Towing a Trailer

Dear Mom,

I'm afraid it just never gets boring (to me) about how to transport goods in this culture.  It's probably because in Oregon I have a fancy truck with a top rack for hauling really long lumber and super long extension ladders, and I have a utility trailer and sometimes I rent a double-axel trailer for hauling earth-moving equipment or for dump-trailer functionality.  So it's a professional interest and a lifestyle intersect, and to have it all be so amazing different here is just difficult to wrap my head around.

Early in our time here I took this photo:

Some astute viewers will immediately recognize this for what it is, but for me it's still a boggle.  This, my friends, is a moto-trailer.  You position the crossbar on your motorbike just behind your tailbone, load the trailer with all the weight forward, take off slowly, and hope you never have to hard-brake during your trip.

In the photo above, and behind the moto-trailer, you can see what is essentially my local ACE Hardware.  They have most of the tools and wall anchors and spray paint that I need.  To buy specialty tools I need to head to the parts of town where those specific tools and supplies are sold.  Did I ever tell you about replacing the hockey puck lights in our dining room?  Finding those lights was an adventure!

Before I show you more photos of moto-trailers, I should add the caveat that not everyone uses a moto-trailer when the need arises.  I bought a couch loveseat from a foreigner and my friend, Nha, arranged a minivan-sized moving truck to transport it for $11.  I saved this photo mostly so I could have his phone number if something else comes up that I need help transporting.

And then early last week I was able to capture all the rest of these moto-trailer photos on a single day before noon.  Two outings, and I got a lucky break to see so many while my phone was handy or when Janet was riding with me and could capture the shot.

Video of a lady with an empty trailer, southbound on the High Road near our house.  Her trailer connection is a little different, because instead of resting on the seat, the crossbar has a bolt down into the back of the motorbike.  I see that style about as often as the ones where the crossbar rests on the seat behind you or where you have to sit on the crossbar (you have to do that when the trailer is empty and there's not enough tongue weight).  https://youtube.com/shorts/c_JOh9VzLK8?feature=share

The photo above shows a guy with a moto-trailer carrying rebar in coils and lengths.  Easily 800 pounds.

And the weight is NOT what impressed me about this guy's load, yet I'm impressed.  And it wasn't even on a trailer--all that styrofoam is just on his bike as he transports it from point A to point B, cool as a cucumber.  I get all wobbly when I transport a metal dining table home from the market, so I'm telling you he has my Respect.

The final three pictures that I took that morning are all one guy's load.  This intersection is down at the Dragon Bridge and the High Road, where we're all about to turn left to go out toward the ocean beaches.  After some of the super-sized or very heavy loads, this one seems a little unremarkable.  Just a normal way to haul some plywood out to the job site.

Weather and Traffic

Dear Mom,

Vietnam just set a new PERSONAL BEST record for 24-hour rainfall.  Hue (HWAY), to the north of us, last week recorded just over 100cm in 24 hours.  Let that "soak" in for a minute: One meter of rain in a day.  Yes, it means that the backyard swimming pool that we had one summer when I was a kid, with a little A-frame ladder to go up and over, and 3' walls and hard to keep clean ... the rainfall here filled that pool to overflowing between one day and the next.  These days it's not nonstop raining like it was last week, and while Hue and Hoi An are both flooded per their annual tradition, the water is beginning to recede.

Vietnam Floods: streets ... in pictures: https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2025/oct/31/vietnam-floods-hoi-an-tourist-spots-submerged-pictures

It's caused us only the inconvenience of not being able to go out much, which is just fine in the context of things.  We live in a climate with a rainy season, and we're good at it.

I so much wish that we could properly capture rain on a video, but it just never does justice to the violence of what's dumping from the sky.

On the way to meet a friend for breakfast this morning (Bún Chả Hanoi) we were suited up for downpour but the drive there was entirely dry.  Then while we were at a coffeeshop afterwards it DUMPED rain ( 11-second video ) and we were glad to observe from a dry vantage!

Also, take a look at this very short video.  It's understandable if at first you can't make sense of what you're seeing, because it is in fact a motorbike hauling another motorbike.  That's unusual even by local  standards.

Traffic Video

In the video above (and embedded below?), I've watched it beginning to end several times (on silent) and I want you to know that everyone is obeying the traffic laws and rules.  Actually there are two small caveats to that.  The maroon poncho on a white bike isn't from around here and thought he was going to go up and to the right but that's a one-way coming towards us.  So he loops around, and ends up going off the screen to the right, which is also a one-block one-way opening out into this intersection.  He's going the wrong direction, but he's fine.  The white car coming out of that street waits for a long time (too long) for his chance to cross; he should have nosed on out and been pushier--that way he'd have gotten to proceed when the two oncoming cars turn right.  Otherwise, every decision in this light chaos is spot on, and if you're going to drive here you might want to watch on repeat until you feel the rhythm of it and find yourself making every choice in sync with the drivers you see.  They're all driving perfectly normally.

Love,

Tim/Janet

PS.  English Clubs

What you can't see in the photo above is that when I came to this English club the moderator pointed me to the group of girls and said "can you lead this table?"  But the girls had never met each other and two of them were panic-stricken at having to talk to a native English speaker.  The other three were delighted, but their cumulative speaking/listening skills added to about 3/4 cup, so we had 45 minutes of very slow, deliberate conversation revolving around whether I like Vietnamese food and their studies at the Foreign Language University.  It's usually painful, but we willingly put ourselves into these situations for the benefit of the English Club organizers.  In this case, this English club is run by our friend who was a student last time we came and who now runs two successful English centers, and for us to come gave his English Club a boost.

You're Coming?

Dear Mom,

(Real Mom, I'm hoping and continuing to Hope that your healing progresses with blessing, and that you'll be able to come as planned in December.)  Other Moms, some of you have said you're also hoping to come for a visit and we are so excited!

So here's all the things some of the many things to think about:

First of all, you can get your e-visa up to 6 months ahead of time, so the time is already now:  https://vietnamchases.blogspot.com/2025/07/vietnam-e-visa.html

When you're arranging your flights, check flights to DAD from your originating airport, but don't be alarmed if the cost is super high.  Next check flights from SEA/SFO/LAX to DAD, because usually if you get a domestic flight to that outgoing city (keep several hours of bumper time to allow for luggage retrieval and checking in for the international flight) it's a lot cheaper to just do your international flight from one of those three.  

While you're still home using your own phone (and you do have a phone that is provider-unlocked for international travel, right?) please download these two apps and then create a login and authenticate your phone # for both of them:  Zalo and Grab.  Allow/authorize them both to send you notifications, and ultimately you will give Grab your credit card info, too.

Credit cards!  You'll want to verify that you're carrying a primary credit card that charges no international use fees.  Most debit cards (only use them in ATMs--nothing else) will hit you with an international use fee from home as well as a 2% fee charged by the local machine, but if you get a checking account at Charles Schwab they 1) don't charge an international use fee and 2) they repay the fee charged by the ATM here.  So it's a double win, and if international travel is something you'll do a lot, I can heartily recommend Schwab.  If you bring cash, bring the most pristine, unmarked, crisp, clean, new-style $100 bills you can find.  

You'll usually be flying through Korea or Taiwan.  I haven't developed a preference for either option, and I'm able to recommend nice ways to spend long layovers in either place.  Let me know about your flights.

Our airplane-sleeping strategy:  We boarded the plane Stateside and each watched half of a movie and took a sleeping pill before they came by with an airplane meal, and then we put on eye masks and dropped off for something like 6 hours of sleep.  When we woke up, we only had 3-4 more hours of flying to do before landing.  Then we slept a little on the final flight to Da Nang.  Basically, sleep as much as you can, with help from a sleeping pill, while you are flying.

Customs in Da Nang airport is straightforward.  Follow the throng through the halls and finally down the escalator.  Stand in any long line as long as it doesn't say "Vietnamese Citizens."  The word ASEAN has a meaning but you can stand in any of those other lines, including an ASEAN line.  You won't need your eVisa (I think)--just your passport.  By the way, please send me a good picture of your passport page ahead of time, because we'll need to submit that to the hotel and various police authorities depending on where you stay.

After customs, get your luggage.  After luggage and before exiting the airport, it is wickedly important that you get your phone working with local cellular data.  Just sidle up to the friendly people at the SIM card counter and offer them a $100 bill to make your phone(s) happy.  Get your change in local VND, even though the exchange rate is slightly less than optimal--you're only missing out on a couple of dollars  (theoretically, there's a money-changing counter you can go to before the SIM card counter, but they're never open when I come through, and there's no ATM inside the airport).  Once you leave the airport, it's a headache to get your phone working, and YES you need your phone working here.  

After you've got your luggage and a working cell phone, notify me via Facebook, Zalo, or WhatsApp that you've ARRIVED.  Wheel your luggage out the exit doors near the SIM card counter and don't expect anyone to want to check your baggage.  It's almost awkward how they 100% wave people through and don't want to see in anyone's bag.  We'll be nearby but not actively watching the exit doors, and I'll be glad to get your message and come help get you into one of the waiting taxis and whisk you away into this traveler's paradise.  

Love,

Tim/Janet