Tieng Viet lovers club

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by pterchew

went to meikong floating market and can ton and took some pics.

Do you mean Cần Thơ ???

Cần Thơ, the name comes from "cầm thi giang" - river of poems, is a city in Vietnam. The city, regarded as "Western capital", with an estimated population of 1,121,000 as of 2004, is the biggest city in the Mekong Delta. The city is located on the south bank of the Hậu River, the bigger branch of the Mekong River. It is 169 km from Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam’s largest city. Cần Thơ’s climate is tropical and monsoonal with two seasons: rainy, from May to November and dry, from December to April. Average annual humidity is 83%, rainfall 1,635 mm and temperature 27 °C.

Cần Thơ is famous because of its floating markets, Cai Rang and Phung Hiep, where people sell and buy things on the river, its bird gardens (Bằng Lăng), and Ninh Kieu port. The city offers a wide range of tropical fruits such as pomelo, longan, jackfruit, mango and durian.

[jackbl]

新加坡游轮中心与 越岘港探讨港口合作
==========================================
（2010-03-14）

● 于泽涵

除了河内、胡志明等越南主要城市外，我国公司也把眼光投向越南其他地区进行投资。新加坡游轮中心（Sing apore Cruise Centre）与越南的岘港（Da Nang）港口控股公司昨天签署谅解备忘录，讨论在岘港港口方面的合作。

　　谅解备忘录昨天是在我国贸工部长林勋强和越南计划投资部长武鸿福的见证下，于第5届新越联系框架（Si ngapore-Vietnam Connectivity framework）会议期间签署。会议目前在越南的大叻市举行。

[jackbl]

Mother Nature’s been tough on Vietnam
==============================================
VietNamNet Bridge -- Drought and unusually high temperatures are now pervasive throughout Vietnam. Le Thanh Hai, the deputy director of the national weather service, told Tuoi Tre that the proximate cause is El Ninõ.

The rainy season ended very early last year. There was little rain at the end of July and from August onward, hardly any at all. The midsummer downpours (mua ngâu) just didn’t happen. On top of that, El Ninõ’s influence continues to be strongly felt. The average temperature in recent months has been considerably higher than average. In the north, the winter cold waves have also been unusual. Typically there are four or five cold spells each month of roughly equal intensity and duration, but not this year.

There have been as many cold spells as usual, three or four each month, but their intensity and duration have been irregular. Some have been quite sharp, with prolonged chill, but between these, there haven’t been less intense cold waves, but instead extended periods of warm weather – in particular the eleven day warm spell before Tet, something extremely rare in the north of Vietnam according to the annals, and never seen since systematic weather measurements began.

That hot spell lifted the temperature in Hanoi to 7ºC above normal; the lowest reading all month was 21ºC though the average temperature in February is 17.5-18 degrees! After that, there was a cold spell that persisted all through the Tet holiday. Then came another warm spell, 2-3ºC above normal. The sudden shifts, especially, make everyone sense that the weather’s become odd. February 2009 was hot, too; the temperature averaged 4-5 ºC above normal. That year, however, the changes were gradual, so no one thought it odd.

Then there is the extraordinary drought. Water levels in the northern rivers have fallen way below forecasts. At the place where the depth of the Red River is charted in Hanoi, it has fallen through the previous low, 70 centimeters, to almost dry -- a wholly unimagined low of ten centimeters!

The base temperature for the last three months is also the highest recorded in our era, and that high level is typical of El Ninõ cycles. 1997-98 was also an El Ninõ period, and the temperature was elevated then too.

Tuoi Tre: This year, the entire country is suffering from drought. Besides lack of rain, are there other causes?

Le Thanh Hai: Rain’s not scarce just in Vietnam; all of Southeast Asia and southern China are suffering. In Laos and Thailand, the flow in the Mekong is at an historic low. The rainy season usually lasts through October, but by October last year, it had ended all throughout mainland Southeast Asia. Because rainfall was inadequate, the hydropower plants made extra effort to store up water behind the dams. When they produce power, water is released from the dams but not enough to restore the flow in the rivers to normal levels.

Tuoi Tre: What’s your view of the salt water infiltration situation in the south?

The condition of the Mekong river is will improve only slowly, so the outlook is less optimistic than in the north. The salt water infiltration in the Delta provinces won’t subside until the rains start. We’re seeing salt water infiltration up to 40 kilometers inland, and it could penetrate even further up to the first part of April.

Tuoi Tre: With all these changes, should we expect this summer to be as hot as last summer?

Hai: What we can see most clearly is that this March and April will average one or two degrees hotter than normal, and there may be some really hot spells, more like summertime. Rainfall will be twenty to fifty percent below normal – and these are the dryest months of the year in the Central Highlands and the south. Possibly there will be a few unseasonable showers in April there, but not enough to relieve the drought conditions. [Typically the southwest monsoon does not begin until mid-May – ed.] In the north, we hope some heavy rains and thunderstorms at the end of March will break the drought. And if El Ninõ returns to normal, as is forecast now, then it isn’t certain that this summer will be hotter than average.


Tre

[buikeong]

Hi all,

Any idea where to translate vietnamese voice to english? I need help as i dont know what my girl is talking.

[Honey Boon]

no need to translate la, you just need to pull out a few dollar notes, you can understand already

Originally Posted by buikeong

Hi all,

Any idea where to translate vietnamese voice to english? I need help as i dont know what my girl is talking.

[VietnamLover]

Originally Posted by pterchew

i have many things to share here,
i also confessed to her that i have a wife in sgp. and her reaction was...

will post when is convenience...not now. sorry.

Remember to share with us about your time and experience in HCMC.

[jackbl]

下体镶珠 夜夜求欢 台汉吓走越南妻
===================================
（新加坡）新明日报 (2010-03-15)

综合电）台湾高雄市一名50岁工人，去年8月娶了小他20岁的越南娇妻，因他性慾强，且在下体镶珠，又要求 妻子夜夜春宵，连她月事来也不放过。

　　越籍妻子痛苦难耐，求饶不成下只好离家出走。她被警察找到后哭诉：“若老公不愿拿掉‘珠珠’，我还是会 想办法逃走。”

　　警方表示，因性慾强而吓走越南妻子的男子，向警方报案，还要告妻子“不履行夫妻同居义务” 。

　　警方在按摩店找到妻子，她哭诉出走原因，是因丈夫新婚燕尔“性致勃勃”，几乎夜夜春宵，连她月经来的日 子都不放过。该名妇人更因丈夫的阳具镶珠而痛苦难耐，曾要求解除婚约回越南被拒，只好逃走。她目前已被丈夫 带回家。

[jackbl]

Drug inmates break out of rehab center in Vietnam
================================================== ==

HANOI, Vietnam – More than 100 inmates escaped from at a drug rehabilitation center in southern Vietnam and police were searching for dozens still at large, state media reported Wednesday.

The 103 patients took advantage of the chaos caused by a brawl between fellow inmates Monday night to overpower guards and break through the fence at the facility in Pham Van Coi village, some 40 miles (70 kilometers) northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper reported.

Police recaptured nearly 50 inmates but were still searching for the others, the report said. Officials were not available for comment Wednesday.

Patients at Vietnam's drug rehabilitation centers are often sent by their families or by the government. Once at the centers they must stay for two years.

This mandatory time requirement has led to more than a dozen breakouts from the centers since 2001. Nearly 1,200 inmates escaped from the same center in 2005.

Officials have said that the rehabilitation programs _ which combine education, communist ideology and physical labor _ have a high failure rate, with more than 90 percent of patients relapsing within five years.

[jackbl]

Doctors under pressure as abortion demand goes up
================================================== =====

Abortions are the stuff of daily life for Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Minh, director of the Central Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in Hanoi.

But there are times she has to confront her “worst fears”, having to abort fetuses that are 20-22 weeks old, when their bodies are fully formed.

“I always feel a sharp pain along my back when I have to treat those unlucky babies.”

The nutrition between the mother and baby is cut and the fetus dies in the womb in most cases, she said.

“But some fetuses are delivered so quickly and they manage to take another breath before they’re gone. There’s no way to save them as they weigh only 400 grams or so.

“As a woman, I am really hurt. Other children are born with so much care and love. But these 20 to 22 week old babies, already little dolls and they have to die.”

And there are times Minh has to work with four to five such cases a day. Vietnam does not ban abortions. Doctors provide advice, but generally do what the mothers want.

Minh said many doctors in her situation chose to visit pagodas frequently, trying to find some peace.

The psychological trauma faced by doctors could emerge as an important issue with the rapidly increasing number of people seeking to have abortions.

The hospital receives more than 40 abortion cases every day, many of them students and teenagers.

Within 10 minutes on Tuesday morning, the birth-control center at the hospital had held consultations with 27 people who wanted to end their pregnancies, and two of them had quite advanced pregnancies.

“We resumed work on February 22 (after Tet break) and have received more than 45 cases every day, 1.5 times the normal,” Minh was quoted by local newswire Vietnamnet as saying Thursday (March 4).

The number excludes around 20 cases that the center has to refuse every day as there’s not enough space or doctors, Minh said.

While there was no speculation that the increase in cases had to with the reluctance of many women to give birth to girls in the Year of the Tiger, there were several news reports before the Lunar New Festival that women were demanding that doctors deliver their babies before the year was up.

A 17-year-old 11th grader was the youngest resident wanting an abortion since the center resumed services, according to hospital records.

She was in the 10th week of pregnancy and her parents accompanied her as guarantors.

Some doctors at the center said they were still haunted by one abortion they had to do for a girl just 14 or 15 years old who was already half way to becoming a mother.

A clinic nearby has been treating six to seven abortion cases every day in the last couple of weeks, instead of between zero and one or two earlier.

The clinic owner spoke of a 17-year-old student who came in for an abortion with many of her friends.

“It seemed that the shame of being pregnant as a teenager no longer existed in those students. They were cheerful as though they were on a picnic,” she told Vietnamnet.

The newswire did not mention the names of the clinic and its owner.

Students have accounted for 20-30 percent of the abortion cases in the area in recent years, according to doctors’ notes.

Experts say youngsters feel free to have unprotected sex when they engage in sexual relations with their lovers, and do not show sufficient awareness of the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS.

There were 5,000 women seeking abortions in less than three months at the Central Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital late last year. Many were college students including some from medical schools and mothers who had given birth a couple of times. They had very little knowledge of birth-control and the risks involved in having an abortion.

Minh spoke with a mixture of anger and sadness: “They were students, so they should have had some knowledge. But the way they protected themselves was so bad. And that will severely affect their health right now and later.”

Source: Thanh Nien

[jackbl]

Dealing with inflation: cutting spending and working more
================================================== ======

VietNamNet Bridge – Contrary to all predictions, small merchants have not raised prices in spite of input price increases. Instead, they are trying to deal with high inflation by cutting down expenses and doing more work.

A Saigon Tiep Thi reporter went to Tan Son Nhat Market a few days ago to have his jeans repaired. To his surprise, the tailor asked for only 10,000 dong instead of 15,000 as usual. The shop’s tailor explained: “If I ask for a lot of money, my clients will stay away and I will starve to death.”

Last Tet, the same tailor decided to raise service fees from 10,000 dong to 15,000 since everything was more expensive and he needed to be able to feed himself and his family members.

The reporter noted that this tailor’s tale demonstrates how different people have multiple ways to deal with the price storm.

Ngoc, the owner of a Ban Co Market grocery, remarked that “Purchasing power is very weak, so how can I dare to raise prices? I must cut a lot of expenses to make a profit.”

Previously, she had to pay for the lunch of her workers, some 13,000 dong per person. Now the price has risen to 15,000. Goods transportation costs has increased by 5,000 dong and Ngoc also must pay around one million dong for electricity, water and sundries.

Now, she has decided to cut down on all these expenses. She wakes early to prepare meals for workers. She also delivers goods to loyal clients herself instead of hiring xe om (motorbike taxis).

“I can still live well over the last two weeks. The measures I have taken allow me to keep the same total expenses and the same profit,” Ngoc revealed.

Phung, a footwear wholesaler at An Dong Market, once raised the wholesale price by 2,000-3,000 dong per pair of shoes, because the input material prices all increased sharply.

Her retailers did not accept the price increases and finally Phung decided to cut her labor force and offer higher wages to remaining staff to work with higher capacity. She laid off four workers and saved 6.4 million dong, which she will spend on other work.

The owner of a production workshop at Tan Binh Market has decided to close his kiosk for the first two months of 2010, allowing him not to save on taxes. He explained that he will only open the workshop again when he gets more orders.

Duc has been a motorbike taxi driver, but is switching to a new career: mending punctures. The job brings him 30-50,000 dong a day, enough to pay his rent. He can follow his new career when he lacks customers for his taxi service, which provides him 60-100,000 dong per day that he uses for meals and medicine.

Prices are getting higher, life is more difficult, but people continue striving to live well.


VietNamNet/SGTT

[pterchew]

guys, i'm finally found a place n time to post my last trip experience safely.

we, consist of 3 men all together. all 3 were the same old group from the
previous trip. we departed on the 9/3 and planned to return on the 13/9.

i didnt inform my gal (kim) of my trip. i want to give her a big surprise. ( i
like to give surprises) and with sudden appearance, i can also test if she has
oxa or bf or not.

we checked into a hotel along de tam st in dist 1. we went around to check
tour packages to cambodia but realised that it's too rush to return so we end
up settled for meikong delta and can ton. i called kim only later in the
evening. she agrees to travel with us and meet me in my hotel after 7pm
that night for dinner.

we waited for her at the lobby for more than an hour b4 she turned up.
she looks so happy when she first saw me. she hug me briefly outside the
lift car of the hotel on our way back to my room to put her bag. we have
communication barrier so we didnt talk much. the only word from her was
oxa, shyly.

we proceed to have our seafood dinner in D5 by a taxi. she answered a few
calls during the dinner and look worrysome after that. i asked her why. she
says her mother is asking her to go home now. she's worry something might
happen at home. i suggest she take her leave go home and check. she then
left hurriedly.

few hours passed. is 1am+, i still receive no news from her. tried calling her
mobile but is not answered. i started to have a bad feeling. we have booked
6 tickets for the trip, her bag is in my room and we have to leave by next
morning. how? you dont expect me to bring her handbag with me right?

paiseh, boss is here, to be cont...

[jackbl]

Factory workers are worn-out with 25 cent meals
================================================== ==

VietNamNet Bridge – A survey in Binh Duong province near HCM City shows that workers in the industrial zones there are poorly nourished.

Companies budget eight to ten thousand dong per meal per worker, but after deducting the fee for contractors and other service costs, the true value of a typical meal is only four to five thousand dong, roughly twenty-five US cents, according to a report summarized in Tuoi Tre. (For reference, a kilo of rice costs at least 10,000 dong, a kilo of pork about 55,000 dong, a kilo of beef 100,000 dong, and a bundle of greens about 3000 dong.)

The quality of worker meals is very poor, lacking vegetables, fat and protein, concluded the Food Hygiene and Safety Division (a Ministry of Health unit) in Binh Duong province after surveying firms in twenty industrial zones (IZ) employing hundreds of thousands of workers. In fact, it said, there’s not enough nutrition in the company rations to sustain the workers when they have overtime work.


Worker meals more plain

“The quality of worker meals is at ‘red alarm’ level. Many companies pay 8000 dong for a ration but after the contractors pay commissions and wages, the ration is worth less than 5000 dong. Meanwhile, workers have to work more than eight hours a day. They cannot work with poor meals,” said Nguyen Ngoc Son, a member of the Binh Duong province People’s Council. “I’ve been on the the province’s culture and social affairs oversight board for many years, and we’ve never seen it worse.”

Son said there around 500,000 factory workers in Binh Duong. If matters related to worker health are not dealt with, he warned, they can reach dangerous levels.

The real price of a canteen meal includes value added tax, wages for the kitchen staff, transportation fees, insurance and the commissions that contractors have to pay to the companies to get the canteen contract.

According to the survey, 65 percent of the meal providers have found it necessary to pay a ‘commission.’

At the time of the survey, the meal providers were reimbursed an average of 9400 dong per meal. Over ninety percent of them said that they were willing to provide meals for seven or eight thousand dong but they couldn’t guarantee that these would provide sufficient nutrition. Actually, many of these contractors were providing rations worth only four to six thousand dong at that time.

Most of the meal providers relied on imported frozen meats. Three out of five violated the regulations on keeping food samples, which would make it difficult to investigate food poisoning cases if they occur. Notably, many kitchens provided meals with little vegetables.

The Binh Duong Labour Federation recently met with managers of the Green River Wood and Lumber Company in An Phu commune, Thuan An district, in an effort to solve the complaint of hundreds of workers about the meal quality.

Workers said that this firm budgeted 8000 dong per meal but it organized a tender to choose a contractor so the true value a meal is only four to five thousand dong. The contractor explained that it had to pay 10 percent VAT, wages, transportation fees, etc.

Nguyen Van Khuong, vice chairman of the Binh Duong Labour Federation, said that most firms budget less than 10,000 dong/meal. Some companies paid their contractors as little as 6000 dong per meal. Meanwhile, the price for food has gone up since the Tet holiday.

A survey conducted last year in Dong Nai province, another home for IZs on the outskirts of HCM City, revealed the same situation. Companies were budgeting only 3500 to 8000 dong per canteen meal.

Besides poor nutrition, food poisoning is a big threat from industrial meals. A dozen food poisoning cases were recorded at plants last year.


Meals at home

Though meals at factories are at alarm level for quality, the meals that workers eat at their dormitories are not appreciably better. Workers often buy cheap food from mobile markets because their salary is low while the prices are going up.

At a row of boarding houses in front of the Linh Trung Export Processing Zone 1 (EPZ) in HCM City, workers have to get up at 5 am to prepare their breakfast. Some take instant noodles with vegetables. Some others roast cold rice left over from yesterday’s dinner. Some workers share a pot of rice and a pot of vegetable soup.

Near the gate of the Linh Trung EPZ, dozens of vendors sell xôi (steamed sticky rice), boiled maize and soybean milk as breakfast for workers. “Rich” workers can buy a 5000 dong portion of xôi with a small piece of grilled chopped meat. Others can only afford 2000 dong’s worth of xôi or a plastic bag of soybean milk worth 1500-2000 dong. Many more enter the plants with empty bellies.

“A 2000 dong (one American cent) portion of xôi is enough. I will get a free lunch at the factory,” said a female worker.

“Last month I had to pay 3000 dong more for electricity and 2000 dong more for water, and the rent on my room was raised by 50,000,” said Phuong Dung from the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in HCM City. “The price of food is also up since Tet. I have to calculate expenses very carefully.”

In the afternoon, Dung stops at a temporary market near the EPZ to buy food for herself and three roommates. Today she buys three tomatoes for 6000 dong, a small fish for 17,000 dong and a bundle of spinach for 3000 dong. Including spices, rice and gas, each worker in her dorm room pays around 8000 dong for their evening meal.

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by pterchew

so we end up settled for meikong delta and can ton.

Hi sir, can enlighten me where is this area can ton in vn? which province it is near to?

[pterchew]

paiseh, i think is can tho

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by pterchew

so we end up settled for meikong delta and can ton.

Record low Mekong River poses threat to millions
================================================== =======

HANOI (AFP) - – Water levels in the northern Mekong River are at record-low levels, posing a threat to water supply, navigation and irrigation along a stretch of water that is home to millions, a regional official said.

Northern Thailand, northern Laos and southern China have all been affected, Jeremy Bird, chief executive officer of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) secretariat, told AFP.

"The flows are much lower than we've got records on in the last 20 years," said Bird, whose inter-governmental body deals with all Mekong River-related activities including fisheries, agriculture and flood management.

"Now what we're seeing is these flows are reducing even more," Bird said from Laos on Thursday.

More than 60 million people in the lower Mekong basin depend on the river system for food, transport and economic activity, the MRC says, adding that it is home to the world's most valuable inland fishery.

Bird said 21 cargo boats have reportedly been stranded because of the shallow river water in southern China.

A regional drought has caused the water to drop, the MRC said.

"Severe drought will have an impact on agriculture, food security, access to clean water and river transport and will affect the economic development of people already facing serious poverty," it said in a statement.

"The northern provinces are amongst the poorest areas for both Lao PDR and Thailand."

River tour operators have stopped offering services on the river between the Laotian tourist centre of Luang Prabang and Huay Xai on the Thai border, the MRC said.

Officials in Laos have started advising people to reduce water consumption.

Bird said it is difficult to say whether global warming is responsible but the wet season in Vientiane last year was one of the worst on record, and was followed by much lower than average rain late in 2009 and early this year.

As a result, there has been very low water flow in the Mekong's tributaries.

"The rainfall in China is also extremely low," Bird said.

Thai non-governmental groups believe the unusually low levels are caused by Chinese dams, according to reports in the Bangkok Post.

There are eight existing or planned dams on the mainstream Mekong in China, the MRC has said.

"It's difficult for us to say categorically that there's no link" between the low water levels and those dams, Bird said.

But he added it would not be normal for dams to be filled during the dry season.

The Nation newspaper in Bangkok reported that Thailand would ask the MRC to negotiate with China for the release of more water from its Mekong dams to alleviate downstream drought.

Bird said the commission has not yet received any formal request from Thailand. If it does, the MRC would discuss with China the possibility of releasing water.

"This is one area where the dams upstream would actually be beneficial," he said, because once the hydropower projects are in service they should lead to 30-40 percent more dry-season water flow.

China and Myanmar are dialogue partners with the MRC which groups Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

MRC data show that water levels on the Mekong in Cambodia are not as low as in the north, which Bird said is explained by factors such as different regional rainfall systems.

For the north, the problem is only set to get worse.

"The flows will probably continue to reduce for another month," Bird said.