Job Discussion Forums

[Slig]

I am shipping myself some items in Vietnam, however I am not 100% clear on the format for writing the address.

Could someone be so kind as to either write out a mock address that I could use for a model, or explain the way in which I am supposed to write it. I wanna make sure my school books arrive safely at my doorstep.

[toiyeuthitmeo]

If you have a job already or are taking a teacher training course, I'd suggest having your stuff mailed to them. Many people have bad luck with residential delivery. It looks better to have a business name, and some say much better to have a Vietnamese addressee's name, rather than a foreigner's name on the package.

But no matter where it is sent or who it is addressed to, VN post inspects nearly any package from abroad, will sometimes "lose" things, will often impose a fee or taxes on many items (especially electronics or anything of value--if this happens you have to go to the post office and deal with postal employees with little English, a lovely experience indeed) and invariably, the delivery will take a very long time.

An alternative might be to use DHL. There are more of these popping up around VN, and I've heard they're more reliable and faster.

What's the surest bet? Don't ship! Pack your important books or what not, and pack light on clothes, entertainment stuff, toiletries, electronics, etc. You can buy nearly everything you need to live in Vietnam, and for much cheaper than your home country.

A sample Vietnamese address:

Business name
Addressee's name
Number and street name
District number (Vietnamese "Quan or just "Q" followed by the number)
Sometimes you may need to write the Ward number after the Q number
City
Vietnam

Helpful hint, make sure you have all of your little accent marks and pronunciation symbols correct.