Marriage in Vietnam

[bryonm4 0]

I'm leaving Febuary 21st getting married on the 28th coming back on March 7th. None of my family can attend. I know that will look bad at the interview but my mom passed away and my dad hates flying both my brothers cannot afford it and work at jobs they cannot get away from. I got burned on a K1 visa because I didn't follow vietnam cultural norms will they burn me a second time on my K3 visa and say I didn't follow american culture and norms since my family and friends were not there to shower us with wedding presents? We have a fan fare that comes out every sunday with engagements and wedding info I'm going to put our names in it after we get married. Should I still send inventations out to everybody even though nobody can attend?

[Melrose Plant 1]

If I were in your situation, I would send out the invitations. I mean, what the hell?

I will venture to say that most of the grooms are the Lone Rangers at their weddings. I am a rare exception. My parents are retired and relatively well off, and my sister and her husband are college professors, so they have the summers off, and it all worked out for us and they were able to travel to Vietnam and meet Mai's family. Most people go to their Vietnamese weddings alone without family or friends. It is true.

In my experience, most of the evidence brought to the interview is ignored, so submit those invitations and other stuff with your I-129F and I-130F. Good luck to you.

[bryonm4 0]

Well I could send something saying that I'm getting married no need to send money or gifts, congradulation notes accepted. That way when she goes to the interview she can have a bunch of cards to show them.

[Anh map 2,098]

Sending out a wedding announcement would certainly be appropriate. And having some response notes from family and friends to include with your evidence can only help. The CO can only evaluate what's been submitted.

[bryonm4 0]

The first trip was about meeting her and her family collecting Souvenirs for my family and site seeing. This second trip will be a more relaxed one besides the time it’s going to take to do the paperwork to get married and wedding I’m estimating 3 days, I will be looking for some fun stuff to do. I took a 3 hour very uncomfortable bus ride to an amusement park that was more like a carnival than a Disney land very disappointing. I did go to the Saigon zoo, the war museum, and a natural arts museum and a festival at the park. Does anybody have any good recommendations or street address of places we can go that doesn’t cost a fortune?

[Anh map 2,098]

The first trip was about meeting her and her family collecting Souvenirs for my family and site seeing. This second trip will be a more relaxed one besides the time it’s going to take to do the paperwork to get married and wedding I’m estimating 3 days, I will be looking for some fun stuff to do. I took a 3 hour very uncomfortable bus ride to an amusement park that was more like a carnival than a Disney land very disappointing. I did go to the Saigon zoo, the war museum, and a natural arts museum and a festival at the park. Does anybody have any good recommendations or street address of places we can go that doesn’t cost a fortune?

What do you two enjoy doing? Are you doing a "honeymoon" after the ceremony?

Vung Tau is down river from Saigon, not expensive to get to via the hydrofoil, and a nice seaside spot.

Dam Sen, Suoi Tien, etc. are nothing like Disney parks. But in the greater HCMC area that's what is available.

[bryonm4 0]

The first trip was about meeting her and her family collecting Souvenirs for my family and site seeing. This second trip will be a more relaxed one besides the time it’s going to take to do the paperwork to get married and wedding I’m estimating 3 days, I will be looking for some fun stuff to do. I took a 3 hour very uncomfortable bus ride to an amusement park that was more like a carnival than a Disney land very disappointing. I did go to the Saigon zoo, the war museum, and a natural arts museum and a festival at the park. Does anybody have any good recommendations or street address of places we can go that doesn’t cost a fortune?

What do you two enjoy doing? Are you doing a "honeymoon" after the ceremony?

Vung Tau is down river from Saigon, not expensive to get to via the hydrofoil, and a nice seaside spot.

Dam Sen, Suoi Tien, etc. are nothing like Disney parks. But in the greater HCMC area that's what is available.

When I fly back the second time we are going to some beach for a honeymoon. This time we have to stick in the city to do paperwork. I went to the diamon mall on the top floor they had a pizza hut and you could go bowlling. I would like a good place to eat although we did hit a few good spots and maybe a show or two. Not sure what they are famous for, I googled the heck out of Vietnam all the time but nothing really jumps out at me.

[Anh map 2,098]

Quan An Ngon is one of my favorite places to eat in Saigon. It's close to the Reunification Palace.

You can day trip to Vung Tau and hang on the beach to recharge the batteries.

My in-laws always love to go bowling. Either at Diamond Plaza or out near the airport.

The tour of the Reunification Palace is interesting. Like the War Rememberance Museum you hear the history from a different angle. The HCMC city museum is OK.

A Dinner cruise one evening is fun too.

[Anh map 2,098]

Another thought: try to fly the same airline / alliance so that you can bank the miles and hopefully get the last trip for free. Also if possible get an affinity credit card for that airline and use that to buy your gas, groceries, airfare, etc. to earn miles too.

[bryonm4 0]

Quan An Ngon is one of my favorite places to eat in Saigon. It's close to the Reunification Palace.

You can day trip to Vung Tau and hang on the beach to recharge the batteries.

My in-laws always love to go bowling. Either at Diamond Plaza or out near the airport.

The tour of the Reunification Palace is interesting. Like the War Rememberance Museum you hear the history from a different angle. The HCMC city museum is OK.

A Dinner cruise one evening is fun too.

I will be going to the beach on my next trip, The taxi is to expensive and the bus ride is to painfull my back and bottom they were soar for a week from that bus.

I tried to get her to bowl but she was afraid to, I have a feeling we will be hitting the Diamond a few times she likes to shop and drink lattes at the pizza hut.

We did go to the war remnants museum, the museum of vietnamiese history and the Saigon Zoo and some park where they had dragon dancers from China.

The hotel I stayed it was less than a block from her house Mini Hotel 173 I think its a franchise it was 17$ a day now its 17.20 a day The lady that runs it was really nice she washed my cloths for 1$ a day and folded them also. I wanted some american food so we tried the Milwaukee grill and cafe but it wasn't that good. No mc donalds but they had a place called the lottotarian thats there version of mc donalds im sure I spelled it wrong.

I will write these other places down and show them to her and see what she thinks

[Anh map 2,098]

Yes, the lotteria burgers aren't the same. There's KFC too if you're looking for a familiar sign.

Here's a new place that I've heard good things about:

BEST BURGER'S IN TOWN LOCATED ACROSS FROM THE SAIGON CENTER

ADDRESS: 122A PASTEUR ST DISTRICT 1 HO CHI MINH CITY

[Dai. 7]

Lotteria comes from Korea, Thier bulgolgi burgers, or any burgers for that matter, aren't that good. A place I found with good burgers and tasty ribs is Al Fresco on Dong Du accross the street from Sheraton. Me and my wife go there quite often to get our western food fix. Another good restuarant me and my wife enjoy is Amigo steak house right next door to the duxton hotel on nguyen hue street. They have imported america beef there and their rib eye steaks are good when you are missing premium steaks from America in Vietnam, But they aren't on the level of Ruth Chris or anything .

Edited February 7, 2009 by Dai_VN

[bryonm4 0]

Yes, the lotteria burgers aren't the same. There's KFC too if you're looking for a familiar sign.

Here's a new place that I've heard good things about:

BEST BURGER'S IN TOWN LOCATED ACROSS FROM THE SAIGON CENTER

ADDRESS: 122A PASTEUR ST DISTRICT 1 HO CHI MINH CITY

Yeah we ate at the KFC at least 4 times. I ordered a 3 peice meal on the picture it shows 3 big peices of chicken however when you get your 3 peices each one is about the size of half a wing. All 3 peices had about as much meat on them as 1 drumstick here. Tran got a kfc card when I was there we get 10 or 15 percent off. There is 3 or 4 nice places to eat close to her house. Most places I ate at are out of peoples houses there not formal resteraunts like here so I'm not sure even if they have names.

Would you recomend taking a notpad and writing everything down for a chonology? I never did that the first trip but im thinking of doing that this trip

[bryonm4 0]

Lotteria comes from Korea, Thier bulgolgi burgers, or any burgers for that matter, aren't that good. A place I found with good burgers and tasty ribs is Al Fresco on Dong Du accross the street from Sheraton. Me and my wife go there quite often to get our western food fix. Another good restuarant me and my wife enjoy is Amigo steak house right next door to the duxton hotel on nguyen hue street. They have imported america beef there and their rib eye steaks are good when you are missing premium steaks from America in Vietnam, But they aren't on the level of Ruth Chris or anything .

Both places sound good but expensive I will see if I can talk her into one of them whatever is the best value. Do they have any specials like they do over here 2 for 1 burgers? Do they have onion rings and french fries? I promised to take her to a place that has those. Anything is better than airplane food