Any Questions About Tech in Vietnam (or While Traveling?)

[zovc]

Hey, it's been a while!

Late March, I left basically everything I had in America behind and set out on some long-term travel. I'm planning to keep it going for at least a year, but it's even easier to run out of money than I had anticipated. Haha

I'm currently in Vietnam, and my general observation is that it's kind of crazy how similar the prices for tech resemble US prices, considering the cost of living is so much lower. (And salaries are lower in general, too.) Also--from what I can tell-- things are tied very tightly to Brick and Mortar/Department stores, so lots and lots of tech stock is dated.

If you have any general or specific questions about tech here, I can try to find the answer for you if I don't know it already. Also, if you're interested in how my gear is working out for travel, I definitely have a lot of experience with it at this point.

 

[confusis]

How's the WiFi/mobile network availability?

 

[zovc]

It's been hit or miss. Mostly very good, though. My view of the US might be a bit pessimistic because I'm from rural Louisiana, but I understand the US's infrastructure is pretty dated. (And reliant on copper instead of fiber.)

In random cafes I go into--the very mom'n'pop ones--they all seem to have wifi and usually have receipts that print the SSID and password for foreigners like me who can't communicate well to get those through speech. Or there are stickers on the table, whatever. In these places, the wifi is generally fine. Yesterday, I couldn't watch YouTube videos and my download speed dropped to like 150KB/s, but eventually it cleared up. I noticed another person in the cafe seemed to be streaming Rampage (the new cinematic release), so maybe he was hogging all the bandwidth from the router.

The weird thing is, there's lots of brand-name bubble tea places that are outfitted like your branded coffee shops in the US, and I've never gotten a good wifi connection at any of them. Cộng Cà Phê is a chain that seems to do well, and I really like their offerings--they have Vietnamese coffee + coconut milk + blended ice and it's served with a straw and spoon and... I dig it. ~$2 for the whole thing!

I haven't been outside of Hanoi, the capital, too much, but even the wifi networks out there seemed very snappy. I stayed in Sapa Valley for two days, and the wifi was good at the homestay as well as a Cộng Cà Phê.

 

[zovc]

Regarding mobile networks, I don't really know. In Hanoi, data seems to work fine. The prepaid option pushed onto me from a local shop is 100,000 Dong for 30 days of 4G, up to 3GB of data. A lot of people do not seem to use mobile data, which has caused me to run out of texting minutes when trying to coordinate with folks on more than one occasion.

The other night I stayed out past curfew talking to a bartender with really goof English. My SIM card's 30-day cycle ran out as I started walking home, so I couldn't book a Grab (they bought all of Uber's operations here) and had to walk ~3 hours to my apartment only to find the building was locked because of curfew. So I stayed in a Circle K on their wifi until 5:30am when the apartment opened back up and went to bed. Haha

 

[confusis]

Worst currency name ever...

That's a fantastic price for 3GB though!

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

They have a curfew there? I was kind of expecting China to have one when I came here but nope.

What apps do they use their to communicate?

 

[zovc]

There doesn't seem to be a standard app for communicating out here. Most people have smartphones, but like I mentioned it seems like a lot of them don't have data.

It seems most travelers use whatsapp, and I hate it. I made it using my US phone number and locals can never find me using it.

Locals seem to mostly use SMS and Facebook Messenger. I've seen people using an app that looks a lot like Facebook messenger with the chat heads and all, but it was visibly a knockoff. Idk if that was just a SMS manager or what.

Regarding the curfew, no one really takes it seriously but it does functionally change things. There are bars and such that will "look closed" but stay open, and the police make rounds extorting places that are busted. An expat told me he's seen a bar manager "bribe" the cops more than once in a night. Which is weird because places like Circle K can stay open 24/7. But dang do I miss ending up at a waffle house type establishment because I was bored at 3am.

 

[Testifier]

I would say that app you've seen is Zalo, a Vietnamese version of FB Messenger; and the last time I checked, that app is basically used as if it was Tinder

For the tech world, like you said, most of the stock from the large department store are dated and expensive, mostly due to what I call "department-store-fee-for-who-doesn't-know-anything-about-technology". But there are ways to get around that because there are smaller, companies that actually get the stock "on-demand" with the original price + shipping. Warranty is also tied to that store only, unless the item is officially distributed via a partner company. For example, I know that ASUS and Gigabyte have authorized warranty service in Vietnam. There are also other partnership but with limited term which is a nightmare to get RMA when that term is over.

Btw, are you in Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi?

Edit: I saw that you're in Hanoi, and there are not many things I can advise you since I have never been there. It'll be a different story if you were in HoChiMinh City

 

[zovc]

I've heard Apple products are a good choice in terms of having their warranty. But I don't know a lot about that. Someone heard about my laptop and offered me current-gen Surface products at a very slight markup, but I didn't want to deal with a shady individual via Facebook. I originally thought they were asking too much, but it probably was actually a good deal locally.

Yeah, I'm in Hanoi. Do you have any idea how shipping stuff from international sources works out? I came very close to ordering something like a CHUWI laptop from Aliexpress, or one of those types of vendors. There were a few times where I considered ordering stuff off of Amazon and just didn't want to bother with figuring it out and being surprised by customs/import taxes.

I'm not sure I'll get to go to HCMC, but I'd definitely be happy to hear recommendations in case I randomly end up there.

 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Hey, it's been a while!

Late March, I left basically everything I had in America behind and set out on some long-term travel. I'm planning to keep it going for at least a year...

I'm gunna be irresponsible and derail this thread somewhat to ask - how'd you manage to pull this off? I dream of being able to step away from full time work and travel for a while. I'd like to think I have the resources and wherewithal to pull it off, but the idea of it by itself is rather daunting.

 

[zovc]

Hm. There's a lot of life-story in there, and I mentioned it in the What did you do today? thread a while back.

Basically, I started putting out feelers on helpx.net and aupair.com, and started finding opportunities that, not only sounded unique, but also seemed manageable for me. There's lots of "clean the toilets in this hostel for 5 hours a day" in exchange for a hostel bed, but I'm trying not to do that. So it takes a lot of time and looking and patience. A lot of times, you never hear back from hosts.

What really put me over the edge, is there's lots of agencies in China. It's a little scary, because you have to sign a contract, but they give you a small amount of pay, university courses on Mandarin, a place to stay, and food. That's all in return for being an au pair, which means staying with a family and helping look after their kid. Normally there's not housework, but there would be getting up at 6am to bring a stranger's kid to school. Still, the value proposition of life experience, university-level courses on a language, a place to stay, food, and a small amount of pay (literally like ~$200 a month) is pretty tempting to me. This in particular seemed very easy to secure as a native English speaker, so that made me feel more secure in general if I fell onto hard times financially.

I've spent more money than I expected to here, but I also have had a lot less support than I expected to because the program I'm currently with is pretty poorly managed, and none of the staff is fluent in English. Ironic, as they're an English language center... Haha

If you want to get more specific, feel free to send me a message. More privately, I'd be willing to talk about my finances, how I'm feeling about them after getting started, or whatever else.

I will say: I got Tortuga's Outbreaker Travel Daypack, and I cannot recommend it or the company any less. Maybe you'll get a different impression reading their page, but I was under the impression my belongings would be safe from rain in it and they absolutely were not. I wish I would have taken the time to see if any of Mission Workshop's backpacks (Living in the US, I kept my things in one of their messenger bags) were the right size for me to use daily, and could fit into my larger carry-on bag. (I'm traveling with just a carry-on, and so far that's working out fine. Having a smaller bag for daily life is a real blessing, even if it's a disappointing bag.)

 

[zovc]

It's also worth mentioning that, if you're under 30 (personally I'm running out of time), there are lots of countries that offer a "Working Holiday Visa", which is basically a great-value visa that generally lasts a year and allows you to work.