Paying bills in Vietnam

Paying bills in Vietnam is not the same or as easy as in England. Its really difficult to set up standing orders and direct debits (it is changing) and most are paid monthly in cash. I get four bills a month: electricity, water, management fee and Internet. I need to go to different buildings to pay for them all. Fortunately, all the buildings are in close proximity and I can rock up on my motorbike, park it outside the building and pay the bill. I've got this down to a pretty slick routine. I wait until I get all the bills and pay them in one hit. In total it takes about 20 minutes.

An extra challenge was added the other day as the photo below shows. This used to be where I paid my water bill. One month the building was there, the next month, poof! - gone! Just a Vietnamese flag remaining. 

No one told me this was happening and now I have to go and speak to my friendly estate agent and find out where they have moved.

TET 2016 - New Year Fireworks!

This week I got to see my second new year in two months! This is the TET new year that goes by the lunar calendar and not the date calendar. To celebrate in Ho Chi Minh City there was a firework display are midnight.

The display is in district 1, the centre of the city and as you can imagine the traffic is pretty crazy if you go to watch them close up so I watched them from the next district, district 4 from a rooftop. 

They were pretty good and went on for 15 minutes or so. It was also very nice as the backdrop was of the Vietnamese rooftops which are pretty cool.

TET 2016 - Display at my gym

I like my gym for many reasons, mainly that is free and two minutes walk from my office but also at Christmas and TET they make an effort and have a nice display. You may remember last year I posted about the TET money tree display. If you didn't and need a refresher see the link below.

TET 2015 - Lucky money tree

Well, this year there is another new display! This year they have gone with a traditional countryside farming scene complete with lucky money tree

You can see the slices of watermelon, this is traditionally eaten at TET. The redder the watermelon the luckier they believe you will be

TET 2016 - in Vietnam

This past week has been TET in Vietnam which means I get a week off work! I decided not to go away this year and stay in the city. The reason for this was firstly because everyone leaves the city so traveling is a pain in the butt and secondly, its a bit more expensive as everyone is going away.

As it's TET there are lots of decorations around the city. It's like our Christmas but they decorate with flowers, lucky money trees and stuff that shows off the animal of the next new year. Next year is the year of the monkey.

I've attached some pictures of the decorations around by our lake. Both taken at night and in the day.

 

Beer update

Just an update on my beer, it should be ready in the next few days. After we made the beer we had to let it ferment for a week then bottle it for its second fermentation. After fermenting at room temperature I've had to move it to the fridge for another week to reduce the carbonation. Now this process is completed it is ready to drink. I got a total of 29 500ml bottles which is a lot to store so I had to buy a new beer fridge. Below is a picture of my beer in the beer fridge. 

I have tired one already and it was excellent. Really good flavour and as good as what you'd get from a keg in a pub! There is another guy in my block who has brewed as well who I got to know through the beer club but he brewed a wheat beer. We are going to swap a few bottles next week!

Brewing Beer

Before coming to Vietnam my preferred choice of drink was ale and I never really drank larger however this had to change when I moved to Vietnam because when I arrived nearly five years ago the only drink you could get was larger - either tiger, 333 or Saigon red or green. Things have improved since then and there are a few places where you can get craft beer however during this period I've been thinking about learning to brew my own beer and I'm happy to say that I finally made the decision to go for it.

After a bit of research I found an expat living here who has been brewing for a long time and brews craft beer for a local restaurant in Vietnam. It's some of the best beer I've ever had and as it turns out he also can provide equipment and ingredients for home brew as well as train me on how to brew excellent beer every time.

As you can see, a few weeks ago we brewed my first batch of beer. It's been fermenting for a while and this weekend it will be ready to drink!!!!

Cooling the beer

The beer

Washing the grains

Adding water to the grains

The whole system

Back from England and nearly TET

So, I safely arrived back in Vietnam from my trip to England last Thursday and have been back at work for a week. Its nice to be back in the warm weather.

Good news is that its only three weeks until the Vietnamese holiday of TET where I get a week of holiday!!! At this time of year they take down the Xmas decorations and replace them with TET decorations. attached as some pictures of the trees and lanterns they've put up at my flat.

I also noticed some lovely decorations they put up around the city. I'll try and get some photos of those to share.