I will not miss the flooding that occurs on Nguyễn Hứu Cánh street whenever there's a significant high tide and is especially bad when coupled with a good downpour. Neither will I miss the extra driving that's required to get to other districts like 1 and 7 because The Manor is removed from the city center. And neither will I miss having to carry my laundry out to have it done because the facility on the ground floor charges prices that are outrageous even by Western standards ($1.50 US for one shirt!). And most of all I will not miss my Viet Kieu (Việt kìều) (he lives in the USA at times) neighbor and his drunken friends who would at times party until 2 or 3 AM to a chorus of escalating shouts as the beer continued to flow, culminated by a hallway rampage as they finally began making their way home. Money does not buy class.
Now I'm living again at the shared house I lived in before moving to The Manor. I'll stay here at least a few months before finding a new apartment, possibly in district 7.
It finally happened last week. After almost 2 years of blithely motoring around Saigon on my little Honda Cub I was pulled over by the CSGT, the traffic police. It happened after dark when the CSGT officer standing at the roadside pointed his flashlight at me and waved it around, the signal to pull over. I've been told that I could have just ignored it, but somehow I doubt that would be a safe effective technique or wouldn't everyone just do that? Or maybe after they saw I was a foreigner they would have let me go. I don't know. I've seen CSGT give chase when Vietnamese have tried that little trick. But I believe the officer may not have realised that I was a foreigner and he may have wished he hadn't stopped me. He didn't speak much English and of course I acted as if I don't speak a word of Vietnamese. I hadn't violated any driving laws as far as I knew.
"Hello", I chirped.
"Papor, licen", he replied with not a hint of cheerfulness.
"I don't carry my passport with me", I replied, "but I do have a driver license."
Technically I'm not required to carry a driver license in Vietnam because technically the engine on my Honda Cub is only 49 cc, under the 50 cc minimum that triggers the license requirement.
The CSGT officer had already pulled over 2 or 3 other Vietnamese motorbikers before he took my license and gave it a cursory examination before handing it back to me. He had a scowl on his face and I knew what he expected, but he didn't know how to cross the language and culture barrier to request it and I sure as hell wasn't going to provide any assistance.
"Ok?", I asked smiling stupidly, and he waved his hand signaling me to go.
No money changed hands.
I have a friend who used to carry a UK driver license who also drives a Honda Cub similar to mine. I say used to because he was pulled over by the CSGT and made the foolish mistake of handing them his UK license. He is of Asian descent so the CSGT may have thought he was Vietnamese. When they discovered he wasn't and that they weren't going to extract any tea money from the traffic stop they reacted angrily by driving off with his license and he'll never see it again. It's possible he could go to some CSGT station somewhere and pay the appropriate 'processing fee' to retrieve it. I imagine they might do the same with a passport so I think it would be the height of folly to hand that over to one of them.
I've heard some people say a foreigner should always say he doesn't have a license, but I know someone else from the UK who had his motorbike impounded for 30 days because he didn't have one. He was driving a bike over the 50 cc minimum.
Vietnam has a driving insurance requirement but it seems to not be enforced. I was happy the CSGT officer didn't ask me for proof of insurance because I currently am uninsured, but I think about 99.8% of the Vietnamese motorbikers are also. I did have insurance but I let it expire. It only costs about $4 US / year. The safe thing to do is to get a Vietnamese license and stay insured.
About a year ago I informed 2 Vietnamese friends that I'd never been stopped by the CSGT and one of them commented that it 'wasn't fair' implying that traffic stops are an accepted part of life for most Vietnamese and that I was getting a free ride as a foreigner. It's probably true.
Motorbike drivers don't have it as bad as car drivers however. While showing that you have the money to afford to drive a car in Saigon often gets one preferential treatment, it's not true with the CSGT unless you consider getting stopped and forking over money as preferential.
This year Vietnam will begin registration fees for 4-wheel vehicles. There's discussion about having them for motorbikes, but that's still in the preliminary stages. Perhaps this would provide the funding necessary for the CSGT to better enforce traffic laws.
One job that's available to foreigners in Vietnam who feel the need to be employed is bar manager at a bar that caters to foreigners. There's a bar in district 7 that recently had a need for a new manager and some of the staff were encouraging me to apply. I believe they did this because they like my easy-going nature and they were thinking, probably quite correctly, that I would be an easy boss, but I'm not sure that's the best thing for the bottom line. In any case I wasn't interested in doing it. It requires being at the bar almost every day from the early evening until late and schmoozing with the customers to keep them feeling warm and fuzzy and encouraging them to invite their friends to also patronize the bar. I was told by the ex-manager that one can earn enough money to live an easy life in Saigon.
Finally, it's so easy when living in the more developed parts of cities like Saigon to forget how difficult life can be : Young Girl With a Terrible Affliction
One of the remaining French colonial buildings in Saigon. This one is in district 1. Note the highly styled column to the right of the gate with the soldier's bust atop.
