the arrogance.

Hi Julien, I'm going to be running a blues harmonica for absolute beginners workshop in HCMC in November, and expats I've met tell me they are always looking for interesting English speaking events to attend.

I don't want to fall foul of your guidelines re advertising, so thought I'd drop you a line to get your opinion.

Do you think this could be something the community would go for?

I'ts certainly unusual, don't reckon anyone has ever run one like this in HCMC.

Cheers

Kelvin Carlsson

Any one can let me know if ATM's in Vietnam give more than 8 million dong at once?/
And what is the exchange rate into Canadian dollars.
Very important as here in Vancouver they exchange dollars into dong at a really low exchange 1CD = 14000 dong. terrible when in the open exchange is at 18,300.
Thanks

ATM give you 2 to 6 million VND. Some you can find give up to 10 mil. but very rare???
Rate about 18200 VND/CAN$

donjuan1962 wrote:

Any one can let me know if ATM's in Vietnam give more than 8 million dong at once?/
And what is the exchange rate into Canadian dollars.
Very important as here in Vancouver they exchange dollars into dong at a really low exchange 1CD = 14000 dong. terrible when in the open exchange is at 18,300.
Thanks

What Austria said, plus, you can get up to date currency exchange rates here: http://www.xe.com/?r=&cn=global

Thanks for your reply.
I need this information as I will be travelling around Vietnam and taking out money here and there.

Most give 2,3,4 Million dong, but you can take out multiple times, I have taken 3 Mil at a time x 8 to my card limit of almost 22,000,000.  Same machine, my credit card gives me back the bank charges for overseas withdrawals.

IN my case, every withdraw will cost me 5 dollars from my bank plus whenever the local bank charge me. So that's why I need to take as much out as possible

donjuan1962 wrote:

IN my case, every withdraw will cost me 5 dollars from my bank plus whenever the local bank charge me. So that's why I need to take as much out as possible

Look for foreign banks ATMs like Citigroup and HSBC, there's a few in Saigon D1 that give up to 8M. Their fees are incredibly high (60KVND+???) but still better than widthrawing many times.

There are a lot of people who have never been involved in any type of forum before or been a member of any online community like me so we have no real idea of what these forums consider spam like me when I meet someone for the first time my response is usually Hi nice to meet you and for responding to someone for the first time on this site is Hi nice to meet you here but you are calling it spam what the hell how to do respond to someone the time

@Supertaper:  A greeting is not spam,  but a greeting with veiled introduction for Ye Ole Rental Agency, Your Friendly Landlord, Your Trusty Language School, or any other kind of for-profit enterprises is definitely spam. 

If a greeting includes sensitive personal information, then the mods will also remove it.  It's simple common sense.

WillyBaldy wrote:

Look for foreign banks ATMs like Citigroup and HSBC, there's a few in Saigon D1 that give up to 8M. Their fees are incredibly high (60KVND+???) but still better than widthrawing many times.

Withdrawals from Citibank ATM in Vietnam (or in any country in the world) are free of charge if you have an account with "bigger" banks (my term) in Citigroup.

Ciambella wrote:

WillyBaldy wrote:

Look for foreign banks ATMs like Citigroup and HSBC, there's a few in Saigon D1 that give up to 8M. Their fees are incredibly high (60KVND+???) but still better than widthrawing many times.

Withdrawals from Citibank ATM in Vietnam (or in any country in the world) are free of charge if you have an account with "bigger" banks (my term) in Citigroup.

Ah yes I'm sure if you're a client, but I'm talking from a foreigner perspective who wants to do international ATM witdrawal though the Cirrus or Plus networks, you'll get hammered with fees.

supertaper wrote:

There are a lot of people who have never been involved in any type of forum before or been a member of any online community like me so we have no real idea of what these forums consider spam like me when I meet someone for the first time my response is usually Hi nice to meet you and for responding to someone for the first time on this site is Hi nice to meet you here but you are calling it spam what the hell how to do respond to someone the time

As Ciambella said, it's more related to the local real estate agents and business owners using it as a ploy to get friendly.........then BAM, out comes the real reason for posting such a nicety.

Havent found atm able to withdraw >5 million VND in Hanoi. 
TP Bank gives you 5million, it costs 30.000 VND. ANZ also gives you 5 million, costs you 40.000 VND per trx.

Totally agree. I was getting many local trying to sell me property.
Thanks for making expat.com for expats.

Jon

Hello!,

My name is Ha and my husband name is Richard.  We are living in Vinh Long province.  We are thinking about relocate to Da Nang.  Please help!

Thanks!

Ha Bennett

Snowball123 wrote:

Hello!,

My name is Ha and my husband name is Richard.  We are living in Vinh Long province.  We are thinking about relocate to Da Nang.  Please help!

Thanks!

Ha Bennett

You need to be more specific as to what you want to know.  Are you asking about housing (rent or buy), areas of the city, employment for your husband, employment for yourself, medical care?  Then you need to put your specific questions in a new thread in the Da Nang sub-forum or possibly on an existing thread there if you find the right one.  To get into the Da Nang sub-forum just go up to the tree that maybe reads  Forum> Asia> Vietnam> A WEBSITE FOR EXPATS, BY EXPATS and click on Vietnam.  Then look for the search boxes below that have category and location.  Click on All Categories in one and Da Nang in the other.  Now you will be in the Da Nang sub-forum.  I know; not really simple but doable.   

Honestly I don't really know what this thread is for any more.  It just seems to wander from topic to topic and when I asked a question that I thought was entirely on-topic about how to search for things it got deleted. 

It would seem to me that as an apparently bi-lingual person, you should be uniquely able to make the move.  My strategy would be to find a hotel with a good monthly rate in the old city area (Hai Chau district?) away from the beach between the airport and the river.  Use the hotel as a base to scout things out.  Again, as you can read VN websites, you should be in a good situation to find a hotel and follow up with more permanent housing while staying away from the more expensive listings in English.  Bring just clothing at first, then go back and ship any furniture and things like kitchen goods after you settle in to a place.

My wife is from Ben Tre, so I am aware of how rural your province is.  If you will pardon me, it makes even Ben Tre look like a big city.  She thinks Da Nang would be a great place to live too.  I know that she is picking up on my feelings but she definitely does not want to move us back to Ben Tre and I don't want to live in HCMC.  Basically, she wants to be close enough to visit her mother for holidays but not to be seeing her every day.  Perhaps you are in a similar situation.  Vietnamese seem to be generally cautious about moving away from home, but once they do move, they don't seem to regret it.  After all if you moved once to the US, what's so hard about a move to Da Nang?   

Snowball123 wrote:

Hello!,

My name is Ha and my husband name is Richard.  We are living in Vinh Long province.  We are thinking about relocate to Da Nang.  Please help!

Thanks!

Ha Bennett

Welcome on board

As suggested by THIGV, you may wish to open a new thread on Da Nang forum with a more specific question related to your planned relocation.  That will help others share useful information with you.

Da Nang forum

Please take time to browse through the existing threads on Da Nang forum. You may find some helpful information there.

All the best!

What is it that you do for expats?

Thanks.

Jaygeefly wrote:

What is it that you do for expats?

Thanks.

So, I'm going to assume the question is genuine and not sarcasm. After all you did say thanks.

We provide an information format for people planning to move to new places .  We are People who
are expats not tour guides. Most of us are not paid to share our expertise. Those actually running the site would be compensated for doing so, because that is a full time job.

What do you want to know ?

Thanks for reply. I am seriously planning to retire in VN. My need is to buy a landed house with free hold title to provide accomodations and hopefully, appreciation in property value. It is a simple thing in Canada where I'm from as we have no restriction on individual real estate property ownership by foreigners. I take it the VN law does not allow foreign ownership of a landed house with free-hold title?

Thanks in advance. Appeeciate it.

Hi Jaygeefly,

I see you've already posted your questions on relevant thread/s and the issue of ''property ownership in Vietnam'' is being discussed in earnest by some of our forum members on one of those threads.

I'm sure you are getting some important insights into this matter that will help you take an educated decision about your planned investment.

All the best! 

Thanks. I appreciate everyones contributions to this forum.

Hello Senwl,

This would be my first time. So are there any remittance providers other than banks who also do this? As in India, my father used to use a remittance provider to send money to me for my daily expenses in the cities I have studied.

Hi Tarunsonthalia > i invite you to continue on your own topic here for a better visibility. Thank you.

Hello everyone !!  I just arrived to DaNang and really enjoy it !!

I suppose we could all go to work together, meaning we 're all can be the watchdogs for any locals trying to place an ad in the forum. Report to our moderators so they can block them out.

Along with the “reply button” below, there is also a “report” button for reporting spam or abuse etc. Fred and the other moderators do take action quite promptly.

I'm an older lady and I do not appreciate "a  young Vietnamese Chap", who I shall not "name and shame" and who says  "he likes girls"sending me notifications to befriend him.

I'm certainly not a "" young filly", and  I, personally, an most certainly not looking for a "young Vietnamese toy boy"; therefore, I would expect that there be some decorum and locals should refrain from trying to push themselves onto older foreign expats. It's uncouth, insulting and annoying to say the least..

This is not a "Woman seeking ........." or "Man seeking.........." site and therefore shouldn't be treated as one.

Electra1 wrote:

I'm an older lady and I do not appreciate "a  young Vietnamese Chap", who I shall not "name and shame" and who says  "he likes girls"sending me notifications to befriend him.

I'm certainly not a "" young filly", and  I, personally, an most certainly not looking for a "young Vietnamese toy boy"; therefore, I would expect that there be some decorum and locals should refrain from trying to push themselves onto older foreign expats. It's uncouth, insulting and annoying to say the least..

This is not a "Woman seeking ........." or "Man seeking.........." site and therefore shouldn't be treated as one.

Hi Electra1,

This site has zero tolerance for such nuisance.
Please report that PM and the sender to our Admins. They will ban him straightaway, if necessary.

Thank you.

Electra1 wrote:

I'm an older lady and I do not appreciate "a  young Vietnamese Chap", who I shall not "name and shame" and who says  "he likes girls"sending me notifications to befriend him.

I'm certainly not a "" young filly", and  I, personally, an most certainly not looking for a "young Vietnamese toy boy"; therefore, I would expect that there be some decorum and locals should refrain from trying to push themselves onto older foreign expats. It's uncouth, insulting and annoying to say the least..

This is not a "Woman seeking ........." or "Man seeking.........." site and therefore shouldn't be treated as one.

Understood that you find such naive attention "uncouth, insulting and annoying" and rightly so.

However with tongue in cheek I have to say that, from a male perspective I find it a bit sad that I never receive communication from young fillies - and I am indeed an older expat.

All I seem to get are PM's from estate agents looking to try to sell me property 

Still, looking on the bright side, if I ever did need or want to buy property, at least I have a list of people on expat.com who have tried to befriend me for the purpose of flogging me real estate and whom I will never contact for that purpose.

Now, with tongue removed from cheek: a big thank you to the moderators of this site who are generally quick and robust in response to inappropriate posts. 

Hi eodmatt

I must confess that, after reading your e-mail, I just couldn't stop laughing.

Sorry to know you haven't had any "young fillies" calling you. I do hope your luck changes for the better, some time soon. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Regrettably,some of the locals think they can latch on to a "soft touch"and "ride the gravy train", which certainly not happen when they try and approach me.

I'm so glad that Fred was quick to take action and prevent this sort of inappropriate behaviour. It's truly uncalled for.

Kindest regards

Electra

Hi everyone,

@Electra, thank you for raising this concern. Indeed Expat.com is not a dating website. Please report this user we shall investigate and take the necessary actions.

Thank you

Chris
Expat.com

Thank you.

Electra,
Welcome to the forum. We are real people who enjoy being able to provide advice and support each other.
Ralph

Hi Ralph

Thank you Ralph.

Most locals try to "flog" you overpriced homes. However, I've make it quite clear that, I'll never commit to anything I haven't seen in person.

I might be "older"; but I'm certainly not senile.

I'm from Melbourne and have decided to settle in Vietnam, because being a senior on the age pension, its truly impossible to afford a decent lifestyle, as prices of food, utilities and basic necessities have just "gone through the roof". Guess that's why you decided to leave.

All I'm looking for is a basic, 1 bedroom, basic studio apartment, near the beach in Nha Trang Hoi An or Da Nag. I don't want a pool in the complex; all I need is steps or a lift, as I can't climb stairs. If you happen to come across anything like this, I would be ever so pleased, if you'd keep me in mind.

Kindest regards
Electra

Electra1 wrote:

Hi Ralph

Thank you Ralph.

Most locals try to "flog" you overpriced homes. However, I've make it quite clear that, I'll never commit to anything I haven't seen in person.

I might be "older"; but I'm certainly not senile.

I'm from Melbourne and have decided to settle in Vietnam, because being a senior on the age pension, its truly impossible to afford a decent lifestyle, as prices of food, utilities and basic necessities have just "gone through the roof". Guess that's why you decided to leave.

All I'm looking for is a basic, 1 bedroom, basic studio apartment, near the beach in Nha Trang Hoi An or Da Nag. I don't want a pool in the complex; all I need is steps or a lift, as I can't climb stairs. If you happen to come across anything like this, I would be ever so pleased, if you'd keep me in mind.

Kindest regards
Electra

Pity that you don't want to live in Saigon. OK I understand why not and of course there is also the lure of the sea. But in D8 Saigon you can buy a 2 bed apartment in a new modern block, with access control lifts and 24/7 security, for less than 50,000 USD - or rent a similar place for about 200 USD a month.