Job Discussion Forums

[FGT]

So dmb has had a sex change! How come Ghost is the first to know? dmb, is there something you want to tell us?

Ghost - if you were happy in those places you listed, why did you leave? Why don't you return? Why do you travel to places that you've already decided you won't like?

[dmb]

I didn't realise that I had either

[Albulbul]

Ghost is a misanthrope. That explains all these posts.

[ghost]

Ajarn Miguk - you state that most people in Vietnam are happy to teach there....it would be interesting to know what keeps them here, bearing in mind some of the nasty conditions they have to confront every day just to get to work - the horrendous traffic in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, for example.

One was offered work in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) at a place called AUSP (Australian Institute for Language Studies) in District 3 Saigon. The pay is $12 an hour, and one would have raked in around $1000 month for 20 hours a week.

However just getting from District one to District 3 pushed up the old blood pressure to dangerously high levels, and there is no way that one was going to put up with that nonsense day after day. The road etiquette here in Vietnam is total anarchy, and it is the law of the strongest and who can intimidate who. There is probably a subtle code of ethics involved but to the outsider it is dangerous and stressful to travel by motorbike here, and sadly it is the only form of transport available for the masses.

Poster is now domiciled in Hoi An, 30k from Danang, about halfway up the country between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

If Ajarn Miguk can tell one about a good gig in a Vietnamese medium size town, then one will look into it.

One travels the world, because life is short, and it is worth seeing the world (even places which are not of obvious worth) before old age and apathy set in. One is giving oneself a 5 year window to travel throughout the globe on all 5 major continents. Only by travel can one gain a reasonable perspective of the world and the people who inhabit it. Books do not substitute for "en vivo" experiences.

My experiences with Vietnamese have been overwhelmingly negative because everywhere one goes in Vietnam, the only communication with Vietnamese is one in which a Vietnamese is trying to sell you something. There is no "free conversation" here. In general they (the Vietnamese) are money hungry individuals who only see Westerners as ambulatory dollar bills...really pathetic stuff. Cambodia was much better, and one could chill there for a few days...before boredom set in.

In the hill town of Dalat (Vietnam) westerners who invite guests (Vietnamese) to their rooms do so at their own risk because the Viet. police have set up sting operations in Dalat in which the Westerners are photographed in the company of the guests and then made to pay exorbitant fines for the priviledge. Really a despicable people....

Also people who like smoking the "old funny stuff" run great risks here because the vast majority of sellers work in concert with the law...and punishments are great if one does not choose the alternative of paying an astronomical fine. This does not happen in Cambodia where smokers of the stuff are free to indulge without harassment from the law.

Ajarn Miguk - feel free to drop a personal because one is in Vietnam now, but if things do not improve will return to Cambodia and Thailand. Where are the good gigs here?

[gelin]

Ghost, you're out of Turkey now, so could I ask you to move your comments to the Vietnam board?

[dmb]

I'm not in Turkey either. Does that mean I should stop posting aswell?

[gelin]

I guess that didn't come out right -- he's giving advice about Vietnam so he should take them there.

[dmb]

Phew. That's a relief. But even though he is writing about other places. He's still getting a response.

[gelin]

It's only because he has already bashed Turkey so badly. He can take it somewhere else now that he has a new place to bash. I'm tired of him.

[dmb]

He may have bashed Turkey but he has certainly been bashed himself

[gelin]

I think he started it. I'm not really here to attack/defend anyone. I just think his views on Vietnam be best posted on the appropriate venue.

[dmb]

You're probably right, but I don't check out the Vietnam board and I have this weird perversion to find out the world according to Ghost.

[gelin]

Perhaps you should ask that he get his own posting site? He could be another country in himself.

[yaramaz]

I think One is actually quite attached to One's former compatriots in Turkiye... no sign of him in Cambodia or Vietnam yet (at least not that I've seen). I like having ghost around, relevant or not to the forum's Turkey-topics. I think I am pretty much the opposite of him in every way possible (learning 9 languages just to get through the day without sinking into a dark depression??? Wow). He gives me a sense of perspective. I like that.

Ghost, I think you miss turkey ... I know my days are not the same now that I no longer have to defend my life-choices against your wonderful condemnations...

By the way, I like Turkey again, I like my life here again, and I don't feel like bailing in the night anymore. Which is good, because during bleakest, blackest Wintertide I had pondered Vietnam as an option. Thanks for clering that up, ghost!

[dmb]

Yaramaz, Ghost didn't like Turkey. You obviously(on the whole) do. Ghost doesn't like Vietnam. Does that mean that you wouldn't like it?