I woke up at 4:00 a.m. as I usually do. How much water in my garden making coffee and doing regular errands in addition to that also packing our big green backpack.

I almost ordered to take us to the bus station but instead I decided to use the e-bike, they want that I have been turning for several months. I have been trying to learn all the maintenance and touring tasks because it's very hard to find somebody who really can do anything with bicycles here

I woke him up around 5 am when it was still dark. Give us exced to go. It is a dream come true to me because I have wanted him to travel with me without being forced into it 

As usual I am using sleeper buffets that they call limousines. It's a quite nice modern boss that has more privacy and better quality than those that's why I was using 10 or even 5 years ago.

It takes from 6:00 to 8 hours from Dalat to Ho Chi Minh city. 

Homeschooling or governmentschooling?

I live in the countryside of Vietnam with my 5-year-old. I am freeschooling him, ie. let him explore the world and play in freedom.

He is truly bilingual: English with me and everyone else with me, Vietnamese with his mother and her family.

When he was 3 we tried to put him into a local school. It did not work. He still remembers that "Halloween school and mad teachers", nothing like Ms. Appleberry that he had seen on Youtube.
I have been considering homeschooling since that but also keep other options open if he wants to go with them.

Sometimes we meet local kids that can speak English.

There is Vietnam-Finland international school with lots of Western teachers (from Finland) but it is not suitable for us because we do not want to live in a big city and school fees are way out of my budget.
I have lots of time to give to my child since I am retired and have a strong motivation giving all my time to him. So, homeschooling seems to be the best option for us, one with lots of freedom, combined travelling inside Vietnam and meeting other kids, preferably those from Western countries holidaying in Phu Quoc, Danang, Vung Tau, Nha Trang.


Two main issues have been present with not putting him into any school or filling his days with classes, hobbies, activities, pressure, demands. That seems to be what both local and expat kids have to go through according to what I have seen.



The first one is in my head: I have been brainwashed to think that without school system, kids can not succeed in life but they become drop outs. Hard to believe that I can be the main teacher for him, that he can learn even from Youtube and Minecraft more than a local teacher can give.
The other problem is his social development. He needs friends. Have have been looking for them in homeschooler's social groups but so far did not find many that he can relate to. Finding a perfect match is hard there too. Only one American with perfect English have we met but she lives far away and they can meet only during her summer holiday.

Since Vietnamese is one of his citizenships I am also considering a compromise: allowing him to go to a local school but agreeing about special arrangements with his teacher or school mangement so that he could be there only part time, me following up what they are doing and going through it with him in English.

There are some local montessori and other types of "alternative" schools and kindies nearby with local teachers, some of them knowing English, though teaching it at a level suitable for local kids. Too boring for him and the cultural cap too high for me.


Often we go to local playgrounds and swimming pools. During the weekdays, daytime, there are no other customers but we play alone.



On New Year  2024-2025  we travelled to Nha Trang city, about 5 hours by bus from our home.  it is usually a bit warmer there on the coast but now it was almost as cold as at home. Still he wanted to swim. He says he is Finland boy and can stand the cold.

Русские в Нячанге, Вьетнам. Эти родители отправляют своих детей на поддержку своей террористической страны: убийц и насильников, которые хотят уничтожить Украину.

In the evening, outside the New Year concert area we saw some Russians promoting their terrorist country.
Two weeks earlier I was detained by the police for displaying Ukrainian flag.   After interrogation and making sure I am not part of any organization but acted on my own behalf only, they let me go. Though not sure if the case will be  brought to court later.

Phonm Penh, Cambodia

I am dictating my entry using Google dictating tool on my smartphone keyboard. Sometimes I may make funny mistakes because I don't always look what the tool has created for me. Sometimes it has made really funny mistakes like the nearby town of us has became a suck d##k even though the real name is Sa Dec. Some other obscene interpretations it has also created but I can't remember them right now.

Anyway this Android application is really a nice tool compared to earlier versions of blocking applications that had so many mistakes and black even some basic features, for example editing.

I do not write my block entries on one go but I edit them during several days and sometimes I even may come back to an old entry years after publishing it.

Temperature here is the same ass in southern Vietnam in macomb Delta area where I have been living the past 5 years

I came here from Vietnam because my Vietnam visa expired on 29th of October and I was not granted a new visa without leaving the country.

I chose Cambodia because I can come here without flying. I just took a bus to Ho chi Minh city stayed there in a hotel overnight and next morning took giant Ibis luxury bus to the Cambodian border. There are cheaper options for visa runs but there are not as high quality services like this one. I am using my white cane because my eyesight has been became worse. In general my health is in the state that I feel myself an old man. That's not only negative but I find some positive and interesting in it. I get easily special treatment even on the streets when crossing the road and waving my stick. Now when we crossed the border I did not have to leave the bus but the tour guide that bus company included in the ticket price was taken care of us and she thought I am too sick to work and stand in lines so she just took my passport and make me sit in the bus while others went out to cross the borders.

I had Cambodian eraser already bought online so I did not have to buy a visa on arrival.

Everything was nice and smooth and after about 7 hours we arrived in Phnom Penh. In the bus I was talking to some Indian people, there are also very nice and friendly ladies in the group. I was a bit too shy to ask to add them on Facebook or get their contacts but it may be that we even can meet here in Cambodia because they were staying in a hotel nearby. And I guess they still are.

I have visited Cambodia twice before. First time was from Malaysia where I was developing a relationship with the local lady. Soon after she told me to go away and I went to Cambodia. I had the short relationship there but the next day I told her that I want to go back to Malaysia after I had called the lady and told her I want to come back to her. 

So I returned to Malaysia and was staying with that lady on and off for about 16 months until in the beginning of a 2016 I left her and came to Vietnam and after Vietnam went to Ukraine. I wanted to settle in Ukraine find a relationship and permanent home. I lived in Kharkiv and Kyiv. Was teaching English as a volunteer there. I had to leave the country after 3 months and I spent those in Finland. I was really missing you crazy where I also had a relationship under construction. It didn't work because the lady showed her true nature being too emotional and trying to play games with me. When it starts snowing in Kyiv in November I decided to move to Vietnam where I had a few ladies waiting for me to come and meet them after we found each other on Asian dating website 

But now everything is different, I am different. I am not looking for a partner, not looking for an adventure. Now I am responsible father and I am worried about my son. He is 3 years old and we spent a lot of time together. I have done my best to explain him why I am not at home with him. He is old enough to understand that I am somewhere that I have not disappeared totally so he even can have a video conversation with me using messenger or whatever applications we use for online chatting. 

I am so proud of him. He can tell me what he is doing at home, that he is eating watermelon. He can tell me to come home right now, not leave him alone but take him with me. I just hope he won't lose his hope if he has to wait for me for a week or two before I can get my Vietnamese visa. I am married to a Vietnamese woman but still it is not easy to get Theresa anymore. Some people say that all this is because of they want to get rid of agents that are harvesting lots of money from foreigners the other say that they just don't want pensioners in the country.

Whatever, I cannot help the situation, I have to stay at least for a few days here and those days I can enjoy as well. It will not harm my child even if I enjoy here. It is the other way: if I am happy it gives me more strength to be with him when I am back home again. Just hope it will happen soon.

This is the first time that I am traveling with a CPAP machine. I have been renting this Phillips Respironics more than 3 weeks already and I have used it every night since I got it on October 4th. I feel it has helped me a lot to improve my sleep and that way whole my health and my life.

I have noticed especially while traveling and also at home that my eyesight has became a little worse. I notice it when I have to use smartphone applications like Google maps for finding places or Grab to order a motorbike taxi to a certain location. It is quite hard for me to specify the current address and verify that the destination is correct. I have made a few mistakes because of that.

So I came to Phnom Penh because I was asked to leave Vietnam in order to get a new visa. As I told earlier I am not really on traveling mood. If I could choose I would be at home with my son or at least I would travel together with him. However it was too complicated this time to take him and my wife with me.

As I have been video chatting with my son I feel he kind of understand that I haven't disappeared but I am somewhere and because he was with me inside gone he has an idea where I am and what I am doing. Sending him photos of not myself only but also of different vehicles like buses excavators front loaders I believe will keep him interested and inspired.

I used to live nobody's life and kind of enjoyed freedom of traveling but now it's different. Beside my son I miss at home my own food my early morning walking and exercise sessions. Now I want to have a permanent long-term home that I can work on to improve. I am not a city person. I wouldn't like to leave in an apartment but I want to leave in a small house in countryside.

I also miss my own food and on cooking. I have been vegan for about 17 years now and when traveling I always am looking for vegetarian restaurants. 

Luckily there are plenty of them here in southeast Asia. 

On my first morning my local friend picked me up on his motorbike and took me for a coffee and then for a vegetarian meal in Maitreya vegetarian restaurant. 

This place brought memories from Indonesia and Taiwan as I told before. This picture is from January 2013 in Emei, Hsinchu county in Taiwan where they have Maitreya land with a huge happy Buddha statue.

Money is a problem. Most of us encounter this problem in the phone that we don't enough money by our bills and to buy necessitues for everyday survival. As western person living in Vietnam My money problem in Vietnam appears also the other way: I have money to buy something but I don't know how to get it. I have to beg my wife several times before she agrees to help me and often should I cannot understand what exactly I want. For small gadgets and food items it's easier because I can order them online.

Here in Cambodia I have money problems of two kinds: inside out several times already I don't feel like I want to be travelling but I would like to be at home in state with my son and do something useful for the house, spend my money in renovating his and Even playing mortgage for buying the land.

I really cannot call myself handyman. My carpentry skills are very limited, they wouldn't be successful in Finland where people expect heirlooms to be very tidy and accurately build and renovated. In Vietnam it is different, more relaxed if you want to express it in a positive way. I have been learning by doing. I have started replacing old truck and timber with new one. I have built some kitchen shelving, and now when there is a cat in the house, I want to create a cat house: building shelves and climbing trees in the house in the attic so that the cat can stay at home and enjoy his life there. 

I already built such structures for our four cats in Australia. There it was more challenging because my wife required more tidy quality and it was a brick house. In a wooden house I could do much more and easier. I have been investing some money in good tools which make it more enjoyable to work and the quality will be better.

One of the tools is laser level with measuring tape and traditional bubble level.

Going back to my money problems, financial issues. One of them is currency conversions.

Now I understand the value of Vietnamese dong that is the currency that I am using daily. My income is in Australian dollars and euros so I understand them as well. US dollar is so close to Euro so I can use that approximate conversion. But Cambodian riel is a problem because I haven't been here so many times and haven't got used to the currency. Here you can pay many things in US dollars but they often give you change back in the local currency. My brain still hasn't accepted the value of that currency. They have very small banknotes that look very nice and are decorated with style but the value of them is in cents.

 

I am trying to use Vietnamese dong as a reference. Luckily there is the internet and I have local sim card with enough data so I don't need to worry using all the tools that I can find. I f.

I found a conversion table online. From that I have learned that I should multiply by 6 in order to get approximate value in Vietnamese currency.

Another money problem acquired when I tried to pay my hotel room extension with a 100 US dollar bill. It had a small tear so the hotel did not accept it. They also did not accept any cards but they wanted payments in cash. They asked me to go to market and change this bill with a money changer. My friend here at twice to go to ABA Bank and change it in there. I did and I chose a branch a bit further so I could walk there and at the same time choose a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. 

.First I found that banks ATM and I withdrew $200. The teller  gave me only $10 bills. I walked some more and found a big building of the bank where I could go in and change the money. They checked the serial number and the bill with some special machinery and finally changed it into smaller bills.

Just have to remember not to bring into Cambodia any big Bank notes but five and $10 bills.

US dollar is very rare kind of currency that still is printed on paper and not in plastic. It gets damaged very easily.

That day I was walking a lot, according to google about 13 km. I saw the very Chinese part of the city and had to chat with security officer there. He was Cambodian Chinese. 

Then I went back to the vegetarian restaurant of Mautreya Buddhists. There was another Chinese  Cambodian, the restaurant owner home ICE showed photos of me with happy Buddha. He also asked whether I can speak any Chinese. Meeting with Chinese people made me feel as if I were in Singapore.

Also shop names and signs are in Chinese in the most Chinese area 

There is also construction happening everywhere in the city center. It looks the same here as it looked in Singapore in 2002 when I was walking around the island.

Then in the evening after 6:00 p.m. my friend took me on motorbike to the vegetarian restaurant that I had found in the morning. They are serving vegan pizza. We ordered both of them and they had lots of cashew cheese on top.

How many more days in Cambodia? Will it be really true that I can get my Vietnamese visa at least for 3 months and after that a 3-year temporary residency as they have promised me?

For November I will submit another entry and tell rest of the story. In my Timo Tropiikista blog in Finnish language I have adopted the habits to publish one entry per month that I usually writet during the month and make timed publishing fir the end of the month. I will do the same here as soon as I can learn how to do it using this smartphone application.

October 2022 - sleep apnea, visa problems, audiblog from Southern Vietnam

 Audioblog entry as Youtube video using my photos from here in random order, not related to things currently said on audio track. 

We stand with Ukraine!   We are watching how "Ukraina tank car and tractor are chasing troublemaker and bad guy go away". 





 October 18th we had a roadtrip to Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon. I made this video on it. 

My son took a cat

We went for a bike ride to see something interesting

My son has two names that are both in use: one in English and the other in Vietnamese 

He turned 3 years old and I made a birthday video 

Our veryday life on October 19th 

On October 2nd we had an interesting bikeride 

In the beginning of the month I traveled to Saigon where my sleep was examined, half night as it was natural and rest of the night with a CPAP machine.  I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and treatment started immediately 


Our every day life on October 19th 

Several measuring devices were put on me during the night. As a nerd I found it quite interesting. 

I was given Philips respironics cpap for lease until I have bought my own.  

At first the mask was too big for my small nose area. 

I built a special sleeping cabinet with a separate airconditioner. 

Next to the pillow, thee is a special box built a little bit lower from it so the humidity of the pipe will not rain to my face. 

I hope this treatment will give me more energy to give positive experiences to my son. 

Luckily he has also his mother and grandmother to provide him exciting content to his life.  Here they are transporting some items by a traditional boat. 

My bl;ood pressure is getting better, also galstones do not bother me any more that much. Better sleep and early morning exercise with Qicong, Tai Chi, Nordic walking and some yoga poses will make me younger again!

On Facebook I wrote about identity documents verification required for my bank:

Commonwealth bank of Australia, identity check documents. How to do the check in Vn?

This is not about id verification when logging in but similar to the process that we do when opening an account or applying for credit card or other products.

I have spent a lot skype credit and time trying to get person to give me advice on their customer service. My netbank keeps notifying me about ID verification needed. My Aus passport exired in 11/2020 (I am here under my other citizenship passport).

Anyone experienced in doing that?

If not necessary I will renew my Aus passport before 11/2023

About the PAP device prices I wrote in Aussies in Vietnam group: 

Devices for sleep apnea treatment: CPAP, APAP. Has oneone brought it in to Vietnam from Australia or other countries? To avoid paying double prices in Vietnam, you probably need to carry it by yourself or get someone to carry for you?

The device that I have been recommended after a sleep analysis in Saigon clinic, Resmed Airsense 10 costs 43 million (over 2800 aud) here, In Australia 1815 AUD with wifi and network features disabled, in Finland between 700 and 800 eur (1000 to 1300 aud). Looks like same high prices in Asia Pacific countries?

Not much better deals for Philips respironics. I managed to buy a second hand Airsense 10 in Finland plus a new AirFit P30i Cushion nasal mask. I saved a lot of money so after getting the machine here carried by a friend, I can spend something on an e-bike conversion kit.

I am buying a refurbished second hand Airsense 10 with a new Airfit P30i Nasal cushion mask in Finland for about 1000 aud equiv in eur. Sold by a medical company after I presented medical certificate from a pulmonologist here in VN. My friend will carry it for me in November. Until that I am using a rented cpap. Getting better and better. The current machine does not have a heated tube, so condense water tends to rain on my nose at night. That problem will be fiexed with the new device that has a heated tube.

Taiwan

I am dictating blog post in a bus from a a small town the southern part of Vietnam. Telling you the name of the town is not very successful by the tithing anyway. Even though dictating is quite convenient face taste and looks like the application. Recognize my speaking quite well I haven't been using it's Ella. I actually should use it much more.