Land trip is not convenient passing Myanmar from Manipur. Once you reached Thailand, you are easily possible to travel to Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia then to Singapore and to neighboring countries. Let us explore another trip to Vietnam. Today, let us explore another trip to Vietnam by bus. It was early morning in Cambodia. I caught bus from Phnom Penh city of Cambodia, at around 4-5am. You can start your journey by bus from Thailand if you wish. A journey from Phnom Penh, I reached Vietnam-Cambodia border at around 11 am. Visa process was done at border area. Nothing much hassle. Once you reached Vietnam border, things look quite differently. May be, with thick population, they use land more efficiently. Their farms and fields look more organized, neat and clean. The rice field just looks as if tourist places as they keep the field very clean cultivation. Nursery plants, bonsai making centres were seen at many places. So, they are doing more intensive agriculture. The shuttle bus has its own tour guide that will explain quite often from one place to next from inside the bus. By evening around 5-6pm, I reached Saigon city. Saigon is a city located in the southern part of Vietnam. The city looks very nice. Unimaginably century old trees are standing extensively on the side of the main road of Saigon city. A city, with big trees! Wonderful nature. Food is cheap. The city looks as cosmopolitan filled with different nationalities. Again, food doesn’t seem any problem to me. Same as home state, Manipur. Vietnamese people eat lots of fresh green raw vegetable like Laos, and Thai people. Oh yeah, if you are used to Sekmai Chamelei, you will be very happy in this country. Same color, same taste, same flavor! I just bought and tasted a glass of rice whisky. They use the same small sized glass for drinking whisky like in Manipur. I was thinking taking a course from the university in Saigon city run by Australian. The course was too expensive for me. No way!
Teaching English is very good business in Vietnam. Private language schools are more organized, bigger, and they invest more money on the business, as it shows by the building and infrastructure. Their wage for teacher is better than Cambodia, and even better than Thailand in terms of hourly paid. Teachers are paid 18-30$ US (roughly equal to Indian Rs 1200-2000) for an hour lesson but average wage is somewhere around 23$ US. Go and drop CV, is the way of finding job but now most of the jobs are advertised on website. Quality of education of Vietnam is really high; 12th rank in the world for high school education (Source: OECD’s global education ranking report 2015: 1. Singapore, 2. Hong Kong, 3. South Korea, 4. Japan (joint), 5.Taiwan (joint))
Tourism business is doing very well in the city. Restaurant, hotel, tour guide and transportation services are seen clearly. People in ASEAN regions know that incomes are coming from people. No people, no income! So, they take care tourist very well. This concept is very clear among Vietnamese people too. Vietnam exports lot of items to Cambodia through cross-border business. Branded names of shoe factories are coming up with promising business scope. There are a lot more science graduate students produced, so their future is predicted better economy.
Vietnamese dress is quite different from other nationalities, especially for girls. Long dress, colourful and wearing hat are seen at almost everywhere. Shopping for shoes, sandals, lady’s bags, clothing and hanging bags are popular items and they are cheap. I just feel there as if being at my home state. All my exploration was in the city area of Saigon. Evening walk and shopping is popular culture there. They have better sense of keeping city clean and that looks Saigon a nice picturesque city. Share if you had any remarkable food and experiences there!
This article was sent by Dina Chingakham.
