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Living and working in Vietnam: how to move
Living and working in Vietnam: how to move
Anonim

Thinking about moving to another country for a while? In that case, take a look at Vietnam.

Living and working in Vietnam: how to move
Living and working in Vietnam: how to move

Continuing the theme of combining travel and work, this time we will tell you about another Asian country - Vietnam, which can become an excellent haven for a long time for lovers of exotic, ocean and super delicious coffee.

Meet Anna Fomenko, she has been living in Vietnam for a year now and has kindly shared her experience and basic information that will be useful to everyone who is thinking about a temporary (or not so much) move to another country.

Anna Fomenko
Anna Fomenko

I sometimes wonder if I can stay in one place for a long time, not go anywhere, enjoy the same view from the window, communicate with one circle of people. Probably, someday this will happen, because I spent almost a whole year out of 4 years of traveling in Asia in Vietnam. There are sea and mountains, several climatic zones, a huge amount of fruits and a convenient visa regime.

When to go

The official tourist season in Vietnam starts at the end of September and ends in March. This is the most comfortable time for the first acquaintance with the country. Even if you decide to move to Vietnam permanently, it is still better to live here for a while and see everything with your own eyes.

Which region to go to

I like the sea, so we chose MUI ne.

Mui Ne
Mui Ne

The majority, however, prefer Nha Trang as a more modern and comfortable city. Some guys live and work in Mui Ne during the season and move to Nha Trang when everything is empty here.

Nha Trang
Nha Trang

Both of these resorts are located in relative proximity to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - the second largest city after Hanoi (the capital). So if you want to work under the palm trees on the coast, learn to surf or kite, these are the places for you. Unlike seaside resorts, in big cities it is hot and stuffy in summer, but near the sea the constant breeze and heat are not so hard to bear.

In hot weather, you can go to Dalat. This is an amazing city. Just a few hours and you will forget about the heat. Dalat has cool air and beautiful views, which is why it is also called the city of eternal spring or little Paris.

Dalat
Dalat

I have been to Dalat three times already. Every time I come with great pleasure. We are renting a hotel room for $ 12 per day, and we are thinking of moving there for a couple of months. Naturally, not to a hotel, but to a rented room. You will rarely find so many parks, squares, excellent coffee houses. Dalat for me is a delightful fusion of European and Asian. Something unique, where you want to return again and again.

Da Lat, park area
Da Lat, park area

Dalat, of course, should not limit yourself. There is also Phukok Island, the imperial capital of Hue, cold Hanoi, exotic tourist Sapa. And that is not all.

I confess that I am a big fan of Vietnamese ceramics, all these cups, saucers with pictures from life.

About work

There is quite a lot of work for foreigners in Vietnam. In addition to water sports instructors, you can get a job: a manager in a restaurant, an administrator in a hotel or club, a travel agent or a salesman in a store. In Nha Trang and Mui Ne, your Russian will be an added bonus - there are a lot of tourists from Russia, and the owners prefer to hire those who speak the language. English will not hurt either, there are no less Australians than Russians.

Personal experience: I work remotely, but I know quite a few guys who make good money in the season and live very comfortably here. I find it difficult to name the amount of payment, you can get $ 250, and $ 500, and $ 1000. It all depends on the type of activity and your capabilities.

Flight

Here I can recommend monitoring not only low-cost companies, but also the site. Sometimes you can catch interesting offers there. Recently acquaintances bought tickets to Moscow for $ 350 per person.

Insurance, medical training

In addition to standard recommendations regarding insurance, I can share my personal experience. Public medicine is inexpensive. But my acquaintance with her ended when the dentist offered to pull out three teeth at once. Then they explained to me that this is considered an operation and is more expensive than repairs. Therefore, the girl, seeing a foreigner, immediately calculated her income. But at that moment I felt a slight chill. Naturally, she did not pull up and turned to a private clinic. They did me very well there: they put a seal, the doctor was very attentive and accurate.

There is a whole street in Ho Chi Minh City, where there are several good clinics with different levels of service. Some doctors know Russian, as they received their education from us. Although the main language of communication is English. Where to go - to a private clinic or a public one - it is up to you to choose. But I would recommend going to private ones and at the same time choosing a doctor carefully.

Visa

A visa for citizens of the Russian Federation for up to 15 days is not required. If you are planning a trip to Vietnam for a longer period, then you need to get a visa in advance, as well as VisaApprovalLetter - visa support. Such a letter should be received in advance and presented on arrival along with the visa.

Where can you make a VisaApprovalLetter? For example, use the help of agencies (one of them:).

Personal experience: we entered Vietnam from Cambodia, made a visa for six months at the Vietnamese embassy, so the VisaApprovalLetter was not useful to us. Since then, we have left only once, the rest of the time we renew the visa on the spot every three months. We use the services of intermediaries - it's easier for us. The cost of extending a visa is from $ 30 for three months, depending on where and with whom you are extending it, of course.

It is easy to extend your visa:

  • you need to get documents to fill out;
  • usually they are filled in either by the owner of the hotel, guest house, at home (where you will live) and assured by the local law enforcement agencies;
  • after that, you carry the document and apply for a visa extension.

The procedure can be simplified if you pay an additional $ 10-15, then the agency will fill in everything by itself and the issue of paperwork will disappear by itself.

In addition, there is an opportunity to make a business visa to Vietnam for six months - a year. Conditions and opportunities are carefully described at Vinsky's forum. I recommend that you study the guides from there - the whole process of obtaining is detailed, and you can familiarize yourself with it there.

Search for accommodation

Accommodation
Accommodation

Everyone has their own requirements for housing. It is rather difficult to recommend something here. Most often, the search is carried out already on site or through social networks. There are quite large groups on Facebook and VKontakte devoted to these issues. For example:

  • Flea market Mui Ne;
  • Mui Ne “Buy Sell”;
  • Renting a house Mui Ne - Nha Trang.

Options for those wishing to live in a metropolis can be found on similar sites:

  • ;
  • .

I want to emphasize that prices are indicative, depending on the season, requirements, income level, can be either much more or less. It is rather difficult to give a specific range here. There are guys who can easily fit into the amount of $ 400-500 (housing + food in Mui Ne); there are those who find it insufficient.

For example, in a tourist area in Ho Chi Minh City, you can rent a room in a hotel from $ 7 per day, but it will not be comfortable for life and work. Normal studios in Ho Chi Minh City with rentals of six months or more can be found from $ 250 per month for a room in a shared house, and from $ 500 in a good area.

If you want to rent a villa with a European-style pool on the coast for a long time, then the price can start from $ 1000.

A house in the Vietnamese style will cost several times cheaper - from $ 400 per month. It will have everything: hot and cold water, Internet, washing machine, furniture and its own kitchen.

If home is a lot for you, then you can find a studio. As in the previous options, seasonality is in effect, but the average price starts at $ 300 per month. These are quite large rooms, bright, with a division into sleeping and working areas.

For those who are looking for a budget option, a guesthouse is suitable, from $ 10-12 per day per room and on average from $ 220 per month - with hot water, Internet and a shared kitchen.

The price of apartments in Nha Trang can range from $ 250 for a condo to $ 500 and more.

Also, the price of a room, house, villa depends on whether it is a tourist city or not. For example, in Mui Ne and Nha Trang, prices are higher than in Da Nang or Vung Tau. There are many Russian-speaking people in Vung Tau, mostly people work in an oil company. But still, I would call Nha Trang and Mui Ne more touristy.

The indicative budget for these cities will be as follows:

Cost / city Ho Chi Minh City Nha Trang Mui Ne
Accommodation from $ 650 from $ 300 from $ 250
Nutrition from $ 300 from $ 300 from $ 200

»

We rent a studio in Mui Ne for $ 250, it has everything: Internet, hot water, electricity, air conditioning, a work desk (the main thing is yes).

What to look for:

  • When renting a room, be careful: immediately check if electricity is included in the payment. Sometimes it is "forgotten" to mention it right away;
  • by paying a deposit, agree that it is an automatic payment for the last month of residence;
  • if you are renting a house for a long time, be sure to ask for a discount - the more, the better. If the owners are sure that you will live a long time, then the discounts are quite decent.

I want to emphasize that the number of options is endless. I know of $ 75 a month suites above restaurants and $ 1,000 villas. You can find housing for yourself both in this range, and above or below. It all depends on the needs.

In the off-season (summer), prices drop, you can find an acceptable option for yourself much cheaper. Again, your negotiating skills will affect, as well as how long you intend to rent a house.

Transport

The price for renting motorbikes is from $ 6 per day and more, depending on its condition. An automatic bike is traditionally more expensive, although for long trips I recommend taking a manual gearshift. If you plan to stay in Vietnam for a long time, then it is preferable to buy your own, in tourist places there are many offers of used bikes. The price for them also fluctuates depending on the season. You can find it for both $ 100 and $ 150 - usually such offers appear at the end of the season, when most of the people leave. Naturally, you will not buy a new one for such a price, but for a start it is not needed.

Officially, you need a Vietnamese license to drive a bike or a car, international ones do not work. Vietnamese driving license can be obtained locally, for this you need to contact the police and check the information locally. But often foreigners go to tourist places without a license, as they come for the season.

Gasoline cost: about $ 1, 15-1, 20.

Personal experience: you can, of course, drive a car or a bike. But Vietnam is known for its crazy traffic. Here, the usual rules may not work: stop in front of you and think, turn on the turn signal in one direction, and then turn the other way, go to overtake along a narrow road - all this is possible in Vietnam. Therefore, there is only one advice here: accuracy and attentiveness. If you are not confident in your abilities, it is better to use a taxi, city transport or bike taxi, there are plenty of them here.

Nutrition

Nutrition
Nutrition

After several years of travel, you start to appreciate home cooking very much. Therefore, we mainly buy products from the market and prepare them at home. Although I am a big fan of interesting and unusual coffee houses, therefore this is a special item of my expenses.

For example:

- coffee in an ordinary coffee shop on the way in Vietnamese style can cost from 7000 dong (less than a dollar);

- coffee in a European-style coffee shop in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) - from a dollar, two, sometimes three.

Examples of food prices (per kilogram / liter):

  1. Rice - from $ 0, 7.
  2. Potatoes - $ 1, 2.
  3. Sugar - $ 1.
  4. Flour - from $ 1.
  5. All local vegetables on the market (cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, cabbage, greens) - $ 0, 4-1, 2.
  6. The price for fruits, with the exception of some exotic, is from $ 0, 4-2 per kilogram. For example, bananas - about $ 0, 5, pineapple - about $ 0, 7 apiece, papaya - from $ 0, 5. Imported fruits, such as apples, start at $ 4.
  7. Milk - $ 1, 4-2.
  8. Fish - $ 1-7, normal - about $ 3.
  9. Meat - from $ 3.
  10. Eggs - from $ 0.9 (per ten).

What to eat and where to eat

Vietnamese cuisine is quite varied. Here they eat a lot of seafood, all types of meat (even exotic things like a crocodile or a snake), a large number of tropical fruits. It's worth trying the best you can find. Moreover, the cuisines of the north and south of Vietnam have many differences. Sometimes you can find unfamiliar dishes even in a neighboring city or province.

A special item of local cuisine is coffee. It seems that all of Vietnam is saturated with its smell. They drink it everywhere. In any cafe, wherever you go, you can always try this delicious drink. Traditional Vietnamese coffee is drunk very strong, diluted only with condensed milk and nothing else. Depending on the region or temperature, it can be hot or iced.

Coffee
Coffee

In addition, it is always served in a hand press "fin", from which slowly, drop by drop, the aromatic drink flows down onto white condensed milk, allowing you to take a break from the worries of contemplating this process. To live in Vietnam and never taste the local coffee is tantamount to a crime. Fragrant, with a strong taste, filtered through the Finn - this is a whole philosophy.

What to do besides work

Firstly, you can learn yoga, surfing, kiting - there are many schools on the coast that offer their services.

Secondly, these are travels in Vietnam. The country is quite large and diverse. The north is different from the south. This is the imperial city of Hue, French Dalat, high-speed Saigon, cold Hanoi. You can choose and stop where it is interesting.

Contact people in Vietnam. For some reason, there is a stereotype that Vietnamese rarely smile. To be honest, I don't know where he is from. People smile, laugh very often. Young people learn English, it's easy to find a common language with them.

IMG_0262
IMG_0262

Important details:

  • Internet and hot water in Vietnam in tourist and big cities is everywhere. There are no difficulties with this.
  • Mui Ne Nha Trang - many speak plain English or Russian. There are no problems with mutual understanding.
  • Ho Chi Minh City - mostly in English.

Personally, I can write about Vietnam endlessly. About unusual traditions, beautiful ceremonies, traditional clothes. I am interested in a lot: culture, books, coffee. It seems to me that it is impossible not to love this country as it is.

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