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[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Yup so clever lah flying off soooooooon liao

I always cannot take advantage of those promos cause normally 1 shot I will buy many tickets until 9 months or 1 year later so once promo comes I lan lan liao

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

hv a nice weekend...

leave the promo to me...next year I will stay about 100 days in Wetnam...

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Actually I am suan-ning oldsters like Botar...ETC that post "haha" or "hello" or "good morning"......ETC.......

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

noted...wonder why they so busy...either making more babies or making for money...

[Hurricane88]

Ho Chi Minh City faces tough road for renaming streets

TUOI TRE NEWS
UPDATED : 11/11/2016 10:03 GMT + 7


Recently published research has revealed that Ho Chi Minh City may be in need of over 2,100 new names for streets that were improperly titled, causing confusion and negatively impacting the city’s urban aesthetic.

The study was presented by the Center for Urban and Development Studies at a meeting with leaders from the municipal People’ Committee on Wednesday.

A survey conducted by the group of researchers pinpointed multiple issues with street names across the city, including streets sharing the same name or carrying meaningless or obscene titles.

In Ho Chi Minh City, like other localities in Vietnam, streets are typically named after national heroes and heroines in honor of their significant contributions to Vietnam and its history.

Among the 3,600 roads crisscrossing Saigon, many have been wrongly named, including Tran Khac Chan and Ha Ton Quyen, meant to be Tran Khat Chan and Ha Tong Quyen, respectively.

The research also drew attention to the hundreds of streets in the city which share their name with another, creating confusion and uncertainty amongst commuters.

For instance, there is a small Nguyen DInh Chieu Street in Phu Nhuan District besides the 4km Nguyen Dinh Chieu that connects Da Kao Ward, District 1 with District 3. There are also two Cao Thang streets, one in Phu Nhuan and another in District 10.

Other street names, such as Kenh Nuoc Den (Black Canal), were reported to be creating a certain negative impact on the aesthesis of the city.

Researchers involved in the study also recommended renaming roads with meaningless titles or named after people who hadn’t contributed to the country, including Nguyen Thi Lam and Phan Thi Ho which were named after two fictional Vietnamese heroic mothers.

Certain measures should also be carried out to inform local citizens of plans to rename the streets, they added.

New ways to name streets

Though the group of researchers stated that a name change was absolutely necessary for 400 roads in the city, there were an additional 1,774 roads that they recommended changing.

The 2,174 streets are just the tip of the iceberg. With 810 new roads expected to open in the city by 2025 preparing the city for street name changes could be significantly more difficult.

The experts suggested new ways to name the city’s streets, including borrowing names from Vietnam’s islands, such as Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly), which have already been used along canals in the metropolis.

Notable foreigners whose accomplishments heavily influenced humanity or Vietnam were also recommended to be honored with street names.

Flowers, animals, natural phenomenon, scientific theories, and other nouns relating to politics, culture, and society might also be fitting for certain streets the researchers recommended.

According to Nguyen Thi Thu, vice-chairwoman of the municipal administration, renaming the streets would require a suitable progression plan to minimize its effects on people’s lives and reduce costs.

Competent authorities will also review new ways to title the city’s roads and expand its name bank for the future, Thu added.

[Hurricane88]

Vietnam Cracks Down on Dissenters

November 11, 2016


The Vietnamese government is escalating a nationwide crackdown on human rights activists and people critical of the government’s handling of the chemical spill that devastated the country’s central coast, according to Amnesty International and other reports.

On Nov. 6, four people were arrested who are connected to a new civil society organization “The Alliance of Self-Determined People.”

All three have been charged with “carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration” under Article 79 of the penal code, according to a report in Vietnam Right Now.

The draconian law is often used against dissenters and usually comes with a lengthy prison sentence of between 12 years and life, but people sentenced under the law can face the death penalty.

Activist Luu Van Vinh and his friend, Nguyen Van Duc Do, were arrested after police burst into Luu Van Vinh’s home in Ho Chi Minh City, according to witnesses.

“They held Vinh Luu down, beat him and arrested him right in front of us,” Luu Van Vinh’s wife Le Thi Thap told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

“The police dragged him out without presenting any order, and they took away all the phones that were sitting on the table,” she said. “They took his friend too.”

Le Thi Thap told RFA that after beating the men, the police obtained arrest and search warrants.

“Vinh helped injustice victims and was involved in Formosa issue,” she said. “He is very enthusiastic about helping people and asking others to join in helping people.”

In a news release, Amnesty International said two other people with ties to Luu Van Vinh were also arrested. Du Phi Truong and Tuan Doan were also taken into custody, but the organization said that Nguyen Van Duc Do was arrested after his visit with Luu Van Vinh.

At least eight people have been arrested by Vietnamese authorities for dissenting activities in the past few weeks, much of which is connected to the chemical spill and its fallout.

In June, the Formosa Plastics Group acknowledged that it was responsible for the release of toxic chemicals from a steel plant it owns in April that killed an estimated 115 tons of fish and left fishermen and tourism industry workers jobless in Ha Tinh and three other central provinces.

Vietnam’s government said in a report to the National Assembly in July that the disaster had harmed the livelihoods of more than 200,000 people, including 41,000 fishermen.

Formosa pledged to pay $500 million to clean it up and compensate people affected by the spill, but Vietnamese living with the country’s largest environmental disaster say that sum isn’t enough to compensate for the damage.

Act of defiance are rare in Vietnam, but the spill appears to have hit a chord with the Vietnamese as there have been demonstrations and other actions regarding the environmental and economic disaster.

Amnesty International said the arrests “represent an upturn in the use of the criminal justice system in a crackdown against human rights defenders and activists engaged in advocacy relating to the disaster which has included intimidation and harassment, and wide scale surveillance of activists.”

The organization called on the Vietnamese government to uphold the rights of freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression that is guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of which Vietnam is a signatory.

[Hurricane88]

Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News – November 11

TUOI TRE NEWS
UPDATED : 11/11/2016 08:09 GMT + 7


Good morning from Vietnam!


Society

-- Vietnam’s lawmaking National Assembly will begin a two-day query session next Tuesday, when five critical issues, regarding loss-making projects, law on public investment, education system reform, waste treatment, and downsizing of the public payroll, will be raised for relevant ministers.

-- A group of fishermen in the southern Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc has drawn in public criticism after photos posted on social media Facebook on Thursday afternoon showed them beheading and eviscerating a dolphin, a species that is protected by Vietnamese law from fishing activities and plays a spiritual role in the life of Vietnamese fishermen.

-- The species of mosquito that carries the Zika virus has been found in Ho Chi Minh City, the municipal administration said in its announcement as nearly 30 cases of the virus’ contraction have been reported so far in the southern Vietnamese metropolitan.


Lifestyle

-- The beach city of Da Nang in central Vietnam will be welcoming Hong Kong shipyard Dream Cruises’ Genting Dream cruise ship, Asia’s largest of its kind, every Thursday starting this week, director of the municipal Department of Tourism Ngo Quang Vinh said during the ship’s first visit.

-- A pack of around 70 endangered red-shanked doucs, also known as ‘costumed apes’ for their extravagant appearance, have been discovered at Hai Van Pass in central Vietnam, head of the Northern Hai Van Pass Forest Protection Management Unit Nguyen Ngoc Van said on Thursday.

-- The Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program 2016 (SSEAYP 2016) on Friday arrived at Ho Chi Minh City with its delegation of 329 young leaders from ten Southeast Asian countries and Japan for their two-day exchange activities in Vietnam’s southern economic hub.

-- The week-long Third International Experimental Theater Festival will return to Hanoi on Saturday after a ten-year interval from its last edition, welcoming 16 acts from ten countries in Asia, Europe, and America.


Business

-- GrabTaxi, the largest mobile taxi booking app firm in Southeast Asia, has been demanded by Vietnamese authorities to be responsible for paying the tax of its partnered drivers, according to a recent tax guideline issued by Vietnam’s General Department of Taxation.

[BlueDragon193]

Nice info Bro H88.

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by BlueDragon193

Nice info Bro H88.

You like that ppl thought you my clone...haha just joking only becos all knew you lao jiao in Thai threads...

You most welcome to post here...

[Hurricane88]

Hẻm Gems: Crab Curry Fit for a King

Last Updated on Friday, 11 November 2016 13:33 Published on Friday, 11 November 2016 13:33 Written by Brian Letwin.



At a glance, this week’s District 4 Hẻm Gem might appear like any typical ốc restaurant in Saigon. Quan Oc 63’s the laminated menu offers up no less than 40 dishes within its sticky plastic pages. However, among the restaurant’s scores of delicious seafood options lies a dish worthy of a king: cà ri cua, or crab curry.

The family-run Quan Oc 63 caters to the after-work nhậu crowd that usually occupies street eatery’s metal tables and plastic stools nightly.

We sit down and leaf through the menu, giving each dish a cursory look. But we know what we’re here for: one of the best curries Saigon has to offer. My colleague, Alberto, who recommended the dish, has been here before and shows no interest in the other dishes available so a big portion of mouthwatering crab curry is exactly what we’re getting.

We place our order and within minutes, a bowl large enough to do laundry in arrives, filled nearly to the brim with a gleaming, oil-pocked curry broth and enough crab parts to pass for a crustacean murder site. While that metaphor may be a macabre way to describe the dish, the meal is anything but.



From the first few spoonfuls, our palates are inundated by the broth’s mixture of silky coconut milk, chili, curry paste and Thai basil, a concoction that demands at least two bánh mì per person to truly appreciate.

Despite the freshness and flavor of the crab, it’s the broth that keeps us coming back for more: after a few minutes, we find ourselves using our bread morsels to soak up as much broth as possible in the space between the crab legs.

And like that, just 30 minutes after arriving at our table, all that remains is an empty bowl and a thin but impressive layer of crab shells on the sidewalk.

The crab curry is, indeed, to die for, but if there’s any drawback here it’s the price. Our meal – for a party of four – is VND811,000, including a few Sapporos, a fried octopus appetizer and two male crabs, which are cheaper than the females, for some reason.

As is the case with many other dishes in the repertoire of Vietnamese cuisine, the broth is usually the star of the show, be it bánh canh ghẹ or braised duck noodles. Likewise, Quan Oc 63 would make some sweet dough if they had a broth-and-bánh-mì-only combo.

Quan Oc 63 is open everyday from 5:30pm – 1:00am.



To sum up:

Taste: 5/5

Price: 3/5

Atmosphere: 4/5

Friendliness: 4/5

Location: 4/5

Quán Ốc 63

63 Nguyen Truong To, D4

[BlueDragon193]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

You like that ppl thought you my clone...haha just joking only becos all knew you lao jiao in Thai threads...

You most welcome to post here...

LoL, with these info I might seriously consider joining you all to HCM instead of Bkk.
Hopefully, this newbie can tag along.

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by BlueDragon193

LoL, with these info I might seriously consider joining you all to HCM instead of Bkk.
Hopefully, this newbie can tag along.

Have no plans to meet anymore people in this forum....just continue to meet only those friends I met in the past...

Hope you understand my situation...

[Hurricane88]

Vietnam man arrested for swindling $90,000 through hacked Facebook accounts

TUOI TRE NEWS
UPDATED : 11/12/2016 10:56 GMT + 7

A young man in the central city of Da Nang has been arrested for investigation after he was found cheating nearly 100 people of a huge amount of money by using Facebook accounts stolen from overseas Vietnamese.

Nguyen Hung Duong, 22, has been put in custody for four months on charges of “using computers, telecom network and the Internet to appropriate assets,” Da Nang police said Friday.

Duong is in fact a resident of the nearby Quang Tri Province, but moved to Da Nang to study cooking and information and communications technology, according to officers. He later started to learn hacking techniques and use the knowledge for fraudulent purposes.

Da Nang police began to probe the case in October, after six months of investigation following numerous reports from overseas Vietnamese, who said their Facebook accounts had been hacked.

According to officers, Duong made friends with many overseas Vietnamese via Facebook with the only goal of luring them into clicking a link to a malicious website, where they would lose their Facebook login credentials.

The young man managed to steal nearly 110 Facebook accounts through the technique. After hijacking the accounts, Duong first carefully read the conversation history of those Facebook users to impersonate them when talking with their friends in Vietnam via Facebook Messenger.

In those fraudulent conversations, Duong asked the victims in Vietnam to buy prepaid mobile phone cards for him to receive big commission. The offer is $10 for a VND100,000 ($4.5) card, and $50 for a VND500,000 ($22.5) card.

After receiving the cards from the victims, Duong would convert the virtual money into real one and had it transferred to his bank accounts for personal use.

Duong has managed to cheat nearly 100 people into buying cards for him since 2015, swindling a total of nearly VND2 billion ($89,286), police said.

The victims mostly reside in big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho. The biggest victim lost more than VND50 million ($2,232) in the fraud.

[Hurricane88]

Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News – November 12

TUOI TRE NEWS
UPDATED : 11/12/2016 09:03 GMT + 7

Here are the leading news stories about Vietnam you should not miss today, November 12

Politics

-- Vietnam’s consistent policy is to attach importance to developing relations with Japan, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said as he received newly-appointed Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Kunio Umeda in Hanoi on Friday.


Society

-- A welcome ceremony was held Friday at Ho Chi Minh City’s Cat Lai Port for the 43rd Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Programme (SSEAYP), which is on a four-day visit to the southern metropolis.

-- Ho Chi Minh City wants to receive consultations from overseas Vietnamese intellectuals and businessmen to serve its new development stage towards becoming Vietnam’s economic, financial and technological hub, municipal authorities pledged at a meeting with representatives of 500 Vietnamese expats who return home to attend the 2016 Conference for Overseas Vietnamese on Friday.

-- Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late Friday it is actively working with relevant agencies to verify the abduction of six Vietnamese nationals on board a Vietnam-flag ship that was hijacked off the Philippines early the same day.


Business

-- Vietnam’s lawmaking National Assembly adopted Friday a resolution on the state budget estimate for 2017, with total state budget collection estimated at more than VND1.2 trillion (US$54.5 billion) against a total spending of more than VND1.39 trillion ($63.1 billion).

-- Post-harvest loss is causing financial damages worth VND3.2 trillion to 3.6 trillion ($142.86 million - $160.71 million) in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the country’s rice granary, on an annual basis, according to the Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute.

-- Ninety-four people caught in a large-scale 110-player gambling ring in the northern province of Quang Ninh in March were given jail terms ranging from 54 to 36 months, while 16 others received suspended sentences, by a court on Friday.


Lifestyle

-- A Danish Film Week is scheduled to take place in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from November 19 to 27 as part of activities marking the 45th anniversary of Vietnam-Denmark diplomatic relations, the Danish Embassy in Vietnam has announced.


Sports

-- Vietnam will play Japanese football club Avispa Fukuoka in a friendly game in the southern city of Can Tho at 6:00 pm today, their last test before beginning their journey to win the trophy at the upcoming AFF Suzuki Cup 2016.

[Hurricane88]

Vietnamese mobile app gets Facebook's $40,000 support package

September 27, 2016 | 11:28 am GMT+7


The app, Rada, connects users to an online marketplace of repair and home services.
A Vietnamese application named Rada has recently been granted a $40,000 subsidy package from FBStart, a new program designed by Facebook to help mobile startups.

Launched in 2015, Rada allowed users to search for motorcycle repairing services in their region. The application then expands to other areas like household equipment repair, healthcare, food, construction, electricity and water services.

The sum of $40,000, or nearly VND1 billion, will be converted into tools and services provided by Facebook and its partners, together with mentorship opportunities.

Co-founder Ta Quang Thai said the aid package, though not in cash, will help Rada strengthen its marketing strategies.

Currently, the app has been downloaded over 80,000 times from the Apple Store and Google Play with around 50 successful transactions per day.

Rada’s founders aims to reach 500,000 users by the end of 2016, with 500 professional service suppliers and 30 areas involved in their network.

Previously, a website developer from Ho Chi Minh City also managed to receive a similar $40,000 package from Facebook for his new mobile game "Shark Journey."

[Hurricane88]

Saigon's banh mi hailed among the kings and queens of street foods

By VnExpress November 12, 2016 | 02:23 pm GMT+7



The best place to eat one is on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, Fodor’s Travel recommends.
Vietnamese popular banh mi has been listed in the top of 20 street foods that one must try around the world, as recommended by the world’s largest travel site Fodor’s Travel.

The New York-based publisher described banh mi as “a mouthwatering sandwich that might best be described as a Vietnamese hoagie.”

As a product of French colonialism in Southeast Asia, banh mi has become one of the favorite foods in Vietnam, to locals and tourists alike.

It is a piece of baguette with various fillings. Standard stuffings include meat, which can be grilled pork, meatballs, or cold cuts, cucumber slices, cilantro, pickled carrots, liver pâté, and a swipe of mayonnaise.

According to Fodor’s, banh mi has become increasingly popular and easy to find in many countries, but the best place to eat one is still on the streets of Saigon.

The list of 20 must-try street foods goes round the world from crêpe in Paris to egg waffle in Hong Kong.

“In many countries around the world, if you’re skipping what’s being served on the street, then you’re missing out on more than just a quick, cheap lunch,” it said.

What about you? Where did you have your best banh mi?

[Hurricane88]

Hanoians wrap up against the cold as winter descends

November 12, 2016

An unexpected cold snap has hit northern Vietnam over the last few days.

The first cold spell of winter has surrounded northern Vietnam this week, including the capital Hanoi. Temperatures in the city are hovering at around 18-20 degrees Celsius by day and 15-17 degrees Celsius by night.

While small traders are making the most of the opportunities the inclement weather offers, homeless people are huddled under their blankets on Hanoi’s sidewalks.

The National Meteorological Forecasting Agency predicts that temperatures in Hanoi will will rise to over 22 degrees Celsius on Friday, and then jump to 30 degrees Celsius over the weekend.