Quote:
Originally Posted by KangTuo
yes.. hostile.
1) i am not able to walk on the street feeling as safe as in sillypore.
2) environment not as clean.. unless in PMH which i won't be able to afford.
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During my 5 years of stay in HCM, i have stayed in several places. Started off in Q.Binh Thanh, then to PMH Q7 then to KDC Trung Son in Binh Chanh. The only place i feel safer is in PMH in Q7. The only weakness of PMH are the big trucks racing thru Nguyen Van Linh Street after 8pm at night. These trucks are quite dangerous. Maybe its because my bx was next to me most of the time when i was out, i didn't feel that the environment was hostile. Often, i would be out alone to meet other Singaporean cheongsters for cheonging too. The worst is that my Tieng Viet is less than half cooked. You can speak Tieng Viet so well, you should be feeling much better to fit into their society. The hostility i faced in HCM were mostly from business.
Vietnam weaknesses lie in areas like education, environment and security. Foreigners cannot study in local government school and unless one can let the children be vietnamese, or else its always international schools. International schools in HCM charge crazy fees and the quality of teachers sucks big time. The Singapore International School employs damm a lot of Filipinos and hardly any Singaporean. Other international schools are the same.
Environment is filthy and air is badly polluted. Streets are seriously flooded after raining and drains are choked. Air is badly polluted. The environment is bad for young children.
Healthcare sucks big time too. If you ever need emergency services there, expect something that's not international standard. I did a big surgery there and i am still suffering from the after effects because of it. The only good thing is that its CHEAP. Price is only 20% of what specialist charge in Singapore private hospitals.
So , is it really that bad there?
There are some good areas i really enjoyed too.
Cheap and good food. (this i need not elaborate, everybody else here knows)
Minimum stress. If you have no debts in Singapore and have rental income to collect monthly from Singapore, plus you have an apartment there, its seriously quite a good place to retire. Buy a normal apartment in Q7 or Q8, say US$75,000 , get a normal bike US$4000. If the rental income from your Singapore flat can get you SGD$2500 a month, you can lead quite a good life in HCM. Provided you don't cheong la. Have a sex partner that comes in twice a week etc. Not too bad.
Not really that bad and neither is it that wonderful. It differs from person to person and their needs and wants.
