VN Visa filers, where is your SO from?

[Kevin and 10]

Xuan lives in HCMC until she moves to Indiana with me. I have spent most of my time in HCMC and I find it very interesting. Each time I go I am impressed with the traffic... or maybe that is fear. Either way it is amazing that there seems to be some kind of understood traffic philosophy but I am at a loss to understand it. I am very much looking forward to Xuan's reactions when we drive home from the airport and into my city. I keep telling her she will ask me where all of the people are in America. If I use my travels in southern Vietnam as a gage compared to my area of America then we live in a country wide ghost town. We will know Oct 6 if we get pink or have to continue the wait.

I told Tuyen that too. Going from a city with about 350000 to a hick town with almost 3000. At least I'm about 40 miles from Minneapolis/St Paul.

Good Luck Jack.

[Guy&Hoa 0]

Hoa is from HCMC, District 5.......I agree with everyone about the motorcycles, I think physicists could write a paper on chaos theory and use HCMC as a case study! It's almost like clusters and flocks, schools of fish ...everyone somehow manages to not collide with each other....

-Guy&Hoa

[Melrose Plant 1]

No offense taken. I know what you say. I travel all over the country constantly and some Canada and everyone talks funny except where I live.

I went into Saigon a couple of times and I think all 10 million have scooters. I am impressed that more people are not ran over daily and whoever has the horn concession is rich.

People DO get run over every day in Saigon, and I imagine Hanoi too. I personally know one expat who got run over by a taxi, and it took him a long time to recover (let's not talk about the police bribes on that one).

The only reason why the traffic situation works at all in Vietnam is because they drive so slowly. There is time to anticipate and react to those around you. I am a speed demon in Vietnam, even though I am very conservative rider in America. I have several hundred miles riding experience in Vietnam and over 100,000 in the U.S. It's much easier riding in the U.S. in my opinion, even on a motorcycle, where we don't get the respect that a car gets.

And yes, I did get a lot of stares at stoplights. Maybe it was the Honda SH I was riding. Maybe it was my beautiful wife. More likely, it was the rarity of a white guy piloting a motorbike in Vietnam.

[Kevin and 10]

No offense taken. I know what you say. I travel all over the country constantly and some Canada and everyone talks funny except where I live.

I went into Saigon a couple of times and I think all 10 million have scooters. I am impressed that more people are not ran over daily and whoever has the horn concession is rich.

People DO get run over every day in Saigon, and I imagine Hanoi too. I personally know one expat who got run over by a taxi, and it took him a long time to recover (let's not talk about the police bribes on that one).

The only reason why the traffic situation works at all in Vietnam is because they drive so slowly. There is time to anticipate and react to those around you. I am a speed demon in Vietnam, even though I am very conservative rider in America. I have several hundred miles riding experience in Vietnam and over 100,000 in the U.S. It's much easier riding in the U.S. in my opinion, even on a motorcycle, where we don't get the respect that a car gets.

And yes, I did get a lot of stares at stoplights. Maybe it was the Honda SH I was riding. Maybe it was my beautiful wife. More likely, it was the rarity of a white guy piloting a motorbike in Vietnam.

Everytime I go to VN I've seen an accident or its aftermath. The last time I was in VN I watch a gal T-bone another scooter. Luckily no one was injured.

I wouldn't dare drive in VN, scooter or car.

[luckytxn 2,264]

I wasn't allowed to drive anywhere at all but when we went out in the boonies ( even more so then usual) I did take a scooter over and almost hit a friggin cow. Needless to say they wouldn't let me scooter again.

Oh and just in case anyone ever has the idea to slap a ox on the rear as you scooter past. Don't do it. They are faster than they look.

Edited October 7, 2008 by luckytxn

[Kevin and 10]

Oh and just in case anyone ever has the idea to slap a ox on the rear as you scooter past. Don't do it. They are faster than they look.

[Dau_Que 0]

Ba Ria-Vung Tau for my wife. But she moved to Saigon to study college. She rented a very very small room in Binh Thanh, which was the District where I used to live many moons ago before relocating in the US. I would never go back to Saigon meeting my wife now if she had lived elsewhere in Vietnam.

PS. The first time I went back to Saigon and Binh Thanh meeting my wife in 2007, she knew the Zig-Zag of that place better than me, even though she only lives there for only 4 years, compared to my 18 years, LOL! Golly, everything has changed, so much, to the point, I no longer recognized anything the way they used to be before I left that place.

[chuckandkim 0]

Saigon Vietnam - Shizuoka Japan

[Rodney n. 0]

Long Xuyen, Viet Nam here. nice place in An Giang. I am thinking of retiring there .

Rodney

[b_weeks 6]

My wife Trang is from Rach Gia on the southern coast in the Kien Giang province. It is a couple hours south by car of Long Xuyen and Can Tho.

[Rodney n. 0]

I have been through that area. I love southern VN. People were so friendly and lots of beautiful things to see.

Rodney