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I've lived in Vietnam for the last five years and I read lots of reports like this. The local joke is always "sharks" biting the undersea cables, where the shar

I've lived in Vietnam for the last five years and I read lots of reports like this. The local joke is always "sharks" biting the undersea cables, where the sharks are the Chinese I guess. The reality doesn't match though, except for during huge storms there's rarely connection issues. The fastest speed five years ago was about 100mb, I now get 300mb for the same price. I'm still getting that speed right now (testing on speedtest.net to Singapore).

latchkey 4y ago
The joke was more that the VN govt was slowing down internet during holidays and blaming it on sharks... since that is when it always got slower... except that doesn't take into account that more people needed internet during holidays. Nice to hear the speeds have increased over time. It was pretty bad when I was living there. That said, the 4G LTE coverage was amazing... literally the entire country, even in the most remote areas. Another reason to look forward to going back some day.
- esperent 4y ago
  It's amazing what you can do when you don't need to apply for planning permission to put a 4g mast. They're everywhere - people rent out their rooftops to internet companies. The blessing and curse of Vietnam: you can get away with nearly anything, but so can other people. It's a beautiful country though and changing incredible fast, mostly for the better. There's a huge and somewhat successful anti corruption drive going on in high level government over the past few years. If you've been away even for five years you'll see changes.
  - latchkey 4y ago
    I spent 2016-2020 there and saw the rate of changes, even in that short time. I left literally right as covid started and wasn't able to go back. > The blessing and curse of Vietnam: you can get away with nearly anything, but so can other people. I quite enjoy the culture there... really opened my eyes quite a bit. > There's a huge and somewhat successful anti corruption drive going on in high level government over the past few years. I don't think that's something that is ever really going to change in my lifetime. There is corruption to the core, but I found that corruption isn't necessarily a bad thing. For example, I'd much rather pay my "traffic ticket" on the street than deal with the bureaucracy of having to go to court and hope the officer doesn't show up. Choose your battles.
    - esperent 4y ago
      > I'd much rather pay my "traffic ticket" on the street than deal with the bureaucracy I'm not talking about low level corruption like that. That will change later, hopefully, once the wages of police increase. I'm talking about high level corruption where a hospital is supposed to get built and instead the project gets stalled for years and then it turns out all the money mysteriously vanished. Or an entire minority village get kicked off their land to make way for a new resort, and a politician coincidentally gets a large cash gift. These are far more important to solve than police taking small bribes, and that's what they're working on now. I don't have enough insight or knowledge to comment on how successful they are likely to be but I wish them luck. One point about the low level corruption, though: like you say, it's very convenient to pay a small bribe on the street to avoid a traffic ticket. Unless you make $150 a month and that small bribe is actually your day's wages and you can't eat that day. So yeah, it's convenient, if you're wealthy, and terrible if you're poor. Like so many things in life.
      - latchkey 4y ago
        Yea, when I think of corruption, this comes to mind: https://e.vnexpress.net/photo/news/half-finished-hotel-projects-leave-central-vietnams-coast-wasted-4572836.html https://e.vnexpress.net/photo/news/half-finished-hotel-proje... It isn't just central, it is the entire coastline. > Unless you make $150 a month and that small bribe is actually your day's wages and you can't eat that day. Oh totally. So many times I've seen them loading bikes onto trucks because people couldn't afford to pay. There is a lot of really f'cked up stuff there for sure. I ended up just giving money away left and right, because I was lucky in that I could and it was the right thing to do. Nothing drives me nuts more than expats who complain about having to pay an extra 10k for something because the locals were 'ripping them off'...
        esperent 4y ago
        > Nothing drives me nuts more than expats who complain about having to pay an extra 10k for something because the locals were 'ripping them off'... Not all expats are rich. Many Vietnamese are rich. So yeah, it is kind of shitty that if you're a foreigner you'll be overcharged for everything all the time. It's racism, to put it bluntly, and not a good part of Vietnamese culture. I think it's totally reasonable to be annoyed about racism.

latchkey 4y ago

The joke was more that the VN govt was slowing down internet during holidays and blaming it on sharks... since that is when it always got slower... except that doesn't take into account that more people needed internet during holidays. Nice to hear the speeds have increased over time. It was pretty bad when I was living there. That said, the 4G LTE coverage was amazing... literally the entire country, even in the most remote areas. Another reason to look forward to going back some day.

esperent 4y ago
It's amazing what you can do when you don't need to apply for planning permission to put a 4g mast. They're everywhere - people rent out their rooftops to internet companies. The blessing and curse of Vietnam: you can get away with nearly anything, but so can other people. It's a beautiful country though and changing incredible fast, mostly for the better. There's a huge and somewhat successful anti corruption drive going on in high level government over the past few years. If you've been away even for five years you'll see changes.
- latchkey 4y ago
  I spent 2016-2020 there and saw the rate of changes, even in that short time. I left literally right as covid started and wasn't able to go back. > The blessing and curse of Vietnam: you can get away with nearly anything, but so can other people. I quite enjoy the culture there... really opened my eyes quite a bit. > There's a huge and somewhat successful anti corruption drive going on in high level government over the past few years. I don't think that's something that is ever really going to change in my lifetime. There is corruption to the core, but I found that corruption isn't necessarily a bad thing. For example, I'd much rather pay my "traffic ticket" on the street than deal with the bureaucracy of having to go to court and hope the officer doesn't show up. Choose your battles.
  - esperent 4y ago
    > I'd much rather pay my "traffic ticket" on the street than deal with the bureaucracy I'm not talking about low level corruption like that. That will change later, hopefully, once the wages of police increase. I'm talking about high level corruption where a hospital is supposed to get built and instead the project gets stalled for years and then it turns out all the money mysteriously vanished. Or an entire minority village get kicked off their land to make way for a new resort, and a politician coincidentally gets a large cash gift. These are far more important to solve than police taking small bribes, and that's what they're working on now. I don't have enough insight or knowledge to comment on how successful they are likely to be but I wish them luck. One point about the low level corruption, though: like you say, it's very convenient to pay a small bribe on the street to avoid a traffic ticket. Unless you make $150 a month and that small bribe is actually your day's wages and you can't eat that day. So yeah, it's convenient, if you're wealthy, and terrible if you're poor. Like so many things in life.
    - latchkey 4y ago
      Yea, when I think of corruption, this comes to mind: https://e.vnexpress.net/photo/news/half-finished-hotel-projects-leave-central-vietnams-coast-wasted-4572836.html https://e.vnexpress.net/photo/news/half-finished-hotel-proje... It isn't just central, it is the entire coastline. > Unless you make $150 a month and that small bribe is actually your day's wages and you can't eat that day. Oh totally. So many times I've seen them loading bikes onto trucks because people couldn't afford to pay. There is a lot of really f'cked up stuff there for sure. I ended up just giving money away left and right, because I was lucky in that I could and it was the right thing to do. Nothing drives me nuts more than expats who complain about having to pay an extra 10k for something because the locals were 'ripping them off'...
      - esperent 4y ago
        > Nothing drives me nuts more than expats who complain about having to pay an extra 10k for something because the locals were 'ripping them off'... Not all expats are rich. Many Vietnamese are rich. So yeah, it is kind of shitty that if you're a foreigner you'll be overcharged for everything all the time. It's racism, to put it bluntly, and not a good part of Vietnamese culture. I think it's totally reasonable to be annoyed about racism.