Job Discussion Forums

[Bold As Love]

I have been teaching in Bangkok for about three years. Fairly comfortable life, traveling on the sky train, eating and drinking in British pubs, etc.

I've accepted a job in HCMC starting in August and admit that I have never traveled to that fair city. Contract is for two years, with a small stipend for housing and a reasonable salary. Started this thread hoping some of you locals will clue me in a little bit before I step off the tramp steamer in my white linen suit.

Three issues come to mind:

1) recommendations on good telephone plan... I have a 3GS iPhone and rely on that always-on connectivity. Can I get a monthly plan or do I have to use top-up cards? Who is a good service provider?

2) motorcycles .... Probably will rent one for a while. But I am only modestly competent on a bike. Guess I will just drive slow for a while and hope that I survive the early learning curve. Will by a good helmet and try to buy a used bike after a while.

3) housing ... I hate to move so would like to just drop into something nice right away. Will be working in D10 and D1. Any guidance appreciated. Have a budget of about 500 USD per month. Like to find a small (40-50 m2) high quality place with western conveniences.

4) moving .... Any recommendations on places to store a few bags/boxes of possessions while I make the move?

I enjoy the board and welcome any comments or guidance you can offer.

[mark_in_saigon]

Hello, I am not really qualified on all your questions, but I would say a few things about motorbikes, and maybe housing. If you search a bit, someone references a thread or journal devoted to motorbikes, so you may seek that out. I think understanding the motorbike culture is essential to understanding life in this city. It is a bunch of fun to drive here, if you like the excitement and zaniness of it all. It is also moderately to quite dangerous, your mileage can vary. I think driving slow is not a total solution, you still have to face the crossings and the other drivers, so I am not sure your speed matters as much as you might hope. I cannot speak for everyone, but I am a careful driver in the states, and after learning the process here, I see I am much more aggressive. If you have to be crazy to cross traffic and face the other crazy stuff, at some point it seems a bit useless to be careful for the occasional times you can be. Others may have a different take. You can get out at about midnite or later and try to learn the streets and the system, if you want to learn without facing the whole potato at once. Probably a good idea, much cooler then also.

With reference to particular motorbikes, I see that the nicer bikes are much desired due to the relative wealth here, so lots of the young people have very nice bikes, like $2,000 worth or more. I have also learned that the best all around bike for myself is a restored honda 50 supercub. This is because you can hop on one without a license (50's do not need a drivers license), also because they are extremely durable, quite maneuverable at low speeds and uneven terrain, easy to get worked on, and probably a few other reasons. I will probably upgrade to a 90 drivetrain on mine, or just get a spare and keep the 50 the way it is. I usually come in at a very high position on the nightly Ly Van Sy deathrace around the construction barriers, as the supercub excels at that kind of thing, the narrow passages and hopping on and off the sidewalks, which is a good representation of most of the low speed driving we do here. You can get a very nicely restored one for about $400 and will find you do not need an expensive bike to be noticed, as a westerner. You will be noticed, perhaps more on one of these. Supercub is considered the greatest motorbike of all time, by the way. I would buy, unless you are sure about who you are renting from. There are some horror stories on rentals, like they steal your bike and make you pay big bucks. If you are gonna be here anyway, just get a supercub, you can always sell it later if you need more high end for highways, or keep it as a spare. They really are quite a bargain and tend to run forever.

Housing, you can do fine with your budget. I suggest you go for a hotel at first, to give yourself time to find the right place for longer term. You can get decent enough hotels for about $12 a night or so, which is what I would do until I found a more permanent deal. Also, there is a deal called Jon's serviced houses that specializes in expats, I think his price is well within your budget, I think he has a place in 1, and he makes sure you know that you have private access without a hassle on the "visitor" issue that a lot of hotels have. So that may be a good temporary solution, or even permanent. He goes month to month as well.

My final big suggestion is to find and use local VN people to help you with your life. You can easily find someone to look after your best interests, they know the deal on prices, and will protect you as if you are part of the family, if you hook up with someone who is helpful. Not at all hard to find people who are happy to help, whatever you do for them will be worth the savings they can help you obtain. You can also find westerners who know a lot, but I use the natives for most of my issues.

[Bold As Love]

Mark,

Thanks for the information about motorbikes. Think I'll look around for a 50cc Honda when I get there.

Just got a letter from my school indicating that I will have to go to USA just to get a notarized copy of my local police report. I have one already, and it is a joke: "Mr. *** has no criminal record in this jurisdiction." Meanwhile the guy could have rap sheet as long as your arm in the next county.

I'm living in Thailand now, and wonder if any Americans have a workaround that will meet legal requirements in VN for notarized copy of police report?

[jb0072009]

I have heard that the US econsulate can notarize those now ( I seem to remeber reading that somewhere). If not you can always send your police report to your states secretary of state to be apostolized (some states allow that some do not). I assume you had it notarized when you got it originally. If not then you are in trouble

[mark_in_saigon]

but I have given my brother power of attorney so he is legally able to do this kind of thing. I have used him to manage my rental properties and such, I assume one could use that for the police report and whatever other thing one needed, right? It is pretty broad on paper, he can manage anything, according to the document. I also think you could do a power of attorney thing without having to go back there, I know I could, but I did it before my most recent trip over.

[Bold As Love]

Hmmm .... power of attorney.

That is an interesting approach. I have that in place already with a family member in the USA. Maybe she could use it to have a new police report prepared, get it notarized, and then have it reviewed/translated at the Vietnamese consulate in USA. Maybe she would see it as an interesting bureaucratic challenge rather than a complete pain in the ass!

I just dread sitting in an airplane for 25 hours each way just to fly home for a scrap of paper.

[mark_in_saigon]

Yeah, I think we have to be prepared for anything if we are here, hell, they may have to be dealing with our remains, who knows? Even a walk in the park over here is not a walk in the park. For me, this is not an interesting diversion, I feel that this really has be ones life, it certainly can be ones death as well, so we need to be ready for anything. I think the power of attorney thing is very important, as we need an agent there, we do not need to be going back every time the toilet won't shut off.