Best area/neighborhood to live in

Try Vung Tau,  I just moved here and love it.  Many very good apartments at low prices fully furnished and equipped kitchen, no contract, no deposits and pay at end of month.  Very good infrastructure, cleanness and fresh air with nice ocean breeze and little traffic.  The value for you money is great. Many good restaurants both western and Vietnamese. You will be surprise how much value you get at the grocery market

One problem is that on weekend you get many people from HCMC coming here for weekend or day trips beaching it, but during the week nice and quiet and slow going.

I have a feeling William is talking about places like Binh An residences,is that correct.

I should have been more specific,  Best place for expats is front beach Phuong 2 Many apts for very reasonable rent.   Back beach is to busy and  many Vietnamese tourist on weekend.

I have considered Vung Tau. I like that the population is a lot less than Nha Trang. Also being closer to HCMC makes it easier and cheaper having to leave every three months for the visa. From what I've read it seems like Nha Trang has better beaches. I might have to visit both. Thanks

Nha Trang beaches are much better but the water is much colder in the winter than Vung Tua. I I remember correctly the beach in Nha Trang can get pretty windy also.  I think you will fine Vung Tau much more affordable in Nha Trang. I've been to Nha Trang some time ago and found it more expensive than Vung Tau.

You can catch a bus or even the jet ferry to HCMC only 2 hours away. Several modes of transportation to get to HCMC

G'day,
I swim everyday in Nha Trang, the water in "winter" will only get down to 26c or 80F. ..that's a bath😀     Often in the warmer months it will hit 29+ or 30. Which is about 88f.     
The beaches here are a LOT cleaner than Vung Tau. Ive seen oil residue wash up on the beaches down there.....it's a sad scene.
You'll also get rideable waves here in the months around Christmas. 
Most of the time it's flat though.

If your a beach person you'll easily pick Nha Trang ahead of Vung Tau.

Accommodation...there is an oversupply of new apartments being built here.   A friend from Australia recently got a brand new apartment, furnished , near the beach for $350 month.   You can get a house here for $300.   

But stay a few weeks in both places to get the vibe of want you want.

Thank you for the great information about Nha Trang. A concern that I have about Nha Trang is the visa run every three months. No direct flights from there and even nearby cities (Bangkok and Phnom Penh) are $250. What do you do for your visa run?

I actually like doing visa runs. I go to places like Bali, Malaysia,HongKong,Thailand etc , and even back to Australia for a "break" every 3 mths.    The VOA  only $40 all up including the airport stamp.

There's blokes here that catch the bus to Saigon, 8 hours & $10 , then do the Moc Bai Cambodia border run.   They're back the next day for about $140  all up ,including the vIsa ,cheap hotel ,Cambodia visa & bus.   

Theres temporary residence cards ,  2 years, mult entry for $920 here in NT.   No work permits required for it.

Airfare NT to Saigon "from " $25.   40 mins  .   It's pretty good.

It's also a hell of a lot more scenic here than daggy Vung Tau.   Mountains come right down to the sea, several different beaches, islands...you can hire a boat from $15 day.    SUP paddle boards etc , plenty to do & see.  Got some good scenic bike rides into the hills close by.    It's a good spot.

Thanks Yogi007. You said, "A friend from Australia recently got a brand new apartment, furnished, near the beach for $350 month." Would you happen to know the name of the apartments?

You can also get them cheaper than that.    This guys paying by the month, without a lease. If you take it long term , it would be cheaper. 
Forget the stuff they advertise.    A new building in the middle of town had 2 bedroom apts , originally advertised for $700 a month.  You can get them off Facebook adds now for $380. That's a 2 bedroom furnished , right on the beach.      They're are also joints asking $1500 a month, BUT those places are usually empty.

Your best bet is to get a hotel room for about $320 a month including utilities , and then do the scouting from there.   Another friend here, he has got a studio in the middle of town for $250 a month, nice balcony ,close to the beach etc.     plenty around

That nice to hear Yogi   when i was there in 2009 in January the water was quite chilly. The beach was busy but no one was swimming.   Do you experience winding days on the beach in winter.

Sounds like rent and arrangement in Nha Trang is very similar to Vung Tau . No contract, no deposit and pay at end of month.  Longer you want to stay the more you can bargain down

WilliamA wrote:

Sounds like rent and arrangement in Nha Trang is very similar to Vung Tau . No contract, no deposit and pay at end of month.  Longer you want to stay the more you can bargain down

That would be on the Residence type places. Apartments and houses generally you have a deposit and contract.

I'm at an Hotel/Apartment place

WilliamA wrote:

I'm at an Hotel/Apartment place

Exactly. Its different to a normal rental property.

Yogi007- In what part of Nha Trang do you recommend living?

G'day William,
Not a lot of wind, but the swells in January do pick up , and on the main beach in town it's basically a "shore dump" and you won't see many in the water because of that. Plus the seasonal rain then pumps dirty water from the river which the prevailing current carries south onto that beach.
However, on the North sid of town at Hon Chong beach its way better.  The beach structure creates better conditions and you can use the beach 365 days a year.  NO Shore dump.

Just the other day, the water was about 29c ,,but if you dive down about 3 metres its a lot colder. You can get cooler currents sweep the coast, but they are rare here.  Coldest I've seen here in 6 years is 24c.   Back home in Oz , that's about as high as it gets in Nth NSW.    I grew up surfing in water 14c on the Sth Coast ....Grrrrr.  I was a polar bear then😉

I'd say the North side of town is the best to stay & live.   Your out of the scramble of the tourist area that's 5k to the south.   It's also cheaper for most things.     Generally they like a lease in place , and about 6 mths in advance for a private apartment or house.    Commercial operations , its pay as you go.  I knew one guy that paid by the day for 2 years......odd ball. 😳

It's not hard to get a studio or 1 bedder furnished for $250 a month.   It will be an older building , but have everything you need. 

I was paying $750 a month for a new apartment that leaked in the rain, A/c was useless, shower wouldn't drain because the plumbing was f****, kitchen was crawling with bugs, smelly drains etc ...but the position & view was good.   That was a long time time ago.....now I'm paying way less than half that ,for a better place.   You don't always get what you pay for.

We live on a new build estate very close to D2 HCMC, with security 24/7, swimming pool, small shop, coffee shops and a fishing river. It quiet and peaceful here. Well, it is now. But for the last 18 months life has been made uncomfortable by banging, hammering, sawing, chipping, pumping - if it makes a noise we've had it. And the dust and dirt has been incredible

Reason is that new houses are sold as empty shells and the new owners have to build everything into them and that includes knocking down walls, plastering, installing electrics, water, solar heating etc. As soon as one house was completed another house started up. It was non stop for 18 months.

So thats something to take into consideration when buying or renting a new build on a new build estate.

As for where's best... Nah Trang would be my choice. We live here in HCMC, but for reasons of being close to to airport as I do a lot of long distance business  travel.

We have some land in Bao Loc on a hill overlooking a small valley with mountains in the distance. I would love to live there as the air is crystal clean and the weather is cool at nights (cold sometimes) and just about anything grows there. Sadly its still a bit out of the way for now although the travel time from HCMC has come down from around 5 or 6 hours to about 2 and a half.

Good luck!

Good points! Nearly everywhere I've been there is construction. If there isn't a big project w concrete pumping, jackhammer, drills, concrete saws, then someone is at least cutting tile. Out in D2 Bin Anh where I've lived its pretty quiet, and other neighborhoods too, but growth is constant in other areas of the city and country. Lots of construction in Nha Trang and Sapa this year compared to few years ago.

Everywhere you go can be heavily influenced by these factors, as well as many others out of your control. One person will visit a place and love it, the next has a different experience. This is the case when I return to a town I may have really liked before. It's easy to make a judgement on a place after a short stay, when in fact you're just on the wrong street, house, area.

I'll weigh in on the Nha Trang vs Vung Tau. I enjoy visiting VT for the weekend and eating seafood, getting some fresh air, but the beaches aren't anything like NT. In NT you'll be rubbing elbows with lots of Russians and Chinese if you're south of the river.

Yogi great info on north of river. Plus its closer to Thap Ba which is where I end up hunting seafood when I visit. Often alone, I usually end up at a table with friendly viets, amd its all mot hi ba yo from there.

For all the reasons mentioned, it's ideal if you can try a place or location out so you can evaluate for things important to you. Wifi might be great when you view a place, but intermittent and sucks half the time. A leak from rain you would never see for months tho and then the rain comes.... One never knows, but there is usually some compromise.

If I had my druthers I'd live somewhere like Bao loc or even Dalat, outside of town, but work is based in tp HCM. Which is fine. Anh thich Saigon. Most days. I'll be on the hunt for a new pad too, with the wife and border collie joining. That'll be a new experience. But my wife will love having a private garden area and gate to hide behind at times.

i saw some apartments kinda studios or whatever. 4.5 mill. no deposit

north beach nha trang

kinda tempted

Yogi007 wrote:

Theres temporary residence cards ,  2 years, mult entry for $920 here in NT.   No work permits required for it.

Where in NT would I go to find out more about temporary residence cards? Everything I've seen online states that you need a work permit. Thanks

Yogi007 wrote:

I actually like doing visa runs. I go to places like Bali, Malaysia,HongKong,Thailand etc , and even back to Australia for a "break" every 3 mths.    The VOA  only $40 all up including the airport stamp.

There's blokes here that catch the bus to Saigon, 8 hours & $10 , then do the Moc Bai Cambodia border run.   They're back the next day for about $140  all up ,including the vIsa ,cheap hotel ,Cambodia visa & bus.   

Theres temporary residence cards ,  2 years, mult entry for $920 here in NT.   No work permits required for it.

Airfare NT to Saigon "from " $25.   40 mins  .   It's pretty good.

It's also a hell of a lot more scenic here than daggy Vung Tau.   Mountains come right down to the sea, several different beaches, islands...you can hire a boat from $15 day.    SUP paddle boards etc , plenty to do & see.  Got some good scenic bike rides into the hills close by.    It's a good spot.

HOLY EXPENSIVE VISAS Batman!

My 3 year temp res visa direct from the immigration office in HCMC cost 150 US and comes with an ID card - it took about a day of being buggered about by the usual bureaucracy, but in reality it isn't that arduous. I don't need to do border runs and I don't need to go to the police station every three months like before.

I don't have a work permit either as I don't work in Vietnam, all of my work is overseas.

eodmatt wrote:

Yogi007 wrote:

I actually like doing visa runs. I go to places like Bali, Malaysia,HongKong,Thailand etc , and even back to Australia for a "break" every 3 mths.    The VOA  only $40 all up including the airport stamp.

There's blokes here that catch the bus to Saigon, 8 hours & $10 , then do the Moc Bai Cambodia border run.   They're back the next day for about $140  all up ,including the vIsa ,cheap hotel ,Cambodia visa & bus.   

Theres temporary residence cards ,  2 years, mult entry for $920 here in NT.   No work permits required for it.

Airfare NT to Saigon "from " $25.   40 mins  .   It's pretty good.

It's also a hell of a lot more scenic here than daggy Vung Tau.   Mountains come right down to the sea, several different beaches, islands...you can hire a boat from $15 day.    SUP paddle boards etc , plenty to do & see.  Got some good scenic bike rides into the hills close by.    It's a good spot.

HOLY EXPENSIVE VISAS Batman!

My 3 year temp res visa direct from the immigration office in HCMC cost 150 US and comes with an ID card - it took about a day of being buggered about by the usual bureaucracy, but in reality it isn't that arduous. I don't need to do border runs and I don't need to go to the police station every three months like before.

I don't have a work permit either as I don't work in Vietnam, all of my work is overseas.

Matt your visa was 150 usd because you have a VEC through marriage, is that correct. The normal TRC partnered to a WP is much more expensive. TRC's are the way to go.

colinoscapee wrote:

eodmatt wrote:

Yogi007 wrote:

I actually like doing visa runs. I go to places like Bali, Malaysia,HongKong,Thailand etc , and even back to Australia for a "break" every 3 mths.    The VOA  only $40 all up including the airport stamp.

There's blokes here that catch the bus to Saigon, 8 hours & $10 , then do the Moc Bai Cambodia border run.   They're back the next day for about $140  all up ,including the vIsa ,cheap hotel ,Cambodia visa & bus.   

Theres temporary residence cards ,  2 years, mult entry for $920 here in NT.   No work permits required for it.

Airfare NT to Saigon from  $25.   40 mins  .   It's pretty good.

It's also a hell of a lot more scenic here than daggy Vung Tau.   Mountains come right down to the sea, several different beaches, islands...you can hire a boat from $15 day.    SUP paddle boards etc , plenty to do & see.  Got some good scenic bike rides into the hills close by.    It's a good spot.

HOLY EXPENSIVE VISAS Batman!

My 3 year temp res visa direct from the immigration office in HCMC cost 150 US and comes with an ID card - it took about a day of being buggered about by the usual bureaucracy, but in reality it isn't that arduous. I don't need to do border runs and I don't need to go to the police station every three months like before.

I don't have a work permit either as I don't work in Vietnam, all of my work is overseas.

Matt your visa was 150 usd because you have a VEC through marriage, is that correct. The normal TRC partnered to a WP is much more expensive. TRC's are the way to go.

Ah yes. You are correct. I  have never needed a WP. 

G'day Matt,,, BATMAN.....you've got Yogi thinking.   Maybe Yogi & boo boo could become the new caped crusaders since the original Batman recently passed away.   A bear wearing a "cape" around here might create a trend.   The VN do like to copy everything 🤓

Your back in town ....for a while there I thought you may have snipped the wrong coloured wire😳
I did read about a bloke a few months back that happened to do that.  Risky business.

Anyway back to the  plot.

The 2 year TRCs I've seen 2 guys get here in NT through travel agents I know cost $920.  They didn't need the work permit .  That's what spooked me, because I'd always been told you needed it, AND in some cases set up a company, or have a business sponsor you etc etc etc. Too many peices of paper with Yogi's name on them isn't good for Yogi's need to stay  under the radar.

The same agent can also get you a 12mth multi entry VOA for $450 and you pay $135 at the airport on the way back in.    Online agents are doing them for $320 plus the $135 stamp at the airport.

As for accommodation, it's becoming overdeveloped and there's literally THOUSANDS of apartments coming online soon.  On the north side there would be 10,000 under construction at the moment ,with more planned.    They'd better hope the resellers & flippers keep turning up.

I've got 1600 opening in September in my street alone.  Supply & Demand kiddies..........
Yogi can smell a good deal on the way.   

Yep.....sweating bank managers & greedy developers.....and now , everyone's talking the "bubble" word.
A lot of us are looking forward to renegotiating the next lease😜😜😜

Reminds me of UK 1989. Prices going up by the hour and then........ POP! The bubble burst.

Was just talking to my wife today about this very subject of over supply.

I think lots of people are talking about this now. It is a little baffling given there seems to be no slowing of cranes and concrete and green mesh.

Not that I would wish it, but I won't complain about lower rents.

I have no clue how debt is structured in VN and whether there are derivatives on mortgages like US market, which triggered our meltdown. Maybe they know what they're doing and and just playing the long game and bullding while materials are cheaper. Meh. We'll see.

eodmatt wrote:

As for where's best... Nah Trang would be my choice. We live here in HCMC, but for reasons of being close to to airport as I do a lot of long distance business  travel.

First I am glad to see you back here, Matt.  You haven't been posting for a while so I assume you may have been out of the country. 

My comment here is that given your criteria, wouldn't Da Nang be better than Nha Trang?  The city is larger than NT but still not overwhelming like HCMC and the airport is international with plenty of short hops to places throughout Asia and connections to Europe and North America.

THIGV wrote:

eodmatt wrote:

As for where's best... Nah Trang would be my choice. We live here in HCMC, but for reasons of being close to to airport as I do a lot of long distance business  travel.

First I am glad to see you back here, Matt.  You haven't been posting for a while so I assume you may have been out of the country. 

My comment here is that given your criteria, wouldn't Da Nang be better than Nha Trang?  The city is larger than NT but still not overwhelming like HCMC and the airport is international with plenty of short hops to places throughout Asia and connections to Europe and North America.

I have thought about Da Nang. My concern that it might be too big. Having an international airport is a big plus. I appreciate the input.

THIGV wrote:

eodmatt wrote:

As for where's best... Nah Trang would be my choice. We live here in HCMC, but for reasons of being close to to airport as I do a lot of long distance business  travel.

First I am glad to see you back here, Matt.  You haven't been posting for a while so I assume you may have been out of the country. 

My comment here is that given your criteria, wouldn't Da Nang be better than Nha Trang?  The city is larger than NT but still not overwhelming like HCMC and the airport is international with plenty of short hops to places throughout Asia and connections to Europe and North America.

Thanks for the welcome back! I actually stopped posting for a while because of the number of trolls and  misanthropes that were gathering on the site, but they seem to have diminished somewhat in numbers now.

We lived in Da Nang for a few weeks the year before last when I was standing in as Country Director for an NGO bomb clearance program. I quite liked it. Da Nang is a bustling city with lots going for it and its got beaches and stuff nearby.  We might have relocated there if the job had been full time, but I had turned it down as a full time proposition, due to the unrealistic expectations of the financial donor (crap salary and the donor trying to dictate the pace of work, without even being there).

We stayed in Tam Ky, which is a lovely little town, with surprisingly good supermarkets and even a bia hoi bar, which is an increasingly difficult asset to find in Saigon. We stayed in a small hotel, which was very pleasant and the staff were great. However initially we were troubled by the police incessantly  knocking on our hotel room door and when my wife went to the door, they couldn't give a reason, just that they were "checking". What they wanted was "coffee money". And each time there were more of them. On the final occasion I went to the door behind the missus. There were 5 of them. I told them politely in English to Foxtrot Oscar and they scarpered like school kids.

A day or so later my wife met a couple of them during the day and they were very polite and apologised saying that they don't get "many foreigners there". Which was bullshit. Anyway, they gave the missus a heads up on which bars and nightclubs not to go to (there aren't many) due to drugs and Maffia probs and we had a very pleasant stay all in all. And the work I was doing was mainly in small underprivileged farming villages which have massive problems with unexploded ordnance. As illustrated by a short conversation I had with a lovely lady farmer in a tiny hamlet - in fact I wrote a story about her at the time. The convo went like this:

Mrs. Bong: Thank you for coming to clear the bombs from our village.
Matt: No worries Mrs Bong, we will do whatever we can.
Mrs. Bong: But we are poor and we cant afford to pay....
Matt: No worries, Mrs. Bong, the people of Denmark in Europe have donated the money to pay for it so don't be concerned.
Mrs. Bong: Well, we tried to clear the bombs ourselves but something terrible happened.
Matt:  What happened?
Mrs. Bong: My husband was digging up a bomb and it exploded and killed him.
Matt: Oh, I'm so sorry.
Mrs. Bong: Now I am left with 4 children to bring up on my own.

The story is repeated in many villages and hamlets throughout Vietnam.

I then sat down in the evenings and wrote a short story about her and her little family, grimly hanging on to existence.

However, of recent years most of my work has been in places like the Solomons, Hong Kong, Fiji, Funafuti etc. The first time I flew to Munda via Honiara (Guadalcanal), I had to go from HCMC to Singapore; Singers to Someplace Australia; Someplace Australia to Some Other Place Australia; Some Other Place Australia to Honiara; Honiara to Munda. By the time I got there I was an alcoholic wreck and buggered for weeks.

And at each stop, I was taken to one side by customs, immigration or security and questioned about the equipment I carry:

Officious Nosy Parker: Whats this?
Matt: Its a magnetometer?
ONP: You cant take magnets on a flight.
Matt I didn't say that it is a magnet, I said its a magnetometer.
ONP: Whats it do?
Matt: It detects fluctuations in the earths magnetic field.
ONP: What do you use it for?
Matt: Detecting bombs.
ONP: There are penalties for making jokes and comments about bombs in this country.
Matt: I should bloody well arrest you then, you started it.
ONP: So whats it used for?
Matt: I told you. But if you want to know more: The existence of ferrous objects in the earths Gauss causes fluctuations, which are detected by the magnetometer and by using some graphs and a bit of maths you can locate a buried bomb with some accuracy.

And usually: ONP: "Whats a gauss?"

Then, inevitably. ONP: But there are no bombs here.
Matt: I'm not looking for bombs here, I'm in transit going to ....

And don't even ask me about the time my hand baggage tested positive for explosives residue at London Thiefrow Term 3.

To cut a long story short, short hops in my journeys are very much a PITA and with a concomitant risk of losing a bit of equipment at each stop - I carry 2 magnetometers, 2 advanced mine detectors and some other kit for forensics work. So to lose a magnetometer or mine detector doesn't just give me a headache, getting the lost item to where I am, unaccompanied, is an even bigger headache. Once you leave the real world and enter the world of Oceana, things can become a bit surreal, for example:

King Solomon Hotel desk clerk: Hello sir, here is your flight booking for tomorrow from Honiara to Munda.
Matt: Thanks.

Checks flight ticket

Matt: Ah great a mid day flight, enough time for a leisurely hangover cure breakfast before leaving. But whats this, baggage allowance 12kg?
Clerk: Yes thats standard in Sols, sir.
Matt: Can you call them and get them to upgrade me to biz class I have 43kg of baggage.
Clerk: of course sir. ......
Picks phone up. Talks in pidgin English to airline: Yada yada change im flite etc.
Clerk: All done sir, pay for the upgrade at the airport when checkin - oh and theres no biz class just 30 USD per kilo for extra baggage.
Matt: OK thanks.

Later.... Having dinner with the 2nd sec NZ Embassy....

2Sec: What flight are you on to Munda? I'm flying out myself tomorrow.
Matt: Mid day thank God. No early start.
2Sec: Er there isn't a mid day flight.
Matt: Well heres my ticket...
2Sec: Laughs. Welcome to Oceana. There is one flight a day, three flights a week. I'll pick you up at 6 in the morning.

So for all those reasons I prefer direct lights wherever possible. Sorry about the long post, Was writing that for including parts of it in my book.

Hey Yogi007 how do you get a two year multi entry Temporary Residence Card?  What are the requirements and where do you get it from?

kokomo5759 wrote:

Hey Yogi007 how do you get a two year multi entry Temporary Residence Card?  What are the requirements and where do you get it from?

Through marriage or having a work permit.

Thanks colinoscapee.

Hello Yogi007

What does mean two years multi entry? I have three years TRC, but they were not mentioned multi entry.

Multi entry, means you can enter and leave VN numerous times over the 3 years.

@Coll-wing
TRC is always multi-entry. It's not a Visa pasted on your PP. It's a sort-of   ID card that proves, you are a 'temporary resident' of Vietnam for a certain duration.
During that time you can enter Vietnam as many times as you want.

@ Colino and Senwl.

I understand about multi entry but was my question they officially write on TRC, multiple entries?? because I cannot see it on my TRC.

@Coll-wing:  It doesn't need to say so on TRC.  Multi-entry is an inherent value of TRC, understood even by the least knowledgeable immigration officer at the wildest and most lawless port of entry.