Out of curiosity, why do you say it’s not good for cycling?
Bad roads? Infrastructure?
My wife and I are planning an extended tour and that is one option, doubtful at this point, but I’d be interested if you have any first hand knowledge.
I spent a month in Vietnam a few years ago and found it fascinating. Hanoi was interesting, especially the museums that showed how they won the “American War”. Ho Chi Minh’s crypt was incredible.
I did see a lot of The North Face and other products for sale on the street there. I presumed it was from local factories that produce the stuff.
As I put my Nikes on the other day, I noticed that they were made in Vietnam. I began to wonder why the US would allow business relations/partnerships with a nation with which there was such considerable negative history. I Thought - If Vietnam; why not Cuba?
I have in no way an animosity toward Vietnam; and yes, I have had some of Fidel’s tobacco (Just one. You know - to round out life’s experiences). I would love to visit both places someday.
Just peaked my curiosity.
Hey Gee you want to be real careful when doing biz there. Everything goes through the authorities, some that pop up along the way, requiring big sums of $$$ for their licence and go ahead to your project or biz that you have never even heard of.
Don’t ever go on the premise that you can put up a firm budget plan estimate. Even many foriegn Government owned projects (Govts that have good standing because of their aid to VN) have just closed shop, given up the ghost and cut loss when additional unforseen (fabricated as you go along) costs keep coming making the project impracticle. It’s almost a right of passage to get burnt there before you can actually get any biz on going. And to get a business like that on going you got to have a savy local ‘loyal’ to you. Then he would be well remunerated and then there will be that mandatory margin for his ‘take’ and then the balance must still yield a net profit.
Safest is too simply trade and not invest anything into the country besides your travel and hotel and expenses. As you say they produce some pretty good stuff eg cheap and good furniture, leather products and commodities such as rice and coffee etc Do it based on LC terms. For me I exported motorcycles and motorcycle parts to them, … stuff that they needed and accepted nothing less than an established foriegn bank LC.
The spelling will definitely be off but this is in the ‘classical’ Vietnamese speech, something us seasoned businessmen to Vietnam know -
A lau biet Saigon - The longer I am familiar with Saigon
A roi biet min nghu - The more ignorant I become.
Rha di roi com co mot su - Not a penny left to my name
Tai minh anh et - See my mouth eating less
Tai ku anh nieu - See my penis eating more.
As I’ve said before … Communist turned Capitalist makes for an across the board bottomless pit of greed. And a limitless supply of blood sucking ‘amazingly’ easy to get to know attractive women. It was really bad in China, still is to some extent and it sure is that way in Vietnam.
“Out of curiosity, why do you say it’s not good for cycling?
Bad roads? Infrastructure?” - Casey
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The inner city roads are crazy. The motorcycles and traffic buzzing along the roads occupy the whole width of the roads and are relentlessly thick buzzing along. Locals who ride bicycles are the poorer ones, riding ‘normal’ upright bicycles at snail’s pace.
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It’s hot and humid, dusty, polluted, sandy, slippery and it’s dirty and in the rainy season which lasts for a larger part of the year the roads become greasy and even more filthy.
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The country roads are also very dusty and filled with pot-holes. If you go up to the mountain holiday resorts, then perhaps mountain bikes may be practical. But keep a real close eye on your bike, your watch, your shades, don’t wear jewely etc. They are real-real quick with the snatch and run into the crowd trick.
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Also some foriegner riding along with an expensive bike … not a good idea. Roadside ambushing is not uncommon. And yes people do get shot for something as worthless as a cheap 90cc motorcycle.
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For these reasons I never saw anyone taking up cycling sport with proper road race bicycles in the few years I was there. Perhaps now they may have a sports cycling club but I doubt it. In VN it’s really uncool to ride a bicycle as it is reserved only for those who can’t afford their little motorcycles.
But it is a good place to go for holiday … different culture and the country-side can be charming. One thing is you really have to be wary about the prices you get quoted. You will get duped, the only thing is by how much? And my advice is don’t take those siclos (bicycle taking passengers) without a local guide. When I was green and just arrived there, I took one and ended up in an alley with my driver asking $30 for a 3 minute slow ride. I really wanted to bust his chops and render him unconscious except there were a whole bunch of his siclo mates converging on us being very attentive and somehow I sensed that they would not be weaponless.
If anyone says, “Du Mah” to you that ain’t nice cuz he’s refering to you as a motha fucker!
Once I had lived there awhile and became buddies with the high ranking police officers and gangster chiefs alike (contacts that I made and developed in the course of doing biz), and spoke the lingo, basically on the street they could sense the familiarity and I moved around as I pleased. I even got in some practice smacking up a few thieving punks on a few occassions, with no repurcussions because of the people that I rubbed shoulders with.
There was one incident where I was riding me motor-sickle with VN GF on the back and there was this commotion in the street. Some guy was beating the shit out of this woman, dragging her by the hair into the middle of the road, kicking her and punching her and she was screaming blue murder while all the locals gathered to see the show. I stopped my bike got down and approached. The guy rushed for me and I reversed punched his mug as he was coming in, rendering him prone on the road, and the woman ran off into the crowd. My GF said in VN you simply don’t do such things, and it was best to mind your own biz. I said, “fug it” and road off!
I wasn’t married then … and I can say that I must be the exception as a foriegner to actually jump the local women there without paying for it. After a little western style ‘liem chiem’ (cunnilingess) they were all game for repeat performances.
But at the end of the day I still got screwed because the steady GF I had, a young nubile beauty VN with French blood mixed took my money and ran off to Sydney to do her Uni thanks to my ‘sponsorship’. We were ‘supposed’ to be serious and I had actually settled down my ways after meeting her. The real beauties there are actually trained by their parents for this kind of con and mine was a total family con job with the go meet the parents customary thing as if marraige was in the air etc. After a few years she hunted me down, appeared out of knowhere (VN girls are good at that) called me on the phone said she was in town (VN accent replaced with a thick Aussie one). Well I was married by then, no way I was going to go back for seconds despite her awesome beauty. Anyway sex with her was sort of so-so … OK only, … I guess because her performance in that department reflected in her ‘giving’ nature. After all a few years past and how she left, from her tone, it was obvious she still felt she owned me. To the Vietnamese this is not audacity but just the norm in behaviour. And Vietnamese girls are notorious for going to family homes and kicking up a ruckus because they have a relationship with hubby.
In Vietnam it’s almost a normal practice for some girl to hire gangsters to douse someone else’s wife, mistress or own ex-boyfriend with acid resulting in extreme disfigurment and even death. When I was there the Director of TOTAL the French Petroleum Company was ambushed on the busy main drag when he was walking with his family recently arrived to join him in Hochiminh. He was doused with a bucket full of petrol and set alight by a couple of men from behind. He had to be emergency evacuated back to France and I would pretty much bet it must have been curtains for him. If not he would have been really badly scarred. The news on the street was that it was a contract put out on him by his secretary whom he had an affair with before his family arrived but aparantley was still financing on a monthly basis.
The mentality there is not so much just ordinary jealousy out of spurned love. To the VN girl’s mind, a man is like an ultimate posession…the goose that lays the golden egg. If she can’t have him then no one would or at least someone’s got to pay dearly.
Well VN is an interesting place for a holiday but so is the Phillipines. It is also poverty stricken, but things are a lot cheaper, tourist facilities are just as good and there is beautiful countryside and culture and some of the best dive spots in the world … minus the communist-capitalist greed and attitude.
Thailand is nice too and has developed over the years into one of the most tourist friendly places in the world. The Thai have an established culture of warmth and graciousness and plenty of cultural experiences to … experience.
“At the morning market, I saw three old triumph motorcycles (1960’s. two ran, mostly complete chrome, abused, lots of miles). Vendor wanted $70 US for all.”
Shit that sounds like a sweet deal even if they’re just mostly parts in a crate! I’m in the market right now for a restored Bonneville.