Job Discussion Forums

Bold As Love · Joined: 27 Mar 2010 Posts: 39 Location: HCMC, Vietnam

Any guidance on best places to rent a motorcycle in HCMC? Ideally, something out here in the quiet suburbs in D7 in order to avoid that initial terror ride through D1. I see a few listings on Craigslist and believe that there are lots of rental shops around the backpacker area. I am kind of surprised that there isn't a big bike shop in PMH (oh there is a Vespa dealer with a showroom of shiny beauties, but no rentals).

I don't have a VN person to hold my hand through all this, but any tips on the registration process if I buy one? Also, can foreigners buy a new bike?

vietexpat2008 · Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 18

May I suggest you just buy one? I bought a used bike for 4 million, and I think you can buy a new Chinese bike for around 7 or 8 million.

4 million is very cheap and it avoids the rental hassle.

jb0072009 · Joined: 26 Feb 2009 Posts: 127 Location: Saigon

You can buy a motorbike in your name only if you have a residence permit from HCMC and a work permit. Otherwise you have to find a Viet who has a family book here in Saigon to buy it in their name and then get a contract where they give you the motorbike. Many new motorbike dealers in Saigon will not do this. However you can always find ones that will. For a used bike it is different because many Viets will simply sell you the bike, give you a bill of sale and away you go. The bike still belongs to the seller technically and they can take it back if they want. Remember the law is that a foreigner can not purchase land, car or motorbike unless they have the residense permit and work permit. The only exception is that a foreigner can buy an apartment in HCMC and Hanoi in thier name (new law)

vietexpat2008 · Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 18

Yes, you are not supposed to be able to buy a bike without a permit, but it is pretty easy to buy one anyway. Just keep it cheap so that not if, but WHEN you finally get it stolen by your girlfriend's family, or stolen out of a parking lot, or taken by the police, you can just forget about it and buy another one.

I usually last about a year to 18 months before someone finally gets my bike, so 4 million (around 200 dollars) is a good price to pay Smile

Montanaland · Joined: 20 Dec 2009 Posts: 60 Location: Bakken Oil Field

U need to get your hands on a Hayabusa!

http://www.moto-station.com/ttesimages/motodivers/nouveautes2008/Suzuki_Hayabusa_2008_stpz.jpg

You might stick out a little...but a used one will set you back $4k..and you can boast its the FASTEST production made bike! Ben Rothlisberger (qb for the Pittsburg steelers) almost died on one a few yrs back...but you also don't have to drive that fast... Very Happy

hot_rock · Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 107

Vietexpat2008, what was that all about; "Stolen by your girlfriend's family". Are you speaking from experience? Enlighten us.

You must surely be misusing the word "stolen", or perhaps "girlfriend".

Buffalo Boy · Joined: 02 Oct 2009 Posts: 80

No, he's right. "Family" is the keyword in that sentence.

vietexpat2008 · Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 18

If not stolen, then perhaps "borrowed and never returned." There is always some sort of excuse, like "oh, I'm really sorry, I parked it outside a cafe and when I came out, it was gone!" Sigh.

Anyway, like I was saying, just keep it cheap and easily affordable so can roll with the punches. Sooner or later you're likely to be parted with anything valuable around here, even if you're pretty careful.

jb0072009 · Joined: 26 Feb 2009 Posts: 127 Location: Saigon

I know 2 people who had their motorbile stolen by girlfriend/wife. They had bought them for the foreigner who paid for them. Well there relationship didn't work out and they got taken.They could do nothing legally because the bikes were registered to the Viet

CThomas · Joined: 21 Oct 2009 Posts: 380 Location: HCMC, Vietnam

jb0072009 · Joined: 26 Feb 2009 Posts: 127 Location: Saigon

Some motorbike dealers have a contract form that they you and the buyer fill out. Others do not but you can go to a Viet lawyer to get it done. Make sure it is notarized. The problem like I said is that the bike is still registered to the Viet, not you. However you can sell the bike as long as you have all the papers like registration and sales receipt (even though not in your name) as long as you also have that sales contract. I have sold one bike like this to a Honda dealer. My wife, a Viet had to do the same thing because her family book is in An Giang. So she had to have a friend with a family book in HCMC buy the bike and get the contract done. A real pain and a VERY STUPID law which makes no sense but TIV

chim35 · Joined: 25 Jun 2010 Posts: 35

londo · Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 107 Location: District 7

Not really 'on topic', but, chim35 (is that nick for real, or do you speak VN?), It depends on the girl - like everywhere, even 'good girls' here will expect you to provide for 'everything' and I mean everything, if you don't come through then don't think they will 'love' you like a western woman might. In VN culture love is for family and kids, a man is 'loved' for his 'bring-home-the-bacon' abilities.
They will get constant pressure from family and friends to declare what they have received from you, and you will be the first port of call for all loan requirements until they know that you're going to say no, if she stays after this...well maybe it's something deeper. This isn't just a 'foreigner thing' but applies to relationships with VN men as well.

If she's a girl met in some bar around PNL, well the bill will be presented sooner and might be in the form of the bike registered in her name.

My wife (VNese) has lost 2 bikes, some jewellry, and a couple of phones in 'drive-by' snatches. Me, only one bike in all these years, but countless helmets. I'm too big for a snatch and my house is like a fortress.

As for general thieving, if you leave it around you're gonna lose it, even if leaving it around means sitting on your bedside table in a locked house. If you live in place with few foreigners you are a beacon of (relative) wealth.

Again this is not just a foreigner thing, have you seen how the rich VN barricade their homes? ...there are a lot of poor people out there, and as a foreigner you don't have protection and by protection I mean, brothers, uncles, contacts and local 'respect'....forget the cops, the VN do.

Keep things close, don't flash them, and live in tower blocks or 'expat' areas...doesn't save you from the bad girls though!

hot_rock · Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 107

all fair comments londo but as usual the same old "only live in tower blocks and expat areas" discourse emerges. I live in a perfectly nice room in D3 with a vietnamese woman on the bottom floor and various young couples/students in the other rooms.

The place is perfectly secure; someone would have to get through the main gate, past the family downstairs/through the locked main door, through my bedroom door and into my desk in which I lock valuables just to make sure...and all this without being seen by anyone in there. Don't tell me or anyone else where they shouldn't live, Vietnam is not a crime-ridden country. I find it remarkably crime-free considering the huge population concentration, the rich-poor gap and poor policing.

Just because you prefer to live in tower blocks doesn't mean they're safer. I hate it when people use fear of crime to justify avoiding areas they find aesthetically displeasing.

Anyone reading Londo's posts that doesn't know Vietnam should take his words with a pinch of the old sodium chloride.

londo · Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 107 Location: District 7

As usual, hot_rock you don't get irony,
what i was saying is living like a vietnamese you're going to have lots of security, just like the middle class or rich Vietnamese...old women, locked gates etc etc, if we try to live like we do in the 'west' then we have to do it in 'western' areas, don't think we can live like poor VN and keep the goodies of a westerner...just ain't on...

and as for the pinch of salt...well, 25 years as an expat and too many to remember in Vietnam against...what was it ---4 months?....congrats, 4 months and nothing nicked!, what an old hand you are, as for the Vietnamese being honest, I live here Kiddo, have a Vietnamese family but I or even my Vietnamese family would not describe the Vietnamese as law-abiding and that includes theft...

It is cultural imperialism at its most to suggest that the Vietnamese are happy with their lot, smiley happy, honest people who are not for the most part dirt poor and desperate for cash...your cash if they can.

As for 'crime-free', do you speak VN or have any normal VN friends?, get serious, cut the propaganda, Crime is indeed rife, only a small number of murders are ever reported, there are mafia gangs controlling large areas of HCMC and personal crime, i.e mugging and bag-snatching has increased 4-fold in the last 2 weeks due to illegal football betting debts.
wake up, stop being a tourist-

Aesthetically displeasing -District 6?,5?,4?,8?---look daddy I sent you a photo of the poor Vietnamese...aren't they picturesque....even the VN don't say this city is aesthetically pleasing, so what's nice about them...please tell...I want feel like a real traveller.

Live where you want kiddo, but don't preach or use grassetto with people who live here, and have more experience, and who are not just passing through.

If you don't believe me, talk with the wife, another helmet nicked tonight AND she was threatened when she confronted the woman who did it..oh sorry, she's Vietnamese so it's quaint local colour.