A bit of this and that

Su Su in trouble

There is a tradition here that amazes me. I think in the west we would have nothing of it, but here in Vietnam it seems normal. I will explain.

When a woman gives birth, she is required to spend a month in bed. All of her needs are seen to. She cannot even take a shower. She will be sponge bathed by an attendant for the first month and then remain basically bed ridden for four months, with her being able to wash herself and perhaps do some simple tasks. When I heard this I thought somebody was pulling my leg. I asked my niece about it as she has had a child not too long ago, and she confirmed that had been her experience also…. Sheesh….

It has been a national holiday the past few days. It is Independence Day, but

Yang Bay

 I do not know from what. The beaches were filled with fun loving Vietnamese people enjoying their time off. It is a bit eerie…. There re almost no foreigners in the city, but mostly holidaying Vietnamese. I have talked with people in the tourist area and some of the budget hotels only have one or two guests. We have been fortunate in that at the moment, we are at 80% capacity. We have both Foreign and Vietnamese guests and all of them are extremely nice people. One of them is a tall, young, good-looking guy from Israel that is an actor. He has not landed any big rolls yet, but maybe one day.

A beautiful drive

It is time!! I need another motorcycle. There is many times where I need to pick up something or rush somewhere and both are rented. I was going to buy a Honda but I have discovered a disturbing thing. I have been using the internet to decide on the bike I want and it came down to a Honda Sh150, a Honda PCX, and a Kymco Solaris (people200). I looked at many more and discovered that the prices on bikes from most manufacturers are the same whether you buy the bike from the US or Vietnam. Yamaha, Sym, Kymco, and Vespa  are the same. If it costs 2000 dollars out of the country, It will cost the equivalent in Vietnamese currency… Except for Honda!! The SH150

By the falls

 I was looking at sells for about 85 million Vietnamese dong in almost all of the rest of the world, but in Vietnam the cost is 122 million….. What??  I checked other models and compared the world price t the local price….. Honda seems to be taking advantage of the Vietnamese because of their tendency to have blind faith in brand recognition. It gets even worse because the dealers charge much higher than the suggested retail price of the machine. Buying a Honda in Vietnam is 50% more expensive than in the US, Europe, or even Thailand. Learning this has dirtied my feelings about owning a Honda Product of any kind.

A very cool plant that plays dead if touched... here is before

I took my grand niece to Yang bay for a visit yesterday. Going places together is vastly improving her English and I am amazed at how quickly she is picking it up. She has gon from only understanding individual words last month, to communicating with me if full sentences already. I wish I had near the capacity. Here are some photos of Yang bay

And here it is playing dead

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8 thoughts on “A bit of this and that

  1. Thanks Sam. (blush)
    Please contact me through wwwthetidehotel.com website and I will be happy to answer all of your questions.

  2. Thanks for the info Mr Owen. I have plans to visit my parent in Saigon this november .
    Would you let me know how many days ahead of time do I need and make a reservation at the Tide Hotel? And what would be the best way of getting there, by air, train, or bus.
    Thank you for any info you can let me know , I will be greatly appriciate it.
    By the way, I love to read you blogs on-line.

  3. Looked up Vmoto. We have lots of electric scooters here already, but electricity is expensive here.I like Yamaha, but a person can only get a 125cc

  4. The best automatic scooter is the Yamaha, hugely popular in Thailand. Not the cheapest but very fast, before you know it you are crashing on the first palm tree…. 🙂

  5. Have you Heard of Vmoto Scooters over there yet ?
    I have Shares in the Company.:)
    What ever you buy I am sure you will get much fun out of it.

    🙂

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