Saigon Dog Stories Part II

These puppies are around 2 months old. The owners keep them in the yard. It's enough space for them, they share it with a chicken. The mother dog is very protective, but not aggressive, and she can walk around the house. The only problem is that there is a lot of traffic so it's a matter of time when the first accident there happens.

How to sell Vietnam as a tourist destination

Ok, no complains, or less, but more advise. How can Vietnam improve in international tourism?
1.) The markets
Campaigns must be targeting the right market. Chinese and korean tourists don't want to spend a lot of money, so you must sell Vietnam as a cheap destination (if you find enough low price hotels). European and US tourists want something special good server, value for their money. So sell luxury. But understand luxury as a concept, not a price. A luxury shopping center opens the door for you and the door boy knows your name. It's doesn't have loudspeakers with techno music outside.

2. ) Public picture: Most people see a girl from behind in a white Ao Day in a rice field on a bicylce. Call it a cliche, but actually it works fro Vietnam. It means: Young population, tradition, nature and authentic, even something secret (because you can't see the girls face). Should be enough for a branding, isn't it?

3.) Infrastructure: Roads, roads, roads and some airports.

4.) Less government, more market: Let the professionals do the job. Don't protect the formally state own businesses and let the market work itself.

5.) Diversify: Present the thousands of things you can do in Vietnam instead of Top 10. One reason why people don't come back to Vietnam is that the Top Ten are done in 2 weeks. And they don't know what else to do.

6.) Find the unique selling point: Tourism is not about the price, it's about imagination. Create a picture and sell this. It must be different from all the CNN campaigns you can see now. That;s actually the mist difficult and painful part.

7.) Be more professional, Use the experience you get for nearly free from foreigners in that business and learn from it.


I was inspired by this website http://www.hcmc100e.info. I think they make it wrong: HCMC is so great because of the many choices you have. It doesn't make sense to promote PHO24 or Khai Silk, everybody know them already. It would be better to show 1000 restaurants and 100 bars and 10.000 shops.

See what Tim Russel on ComeandgoVietnam wrote about it

Banana Pub and Restaurant in Phu My Hung

There is a new so called Pub in Phu My Hung, which hopefully not a sign of a general change in this area.

Banana Pub and Restaurant is located in the Parkview Building, in the former Pat au Chou shop (same building as Tokyo Deli). They have a huge bar you can sit, a billiard table, dart, some tv screens and - beergirls. They also offer food, mainly western style, french fries with whatever. The salmon steak was not that bad, the chicken was under average. Beer is cheep, the girls (would not call them waitresses) doing there best (what includes sitting on you legs) to serve you.

What I like: When it's closed. (As I said, the salmon steak was ok, the beer was cold, and you might like it to sit outside in the early evening for people watching).

What I don't like: It's one of this sexpats bars, where older grey haired overweight westerners together with lonesome koreans gather to have what they call fun with vietnamese girls. I saw two men actually grabbing the girls butt, and they cannot complain, otherwise I am sure they get fired.

One day they were partying until 2.30am, the music was to hear all over the Parkwview B tower as well as the neighboring appartments and villas. (Disclosure: As neighbors we were really pissed to stay awake until early morning)

Open 10am to 12pm.

city talk - the Highlands coffee rat cake case

Much more than a photostory seems to be the rat cake scandal at Highlands coffee. Its a perfect example how companies are not able to handle such an issue - and there is a reason why i keep it general, because it seems that in fact there are now two companies involved - spoken with a PR tongue. Its also a Sheraton issue now...

BarCamp Saigon in November

Who ever made the decision, the BarCamp Saigon seems to be on November 15th. Location to be announced. There is a Barcamp-Wiki-Page available with latest informations as well as a facebook group named BarCamp Saigon. If you interested, just join us..

Vietnamese teacher wanted

I really need help with my Vietnamese as my knowledge is zero. If anyone knows a teacher who speaks English and can teach me Vietnamese, either at my place or wherever, please leave a comment. (Comments need to be approved, so don't be eager). Thx in advance

Office furniture in HCMC

I was looking for a desk and an office chair for my litte homeoffice aka second bedroom. I knew there are some arround Ngyuen Thi Minh Khai. We found a good one at the corner Nguyen Thi Minh Khai/CMT8, opposite to Phong Vu Computers. Its called XINH'S, the have a big selection of tables, even to equip a complete office. Very reasonable prices, and yes, they deliver to your place - and in time. They told us it would be arround 2 p.m. and it was exactly 2.p. when the desk arrived. It tok just 30 minutes for the guy to fix the desk. We were really happy with this company and can strongly recommend XINH's (262B Ngyuen Thi Minh Khai).

Expat Community Saigon - Events in HCMC

When I was browsing Expat-advisory.com (wich I know from Cambodia), I thought by myself why ist it still top-bottom instead of community driven? Some other expat communities seem to have also a lack of activity. So I decided to build up my own Saigon Expat Online Community. The tools are provided by Ning.com, a great service I noticed years before the first time, when they started.

So if you are a expat in Saigon, just join the new network. Its called:

http://expatsaigon.ning.com

You can sign up, start discussion, enter or read events, upload photos and videos, start groups and your onw blog and you will have your own expatsaigon-Homepage. And yes, it's free!

And yes, its beta (of course).

Motobike repair in Vietnam

Last Weekdend we rented a Motorbike from a shop in District 1 (Shop 165 in Pham Ngu Lao, we do not recommend this), and since we arrived at our home we had problems. The main problem was that it was very difficult to start it. The ignition button was useless and even the kick-starter went bad after some days. So today we made it to run the motorbike, went to the Highland Coffee, but when we tried to go back, the machine didn't start anymore.
But thats Vietnam (or South-East-Asia in general) and help is only some dollars away. After seconds a guy named Sam stopped and offered us to bring us to the next garage. That means Nataly sat on his motorbikes backseat and he pushed me with his right feed. The trip tokk about 10 minutes to the garage, Sa, explained the repairmen what to do. It turns out that the battery was quite old and had to be replaced, the same for the oil filter and the carburetor was full of dirt.
They cleaned and repaired the bike in 45 minutes and we paid just 40 Dollars (plus 30.000 Dong for Sam). Of course we will try to claim the money back from the rental shop.

Apartment found in Saigon/HCMC

We had one day to find an apartment, and yes, we got it. Our new home will be in District 7, a bit outside Phu My Hung, located on a small lake. www.thenestsaigon.comdid a great job to find and show us the location. Surprisingly the other tenant in this small house is one of Natalys new collegues.

But I also want to recommend Phu My Hoang Real Estate, they did a great job showing us a lot of nice apartment in District 7. This relatively new place is faraway from typical asian cities, looks more like a suburban is USA.

Pictures are coming soon!are here: