DAILY LIFE IN VIETNAM DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC 2020-2021

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Andybris2020 wrote:

Sorry dont know & I am not going to knock on the door & ask yep 100% stay away 
Be very interesting to know how they isolated positives in an apartment if some did not get sick last time.

Unless they all dressed up in full blue suits and masks it would have been a horrific task for 2 wks.

My GF's sister got it and the whole house was positive too it got them all before they even knew she was sick.

Also interesting is how long ago did they have it?

Out in Go Dau they have 500 new cases ... Looks like the lock down easing might have been a little early. Bad news of this new round of cases is a sign of things to come.

I still think opening up was the only sensible option.

What's the current percentage there of people who test positive and then become seriously ill and require hospitalization?

Or are they still doing that thing where anybody who tests positive has to go into one of those isolation camps?

The less you test the less the positive figures you get & thats how they want it to be in my opinion. The last thing they want to do here is shut down the economy again.

They have not been doing the forced into isolation hospitals for seems like ages certainly not here anyways. You get it you stay inside your apartment until you either get really sick & need to go to hospital or are given the all clear.

attached is latest update for Celadon City Emerald

goodolboy wrote:

Life just gets better & better, 23,340 to the USD today at the money place.

It would be like you not to tell us the whole story 😉

Got to wonder what your secret is, since the official rate has been stuck no higher than 22,760 for the past month...

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

goodolboy wrote:

Life just gets better & better, 23,340 to the USD today at the money place.

It would be like you not to tell us the whole story 😉

Got to wonder what your secret is, since the official rate has been stuck no higher than 22,760 for the past month...

[img align=C]https://gordythomas.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/screenshot_20211107-204020_google.jpg[/url]

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Getting popcorn, be right back! 

gobot wrote:

Getting popcorn, be right back! 

https://i.postimg.cc/BjmbSG54/20211108-115645.jpg

not going to get into it with him, another non expat who thinks he is an expert,  living the dream instead of actually living here

Hello,

A little reminder to keep it friendly, please. 

Thanks,

Diksha
Expat.com team

Man fined story :-
"A man from the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has been fined VND90 million (US$3,850) for exchanging a dollar bill into Vietnamese currency at a local gold shop that is not licensed to provide currency exchange service."

Most gold shops have not been certified to exchange money by the government. If they get caught, your money will be confiscated and you may be punished.

Additional info :-
"Gold and jewelry shops are generally not authorized to offer currency exchange service, except a selected few that are licensed to buy foreign currencies, but not sell them."

In my experience places that are authorized have a exchange board with rates on in the open for daily rates just like all the banks etc.









Link to story

Again quoting no one in particular, my resident Vietnamese tells me that as a general rule the places that post the price on the lighted sign are legal and the others are not.  I don't know if the sign is a requirement or if it just means that only a legal operation would post evidence of their business in lit up numerals.   It has nothing to do with whether gold is being sold there as well. 

I understand that there are businesses that will send your money to the US but that is clearly illegal even if the other activities are not.

To the casual reader:

The government of Vietnam sets the official currency exchange rate at any given time.

This article explains both the widespread practice of illegal currency exchange, and the risk, however small, of being fined when exchanging currency at an illegal location:

e.vnexpress.net/news/business/economy/illegal-money-exchange-a-normal-practice-in-vietnam-3829615.html

Only you can decide if the risk is worth it, just to be one of the cool guys who are "real" expats...

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

To the casual reader:

The government of Vietnam sets the official currency exchange rate at any given time.

This article explains both the widespread practice of illegal currency exchange, and the risk, however small, of being fined when exchanging currency at an illegal location:

e.vnexpress.net/news/business/economy/illegal-money-exchange-a-normal-practice-in-vietnam-3829615.html

Only you can decide if the risk is worth it, just to be one of the cool guys who are "real" expats...

Just as a cooler to this topic,, there are Gold Shops that HAVE been licensed and authorized but most have not.
goodolboy wrote:
Life just gets better & better, 23,340 to the USD today at the money place.
So look for the exchange board and currency exchange sign, if in doubt high tail it out.

Hello everyone,

Please note that some posts have been removed from this thread to avoid unnecessary debates.

As Diksha mentioned earlier, let's keep it friendly in order to maintain a good atmosphere on the forum.

Have a nice day.

Cheryl
Expat.com team

Update on latest covid info, stay safe people.












Link to Covid info

Morning all,
As any long standing members of the forum know, I am a firm believer in property investment for profit in HCMC & Vietnam depending on where you buy. However there can be hi cups along the way & yesterday I got this message from my “long standing, very very trust worthy & very very good friend my selling agent who I meet regularly for coffee & a chat”

This in not a deal breaker message (I hope) but could be some time I suspect in the process to completion.

The reason for the court case is a pretty simple one. On the planning drawing the investor showed the ground floor divided into 2 x large spaces detailed as use for supermarkets. However he could not get anyone to rent them. So without telling the planning or submitting a change of use drawing he decided to divide the space into 10 small “shop house” units & started successfully to rent them out. However the people in high places & the residents committee shopped him (no planning permission no Red Book) so now its in the hands of the courts. Why does nothing in Vietnam surprise me.

@GOB as you know I/We want to get a property but as you point out there are pitfalls, my GF has never bought so she is not aware of many of the dangers, we looked at townhouses way out from HCMC and hesitated because we heard some companies collapse and you can lose your money, other houses we looked at were for urgent sale for money after covid but didn't have a red or pink book or combination that was needed.

It's a minefield out there if your new into VN market and don't have prior knowledge of what can happen.

The townhouses we looked at also were on some kind of shared arrangement so not understanding the system we backed off.

Thank you GOB for your insight, keep us posted on how it turns out.

Andybris2020 wrote:

@GOB as you know I/We want to get a property but as you point out there are pitfalls, my GF has never bought so she is not aware of many of the dangers, we looked at townhouses way out from HCMC and hesitated because we heard some companies collapse and you can lose your money, other houses we looked at were for urgent sale for money after covid but didn't have a red or pink book or combination that was needed.

It's a minefield out there if your new into VN market and don't have prior knowledge of what can happen.

The townhouses we looked at also were on some kind of shared arrangement so not understanding the system we backed off.

Thank you GOB for your insight, keep us posted on how it turns out.

From my experience not having the Red Book is not a deal breaker certainly not for Vietnamese buyers, they dont seem to care about it & it does not seem to stop properties changing hands. The first 2 apartments I financed the purchase of at Phuc Yen 2 only got the Red Books about 9 months back after being finished in 2014 & my ex sold both of them about 2 years back with no Red Book no problems & at a very nice profit but when the Red Book is eventually issued the value goes up accordingly from what I am told.
Going into the property market here blind is dangerous especially if you are spending the best part of your savings & your partner being a novice too is a Red Flag. In the property market here I learned early on that there are all sorts of sharks out there that will tell you anything, take their commission & disappear. 
My first 3  properties I financed were out in the sticks Trang Bang & Tay Ninh City & they were where my then "wife" & her family lived & they were a "street smart" family but even then  when we built the Nha Nghi (short time love hotel) it was me that spotted the land owner she had bought the rectangular piece of land off  & the builder had marked off the foundations 8 mtrs wide at the entrance reducing over the length of the plot to 7mtrs at the end. Obviously some heated discussions took place before they put that right but I tell the story to show you how low they will go if you are not on the ball.

Andybris2020 wrote:

Update on latest covid info, stay safe people.

https://i.postimg.cc/jjKmQJKb/Screensho … -06-37.png

Link to Covid info

I couldn't view the entire image so I went to the article and made this copy:

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

Andybris2020 wrote:

Update on latest covid info, stay safe people.

https://i.postimg.cc/jjKmQJKb/Screensho … -06-37.png

Link to Covid info

I couldn't view the entire image so I went to the article and made this copy:

[img align=C]https://gordythomas.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/screenshot_20211110-200535_chrome.jpg[/url]

***

goodolboy wrote:

Andybris2020 wrote:

@GOB as you know I/We want to get a property but as you point out there are pitfalls, my GF has never bought so she is not aware of many of the dangers, we looked at townhouses way out from HCMC and hesitated because we heard some companies collapse and you can lose your money, other houses we looked at were for urgent sale for money after covid but didn't have a red or pink book or combination that was needed.

It's a minefield out there if your new into VN market and don't have prior knowledge of what can happen.

The townhouses we looked at also were on some kind of shared arrangement so not understanding the system we backed off.

Thank you GOB for your insight, keep us posted on how it turns out.

From my experience not having the Red Book is not a deal breaker certainly not for Vietnamese buyers, they dont seem to care about it & it does not seem to stop properties changing hands. The first 2 apartments I financed the purchase of at Phuc Yen 2 only got the Red Books about 9 months back after being finished in 2014 & my ex sold both of them about 2 years back with no Red Book no problems & at a very nice profit but when the Red Book is eventually issued the value goes up accordingly from what I am told.
Going into the property market here blind is dangerous especially if you are spending the best part of your savings & your partner being a novice too is a Red Flag. In the property market here I learned early on that there are all sorts of sharks out there that will tell you anything, take their commission & disappear. 
My first 3  properties I financed were out in the sticks Trang Bang & Tay Ninh City & they were where my then "wife" & her family lived & they were a "street smart" family but even then  when we built the Nha Nghi (short time love hotel) it was me that spotted the land owner she had bought the rectangular piece of land off  & the builder had marked off the foundations 8 mtrs wide at the entrance reducing over the length of the plot to 7mtrs at the end. Obviously some heated discussions took place before they put that right but I tell the story to show you how low they will go if you are not on the ball.

The pink book or red book is important but not essential. If you are buying something privately you need to do a search at the UBND and the future planning dept.  The real estate system here is a complete mess and needs to be cleaned up. I have bought and sold, through my wife and friends, about 8 blocks of land and its mindnumbing what the agents and brokers get up to.

goodolboy wrote:

https://i.postimg.cc/RJ0Jd00z/poppy.png

Are those opium poppies?

THIGV wrote:

goodolboy wrote:

https://i.postimg.cc/RJ0Jd00z/poppy.png

Are those opium poppies?

Those are the poppies distributed on Remembrance Day, November 11th (expanded upon WWI Armistice Day), in the UK and other places around the world.

In the United States, the VFW--Veterans of Foreign Wars--borrowed from that tradition when we began distributing "buddy poppies" on Memorial Day and Veterans Day

Actually it is because poppies grew in the fields in Belgium & France where the bodies of soldiers lay.
Flanders Fields is a common English name of the World War I battlefields in Belgium and France. ... Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the world's most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflict.

Andybris2020 wrote:

Actually it is because poppies grew in the fields in Belgium & France where the bodies of soldiers lay.
Flanders Fields is a common English name of the World War I battlefields in Belgium and France. ... Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the world's most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflict.






https://i.postimg.cc/9F2VtQcV/c3677b3f6 … c1fb49.jpg

so much for the guy who thought I was referring to opium poppies. Just happened to be on Armistice day (well a day late) even most Americans, Canadians, OZ, NZ & Commonwealth countries would have sussed that out! & tomorrow is Remembrance Sunday........"lest we forget"  They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. We will remember them. We will remember them.

Unless it was a sick joke of course!

Looking like I am surrounded, time to batten down the hatches again looks like. Goodolboy's apartment is 'piggy in the middle"

goodolboy wrote:

Looking like I am surrounded, time to batten down the hatches again looks like. Goodolboy's apartment is 'piggy in the middle"





https://i.postimg.cc/p5NdSW7q/covid-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/YGNcpt0X/covid_1.jpg

That's the only downside with big apartment buildings, lots of potential covid cases..

Time to get the PlayStation out again

Jlgarbutt wrote:

goodolboy wrote:

Looking like I am surrounded, time to batten down the hatches again looks like. Goodolboy's apartment is 'piggy in the middle"





https://i.postimg.cc/p5NdSW7q/covid-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/YGNcpt0X/covid_1.jpg

That's the only downside with big apartment buildings, lots of potential covid cases..

Time to get the PlayStation out again

Unless you just moved into new apartments and have bino's , telescope, phone and 2 diff views from front and side,,, 26 floors up heaps to look at

Andybris2020 wrote:

Jlgarbutt wrote:

goodolboy wrote:

Looking like I am surrounded, time to batten down the hatches again looks like. Goodolboy's apartment is 'piggy in the middle"





https://i.postimg.cc/p5NdSW7q/covid-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/YGNcpt0X/covid_1.jpg

That's the only downside with big apartment buildings, lots of potential covid cases..

Time to get the PlayStation out again

Unless you just moved into new apartments and have bino's , telescope, phone and 2 diff views from front and side,,, 26 floors up heaps to look at






https://i.postimg.cc/hhc3YpXg/31a2656d893f42611b2e.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/H8rMNq5B/5556d09d3ccff791aede.jpg

No one likes a smart a**** 😉 that new coffee machine has gone straight to your head..

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Andybris2020 wrote:

Jlgarbutt wrote:

That's the only downside with big apartment buildings, lots of potential covid cases..

Time to get the PlayStation out again

Unless you just moved into new apartments and have bino's , telescope, phone and 2 diff views from front and side,,, 26 floors up heaps to look at






https://i.postimg.cc/hhc3YpXg/31a2656d893f42611b2e.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/H8rMNq5B/5556d09d3ccff791aede.jpg

No one likes a smart a**** 😉 that new coffee machine has gone straight to your head..

What coffee machine?

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Andybris2020 wrote:

Jlgarbutt wrote:

That's the only downside with big apartment buildings, lots of potential covid cases..

Time to get the PlayStation out again

Unless you just moved into new apartments and have bino's , telescope, phone and 2 diff views from front and side,,, 26 floors up heaps to look at






https://i.postimg.cc/hhc3YpXg/31a2656d893f42611b2e.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/H8rMNq5B/5556d09d3ccff791aede.jpg

No one likes a smart a**** 😉 that new coffee machine has gone straight to your head..

Howz that 40kg of coffee beans doing you dont have a machine for Jigs,,, still gathering dust? 

Andybris2020 wrote:

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Andybris2020 wrote:

Unless you just moved into new apartments and have bino's , telescope, phone and 2 diff views from front and side,,, 26 floors up heaps to look at






https://i.postimg.cc/hhc3YpXg/31a2656d893f42611b2e.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/H8rMNq5B/5556d09d3ccff791aede.jpg

No one likes a smart a**** 😉 that new coffee machine has gone straight to your head..

What coffee machine?





https://i.postimg.cc/25jNyd7V/20211121-110452.jpg

Looks pretty big... Can you even reach it 🤣

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Andybris2020 wrote:

Jlgarbutt wrote:

No one likes a smart a**** 😉 that new coffee machine has gone straight to your head..

What coffee machine?





https://i.postimg.cc/25jNyd7V/20211121-110452.jpg

Looks pretty big... Can you even reach it 🤣

You could always give me your 40kg's of unused coffee beans you dont have a machine for and I could stand on them to press the buttons.

Things are looking bad again, take care people.







Link to latest info

'Too early to conclude Omicron strain virulence, but beware'
Epidemiologist Tran Dac Phu said that at present, it is not possible to conclude on the seriousness of the Omicron variant, but it is necessary to be vigilant because its ability to spread quickly can overload the health system.





Link to full story

Andybris2020 wrote:

'Too early to conclude Omicron strain virulence, but beware'
Epidemiologist Tran Dac Phu said that at present, it is not possible to conclude on the seriousness of the Omicron variant, but it is necessary to be vigilant because its ability to spread quickly can overload the health system.

https://i.postimg.cc/fbrBXY1m/omicron-2 … 158063.jpg



Link to full story

Whichever one turns out to be the riskiest there is nothing like a fatality close to home to remind you of have bad covid can be.

One resident three floors down.. passed away sometime during the night, no major or apparent symptoms but has been confirmed covid was the cause

Andybris2020 wrote:

'Too early to conclude Omicron strain virulence, but beware'
Epidemiologist Tran Dac Phu said that at present, it is not possible to conclude on the seriousness of the Omicron variant, but it is necessary to be vigilant because its ability to spread quickly can overload the health system.

We know little more than it spreads like crazy, but that is easily enough to look at travel bans until we know more. We can't wait and see if it kills, we have to assume it will and be wrong if it doesn't.
The boffins are a set of bright buggers - They'll work it out quickly.

   Is there a name for Vietnamese English, like Vinglish?
Singapore has Singlish.

Fred wrote:

Andybris2020 wrote:

'Too early to conclude Omicron strain virulence, but beware'
Epidemiologist Tran Dac Phu said that at present, it is not possible to conclude on the seriousness of the Omicron variant, but it is necessary to be vigilant because its ability to spread quickly can overload the health system.

We know little more than it spreads like crazy, but that is easily enough to look at travel bans until we know more. We can't wait and see if it kills, we have to assume it will and be wrong if it doesn't.
The boffins are a set of bright buggers - They'll work it out quickly.

Really? the boffins are bright? do they know when, where, how, who, what? I've seen no proof of where or how, only many speculations.

Andybris2020 wrote:

Really? the boffins are bright? do they know when, where, how, who, what? I've seen no proof of where or how, only many speculations.

There is no proof but the Beginning of Wisdom Starts by Saying, "I Don’t Know".
That's what the boffins are saying about the latest version of the bug at the moment. Time will tell so, unless we find a TARDIS, we just have to wait and see.

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Andybris2020 wrote:

'Too early to conclude Omicron strain virulence, but beware'
Epidemiologist Tran Dac Phu said that at present, it is not possible to conclude on the seriousness of the Omicron variant, but it is necessary to be vigilant because its ability to spread quickly can overload the health system.

https://i.postimg.cc/fbrBXY1m/omicron-2 … 158063.jpg



Link to full story

Whichever one turns out to be the riskiest there is nothing like a fatality close to home to remind you of have bad covid can be.

One resident three floors down.. passed away sometime during the night, no major or apparent symptoms but has been confirmed covid was the cause

Any update on how that's impacting you and other residents in your building?

SIGN OF THE TIMES I SUPPOSE.


Had to go in to Q1 this morning so we decided to go to have an Indian & a beer for lunch at Bollywood in Bui Vien Street. No such luck, all locked up & deserted, next door down said finished no come back. Pity that, really nice people, food & beer was good I thought.