A person that travels to Vietnam is often struck by how so many things look old and worn out. Looks can be deceiving. Remember that I have been living here one year so far? In that year I have purchased motorcycles and bicycles that are for customers to rent. I also purchased An Electric and Manual bicycle for Mai and I. Both are showing signs of rust and look a lot older than the mere 8 months they have been used. The house bikes look like that have brand new exhaust systems are speckled with rust. There are other things that corrode much faster. Not understanding his a year ago leads me to make some bad decisions and wonder at the time why some things were so behind the times here. Here is a typical example:
I wanted to purchase a safe for my house to later be used at the hotel. I shopped
around absolutely dismayed that finding a battery operated keyless safe seemed to almost be impossible to find. Why I thought? They are so common everywhere else…. All safes here seem to need keys to open here…. As a matter of fact, everything seems keyed. It leads to a person having to lug around a heavy bundle of metal everywhere. I finally found a keyless safe and 10 months later I cannot get into it. The conducting plates for the batteries have almost totally rusted away. When I attempted to open it with the emergency battery box, I found it hade corroded beyond use also. I did end up getting it open by doing some 
McGuyver like jury rigging. So there it is! Another small piece of the Vietnam picture has fallen into place. It looks to me that most metal products unless washed regularly have a life expectancy of about 1 year before deeding to be refurbished. I guess that explains why there are so many bike washes in Vietnam.
Did someone mention my name *RUSTY* 🙂
Miss the snow?? Oh No!! Perhaps rain and rust cause woe, But to a wintery Canada I do not want to go!!
At leat we are not rusty Bob, Maurizio……. or are we?
bet you miss the 3 feet of snow that just dumped
And, life span of a DVD/CD is about 3 years here. Everything just flakes off after a while ;(
You’re learning son, life near the sea is nice…but…
This year has also been a long WET monsoon season as well. My laptop is toast, salt corosion and moisture have finally taken their toll on it. We did some painting here and the rust bubbled right back up, never even slowed it down.
Funniest thing was the hot water thing, stopped working one day about 2 months ago (it’s only about 8 months old). Had a guy try to fix it but no good, it turns on then the GFI trips and it shuts down.
One rainy day, in desperation, I pulled the cover off and used the hair dryer on the inside for about 10 minutes. It kept working long enough to get a hot shower. This drill is now done every time we want a shower.
Yes, ha ha, things are just a little different here by the beautiful seaside !!
SAlt kills, but that is common on every place near the sea all over the world.
To wash the salty waters from the ocean mists…. Yes I agree. Leather goes moldy here unless properly treated
Even the batteries sometimes die from corrosion rather than depletion
For safe,i once stayed in a hotel with newly installed safe box. My went crazy beeping at night…You have to find a good brand, and the master key is always necessary, for dead battery, crazy electronic or simply forgotten codes…The box cannot send the code back via email 🙂
What do you mean with wash?
Water is the enemy, they should just use better corrosion protection metals, like the one used for army stuff…
But anyway last year i had to trow away my new shoes left in a closet for 2 month, they were mouldy…
The Vietnamese do love to wash their bikes, motos and pedal driven. Always seeing motos being washed “Xe Rua”….