Month: April 2020

The ongoing hunt for the ideal apartment is still … going on.

A few days ago I was set on returning to an old haunt at 20 Van Kiep St, from where the dogs had driven me in December.

In a disguised blessing, the apartment owner told me  –  a few hours before I was due to move – that the police hadn’t approved their application for me to move in. A blessing because, on reflection the apartment manager is too intrusive for my liking. An imp whose mischief borders on malice.

So I remain at 25 Quang Duc where I have spent 2020 so far, and where I’m paid up until May 3.

However, I’ve now decided that I can no longer bear the traffic and dog noise.

So I’m now on the hunt for somewhere which isn’t going to drive me  to distraction and crime. Somewhere a little peaceful.

It turns out it’s a renters’ market. With tourist numbers way down, manager are dropping their prices.

Two possibilities are afloat – Anh Phu apartments, a few hundred metres from here, and Home Vu, about 7 minutes’ drive closer to the city, and to my ‘Claytons’ job.

Both are at least 500,000 VND cheaper than here, and will offer at least some more peace of mind.

Less than three weeks and counting…

Following up on the recent ‘low finance‘ adventures, more fun and games with gold dealers taught me two things.

Both have to do with the patience or otherwise of natives of North Nha Trang. First, they don’t stand for any nonsense, and second, they ( mostly ) don’t stand for any Russians.

The place is crawling with Russians. This partly because the Russkis had a military presence in Cam Ranh Bay , about 20 km south of Nha Trang, from 1979 til 2002. And, the Vietnamese continue to hire Russian consultants to direct the construction of ship-repair facilities.

On the ‘ground’ level, it’s most apparent in two things – 1) the Northern beaches are full of Russians, easily pegged by their excess flab and audio volume, and 2) business signs in Russian.

But while here they may be,  liked they maybe not.

A case in point – I went to a gold dealer recently, and asked for a price for a conversion USD -> VND.

I didn’t like the offer, so went down the road, to another Vietnamese gold dealer, where the offer was .. .worse!

When I trudged BACK to the first gold dealer, waving my USD$100 bill, I got the Royal Vietnamese Wave. It’s like the Royal English wave, except here it means piss off Noddy please go away.

When he wasn’t sure the message was received, I got shouted at – loudly.

“NYET! NYET! “

Ain’t it amazing how fast a change in POV can change everything?

A friend on messenger yesterday jolted me out of whingeing jag quick-smart, with this

Think big picture man…you are living a bucket list right now

And he’s right. It’s stinking warm, I have plenty to eat, I’m not in lockdown, and I have my own apartment and bike. I can almost earn enough online for rent + food. And I get to explore an exotic culture a world away from cold old NZ.

This in reply to me fretting about passing up a chance to save $100 NZD / month on rent. The cheaper place ( “covid-19 discount” said the manager ) had its downsides.

It’s three rooms only – 1) bedroom/living room/kitchen 2) bathroom 3) balcony. But lack of cooking gear & furniture, a construction site on the doorstep, and inertia ( AKA laziness ) meant I stayed put. For another month at the Vinh Quang, where I have been all year.

There comes a point where living cheaply has to take a back seat to living comfortably. And there’s not much to be gained by being miserable while I’m here. I can do that soon enough at home.

On that note, I’m getting slightly more adventurous when it comes to food. This time of year the heat is getting harder to manage. Thus, below is one remedy I tried today. It works well enough.

Three down, none to go, as far as the refunds from the cancelled trip back home.

I’ve just gotten off the phone with a friendly American, who talked Nervous Neil here through the process of applying for the refund for the DAD – KUL – SYD leg.

It may take a coupla / few weeks, but it seems that I’m likely to get a full refund credited to the account I paid from. This young player learned afterward that using an agent ( kiwi.com ) rather than the airline itself was a risky move. The jury’s out, but it seems the agent has come through.

Air New Zealand, for the final leg of the trip, SYD -> WHG, was the easiest to deal with, as you might expect. From them I have a credit to use within the next year.

Vietjet, the standard budget Vietnamese airline, was the most difficult. Note to self – Learn some more _damn Vietnamese before this whole caper is over.

So it’s all far from signed, sealed, and delivered. But it’s a weight off nervous shoulders to at least have done the legwork to have ‘in my back pocket’ the eventual trip back.