Driver's license question...

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When you get to Vung Tau, tell the hotel you want to rent a motorbike, should be 120.000 or so daily. Try it out. The roads are pretty empty weekdays, totally not like Saigon.
In fact most foreigners don't have licenses, i don't know how tough the police are in Vung Tau.
Generally if they pull you over, it is for turn signal or other excuse and not having a license doesn't matter. You won't have your passport, or insurance, or registration, or whatever. They are right, you are wrong. Keep a 200.000 in your wallet for such times.

If your US state license has motorcycle qualification on it, you can convert to VN license easily with a fixer.  If not, get it next time you are in the states.

A bicycle is another option. Vung Tau is mostly flat, you can get a good Giant bike for $400 or so.

If I end up renting an apartment near the school I end up in, a bike is a good option.
Thanks!

Converting it's an option. May be. In my experience, internaltional driving license was not accepted in the police department. I had to convert driving license for cars and then get the one for bikes. But to be able to get it officially you need to pass test. In vietnamese. There're a lot of schools that provide you an option to skip that and only do driving test, which is illegal. What's more, 2 weeks ago one reporter from Hanoi wrote an article about corruption in police - as he saw how foreigners tried to pass driving test, while they were not able to speak vietnamese .... so now even that illegal “service” is not possible. I was told that it will take anout 1 month till everything settles down...