Tieng Viet lovers club

[jackbl]

过去10年有超过10万名越南女外嫁到新加坡、台湾、马国、韩国等地，导致越南男人一妻难求。当地政府担心 越南成为“光棍国”，立法禁止婚姻中介安排越南女嫁到国外。

在越南介绍女子嫁到国外的国内外中介，将面对最少8到10年监禁，严重的话甚至可入狱20年。

据了解，目前嫁到国外的越南女，绝大部分都是走法律漏洞。中介会安排她们以旅游之名出国相亲，找到对象后回 越南，由未来夫婿替她们申请“单身证”，再嫁出国。

[jackbl]

My Dong Problem
=========================

There are two things that visitors to Vietnam, be it for a short stay or a long residency, quickly find daunting about this country.

First is the crazy traffic. Gawking with eyes wide open from a taxi, newcomers flinch at the sight of near-collisions and gradually realize that the country seems to have a Darwinian concept of right-of-way. Fear kept me in taxies for months before I finally summoned the nerve to get a motorbike and brave the streets of Hanoi.

Taking taxies, however, frequently presented me with the second problem: The dong. Many foreigners here are accustomed to using credit and debit cards back home, but here they are expected to use cash. I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels awkward removing a large stack of currency from an ATM, especially on a windy day. Nor can I quickly calculate how much that, say, 1.76 million dong equals in US greenbacks.

But when it comes to the dong, I also suffer from a particular disability. (Um, the currency, I mean… oh, never mind.)

Here’s how the trouble might pop up: I’m riding in a cab and run up a 76,000 fare. Unable to find exact change or something close in my wallet, I hand the driver a 100,000 note.

A few seconds pass as I wait for my change. But the driver seems to be waiting on me. Is he really thinking I meant to give him a large tip and step out?

Now he says something I don’t understand. In rudimentary Vietnamese, I say, “Hai muoi” to get 20,000 back. Now he raises his voice louder and waves a10,000 dong note for me to see.

And then it dawns on me: That’s the same bill I handed him. Once again, I was confused by all those zeroes. And I would smile, apologize and laugh ha-ha as I reached back into my wallet for the right amount.

But it’s not just the zeroes and the ubiquitous image of Ho Chi Minh that causes my dong confusion. Chances are you don’t have this problem, but plenty of males of Northern European ancestry do. About one of every 12 of us are genetically cursed with red-green color blindness. It is much rarer among other people.

Maybe “curse” is too strong a word. But I have been known to mismatch socks that, to me, seemed the same shade of brown, even if one was apparently green. And I hated the fad of bright orange golf balls and how they would simply disappear in a fairway. (It was Mrs. Larson, my kindergarten teacher, who first noticed that my paintings featured orange lawns.) The best thing about colorblindness, perhaps, is a skill I’d rather not have to use: the ability to spot camouflage on a battlefield.

But here in Vietnam, I’m sure my colorblindness has cost me money. On a few occasions, I have handed over a 100,000 note thinking it had one less zero. I know this because the merchant surprised me with change I didn’t know was coming.

What I don’t know is how many times I mistakenly gave a cabbie, say, two notes totaling 150,000 dong for a 60,000 fare—and my error wasn’t pointed out. And a couple of times I’m pretty sure that has happened, since later I’d be fumbling through my wallet and wondering what happened to that 100,000 bill I knew had to be there.

And I suspect that some ruthless cabbies may be wise to the confusion of color- challenged foreign males and exploit our handicap. On one recent occasion, having learned my expensive lesson, I could have sworn I handed the cabbie 100,000 and he then showed me a different 10,000 note. I felt I was being conned. On another day, I might have raised my voice and walked out, daring him to follow. A couple of times I’ve short-changed drivers who I was convinced had hot meters. But somebody else was with me so I just grumbled, took his 10 and gave him a 100. A second 100, I think.

So, what should be done about this problem? And I do think that many people, including many Vietnamese, think that were is something wrong with the dong and agree that the currency needs a facelift.

The simplest fix is obvious: Get rid of the unnecessary zeroes. Why not makelife easier by phasing out those last three zeroes? Or maybe make the salient digits BIG and last three zeros smaller. The 1,000 dong note would become the 1, and 2,000 the 2, and so on up. I and other color-challenged humans would have a much easier time distinguishing the 10 from the 100. (Coins would be a nice substitute for the smaller notes, but I know the Vietnamese authorities have tried this and it didn’t take.)

In America, I would say that’s my two cents on the subject. Here, based on recent exchange rates, that would be my 416 dong worth. That’s what my calculator says, anyway.

[xiaolibiantai]

Originally Posted by jackbl

过去10年有超过10万名越南女外嫁到新加坡、台湾、马国、韩国等地，导致越南男人一妻难求。当地政府担心 越南成为“光棍国”，立法禁止婚姻中介安排越南女嫁到国外。

在越南介绍女子嫁到国外的国内外中介，将面对最少8到10年监禁，严重的话甚至可入狱20年。

据了解，目前嫁到国外的越南女，绝大部分都是走法律漏洞。中介会安排她们以旅游之名出国相亲，找到对象后回 越南，由未来夫婿替她们申请“单身证”，再嫁出国。

Shit! My plan of ever getting a Vietnamese wife thwarted!!

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by xiaolibiantai

Shit! My plan of ever getting a Vietnamese wife thwarted!!

dun worry...still can find so long you go to Vn to find yourself...

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

dun worry...still can find so long you go to Vn to find yourself...

How many u found? I think u are very hardworking in finding one in VN....

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by jackbl

How many u found? I think u are very hardworking in finding one in VN....

I had one one new gf who I just knew her for 2 months and 3 more in the pipeline...anyway cannot stopped hunting...just in case things dun work out...always needs spares...

counting down to my retirements...

[jackbl]

Pick pocketing on city buses
==================================
Pick pocketing has become widespread on buses in Ho Chi Minh City, and cutpurses even threaten their victims and witnesses with knives if they resist.


Their tricks are usually employed on busy buses during the rush hours from 6:00 – 9:00 and 16:00 – 19:00, when they have a chance to jostle with passengers. They always hold a jacket which acts as a cover for their hands while they put them into victims’ pockets.

One of the cutpurses recently identified and filmed by Tuoi Tre is Tuan ‘sun’ (or toothless Tuan), who often operates on bus route 19 from Ben Thanh Market to the National University in Thu Duc District. Tuan often covers half of his face with a yellowish brown cap and wears a backpack to store stolen items and weapons for attacking victims.

Identifying the culprit

On April 2, Tuan ‘sun’ leaned into a sleeping student, hid his left hand under his jacket, and searched the man’s thigh pocket while his eyes looked around to caution witnesses.

After a while, he moved to a seat next to a young female student. He pretended to lean towards the window to look out and put his hand into her backpack. Another passenger saw what Tuan was doing and signaled to the girl with a touch on her shoulder. She then moved away with the zip of her backpack half opened.

As the bus approached Ben Thanh Market, Tuan stood up to shoulder his way into a group of passengers waiting at the door to get off. He grabbed a wallet from a young man’s pocket, quickly jumped off the bus, entered a public restroom and exited in another shirt.

The following day, he got on bus number 53N-4382 and secretly searched many passengers’ bags and pockets with the same tricks. He decided to try to pick a thick wallet from the back pocket of a young male student. However, the man was cautious and protected his pocket in time.

On another bus, Tuan found a seat behind another student and put his hand into her backpack. Upon realizing that many passengers were looking at him, he glowered at them and brandished a knife in his pack to threaten anyone thinking of intervening. After several seconds he took the girl’s red purse and hid it in his jacket.

He took another bus back to a motorbike shed and rode his Attila scooter to his boarding room in Lane 1F, Section 15, Hamlet 3, Tan Kieng Ward in District 7 in Ho Chi Minh City.

Both the witnesses and the girl were too afraid to publicly cry out to catch the thief as they are regular commuters on the route.


Robberies in public

Many people have said their pockets and bags are cut and goods stolen very often on buses in the city. Aggressive pick pocketing gangs often work in pairs or groups of three. One of them gets on the bus to steal, while another rides a motorbike following the bus to help the thief escape if he is caught.

Around 16:30 on April 3, on a bus number 53N-4320 of Route 19, many passengers panicked and shouted “Pickpocket!”, and pointed at a man around 40 years old who was stuffing a wad of 100,000 dong bill notes into his pocket. The pickpocket said in a muffled voice, “I will stab any idiots who touch me” and jumped onto a motorbike driven by an accomplice towards Binh Trieu Bridge.

The victim was Le Thi Van, a worker from Thanh Hoa. She cried, “He took 1.9 million dong I saved to pay debt and also my mobile phone.”

Nguyen Thi Nguyen, a student at the Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities, was terrified by what she witnessed on one journey. In January 2012, also on Bus 19, a female student cried out when her things were stolen. A man wearing a cap with a tattoo on his arm approached, touched her face and smiled derisively, muttered “Little but tough, huh?” and then jumped off the bus. Blood oozed from a 3 to 4 centimeter-long cut on her face immediately.

Chief of the Security Team of the Center for Public Transportation Control, Tran Chanh Trung, confirmed that he received reports about these robberies and organized task forces to stamp the problem out.

Last year, 26 pickpockets were arrested and three this year for committing the crime, he added.

However, he said it is essential for passengers to protect their belongings carefully. The Center has also stuck warning notices on buses and made oral warnings on loudspeakers to remind passengers about pickpockets’ actions.

PVT, a bus driver on Route 33, said he knows pickpockets on Bus Routes 33, 19, and 601 by their faces. But he does not dare to help passengers anymore because he was insulted and threatened whenever he warned a passenger about a pickpocket.

[jackbl]

A Banh Mi For Everyone
===============================
The American magazine Food and Wine recently shared with the world a secret we in Vietnam have already long known to be true. Vietnam is a foodie’s paradise, and more specifically Saigon’s ranking in the magazine’s top ten cities worldwide for street food is a testament to our sidewalk chefs knowing their craft and executing it well.

Great food is indeed one very pleasant perk of daily expat life in Vietnam. Even if our Vietnamese language skills leave much to be desired, the selections out on the street require little translation. We can simply follow our noses and choose with our eyes.

Walking more than a block or two without running into one of our city’s mobile food carts seems to be a difficult proposition. But let’s be honest, descending into this wonderful world of sidewalk dining is most unnerving for the newly initiated. We come armed with tales of horror from those adventurers before us whose stomachs did not quite take the journey intended while sampling the foods.

Rest assured though, as good eating options do abound here in Saigon, and what better way to dip our toes into this vast ocean of food than the banh mi. A couple of stops on our sandwich tour are well known, and others not quite so. Yet no matter which food cart becomes your go to source for an authentic taste of Vietnam, the basic premise remains the same…crunchy golden baguettes with fluffy insides, crisp vegetables, tangy herbs, a slather of sauce and, outside of eggs, protein choices unlike any easily found back home.

Nhu Lan is perhaps the best known sandwich stand in town. The soaring Bitexco Tower across the street may symbolize a new Vietnam rising, but this food stand at 50 Ham Nghi Street still remains a vestige of the more traditional Saigon. Order the banh mi thit nuong and watch as crispy barbecue pork sliced fresh off a rotating spit drops into the awaiting nest of bread. “Tasty” and “delicious” seem such clichés when describing an almost bacon-like creation rounded out with mayonnaise and pickled daikon, cucumbers, and carrots; yet these two simple words truly say it all.

Banh Mi Ba Lac’s central District 1 location, at 41 Nguyen Hue, may be on the beaten path, but the rich flavors in these sandwiches are anything but common. Choose from neatly arranged pyramids of pork ranging from juicy roasted slices with reddish edges to sweet-salty cha lua sausage, with of course the normal complements of cilantro and pickled vegetables. A generous portion of mouth searing chili peppers kicks the heat up a few notches into a sensory overload matching a hot Saigon afternoon.




Smoke wafting lazily from Banh Mi 37’s tiny charcoal grill draws us down quiet, narrow Alley 39 just off bustling Nguyen Trai Street. 37 fires up the flames after 4pm to grill up an “only in Vietnam” experience a world removed from this District 1 neighborhood’s more typical sit-down restaurant fare. Tender caramelized meatballs hinting of lemongrass, teriyaki infused mayonnaise, sweetly pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro, cucumber slices and a hot pepper spread stuffed into a crunchy baguette all combine to launch our tastebuds on a blissful journey.

The top of the alley at 69 Nguyen Huu Canh next to The Manor highrise complex in Binh Thanh District hosts a no-name food cart allowing us to heed the advice that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A friendly woman cracks eggs into a battered hot plate to cook up fresh banh mi op la while we wait under an awning offering respite from the morning sun. A few strokes of her knife spread brown paté across an open face baguette soon filled with the omelet, hot peppers, soy sauce, cucumbers, cilantro, and tomatoes. For those of us more accustomed to pastries and cereals, this is breakfast reinvented.

Looking for a great vegetarian option to start the day? Tucked away on a quiet side street near the airport, Café Giai Khat (38C Tan Son, Tan Binh District) takes the ubiquitous baguette and turns it into a proper meat-free treat. A fluffy omelet is paired with crisp cucumber, soft tomato, soy sauce, and a generous amount of hot sauce. An ice cold ca phe sua da makes for both a complete breakfast and some sweet relief from this banh mi’s spicy heat.

Fast, fresh and affordable, at prices ranging from VND12,000 to 25,000 (US 50 cents to US$1), these sandwiches are a great introduction to Vietnamese street food culture. The varieties of banh mi available to us morning, noon and night provide a meal suitable to almost any taste. Perhaps a few banh mi under our belts will whet our appetites enough so that we dare to venture deeper into our city’s rich cuisine.

[vietboy]

Originally Posted by ngropy

Hello senior bros.

Anyone can help me translate this?

tih tih cua a ki cut ai cug noi het. e mun sua a lai rui mih ha cuoi. a nge loi e hk ha????

Thanks..

did a browse through the pages and came across this. seems like nobody decode this leh. i see already i only can BLUR. i can only see the last sentence as "Anh nghe loi em khong ha?
any profs can help this guy out? KT? Jackbl? Lovesprout?

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by vietboy

any profs can help this guy out? KT? Jackbl? Lovesprout?

No head no tail.....

[player79]

Originally Posted by Honey Boon

actually is the vbs that improve their communication skills..... english or mandarin .... so now we no need to learn liao

it mean that vb getting more clever. Which mean more tien needed.

[vietboy]

Originally Posted by jackbl

No head no tail.....

ya hor... no context...
ngropy, maybe u can provide more info on the context of the orginial conversation so our profs can help u.

[ngropy]

Originally Posted by vietboy

ya hor... no context...
ngropy, maybe u can provide more info on the context of the orginial conversation so our profs can help u.

thanks for the headsup vietboy and jackbl bro..

i wanted to give some context but this was sms wrongly to me. so i have no context too. usually still can try decode using my viet dictionary or iphone app. but this time around i can't find most of the words with the dictionary and furthermore i cannot guess the shortform words. got no context also.. so i try my luck asking here... hehe.. thanks anyway..

[vietboy]

Originally Posted by ngropy

thanks for the headsup vietboy and jackbl bro..

i wanted to give some context but this was sms wrongly to me. so i have no context too. usually still can try decode using my viet dictionary or iphone app. but this time around i can't find most of the words with the dictionary and furthermore i cannot guess the shortform words. got no context also.. so i try my luck asking here... hehe.. thanks anyway..

chey....

she sms to u wrongly ha? so this means that she also have a singkie guy who knows TV. skali is one of the bros here!

80% of those words are short-formed, how possibly can u find that in any dict?

my guess: she and that guy are talking about something about the guy's that is funny previously. she mentioned that this thing is known by all, so she just wanna mention it so to laugh about it with the guy. something like that.

[sgbiker23]

hi there does anyone know is there a club in singapore call paradise?