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[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Loaded with 3Cs, candies, condoms and cash

Cheerios.......SS08 ^_^

yup...your goodies bags no diamond rings, no gold bars, no ben franklin notes, no yusof ishak notes, no ho chi minh notes....

[Hurricane88]

Such great service...

​In Vietnam, flight ticket agents sell passenger info to airport transport services

The practice explains why flyers are often bombarded with phone calls advertising taxi services upon their arrival at local airports

By Tuoi Tre News October 2, 2017, 17:39 GMT+7



Several flight ticket agencies in Vietnam have been caught selling passenger information to local taxi and transport services.

The practice is most noticeable at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, followed by Cam Ranh Airport in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa.

On the morning of September 20, Tran Hoang Tung got off his flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and received a series of phone calls and text messages advertising taxi services.

Answering one of the calls, Tung talked to a man who introduced himself as a telephone operator at Noi Bai Connect.

Noi Bai Connect is designed to link flight passengers at Noi Bai with local taxi services.

“Did you board the Vietjet flight that took off at 11:45 pm? A car will be picking you up at 1:45 am. Please leave your phone on,” the employee said.

As per the arrangement, Tung was picked up by a driver named Hoang.

“Noi Bai Connect is well known in Hanoi as it is able to update passenger information after they book a flight.” Hoang elaborated.

Ten telephone operators at the company work around the clock to call and send messages to introduce transport services to flyers, he added.

The cabby said he had to pay VND1 million (US$44) upfront to be granted an account that enables him to access flyer information.

After being updated on the flight schedules, Hoang and thousands of other cabbies start a ‘reverse auction,’ in which whoever names the lowest fare ‘wins’ a passenger.

“This ride costs VND280,000 [$12.32], of which I will only get VND190,000 [$8.36] while the rest will be claimed by Noi Bai Connect,” Hoang told his passenger.

Taxi drivers in Hanoi are also able to obtain flight schedules of passengers via other channels, with Zalo, a Vietnamese mobile-based free texting and calling app, the most common.

Drivers are required to pay a fee in advance, with 15 percent of their fare sent to the providers of the passenger information.

Khanh, another cabby, revealed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that he was using the Hanoi-based VG Company.

Every cabby is required to pay the service provider an upfront fee of between VND300,000 ($13) and VND500,000 ($22).

The firm receives a commission by deducting the advance payment from drivers.

Within the months of July and August, Khanh received the information of 55 passengers of Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet flights, including names, phone numbers, flight numbers, and times of arrival.

The business license of Noi Bai Connect reveals its headquarters are at 352 Buoi Street in Ba Dinh District.

However, an investigation revealed that the firm is based on the first floor of a building at 45 Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi, which is actually a pizza shop.

Trang, an employee of the company, said that it has connected about 2,000 drivers with passengers and been cooperating with local flight ticket agents.

A typical ride from Noi Bai to downtown Hanoi provided by Noi Bai Connect costs about VND200,000 ($8.8), Trang said.

The driver will claim VND120,000 ($5.3), while the other VND80,000 ($3.52) is shared equally between the company and its partnered ticket agencies.

Meanwhile, an employee from VG Company said that all information is only shared internally.

Several ticket agents have been cooperating with more than one service at a time, meaning passengers are likely to be contacted by multiple phone numbers after getting off their flights.

According to C., a staff member of SM, a Hanoi-based ticket agency, multiple businesses have proposed deals with them.

“We pick the firm that names the highest commission,” C. added.

[Hurricane88]

Ho Chi Minh City opens second ‘food street’

The food corner is located just outside the Vincom Center in District 1

By Tuoi Tre News October 2, 2017, 19:03 GMT+7



A second ‘food street’ opened on Monday morning in Ho Chi Minh City, one month after the launch of the first.

The new food hub is located at the Bach Tung Diep Park in District 1, bordered by Nam Ky Khoi Nghia and Ly Tu Trong Streets.

The 30-meter food street houses up to 30 catering businesses run by former street vendors, who take turns to occupy the stalls in two shifts: between 6:00 am and 9:00 am, and from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.

The food street is the second of its kind to be opened in the southern metropolis, following a months-long crackdown on sidewalk-encroaching street vendors headed by Doan Ngoc Hai, deputy chairman of District 1.

The city’s first food street was launched on August 28 along Nguyen Van Chiem Street, which lies between the Youth Culture House and Diamond Plaza, connecting Pham Ngoc Thach and Hai Ba Trung Streets in District 1.

While the Nguyen Van Chiem food street only offers takeaways, there are tables and parasols available at the Bach Tung Diep food street for diners to enjoy their meal nearby.

continue reading here
http://tuoitrenews.vn/news/lifestyle...eet/41841.html

[Hurricane88]

Usual September raining season is here...

People struggle with year’s heaviest rain-caused inundation in Ho Chi Minh City

By Tuoi Tre News October 1, 2017, 11:16 GMT+7



A torrential rain lasting for hours on Saturday evening in Ho Chi Minh City submerged more than 40 areas, considered the most serious inundation in the year to date.

Numerous people had to wade through 43 flooded streets in inner districts on their way home, as a downpour kept pouring down for hours in the late afternoon and lasted well into the evening.

Despite its rainfall being less than 100mm in volume, the prolonged rain caused what was considered by the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Drainage Co. to be the rainy season’s most serious inundation so far.

Forecasters said the rainy season is now at its peak in the city.

The downpour, coupled with a thunderstorm and heavy lightning, turned streets in District 1, District 3, District 5, District 10, Tan Binh District and Thu Duc District into a ‘sea.’

The most serious inundation was experienced by commuters and residents on Nguyen Huu Canh Street in Binh Thanh District and La Xuan Oai Street in District 9, where the floodwater rose to 0.4-0.7m.

Numerous vehicles broke down on Huynh Tan Phat Street in District 7 in the floodwater reaching the depth of half a motorbike wheel.

Sections spanning 1km long on Nguyen Van Qua Street in District 12 were also flooded, with the water pouring into residents’ homes and causing the engines of many vehicles to fail.

Commuters faced the same condition on Le Van Viet, Duong Dinh Hoi and Do Xuan Hop Streets in District 9, as well as Nguyen Xi and Ung Van Khiem Streets in Binh Thanh District.

The downpour also uprooted and sent an age-old tree tumbling on a car on Dong Khoi Street in the downtown area, causing serious damage to the automobile.

On Nguyen Huu Canh Street, a submersion hot spot in Binh Thanh District, where the addition of an anti-flood pump system had been hailed as a success after effectively clearing the road of all floodwaters in just 15 minutes, the floodwater remained as high as half a motorcycle wheel well until 7:00 pm, resulting in vehicle breakdowns.

The pump system, put in place by Quang Trung Industrial Group, has a capacity of up to 90,000 m³ per hour.

The pump operators did not turn on the device until 7:20 pm.

Around 8:00 pm, the pump managed to clear a large amount of floodwater but many spots remained more than 20 cm submerged.

The street was not completely drained until 8:30 pm.

According to several workers, the system could not be operated until the street got heavily submerged in order to test out its efficiency during the pilot basis.

Leaders of Quang Trung Industrial Group had earlier claimed the system could completely drain Nguyen Huu Canh Street within half an hour.

If the rain had been worsened by high tides on the Saigon River, it would have taken the ‘super-pump’ much longer to empty the street, some said.

According to the Southern Meteorological Station, the rain did not completely let up in several areas at 9:00 pm, with the precipitation recorded in Nha Be District and Tan Binh District being 76mm and 75mm.

click here fro more pictures
http://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/2...ity/41821.html

[ahtecklim]

Thanks Hurricane, will be going soon.

First read the food street , very excited then I read the flood situation! hahhaaha cant win em all!

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by ahtecklim

Thanks Hurricane, will be going soon.

First read the food street , very excited then I read the flood situation! hahhaaha cant win em all!

yes, rainy season every Sep...bery wet...yesterday rain stop rain since morning to around 2pm...

yesterday,my fren change 16750 but dun think can get today...

[Hurricane88]

Vn society changing but will need time...

In Vietnam, corruption can mean death. But so what?

By Dien Luong, Trang Bui October 1, 2017 | 07:32 pm GMT+7


Former PetroVietnam chairman Nguyen Xuan Son (R) is escorted by police as he leaves the court after the verdict session in Hanoi, on September 29, 2017. Son received the death penalty for appropriating VND246 billion ($13.6 million) from the OceanBank. Photo by Reuters/Kham

Unless the day-to-day corruption that affects the masses is rooted out, any anti-graft drive would be just cosmetic, analysts say.

Mac Thi Hao seems unperturbed by the news coverage of Vietnam’s corruption crackdown blaring from screens all around her. A retired accountant in Hanoi, Hao has a much more pragmatic, no-nonsense stance on what corruption means to her.

“I just don’t care about a bigwig being punished,” Hao told VnExpress International. “I know there is an ongoing crackdown on corruption, but that really has nothing to do with me,” she said.

“Whenever I think of corruption, I always recall the bribes I had to pay for my children’s school admissions or for better hospital services. To me, that’s the corruption that affects my life the most.”

Hao’s account offers a small glimpse into what most Vietnamese people make of corruption and what it means to them. It was revealed against the backdrop of Vietnam’s sweeping corruption crackdown that has grabbed both international and local headlines.

Just last Friday in Hanoi, a former chairman of the state energy giant PetroVietnam was sentenced to death and a former CEO of a scandal-hit bank got a life sentence in what has been considered the biggest fraud trial in Vietnam’s history. The OceanBank trial, as referred to by local media, also saw a slew of officials and bankers receive jail terms of up to 22 years.

Given that Vietnam's top echelons have repeatedly tried to assuage people's fears of rampant graft, the sentences apparently exhibit the political will to repair shattered public confidence. In late 2013, two former bosses of the state-run Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) also received death sentences for embezzling $476,000 each in a high-profile corruption scam that riveted the nation.

But unless the day-to-day corruption that exacts a heavy toll on the most average people is rooted out, any so-called anti-graft movement would amount to little more than window dressing, analysts say.

“Harsh prison sentences and even the death penalty will only have a marginal impact on curbing grand corruption,” Carl Thayer, an Australia-based veteran Vietnam analyst, said. “Resorting to hard sentences is like a medical booster shot, it wears off over time,” he told VnExpress International.

“The masses encounter everyday low-level corruption in their dealings with government officials, traffic police and so on,” Thayer said. “They would like to see this ended as their first priority.”


People eat Vietnamese chicken noodle soup (Pho) at a restaurant in Hanoi. Unless the low-level corruption that affects the masses is rooted out, any anti-graft drive would be just window dressing, analysts say. Photo by Reuters/Kham

In Vietnam, the practice of passing money under the table is so common that many insiders do not even consider it bribery, but an inevitable part of getting things done.

In a survey in March, Transparency International ranked Vietnam as the second most corrupt country in Asia after India in terms of bribery. In its Corruption Perception Index 2016, the Berlin-based advocacy group also ranked Vietnam 113th out of 176 countries and territories.

According to the most recent Governance and Public Administration Performance Index, which interviewed around 14,000 residents in all 63 Vietnamese provinces and cities, there were “noticeable spikes” in reports of extra money being paid for everything from civil service positions to good grades.

Many analysts blame the problem on Vietnam’s failure to complete market reforms that began in the late 1980s. They say there is still too much state control over the economy, which allows connected insiders to profit.

According to the analysts, individuals who have access to centrally planned or government-controlled assets like land or capital are getting very rich, but individual entrepreneurs who have to compete without subsidized land, capital, fast-tracked approval or tax breaks are having a much harder time.

This has fueled an entrenched bribe-for-approval system.

“It is just too accepted as ‘the Vietnamese way of doing business’,” Dennis McCornac, a professor of economics at Loyola University in Baltimore (Maryland), said.

“Right now, the attitude about corruption is still ‘this is Vietnam’. Until there is a change in the mentality of the population and all levels commit to reducing corruption, the problem will persist,” he said.

But apparently, the status quo has already perpetuated widespread public distrust in the government’s determination to fight corruption.

In its March survey, over half of the Transparency International's Vietnamese respondents reported their government was doing a poor job of fighting corruption. Questions about public faith in provincial leaders drew rock bottom responses in the Governance and Public Administration Performance Index, but only 3 percent of respondents said they would blow the whistle on corrupt officials.

But still, the death penalty handed down last week to Nguyen Xuan Son, the former PetroVietnam chairman, and the life sentence for Ha Van Tham, the former chairman of OceanBank, will send a powerful message to the general public that the current leadership is serious about its anti-corruption drive, Thayer said.

“To be effective the anti-corruption campaign must be never-ending. There are undoubtedly other corruption scandals waiting to be exposed,” he said.

State oil and gas giant PetroVietnam and the banking sector have been at the center of the crackdown that has netted scores of officials. Chief among them is Dinh La Thang, who was ousted from the Politburo, the Communist Party’s decision-making body, last May and fired as the top leader of Ho Chi Minh City soon after.

But the bottom line is going after high-profile individuals is not going to restore public trust in any significant way, analysts say. They say the fight against deep-rooted graft in Vietnam requires a political sledgehammer to fix a badly broken system, leaving no room for the “kill the chicken to scare the monkeys" approach.

“Corruption is like Hydra, a nine-headed serpent-like snake in Greek Mythology in which it was said that if you cut off one hydra head, two more grew back,” McCornac, the American analyst, said. “Perhaps the new heads are not as large or powerful as the one cut off, but they emerge nevertheless,” he said.

“The only way is to address the issue at all levels.”

Having lived abroad for years, a retired Vietnamese researcher still keeps close tabs on what is happening back home. Unsurprisingly, the corruption crackdown has been high on her radar.

“If the top officials are squeaky clean, no traffic policeman or doctor would dare to extract bribes from the public,” she said, declining to be named, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

If, as Vietnam’s leaders have repeatedly warned, corruption threatens the survival of the system, addressing it will require the overhaul of the system itself, she said.

“And that only happens when the powers that be have the political will to do so.”

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

no worries...usually those tio jackpot are retirees....so you dun belong to the group...

btw, still congrats in advance...

Thats an urban myth, people of all ages have the same chances of hitting the Toto jackpot unless you tell me you are referring to casino one-arm jackpots as those retirees spend the whole day sitting there

If I kena few millions SGD, I will also becum instant retirees like you dun even need to wait until 62 already happily retired with the means to travel regularly somemore

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

yup...your goodies bags no diamond rings, no gold bars, no ben franklin notes, no yusof ishak notes, no ho chi minh notes....

Aiyah you really need to either surf SBF on a tablet/PC screen or use a magnifying glass leh..........those you mentioned includes CASH leh which I already said is inside my goodie bag, I am not so thick-skinned like some of those self-proclaimed Casanovas that claimed they can get "FOC" VBs with their slick moves and fluency in Viet

Cheerios.....SS08 ^_^

[snipeshot08]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

Usual September raining season is here...

People struggle with year’s heaviest rain-caused inundation in Ho Chi Minh City

By Tuoi Tre News October 1, 2017, 11:16 GMT+7

[/url]

Wah lan eh that looks like the river

Cheerios.......SS08 ^_^

[anhmaplee]

Man beaten to death after refusing to tip masseur in Hanoi: reports

By Staff reporters
October 3, 2017 | 03:48 pm GMT+7

The customer suffered fatal brain damage after the masseur hit him for not paying nearly four times the amount they had agreed on.

Police in Hanoi have arrested a masseur who allegedly beat a customer to death after he refused to pay a price nearly four times higher than what they had agreed on.

The 33-year-old victim and his friend went to the massage parlor on Tuesday last week and agreed to pay VND500,000 ($22) for a massage session for both of them.

The 32-year-old masseur, surnamed Nguyen, later demanded nearly VND2 million ($88) including a “service fee”, local media reported.

However, the victim refused and as they argued, the masseur punched him in the head causing brain damage. The man died the next day in hospital, reports said.

Police are investigating further.

Tipping is not customary in Vietnam, a country that has been hailed as one of the cheapest destinations for travelers. But a gratuity is always appreciated, especially for body care services.

Vietnamese workers make an average of $180 a month.

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/ma...s-3650253.html

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Thats an urban myth, people of all ages have the same chances of hitting the Toto jackpot unless you tell me you are referring to casino one-arm jackpots as those retirees spend the whole day sitting there

If I kena few millions SGD, I will also becum instant retirees like you dun even need to wait until 62 already happily retired with the means to travel regularly somemore

Cheerios......SS08 ^_^

haha...ok ok...you tio toto jackpot tml....swee bor...

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Aiyah you really need to either surf SBF on a tablet/PC screen or use a magnifying glass leh..........those you mentioned includes CASH leh which I already said is inside my goodie bag, I am not so thick-skinned like some of those self-proclaimed Casanovas that claimed they can get "FOC" VBs with their slick moves and fluency in Viet

Cheerios.....SS08 ^_^

haha....xin loi em....a k doc nhieu...

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by snipeshot08

Wah lan eh that looks like the river

Cheerios.......SS08 ^_^

was a heavy downpour...really turned certain roads to river...usual Sep rainy season...

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by anhmaplee

Man beaten to death after refusing to tip masseur in Hanoi: reports


https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/ma...s-3650253.html

I didn't post this news even I had read it yesterday becos we knew this is one off case...we had been going for massage regularly and we had never encountered any problem....so never make a promise you cannot deliver...

also...we dun like hanoi...surprising hanoi massage more ex than hcm...