“It was scary...” How we moved to Vietnam without IT salaries

In September, my cat and I moved to Kyrgyzstan, and from there to Vietnam. In the process, both lost their income and now work in a Vietnamese cafe.

Why Vietnam

We have long wanted to leave Sakhalin and possibly even Russia. She kept her job, there was no savings. We were spurred on by the mobilization situation. We decided to go to Kyrgyzstan, because our friends moved there - they could help with various procedures such as temporary registration.

Before leaving, Dima quit his job, he was paid compensation for unused vacation days, plus we sold the car. In total, we had 700-800 thousand rubles. Perhaps even less: something was spent on a rented apartment on Sakhalin.

More than 100 thousand rubles were spent on tickets from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Osh. We rented an apartment for about 25-27 thousand rubles. It was an overprice, as in all CIS countries, but at that time we could afford it. As we learned from the neighbors, before the mobilization, this apartment was rented for 12,000 rubles.

Nastya continued to work remotely in the Sakhalin time zone: she got up at 3 am, finished after dinner, and after that she was like a boiled sausage. At 5 in the morning, a service was heard outside the window in a nearby mosque, Nastya kept track of time using it.

Dima at that time continued to take courses in order to start earning remotely - editing, 3D graphics, animation. At that time, the financial cushion was still preserved, there was enough money.

And then Nastya was reduced. The editorial office where she worked was blocked by the Prosecutor General's Office for discrediting the RF Armed Forces. Because of this, the media had to be closed.

We could live in peace if Nastya continued to work. But when it was reduced, the financial cushion began to melt. It was hard not only financially, but also morally. Nastya worked in this media for 7 years, from university, for her it was a big blow.

Then we thought about another move. In 2018 we went to vacation to Vietnam, we really enjoyed it. This is probably such a psychological lure: I want to return to the place where I experienced positive emotions.

It was scary because the prospects were incomprehensible. But we decided that it would be better now to spend more on moving to Vietnam, but then we will live a little cheaper, and also in relative comfort.

Here you can rent housing of much better quality for about the same money that we spent in Kyrgyzstan.

There are several large cities in Vietnam, where are moving Russians. Hanoi is the current capital. Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is also a very large city. Vung Tau is a port city, Nha Trang is a tourist city.

It was important for us that the city had at least some kind of infrastructure. Plus we looked at the cost of living. We chose Nha Trang. There is a large Russian community here, there is an opportunity to find a job. But these are all secondary factors. It was more important that we had already been here and we liked it.

How did we get

We moved with a cat, which complicated the situation. Not all airlines carry animals. And those that carry, the prices are higher. Tickets for us with a cat in one direction cost about 250-270 thousand rubles. $400 of this amount is the cost of transporting a cat. These are options with long transfers in Turkey or the UAE, the flight would take from 12 hours to a day and a half.

From the chats, Nastya learned that it is cheaper to get there by buying a tour. Dima found a ticket from Almaty to Nha Trang. It cost almost half as much - about 110-115 thousand - and included a round-trip flight, transportation of a cat, transfer from the airport, a hotel for a week. The flight took just over 7 hours.

To leave Russia, we issued a certificate for moving within the CIS. An international certificate was required to enter Vietnam. As they explained to us, it should be given out at the airport in exchange for our ESS. But this did not happen either in Kyrgyzstan or in Kazakhstan.

We were very nervous that we would not be allowed on a plane with a cat because of an incorrect certificate, but there were no problems. We paid for the cat at the counter at the airport and they took him to a special compartment for animals. There were no issues in Vietnam either. Perhaps because a lot of tourists come to Nha Trang and the border guards do not want to figure it out. Moreover, it is more difficult to ask for bribes at the airport: cameras are everywhere.

There were two more families with cats on our flight. The airport staff just left three cages near the baggage claim - pick up anyone. There were no checks.

We have pre-arranged an e-visa. While we were living in a hotel on a package tour, we decided on organizational issues: we bought SIM cards and found accommodation.

What about visa

Visa

For Russians, there are two tourist options: visa-free entry with a stamp in international passport for 15 days and an e-visa for 30 days. To obtain an e-visa, you need to apply online. It is considered within 3-5 days, the price is $ 25 per person.

Now Vietnam is changing the rules for the stay of tourists in the country. From August 15, the validity of the E-visa will be increased to 90 days, the validity of the visa-free stamp will be extended to 45 days. The visa-free regime will remain free of charge, and we do not yet know how much a new 90-day visa will cost.

In addition to a tourist visa, there is a work and study visa, but they are more expensive. Of the options that we found: educational - $ 1,700 per person, work - 2,900 for two. This is for a year. We decided that it would be more profitable to leave the country once a month and apply for a new e-visa.

Visaran

So, once a month we have to leave the country. The cheapest option is a trip to Laos. Cambodia is much closer to Nha Trang, but there is a paid visa. All this time we went on a visa tour in slipbashes - you can sleep there. It's cheaper than fly on an airplane to one of the neighboring countries, but longer - about a day on the road.

Next time we will take public transport. Bus goes to the city of Pleiku, from there by minibus to the border. It is cheaper by almost a quarter, but longer: there is a four-hour break between the bus and the minibus - both in one direction and in the other direction. Another disadvantage is that a bunch of Vietnamese are traveling with us: they are quite loud and often carry loads. It comes to the fact that cages with chickens or goats go in the trunk.

There are difficulties on the Vietnamese border. It seems like they are punished for bribes, but voluntary donations are still begged for here: for coffee, for development, for repairs. Approximately 650-700 rubles to go back and forth together.

We refuse to pay. With young officers, everything usually goes smoothly, because they are less hardened. And if you come across some man of 40-50 years old, put out the light. We show that we have nothing but passports and visas. And the border guard throws the passport on his desk, takes cigarettes and leaves the room. The whole line is behind us, waiting. He comes back, pours himself coffee, drinks. When we ask why he does not give back his passports, he pretends not to understand us. And this is at the exit from the country, that is, he should simply put a stamp that we are leaving.

How do we solve organizational issues

The language barrier

English is difficult here. Schoolchildren and young Vietnamese know him better than adults. We communicate using an online translator. If the first time they don’t understand us, we simplify the phrase.

There is also a language barrier between the Vietnamese: they do not always understand each other, because there is a difference in pronunciation between different regions of the country. It comes to the point that if you turn on voice acting in a translator, he does not understand it, because this voice acting can be with a southern pronunciation, and the person came from the north.

Money

The local currency is the Vietnamese dong, VND. According to the old rate, we counted three to one, missing thousands: one thousand dong - three rubles. Now the rate has increased: 3.8, almost 4. We do not have foreign card, it cannot be processed.

We use CoronaPay, a money transfer service to another country. Transfers to Vietnam are available only in US dollars. That is, then you need to exchange dollars for dongs. It is difficult to do this in a bank: you need an application, a residence permit.

Basically, everyone changes money in jewelry stores and souvenir shops, alcohol, cosmetics.

We found only one bank that works with CoronaPay. You can withdraw dongs through it, but the rate is worse than in the market or in jewelry stores. This is beneficial only when we withdraw small amounts - 100-200 dollars - the difference in the exchange rate is lower than the cost of a taxi.

Those who have a card of the MIR payment system can withdraw money from a VRB ATM - this bank was opened by the Russian VTB in cooperation with Vietnam. If there is no MIR card, there are people in chats who exchange money: you translate them rubles, and they give dongs. But their rate is even worse than that of CoronaPay.

Connection

Internet speed is normal, but sometimes there are interruptions. With Russian services, the speed is much worse - the same Google Disk works very quickly, better than Yandex.

By SIM cards conditions for foreigners are the same as for locals. There are a lot of promotional tariffs for mobile communications. On average, a month costs 90 thousand dong - about 300 rubles. The tariff includes a small package of minutes, SMS, 4 gigabytes of traffic per day. Here they often pay for communication for six months or even a year in advance, so it turns out much cheaper.

We do not have a valid non-Russian card. That's why we pay mobile communication in local shops. We give money to sellers, and they give us a code through the application; enter it, and the balance is replenished.

Medicine

There are several hospitals in Nha Trang, they serve the Russians for money or insurance. Dima went to a paid appointment with Laura. We paid about 500 rubles for an appointment and the same amount for medicines.

Since there are many Russian-speaking residents in the city, there is an interpreter in the clinic. He led us to the office, went in with Dima and explained everything the doctor had said.

dentistry mainly engaged in normal maintenance: insert a seal, do cleaning. It costs less than in Russia. There are fewer dentists that professionally work with surgery, and their prices are higher. Our neighbor went to Russia to make crowns because it's cheaper that way.

What about rental housing

We found the first apartment in Telegram. There are many Russian realtors there, they know that salaries are higher in Russia and rent is more expensive, so they raise prices. Those who live here longer use Facebook* or local service Chotot. It's usually cheaper there, but you have to negotiate in broken Vietnamese via Google Translate.

There are a lot of buildings with the inscription apartment: you enter, and they show you housing, tell you about the conditions - that's how we found our second apartment.

Prices for studios start at 2.5 million dong (9,655 rubles) - cheaper has not yet been seen. In a residential complex where the Russian community is concentrated, apartments cost about 7 million (27,036 rubles): two small bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen combined with a hall. We found an apartment in another district for 4.5 million (17,380 rubles) a month, now they have moved to a cheaper apartment - for 4 million (15,449 rubles).

The rental process is almost the same as in Russia: a contract in two copies, a deposit - payment for a month in advance, in some cases - for two. The only thing is that there are additional services that pay at the discretion of the landlord: someone can turn on management, someone takes an extra charge for charging an electric bike. We paid 50 thousand per person for WiFi.

We pay utilities. Water costs 100,000 dong (386 rubles) per month - this is the standard price, not per cubic meter, but per person. Electricity costs an average of 4,000 dong (15.45 rubles) per kilowatt, up to a quarter of the cost of housing per month, so many people use gas. Our new apartment has a gas stove, now you can safely fry potatoes without fear that it will wind up an extra 200 thousand (772 rubles) for us per evening.

How our way of life has changed

The sun and the atmosphere of universal relaxation

Today it is around 34 degrees during the day, in December it was 27-30. Humidity is high. The closer to the sea, the more stuffy, the harder it is to endure the heat. We live one and a half kilometers from the sea, it is more or less fresh here.

The official rainy season is from November to February, but this winter there were few of them. It usually doesn't rain in summer, but this year there are a lot of them. Those who live here for a long time are surprised and say that this is anomalous weather for Nha Trang.

Locals don't go anywhere without a raincoat. Here, even banknotes are made of plastic - even wash them, even swim in the sea with them, nothing will happen to them. In addition to change small things: banknotes of 1, 2, 5 thousand dongs are paper.

Here it gets light early and dark early. At 5 am on the waterfront Vietnamese go in for sports, especially the elderly, often turn on music, dance to Britney Spears. An hour later, people drive the children to school, go to work, do morning chores, then work until lunch.

At 11 o'clock, around noon, many establishments and establishments close for siesta because it is hot at that time.

You walk around Nha Trang at noon, and on the sidewalk under a tree, a Vietnamese stretched out a hammock and sleeps in it - this is normal here. Local establishments can work from 5 am to 10 am, close for lunch and open again at 4 pm, work until 8-9 pm and close again because the Vietnamese go to bed early.

The Vietnamese are much calmer, phlegmatic, easier to relate to everything. Not as aggressive as the people we are used to in Russia. At least at first glance.

It's okay for them to make an appointment and be late for an hour. Nobody will be surprised by this. The owner of our first apartment could come unannounced if something needed to be checked. For payment, he came at random. We tried to set a specific time, but he was late or came early.

The Vietnamese have a measured pace of life, a little lazy, because you sleep twice a day. It's relaxing. In the first months we succumbed to the atmosphere, we were on the chill. We understood that we needed a job, we were looking for it, but we did it on a relaxed basis.

Fauna

There are a lot of geckos here. Little lizards are everywhere, sometimes they run home. Sometimes pets eat them. At first, we often saw questions in chats from those who arrived recently: what to do if the cat ate the gecko, whether he would be poisoned. Our cat once dined on the tail of this lizard, everything is fine with him.

Mosquitoes and midges, as elsewhere, bite. There is also a local muck - tomkat. In our area, we did not encounter him, but we used to fly to our acquaintances. Very painful, burning bites from it.

There are large flying cockroaches - we saw up to 7 cm in length. They often fly into houses, but so far we have been lucky with housing. But we have herds of ants at home. At first we lived like in Russia: we could leave an open pack of cookies in the kitchen. Here we somehow left cheese waffles like that - two hours later the pack turned from white to black. These ants eat everything: they gnaw through cardboard, foil, packaging.

After ants addicted to cat food. We used to give the cat a full bowl and he would eat when he was hungry. And now we feed in portions and when we leave for visaran, we do not leave food for him.

Transport

In Vietnam, expensive cars, the tax on them is higher. Due to the nature of the movement, they go slower than bikes - 30-40 kilometers per hour. Therefore, people are more likely to ride mopeds or scooters.

Nha Trang has narrow streets and almost no parking, people leave bikes and cars on the sidewalks. In many establishments like banks or some large restaurants there are special people - parking attendants, they roll the bikes to a convenient place, set them up so that everyone can leave and drive in - like playing Tetris. This causes inconvenience to pedestrians.

Officially, international rights are quoted here, but in local chats they write that the police can still issue a fine. Those who wanted to get confused went to local driving schools. If you have a bike license, you can pass the exam and get a local license. If not, theoretically you can unlearn, but for this you need to know Vietnamese language and have a visa for at least three months.

There are only six bus routes in Nha Trang, they go to tourist places. There are no usual stops: the bus stops where there is space, drops people off, picks up new ones and goes on. A ticket costs 8,000 dong - about 30 rubles.

We move on foot or by bike taxi. Taxi Maxim works here, but there are problems with it: drivers can refuse an order or not take it at all. You can catch a taxi driver on the street or order in the Grab app - they have bikes, cars and a food delivery service. The taxi driver gives a helmet, in the rain he can offer a raincoat. Ordering two bike-taxi is cheaper than one car.

Products

Our Vietnamese diet is very different from the usual. The strongest blow is the absence of the usual sausages and frankfurters. It is difficult to find cow's milk, it is more expensive here, and locals often buy sweetened soy. The Vietnamese love it, they even have sweet bread - burgers and hot dogs are also made with it.

There are many Russians here, so there are Russified shops. You can buy sausage in them - we saw Cherkizovo, 800 rubles for half a stick. There is Russian stew. We bought Borodino bread for 150 rubles. The locals themselves do a lot of things - kvass, bread, dumplings, cottage cheese. But the taste is different.

Beef and chicken cost about the same as in Russia. Pork is cheaper. They say that it is better to buy meat in the market, but we are afraid: it lies in the heat and we do not know how long.

Vegetables and fruits are cheap. There are a bunch of watermelons, oranges, mango. Mangoes are ready to be added to everything - this is the main fruit, like our apples. There are also apples here, but they are different, specific. For us, they look like a mixture of tomatoes and apples, the usual ones are hard to find, although they are in large supermarkets. It is easy to find lychees, mangosteens, other fruits - more touristy, such as dragon fruit. Very expensive and very tasteless strawberries, they are grown in only one high mountain region.

The Vietnamese themselves mainly eat rice, seafood, use greens, seasonings. There is also a specificity. For example, century-old eggs are black and smelly. Eggs are also fried in their shells on the grill with some spices. As a snack, they eat chicken legs here - not drumsticks, but legs. The greasy part of the meat is considered very tasty, that is, what we usually cut off in order to get meat without fat. They have the opposite - a small part of the meat and the main part of the sebaceous layer. Literally once in a Vietnamese restaurant, they brought us exactly pieces of meat.

With goods for the cat it is easier here than in Kyrgyzstan. It was impossible to find a decent cat food. In Osh, there were mainly "Viskas" and "Kitiket", maximum - "Felix". We saw good food in Bishkek, but delivery to Osh was very expensive. There, our cat suffered a little, but here he eats off. There is a lot of both local food and foreign. He also loves the local delicacies.

Cafe

The coffee shops are different. In Russia, you can always take dessert, but here if you see the inscription Coffee and tea, then it really is only coffee and only tea. Cappuccinos and lattes can be found, but in more Europeanized tourist-oriented establishments, that is, on the first line. In local establishments, coffee with milk is not cappuccino, but coffee with condensed milk. They also like coffee with yogurt and egg coffee - very pleasant foam with yolk: you don’t feel the egg, but the coffee becomes softer, more pleasant, more interesting. Such coffee costs 12,000 dong - around 50 rubles per cup.

Lots of small, literally home-grown establishments. We call them "Grandma's" because they are usually held by older Vietnamese women.

They cook one type of dish, for example, the traditional beef soup pho-bo. And there is nothing else there. The menu looks like three lines on a piece of paper.

The pizza here is very expensive, but you won't find a good one. At home, we are used to the opposite: there is a lot of pizza, it is affordable, for every taste and is considered a simple cheap meal. Here we paid about 1,000 rubles for pizza, which in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk would cost 500-600 rubles maximum.

Personal care

There are a lot of Korean products here - both household chemicals and cosmetics. There are Japanese goods. There are local products, but sometimes they are more expensive than the world famous ones. For example, Vietnamese toothpaste costs more than Colgate.

Most of the local cosmetics with a whitening effect and SPF are creams, soaps, shower gels. Asians do not like to sunbathe, they go to the sea after the active solar phase has passed. Even on bikes, they ride in jackets and special devices for legs, such as aprons, like a half skirt, so as not to get burned.

There is a Russian service in the north of the city. Including beauty salons. European prices. For example, in a Russian-speaking salon, Dima was offered a haircut for 500,000 dong (1,930 rubles). For comparison: on the same day, Dima's haircut was 10 times cheaper at the local salon.

Safety

The locals are not afraid to leave the doors open, but there are many cases of theft here. Climb through the windows, through the balconies. A friend of ours was robbed of a laptop, phone, cash at night - she didn’t even wake up. Most of the houses inside the city have bars on the windows.

The central beach is the main attraction for tourists, there is no crime there. The territory is divided between groups of Vietnamese: they rent sun loungers, hold bars. Therefore, they make sure that dubious personalities do not scare away customers.

More often they steal in the north, there is a Russian community and a separate beach.

A normal situation is when you leave your things, turn away for 5 seconds, turn around - the Vietnamese with your things jumps on the bike and leaves. That's why they always warn tourists: when walking down the street, hold your phone and bag tightly. There are times when locals passing by on bikes snatch them out of their hands. The police don't deal with these things.

How do we have fun

New acquaintances

There are many Russian-speaking people in the north of the city. We chose an apartment to the south, in the area where the locals live. The Vietnamese treat the Russians very well. Not just for tourists, but in general. On May 9, in stores, many watched the Russian parade on TV, rejoiced, invited us to watch.

Many Vietnamese of the older generation say that they studied in Moscow or were there once.

They have fond memories of Russia. They are always ready to advise and help.

When we first moved in, we met the owner of the cafe near the house and his family. They, the Vietnamese, helped us, treated us to local cuisine. In response, we treated them to kvass and dumplings - they liked it. In the same cafe we ​​met our Russian neighbors, we still communicate with them.

City entertainment

Nha Trang is more of a beach-filling and cafe-eating city, there is little entertainment here. Although you can find something to do, if you do not take specific activities - paintball or mushroom hunting. If you want, you can go out somewhere every day, communicate with people. The kids get together and play desktops, arrange themed parties, there are interest clubs.

Beach holidays here are lazier: there are no banana rides or paragliders familiar to any Adler. Just sunbeds, just waves. Snorkeling is practiced in the north, and surfing is not common here.

Usually entertainment is aimed either at tourists, and then the prices are higher, or at locals, but then it is different from what we are used to. For example, they have a different billiards - without pockets.

The city often hosts festivals and concerts. There is a good level of organization here. On New Year's Eve there was a big concert of local performers. Recently they did a drone show at the maritime festival, it was very beautiful.

How much do we spend

When we arrived, we could spend 80 thousand rubles in a month: then they didn’t understand the prices, they bought food in expensive supermarkets, they didn’t really savedalthough they could.

Familiar products are cheaper here than at home, even in expensive supermarkets. Therefore, you buy them at a high price, but it seems that you have saved. Or in a cafe here we ate not for a thousand or two, as at home, but for four hundred rubles. And it seemed that they saved money.

But here you can eat for 100-150 rubles for two, so in fact we overpaid.

Now our life can be estimated at about $ 400 for two: 200 for rent, 100 for a visa and a visa, now we are looking for cheaper options. The rest is for food. It can be cheaper, but I want to have at least some comfort. Before that, they spent on Russian loans, but we restructured them and now we pay around a thousand rubles a month.

Recently, the course has grown a lot, but just before that, we got a local job. We are paid in dong, so we were not affected that much.

How do we earn

Labor market

The most common vacancy is an English teacher. They are needed everywhere, but more often in small towns where five thousand people live. The pay is higher there, somewhere between a thousand and a half dollars a month. The employer covers the cost of living, makes a work visa. To work as an English teacher, you need a higher education. Preferably pedagogical. And a certificate of knowledge of the local language.

Often there are vacancies of promoters in travel agencies. Less often they look for cooks and waiters. There are many vacancies in the service sector: everywhere we need those who will do manicures, eyelashes, draw eyebrows, dye hair. More often, beauty masters work at home, sometimes they rent salons together.

There are more vacancies in Ho Chi Minh City than in Nha Trang, but good knowledge of English is required there. And basically they are looking for more highly qualified specialists. For example, engineers.

Basically, those Russians who live here either work with the Vietnamese in a specific job, or try to do some kind of micro business - a photographer, fitness trainer.

Work in a cafe

We got a job at a local cafe: Nastya was a waitress, and Dima was a bartender. We found vacancies, like everyone else, by ad. This is not official employment, because otherwise you will have to apply for work visas, which is inconvenient for management.

The owners are from Russia, but have been living in Vietnam for several years. The cafe is focused on Russian-speaking tourists, so there is no language barrier. The menu is duplicated in Russian and English languages, no Vietnamese.

This place doesn't like locals. It is customary for them to dump all the garbage under the table - cans of beer, cigarette butts. The waiters do not clear the table, as in Russia. They sweep it all out from under him when people leave. On the contrary, we try to maintain cleanliness, because it is more pleasant for Russian-speaking tourists to see European service.

A change in a cafe costs the same for us - 300 thousand dong per shift, around 1,100 rubles per day. The working day starts at three o'clock in the afternoon. We arrive, prepare the hall and work until 11 pm, taking into account the closure. Approximately 8-9 hours.

The hope of any waiter and bartender is a tip. But it's still a little tight here.

This is not a complaint to the guests, they just noted this feature. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the elderly often come: when you retire, you don’t have much to roam with a tip. Many come on some kind of last-minute or short-term vouchers, of course, they don’t take a lot of money with them.

We went to work not because we were bored, but because we needed money. So far, we have not been able to find a stable remote job: we receive refusals or silence in response to the responses.

Now our salary is enough to feed the cat and us. If the salary increases or there are more shifts, we will be able to save. The main thing is that we have something to live on, we have work, we do not sit at home uselessly at the computer, monitoring vacancies. This is a psychological release. We start all over again: we work in a cafe and feel 18-20 years old.

What's next

We are laying down some time — six months or a year — in order to still go freelance, join this market. It is advisable to earn in dollars, and then, perhaps, try some other country for life, because you don’t really want to sit in one place. It’s very cool here, but when you start moving, you get a taste of it.

I would like to believe that everything will turn out well, there will be a good job that will bring pleasure. After all, we have everything ahead of us.

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