Vietnam Deel 2

Een maandje Vietnam: september 2018 (2)

Eten of drinken kun je volop in de vele internationale restaurantjes. Het warenhuis bevindt zich aan Le Loi, een soort Vietnamese Coolsingel.

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Een enorm contrast vormt dan de kleine ZZP-er die zittend op het trottoir hun eenvoudige waar proberen te verkopen.

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Light-hearted weekend read: Will we ever be on time in Vietnam?

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Passengers check in at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City in this file Tuoi Tre photo.


Bam! You arrived at the airport on time, fought your way through immigration and security, argued with the Vietnamese in the queue, found Burger King and then…your flight time goes pear-shaped…

In February, just as Tet hits the nation in the solar plexus, I’ll be on another visa run. And since I have the money I’m flying out of the country rather than sulking to the border. Will my plane leave on time? Unlikely. Will my online booking be accepted or screwed-up? Highly likely. Will the immigration line ever get shorter? Not in this century. Will they ever make a decently made and priced coffee at the terminal? If the staff were Italian, yes.

All around the world, people complain about trains failing to leave on time. Heck…that even affected the German rail network in 2018! Yet, publicly we seem less prone to protesting over delayed or cancelled flights. Of all the airport networks I’ve used in Asia, Vietnam seems (to me at least) to have the worse, most chaotic and mismanaged terminals. Another reason why there’s so little ‘return tourism’ in this country.

It’s become a fact of life when travelling by air into and around Vietnam that your flight is almost always late, cancelled, delayed or the latest…’scheduled’ or ‘en route’ which means nothing to me as I stand with a sprained neck staring at the status board. Sigh…back to the smoking room which is somewhere near the North Pole.

For the past ten years, I’ve flown in and out of the country. I can nostalgically remember the ‘good old days’ when you only had to battle your way through the airport to get to the gate and stay there. These days it’s major chaos as hundreds of people run from gate 4 to gate 11 ten minutes from boarding time – which is closer to hell than the smoking room. And it’s downstairs with no escalator, you’re a family of four and no one remembers who’s got the boarding passes.

Still, it’s not a bad way to assess your fitness level, jogging to the new gate destination, jumping on the bus to the plane parked somewhere near the Vietnamese border, tromping up whose wobbly, creaking metal stairs, playing rugby football with everyone trying to put a rectangular bag into a curved storage bay, then collapsing into your seat after walking over the people already seated. If you didn’t want to kill someone after that…you’re good to go.

In the old days, I used to take a book and read contently with my feet on my luggage as children happily attempted to walk over my ankles. I deliberately tripped them and glared… It worked rather well. These days I’ve got the laptop and dozens of anime movies to watch as the world shuffles by. Headphones and lots of J-Pop and K-Pop to listen to when the shonky looking businessmen shout happily in the smoking room and plenty of yummy ham and cheese sandwiches to make my fellow passengers jealous as their Pringles fall on the floor.

Now here’s the thing, a disastrously locally made sandwich I bought at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City a few eons ago nearly landed me in hospital. Since those days, I have stocked up on goodies at the Korean-run Family Mart in District 1 and the Subway outlet next door – never had a problem since! Nobody has ever questioned the bread at airport security – it’s ciggy lights and nail-clippers they are after. Good on them, not sure what I’d do if confronted by a terrorist with a nail-clipper.

Burger King saves my life on many of these sojourns into the travel twilight zone. Probably also because they have the few decent chairs still available in an airport unless you’re business club and bunk down in the airport lounges. Also if you leave the French fries to the last, you can hog the two chairs and table for half an hour as desperate parents search for somewhere for the kids to sit and eat. In an airport, I’m a changed man; everyone for himself.

Well, the status board has changed, there’s a new gate but I’m in no hurry – it will be five minutes before the buses arrive and I see no sense in being the first on the plane. We’re late as usual (a strange enough phrase in itself) and I call my destination to make sure the transport knows to wait. Just another day in Vietnam…Oi! Quit pushing me in the back with that suitcase, hey! I’ll tread on his toe before I sit down on the plane…

And only ninety minutes late – what a bargain!

It’s just a dream, to be on time… but I can dream, can’t I?


Bron: Light-hearted weekend read: Will we ever be on time in Vietnam? - Tuoi Tre News


Yes Stevi, of course you can dream. Maar hoe dan ook, het resultaat is en blijft een nachtmerrie…
 
Een maandje Vietnam: september 2018 (3)

Het verkeer in het centrum heeft momenteel te kampen met verstoppingen als gevolg van het prestigieuze metroproject waarvan de aanleg zich achter grote blauwe schuttingen afspeelt.

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Maar gelukkig kan ik m’n vertrouwde winkeltjes, eet- en drinkgelegenheden nog steeds terugvinden. Als tegenhanger uit vervlogen tijden functioneert de Ben Thanhmarket nog steeds al zijn de lekkages tijdens een hevige stortbui wat toegenomen. Maar de druppels vielen gelukkig niet in m’n kom Pho Ga dat voortreffelijk smaakte.

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Een straat in de buurt van Ben Thanh heeft een concentratie van Maleisische restaurantjes en heb daar ook enkele keren lekker pittig gegeten. Wat ook z’n charme heeft zijn de “plastic”-straatrestaurantjes. Gewoon ergens op een trottoir staan een aantal kleine plastic krukjes en tafeltjes waar vooral de locals eten. Maar om daar tussen te zitten is zo leuk en je bent verzekert van heerlijk eten omdat de doorstroming van de food groot is.

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En dit alles bezocht ik vanuit m’n hotel op loopafstand dat ik eerder vanuit Nederland boekte. Het voordeel op deze manier is dat je bedje al gespreid is als je na een lange reis moe aankomt. Alle acties die je moet ondernemen om door Vietnam te reizen, komen later wel aan de orde. Bureautjes voor reizen en (binnenlandse) vluchten boeken zijn er volop. Had tegenover m’n hotel m’n ticket geboekt voor m’n vlucht naar Hanoi, de volgende etappe van m’n reis. Hoe makkelijk wil je het hebben?
 
A visit to the dentist in Vietnam

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A dentist is seen checking a patient's teeth in Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre


A while back I ran a feel-good story about a great experience with a doctor in Vietnam. hat article prompted alert readers to write: “OK, but what about the dentists?” Well, the short version is they’re pretty darned good too – at least most of them are.

I haven’t had much experience with dentists around the country, but I did go to a glitzy “Western” dental office in Da Nang once for teeth cleaning. Very professional setup, with photographs of the Western dentist placed strategically around the office as well as his various certificates and degrees, and of course a few choice photos with patients showing off their gleaming white teeth, presumably taken after treatment.

I went back several times in an attempt to give them my business but he was never there. The prices were Western – they had that part right – so perhaps someone just set it all up from abroad and was raking it in, showing up now and then or not at all. Or I suppose it’s possible he doesn’t even exist, now wouldn’t that be funny?

In the end I went to a genuine hole-in-the-wall dentist’s office that a local friend recommended. It was more like a local neighborhood barber shop than a dentist’s office, with rickety old chairs that had been around for decades, lots of people sitting around talking, and a general aura of wear and tear.

The staff, however, were fresh as a daisy and right on the ball. A man who I presumed to be the owner came and poked around in my mouth and quoted a price. I was then ushered into a back room that was somewhat more slick than the front, possibly designated for up-market customers and foreign tourists.

The whole operation was spotlessly clean and the dentist who worked on me did a great job although he did make whining noises about the condition of my teeth. No idea what he could have been thinking. Do people with clean teeth usually go to him to get them even cleaner? Strange to say the least. Anyway, I left thinking that although I probably wouldn’t trust those dentists with a root canal, they are just fine for routine jobs.

A few months ago, I had a gnarly old tooth way in the back corner that had been giving me fits for weeks. True to form, I ignored it until it drove me to the edge of insanity. I did learn that cold beer definitely numbs the pain, but despite guzzling copious amounts I’d finally reached the end of my tether.

I pulled the Facebook group trick again since it had worked so well with the doctor in the past and asked for local recommendations. My post attracted several credible replies, among them a couple of recommendations for a particular dentist in the center of Da Lat. I found my favourite motorbike taxi man, and off we went.

In developing countries, there is usually no point in making an appointment. Even if the service provider does accept an appointment it only functions correctly if no other patient shows up just before the agreed time, so I didn’t even try to make one. I just walked in and sat down, and sure enough the staff jumped to attention.

The office was spotless, organized, and even the prices were listed on the wall in both Vietnamese and English. The staff were right on the ball too, asked me a few questions, filled out a form, and we were all set.

First up was to check my blood pressure, after which I was informed that I should go to the hospital for the extraction because my BP was on the high side. I protested, stating I’d just been on an exciting (nerve-wracking) motorbike journey to get to their office, drank a coffee just prior to that, smoked a cigarette or two in the last couple of hours, and climbed a flight of stairs in a hurry.

All those factors probably conspired to temporarily raise my blood pressure a notch or two, at least that’s what I concluded. I think employees at dental offices don’t realize that a visit is downright scary for many patients, but I didn’t mention that point fearing it may be a sensitive topic.

Several of us huddled to negotiate and finally the team agreed to do the extraction, which was over and done with before I knew what was happening. The dentist, whose English was frighteningly fluent, swabbed that anesthetic numbing gunk over the offending area, stabbed a needle into my gums, waited a couple of minutes, then with a sharp twist and a strong yank that tooth was out in no time flat.

The doctor prescribed both antibiotics and a painkiller just in case, neither of which was needed. The cost of the extraction was VND300,000 or about US$13, without question a fair price in Vietnam and downright cheap compared to prices abroad.

All in all, I couldn’t have imagined a better experience. The main objective for me is that the treatment needed is carried out professionally and effectively in a hygienic environment for a reasonable local price. It doesn’t mean having fancy decor and pretty pictures on the wall with leather furniture just to get simple dental treatment, at least not to me.

And on top of all that I didn’t even need to make an appointment weeks in advance, which is usually necessary overseas.

Can’t wait until I have another bad tooth! Well, not quite, but you get my drift.


Bron: A visit to the dentist in Vietnam - Tuoi Tre News


Een schril contrast met mijn eerste bezoek aan een tandarts hier in Nha Trang.

De eerste die ik hier vond (op aanraden van Erich, die zelf een tijd had gezocht), was puur slecht, hardhandig, onbeschoft (mijn uitgestoken hand werd genegeerd, na afloop zat hij sneller weer achter de tv dan ik overeind kon komen), een norse receptioniste, een dito assistente, kortom je werd hier niet vrolijk van. Bij mijn tweede bezoek weigerde hij het formulier voor de verzekering in te vullen met de status van mijn gebit. Dat heeft Minh toen maar zelf gedaan (met een heel klein beetje hulp van zijn kant). Ik heb (met erg veel moeite) mijn mond maar gehouden (ik wist op dat moment nog niet dat er meer tandartsen in Nha Trang zijn, anders…) maar ben nooit meer teruggegaan.

Later hoorde ik wat inside-information, dat met name tandarts-diploma’s hier ook kunnen worden gekocht. Zou me dus niets verbazen, als dit een copy-shop-gecertificeerde smoelensmid was.
 
Doorliggen

Nog even verder hakken op het medische circuit hier.

Minh’s moeder, een eind in de 90, heeft last van doorligplekken. Men vond het prettig om er een huidarts naar te laten kijken. En een oud-studente van Minh’s oudste zus is huidarts in een ziekenhuis dus die werd vriendelijk gevraagd om langs te komen. Minh was er ook.

Een grandioze flop.
  • Ze moesten maar naar een chirurg gaan voor de wond.
  • Medicijnen wist ze niet.
  • Echte adviezen had ze niet.
  • Er moest maar elke dag een verpleegkundige naar kijken om haar zo op de hoogte te houden. (Ehh, waarvoor dan?)
Minh heeft hoofdschuddend haar mond maar gehouden.

Toen ze thuis kwam vertelde ik haar bij wijze van grap dat ze beter naar onze dierenarts had kunnen gaan. Ik kreeg onmiddellijk gelijk. :+

Ze was net die dag medicijnen voor één van onze honden wezen halen en had het ter sprake gebracht. De man wist wel iets ervan maar had, gezien de overvolle wachtkamer, helaas geen tijd om er dieper op in te gaan.

Maar goed, volgens mij heeft de eerste de beste ziekenverzorgster in een verpleegtehuis in Nederland (veel) meer kennis van dit soort zaken als deze huidarts.

Of is deze klacht gewoon te simpel voor iemand met een dergelijke opleiding en functie?

Of net als gisteren… O-)


Aanvulling
Na overleg met een familielid uit HCM met een volledig andere medische achtergrond (in aids gespecialiseerde arts) toch maar besloten om een ziekenhuis te bezoeken. En daar troffen ze een arts die wel wist waar ze over praatte en ook handelend wist op te treden.

Ze moest meteen blijven en is eergisteren geopereerd. Ze is erg moe en Minh draait nu met een paar broers en zussen een dienst, zodat er dag en nacht twee personen bij het bed aanwezig zijn. Ik pas op de honden.
 
In Vietnam, poor infrastructure makes online course registration a nightmare for students

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A student reads an announcement for class cancelation on her laptop in this photo taken in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Minh Giang / Tuoi Tre

While more and more universities in Vietnam have gone hi-tech by allowing students to register for courses online before the start of every new semester, the registration is in fact a nightmare for students as the educational institutions just fail to ensure they have adequate tech infrastructure for the process.

Students at some universities have complained that the arduous online course registration even led to them graduating later than expected, but school management said these cases are rare. Even so, some educational institutions admitted that they do not have adequate systems to ensure efficient Internet-based course registration for students. One of the most common issues for many universities is that their websites will crash whenever too many students access the systems at a time.

Even when students were able to log in and complete the registration, their selected courses would just ‘disappear’ from the system, meaning they had to do everything again, they complained to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

For instance, a student of Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT) said she successfully registered for all the courses required for the new semester in the morning, only to find out in the afternoon of the same day that “none of the courses I had selected was included in my academic schedule.”

Even worse, there were cases when all the course registration students sweated to complete were deemed ‘inappropriate’ due to ‘technical errors’ of the systems. “The school deleted all of the course registration that we made in the morning and told us that another session for doing the process again would be held at 6:00 pm,” one student of Van Lang University in Ho Chi Minh City recalled. “So we all accessed the school website at 5:45 pm, but more than two and half an hours later, no ‘registration session’ was opened.”

Students also complained that the system would allow courses to be ‘over-booked,’ meaning some classes have more students than should, while others had to be canceled due to the insufficient number of registered learners.

In the second semester of the academic year 2017-18, the Banking University Ho Chi Minh City had 40 classes cancelled while the National Economics University and University of Languages and International Studies, both in Hanoi, had to cancel 4 and 37 classes, respectively.

In response to students’ complaints, many universities require students to complete the online course registration on different days, depending on their faculties and years of study. “However, students tend to pay no attention the announcement and all rush to the registration website on the first day, causing the website to crash,” said Pham Thai Son, director of admission and communication of Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry.

Phan Ngoc Minh, head of the training department at Banking University Ho Chi Minh City, said while some students did have their graduation delayed due to problems in course registration, the phenomenon is rare and “only a few students were affected.”

A vice president of a public university in Ho Chi Minh City admitted that while many universities try to implement technology in course registration, they lack the infrastructure needed to ensure the process will run smoothly, with financial inability mostly to blame.


In Vietnam, poor infrastructure makes online course registration a nightmare for students - Tuoi Tre News


Ik moet toegeven, als je dit soort berichten leest begint het oude vakgebied toch wel weer te kriebelen.

Gelukkig kan ik dat ook weer heel snel onderdrukken. O-)
 
Ik denk voor zoiets dan toch meer aan een gestructureerde Europese opzet voor het geheel. Daar past dan beter b.v. een goed glas Remy Martin bij. :+

Hoewel, Franse slag, misschien dan toch maar beter een goede Spätlese of Auslese. O-)
 
Omgeving 31

Ze hadden er een behoorlijk waggeltempo in.

De fiets stoppen, camera tevoorschijn halen, iets proberen te zien op een reflecterend schermpje, het lukte net. Voor een tweede foto was ik al te laat.

Ehh, ze waggelen net onder de poort door, het zijn die kleine witte stipjes midden onderin. O-)

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Ho Chi Minh City university first in Vietnam to provide tuition-free robotics, AI program

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Students are seen at an event on the campus of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in 2019. Photo: Tran Huynh / Tuoi Tre



A major university in Ho Chi Minh City will offer a tuition-free academic program on robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) this year, making itself the first higher education institution in Vietnam to make this decision.

The Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education plans to waive all tuition fees only for the 20 students following the program, according to Nguyen Truong Thinh, dean of the school’s mechanical engineering faculty. Eligible candidates must score 24 and above in the entrance test, and those who come from selective high schools or have won awards at science and technology competitions will receive priority, Thinh revealed.

The undergraduates are expected to learn relatively new subjects in Vietnam such as industrial robot systems, self-driving vehicles, big data, biomedical robots, virtual reality and human-robot interaction.

The students will spend the entire final year of the four-year program on placement in companies and doing graduation theses, the dean said. He emphasized that a number of enterprises told the university to send the robotics and AI graduates to them, well prior to the program’s launch around July this year.

The university has readied itself for the training by contracting highly qualified lecturers and building research laboratories for the purpose, president Do Van Dung said.


Bron: Ho Chi Minh City university first in Vietnam to provide tuition-free robotics, AI program - Tuoi Tre News


Wel erg laat: ik was eind 80-er en begin 90-er jaren al (zijdelings) met AI bezig. Geen robotica, meer expert-systemen en intelligente interfaces naar databases.
Niettemin een goed initiatief.
 
Laatst bewerkt:
Omgeving 32

Soms kom je voor een verrassing te staan.

Tijdens een fietstochtje was ik ergens op een landweggetje wat foto’s van de omgeving aan het maken, toen deze dame wegreed bij een huis. Ik zag in een flits dat een spanband was losgeschoten en kon haar roepen. Terwijl ze de zaak weer in orde maakte, vertelde ik haar waar ik woon. Ik woon daar ook, zei ze.

Vervolgens wees ze op mij en zei: “Fred”. Terwijl ik haar verbaasd stond aan te kijken kwam er “en Minh” achter aan.

Hmm, oppassen geblazen: ik ben al aardig berucht in de wijde omgeving.

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En toen moest er van mij ook een foto worden gemaakt. Om haar foto niet te verpesten (hoewel… O-) ) is deze foto gemaakt met mijn de camera voor de buik. Vandaar de belabberde scherpstelling (ik gebruik normaal BBF).

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Sexism? Vietnamese judge tells wife to back down, let husband do business at divorce court

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Judge Nguyen Van Xuan (C) presides over a divorce court in Ho Chi Minh on February 21, 2019 to settle property disputes between Dang Le Nguyen Vu and Le Hoang Diep Thao, who run Vietnam’s Trung Nguyen Group. Photo: Dan Thuan / Tuoi Tre


A high-profile split row between a couple who run one of Vietnam’s largest coffee producers has fuelled a debate on gender roles after a judge who presided over their court advised the wife to withdraw her divorce request and let the husband concentrate on running the coffee business.

Dang Le Nguyen Vu, chairman of Trung Nguyen Group, and his wife Le Hoang Diep Thao, who heads the group’s instant coffee brand G7, are taking each other to court to divorce and settle on the division of their disputed properties, worth around VND8,481 billion (US$365.58 million).

Vu, 48, and Thao, 46, co-founded their business in 1996 and together transformed it into one of Vietnam’s coffee giants until disagreements between them led Thao to file for divorce in 2015.

At a court in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, a judge who presided over the couple’s divorce made a controversial move by advising Thao to withdraw her divorce request and let her husband concentrate on running the business. “I urge you to reconsider this decision,” said Nguyen Van Xuan, the chief justice. “[I think you should] withdraw your divorce file, hand over the business to your husband, and abstain from its operations so that your husband can continue to realize his business endeavors,” Xuan said. “[That way], any wealth that he makes [while you two are married] is still considered mutual property between you and him,” the judged added. “You get to keep your family and your property, and live like a queen,” he continued.

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Le Hoang Diep Thao, general director of instant coffee brand G7, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s Trung Nguyen Group. Photo: Phuoc Tuan / Tuoi Tre


Although Thao was convinced by the judge’s advice and withdrew her divorce request the same day, Vu didn’t agree to it and wanted to move ahead with the divorce, which as of the time of writing is still not settled.

However, judge Xuan’s comments didn’t go unchecked by Thao’s representing lawyer, who pointed out that such a statement coming from a judge is “inappropriate”. “How could you tell a businesswoman and mother, who has been barred from running her company for years, to retreat inside the walls of her hosue and take good care of household chores and her husband?”

Thao’s lawyer Truong Trong Nghia was quoted by Vietnamese news site Zing as saying at Thursday’s court. “You can ask the many women who are present at the court today whether your advice is legal and ethical,” he said, suggesting that the judge had violated Vietnam’s Law on Marriage, which recognizes that both partners in a marriage are equal.

The judge’s statement has also fuelled a debate on sexism in the Southeast Asian country, where gender inequality persists in society despite government efforts to eradicate it.

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Dang Le Nguyen Vu, chairman of Vietnam’s Trung Nguyen Group. Photo: Phuoc Tuan / Tuoi Tre



According to Bui Quang Nghiem, a Ho Chi Minh City-based lawyer, that fact that a judge makes an effort to reconcile a couple on the verge of divorce is acceptable and even encouraged. However, given the context of the dispute between Vu and Thao, giving such an advice during a court on dividing properties can “lead to misunderstandings”.


The judge has compromised his “integrity, impartiality, and objectivity” by doing so, said Nguyen Kieu Hung, a Ho Chi Minh City-based lawyer. “Members of a board of judges must not make their opinions known to a litigant with the intention of pursuading him or her to listen to their advice,” said Vu Phi Long, a former judge at the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City.

Trung Nguyen Group is involved in the production, processing and distribution of coffee, with thousands of locations across Vietnam. It is one of the largest and domestic coffee brands within Vietnam, and exports its products to more than 60 countries, including major markets such as G7 countries, the U.S., European Union, United Kingdom, Germany,n China,m Canada, Russia, Japan, Dubai and Singapore.


Bron: Sexism? Vietnamese judge tells wife to back down, let husband do business at divorce court - Tuoi Tre News


Ehh… toch maar geen commentaar. O-)
 
Overdag vaak nog wel wat warmer (>30 gr.). Ik weet weinig van landbouw af. Soms zie je dat ze stukken land platbranden, maar waarom?
In de droge tijd zie je ze vaker sproeien zoals hierboven.
 
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