No you don't need a return ticket. They are whining that this year the number of tourists is lower than expected so don't worry they will not pose you problems

And don't forget that you have to pay again at airport for you visa, for single entry (3 months) it costs 45 USD and 95 USD for multiple entries (3 months). Better to pay in USD

I applied for a visa at the link you gave me but they sent me an email that I need to have all these things when I arrive at their customs:

· 02 passport photos of 04 cm x 06 cm or similar size;
· 02 completed Entry/Exit forms downloaded from link: http://www.vietnamvisa.govt.vn/form-on-arrival.pdf
· Printed Visa Approval Letter with full pages (no colored print required)

Is this necassary? I don't have any printer :S
Maybe I need to find a internet cafe.

Yes this is necessary, you need all this things to have your visa

On question 17 they begin asking about "hosting org/individual in VN.
Asking about the address + full name + relationship to applicant.
What do I write there? Is it the organisation that I applied for visa for?
So I write for example "Vietnam Visa Team" in the organisation + full name?
What about relationship?

Nothing, leave it blank

I'm now staying in some kind of red light district.. no idea about where district1 starts and ends etc, I want to find a room to rent for a month without deposit and preferably outside the red light district, I'm going to rent a motorbike for a month too so it will be easier to get around. Should I just rent a motorbike and drive around the whole place? I really would be driving completely randomly, I think it would be a good idea if I knew what direction to drive and where to look.. I would prefer to not pay more than the equivalent of 10k baht, I think that should be possible since a popular restaurant in middle of red light district showed me a huge room with great balcony with view of all the red light steet cost only 14k baht for a month.

Any advice? I got 3g already set up and I'll drive around using google maps on my phone.

Kind of confused by that post, are you even in Vietnam?

Go here for your Thailand questions. It's a much more active thread and the people there are actually in Thailand.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92...-thailand-344/

If you tell me whats confusing about it then I can explain better.
And ofcourse im in vietnam, you really think I dont know what country i am in?

I m not living in Saigon and don't know well this city so I can not really help you where to look. But yep, imo you should rent a motorbike and drive around, find a nice area that you like then ask if there are rooms available. You can also take a look at booking.com. GL

First of all, **** booking.com!
The room I paid for on booking.com was among the cheapest rooms for district 1 and it cost me about 1.25m vnd for 3 nights. I've been looking at a bunch of rooms around district 1 and the rooms that are equivalent to this room in quality&location&etc is about half the price if you ask them in person instead of going to booking.com.

Been driving around in saigon inside district 1 & 2, they really don't have any idea how to drive... if you thought thai people were bad at driving then you will be shocked coming to vietnam.. but I'm really good at driving so I still manged it without too much breaking any sweats.. except from the heat.

Found a decent hotel, seems there aren't really any quite areas nearby district 1.. got to go much farther so I just took a room for 250k/night (not per month).. good location, room's decent and lobby isn't a bar/restaurant so don't have to pass lots of drunk people partying every time I leave the room.

So is there any law enforcement about bringing a VN girl to your hotel room? Or is it better wait until have an apt/condo?

About booking.com, if you are there, of course don't book online.. if you see something nice, go see and negotiate for yourself.

Last year I moved there with my ex gf from Thailand, when she saw how the traffic was there, she was so scared, even to cross the street ! Thai girl scared of traffic.. lol.

Every hotel is different.. Some (cheap) might not allow unless you pay an extra for her but most will allow her in. The 4 or 5 stars hotels will allow her in imo.

thanks gonzo, you've been very helpful!

Hey I searched the thread but couldn't find what I was looking for.

What are the best night clubs in Ho Chi Minh?

From what I've found ACE looks good on youtube and this other club called I found called Apocolapyse now is open until 4am. But not sure how up to date this is and also one other place I could find called Lush or something looked ok?

If anyone has any experience or thoughts about any of these places it would be very much appreciated. I'm going out on Wednesday night only.

Also what is the dress code like?

Price of Alcohol I'm guessing is similar to Thailand

Alcohol is way way cheaper than thailand!
For the equivalent of something like 30-35 baht you get a small beer bottle such as heineken at pretty much any bar/restaurant. If you buy it from family mart it costs less than 20 baht per bottle.

I also want to add to di0d80's questions and ask what are the best casino(s) in saigon?
That you can play texas holdem in that is.. not electronically.

Which other cities have good casinos too?

I think it the opposite the higher hotel will probably require unless you guys walk in with a bunch of luggage holding hands like marriage they going to use common sense to judge. The rules here are quite strict now because if hotel get caught with hooker they get a hefty fine and print in the press so it not good for them. However the lesser hotel are known to let foreigner with hooker since that the majority of there cash income. Obviously don't be ret.ard and look for hooker last mins at 3 am and bring them them in it likely they will say no even if you offer money.

Also most hooker has there go to places for hotel if you don't mind going with them. I have been pretty lucky with this but i don't recommend unless you know decent amount of Vietnamese since there seem to be a huge communication problem and always end up in sticky situation afterward.

Best night club depend on what you are looking for. Most of the white foreigner don't like the E popping super loud music but that what hip in vietnam right now so i would say those are the best for hooker/having a good time. If you enjoy more lounge live music there are napoly/ MZ with hot girls bartender/girls that sit with you for 500k tip.

it illegal for locals to gamble in vietnam so most casino you going into are going to be dead for poker unless there some big event like the APT/Vietnam cup or whatever.

Also PM me yours skype if you guys interested in our exclusive vietnam chat group. We have a very strict no Weirdo policy!

here is the go to website for what popping in vietnam clubs/bar/resturant/event http://anyarena.com/

what are your guys daily budgets?
I think for me, 1 million dongs per day is pretty good life in saigon.
Then next to that you can have a "monthly burst budget" if you want to do anything "special" that you don't do on most days.
You can really save a lot of money living in vietnam without sacrificing luxury.

It's not really even that scary to drive in this traffic anymore and I've just driven inside central area for 3 days now. It's because everyone drives pretty slow so even if it looks really chaotic it's pretty chill, just got to go with the flow.

I've got a couple of questions if you don't mind; tried to search for some answers here and there but couldn't get all of them without leaving any doubts:

1. Is it possible to live there with a budget of as few as $500/month while being there alone (completely excluding nightlife expenses)? Is there any way to rent some 1br/studio for less than $350?
2. Internet. Possible to access a decent connection which allows to grind MTTs outside of city centre (as I guess it's impossible to find an apartment for <$350 in the centre)? I know that the time zone there sucks for MTT grind but who cares
3. I would like to live in Nha Trang but I'm aware that it could not be the cheapest city there. Is the budget posted above enough to live in this particular city or it would be better to search in a cheaper area?

Or maybe it would be better to choose Philippines over Vietnam for these conditions? I guess Vietnam is cheaper but it's always better to ask people who have some knowledge directly than googling things and making theoretical guesses. Thanks in advance for any help.

1. yes, $500 is easy.. that budget would also include renting a motorbike. You wouldn't even have to live too badly on that budget, but If you want weed/massage/girls etc you need to bump the budget up a bit.

2. I'm using viettel and I find it working better than the internet in thailand.

3. Saigon is from what I've read the most expensive place in VN

how do you call vietnam? it says all the time that I am not allowed to dial this number. I've got viettel sim card.

I looked on the internet and it said that I have to use the country code even if it's not an international call but even if I put the country code before the number then I still can't call any numbers.

Also really frustrated because when I booked a room in this hotel, that very day, they had a girl at the reception who spoke great english.. but that was the only day that I've seen her there.. It's been a nightmare trying to talk to the other staff every day since then, can't even rent a motorbike for a day.. and won't give me passport so I can go rent motorbike from someone else.

I had the same problem as you. Your sim card need to be activated so go to a viettel store, problem solved. Then to call somebody here, you just call for ex 090xxxxxxx, 091xxxxxxx, etc

Most of the vietnameses there are living with less that $500/month. Now the real question is can you live like a vietnamese ? you can check this site to have an idea about the cost of living numbeo. For the city you can check Da Nang too. If you want to live there, don't forget that you need to extend your visa every 3 months with a local agent, it costs around 150$. After 3 extensions you need to do a visa run.

Hey,
I've recently spent 6 months in thailand/cambodia and now thinking about moving out to vietnam for a little while. What is the situation for a poker player moving out there is it fairly simple to get the 3 month tourist visa and get into an apartment? once the 3 month visa runs out is it difficult to stay in the country without an official job etc. Any reccomendations for a good location would be useful as well as im pretty clueless in regards to vietnam. Thanks