Quote:
Originally Posted by Beijunda
To Bro Whoisdey,
1. Taxi. SASCO Taxi cost more than many other taxi companies. Try MaiLinh group taxi. I feel it is one of the best around. The taxi fare has already gone up recently.
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SASCO has the contract for the airport - it may be a little more expensive than Mai Linh, but not that much more. Within the last 3 months my fare was about 60k - not the $12 USD some people got charged by other taxis. If you take the bigger, 7 passenger taxi than it will be more than the sedan.
When you are in the city, you will only see Mai Linh or the Comfort taxis, just like Singapore. They are both pretty much the same price. The flag drop fare has increased a few times since 2007, but it is still about 15-16k.
[QUOTE=Beijunda;2731037
2. Communication.
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Yes, get a local number. Auto roam works but use a local number, no arguments there. You may be right about who owns which operator, but I find that Mobifone works less well than Viettel in the city, and the opposite in the provinces. SIM cards are cheap, so I carry both.
For vlover, all the SIM card telcos have GPRS. I do not know about the CDMA telcos, like HT Mobile and S-Fone.
[QUOTE=Beijunda;2731037
3. The average income of a VN is never USD1,000. A fresh grad get about VND2.5 million. A government servant (e.g. Police) is paid only VND1 million a month. Most waiter or Waitress are paid VND1 Million but they are also tips by the customers. 1 PR in Disco is paid about VND1.2 million basic but she can draw about VND20 million a month easily.
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I do not know about PR girls in discos, but the average income in Vietnam, according to international sources, is about $800 in 2007. But like I said, this includes all the rural population making $400 a year, pulling the average down.
The government sector makes very little, officially, but they stay in the job for unofficial benefits. The minimum factory wage is about $65 a month, with foreign owned factories having a minimum wage of about $90; and there are geographical increases to the minimum wage laws - the closer to the big cities, the more you have to pay.
I work in a field that requires good language skills from the locals. All the locals who are fresh graduates are looking for 4 million, maybe more! The more they speak English, the more they get paid. Being non-locals, the girls we talk to on our nights out speak English, so we should expect to pay more.
Of course my thinking is based on talking to locals, and you (hopefully!) talk to different locals. If we talk to the same girls that is damn funny. Just more information to share is all. No offense taken and no offense meant.
Have a fun holiday everybody. And do not book my girls!