monteromano's Posts

2 reviews or comments posted; 1 questions asked; 5 answers given.

Reviews / Comments (2)

posted about 2 months ago by monteromano
about the venue: Standard Chartered Bank

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I opened my account with Standard Chartered soon after arriving in Hanoi, and I have been very pleased with the service.

Standard Chartered Bank is one of the big three foreign banks currently operating in Vietnam. The Bank offers private-banking services to expats. This program includes very low fees for incoming and outgoing wires, and you are assigned a personal banker (“Dedicated Relationship Manager”) who will assist you with all transactions and is available by phone and email to confirm deposits and provide other information.

Standard Chartered has a good on-line banking website with several layers of security, and they have many branches around the world. The bank is conveniently located on Hai Ba Trung. They currently have two ATM machines in Hanoi, but they will be opening more.

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posted about 2 months ago by monteromano
about the venue: Scana

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We got all of our furniture made by Scana when we rented our house through Thuy, the owner of Scana who is also operates a rental agency.

We showed Thuy examples of the furniture we wanted from some furniture catalogs, and everything was made to our requested design.

The service was prompt, and the quality of the furniture is good.

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Questions (1)

• Hi,

  I'm currently renting a Honda Wave, but I'm looking to buy a motorbike with a larger frame and a clutch, preferably an enduro.

  I found a place on Ba Trieu that sells Chinese Hondas like these:

  http://www.honda-motorcycle.com.cn/2r/5y-qs.htm

  for about $2000 USD, but I would rather have an enduro. Any advice on where else to look for other bikes without spending a fortune?

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Answers (5)

• Posted Thursday January 1st, 1970.

  Thanks, everyone for the advice. I looked at the websites that minhlenoir suggested, and there are indeed a greater selection of motorbikes in Saigon, and not a great variety of larger, used bikes in Hanoi.

  It looks like this search may take a bit more time, which is fine, since we are going to be here for a couple of years. I will keep the rental bike or buy a smaller bike until I find what I want.

  In response to the question: Hi, I'm currently renting a Honda Wave, but I'm looking to buy a motorbike with a larger frame and a clutch, preferably an enduro. I found a pla...

• Posted Thursday January 1st, 1970.

  You might try the pool at Tay Ho Hotel (link below). My son takes swimming lessons there.

  There are two pools and it hasn't been very crowded on weekends. There is a mix of VN and expats that use it.

  The admission fee for an adult is 30,000 VND. The pool is clean enough, though the grounds are not as clean as a Western-style hotel.

  It is easy to find -- look for the hotel's huge billboard on Xuan Dieu, turn there and follow the road to the end.

  http://newhanoian.xemzi.com/en/venue/show/1973/Tay-Ho-Hotel

  In response to the question: I've heard that from this week Sao Mai swimming pool(east bank of west lake) is not opening on weekdays. I'm a regular swimmer looking for a big po...

• Posted Thursday January 1st, 1970.

  We just bought some Delonghi units at the appliance store on the second floor of Syrena Tower.

  I can't remember what they paid.

  Here is the address.

  51 Xuan Dieu

  Syrena Tower,

  Tây Hồ,

  Hanoi

  In response to the question: Which brand of dehumidifier would people suggest buying? I want something that works very well indeed. In another post, the name "Delongui" was droppe...

• Posted Thursday January 1st, 1970.

  FYI, I found an interesting academic article describing the practices of Vietnamese customers at pharmacies.

  The summary of the article says in part:

  "Less than 1% of customers came with prescriptions and 94.9% decided by themselves which drugs to buy. Antibiotics represented 17%, of which 90% were broad spectrum. Ampicillin dominated, both in children and adults. Some 50% of the antibiotics were given for 2.5 days or less. . . . . Little if any drug information was observed. . . . More than 20% of all products were combination drugs, including irrational and popular products with antibiotics and corticosteroids and combinations of aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine.

  This study shows an unexpectedly high proportion of customers, being “Tu Lam Bac Sy” (their own doctors), deciding themselves which drugs to buy. Although the “Doi moi” renovation has led to much improved drug availability, at least in urban setting, our case study highlights major problems in need of urgent actions. In particular the prevailing practices regarding antibiotics and combination drugs need to be seriously scrutinized and drug regulatory mechanisms should be enforced."

  http://www.springerlink.com/content/w96vyu284g1vjggc/

  In response to the question: Is there a well stocked western-style drugstore in Hanoi? Thanks...

• Posted Thursday January 1st, 1970.

  The VUFO-NGO Resource Centre has a list of current consultant openings at NGOs on their website:

  http://www.ngocenter.org.vn/taxonomy/term/64

  They have a lot of other useful information as well.

  In response to the question: I have been searching around for a while and am struggling to find short-term work with local NGOs. Does anyone have advice? It seems like most peop...

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