{Expat life} Just another day in Vietnam!

A fine example of the dodgy cables in Tay Ho, Hanoi

Tonight when I got home from work, as I always do, I looked in my housekeeper's notebook to see what bills she has paid and what money she has spent.

No, I'm not excercising my control freak gene, I simply need to know how much money she has left so I can hand over more if required. After all, she's running my household and feeding my children!

In today's entry was a receipt for a paid electricity bill - an alarming total of 5 million VND (USD 263) for one month! Ouch!

I'll resist comments about how much more expensive electricity is in Saigon (and not to mention how much more we pay here than we do in Australia!), and tell you a funny story about the first time we got our monthly utilities, phone and cable bills in Hanoi.

It was April 2009. Having lived in a serviced apartment for most of our 9 week stay in Vietnam, we didn't quite understand the percularities that came with renting a residence in this country.

When we signed our lease for the house in Ciputra I assumed we'd have to connect electricity, water, cable tv and Internet in our name. No...not in Vietnam! The landlord (and our housekeeper) were very insistent that all bills should remain in their name and we would receive the bills to pay each month.

I then assumed the bills would arrive in the mail each month, and our (then) housekeeper Quyen would translate them for us and we would send her to the utilities company or the bank to pay the bill. Wrong again!

At 10pm on Saturday night as we were sitting in our dining room with expat friends Darrin and Lotta, having consumed far too much alcohol, the doorbell rang. Who could it be at this late hour?

Turns out it was someone from the telephone company with our bill for the month! She handed it over to Rob and promptly asked for the money. You've got to be kidding! Rob told her to get back on her moped and go away (in not so friendly language!)

We had a laugh with our friends (who didn't know better because they lived in a serviced apartment in the city) and thought it must have been some kind of scam targeting expats.

A few mornings later as I was bundling the girls into the pram ready for a trip to the local playground, a woman (apparently from the electricity company) cornered me at the gate, waving my bill and asking for money. I told her she should speak to the housekeeper. She of course couldn't understand English so she went on her way (probably cursing the stupid expat!).

When I got back to the house I showed our housekeeper the electricity bill and asked her to explain whether this was normal practice in Vietnam or someone trying to scam us.

She patiently explained that it was indeed the way it was done in Vietnam (of course!) but that we should always just take the bill and tell them to come back so she could hand over the money and make sure it was legit.

As a cynic I know sending someone to personally collect the money, like a mini mafia of debt collectors, is the only way companies will receive money owed from many areas in the community.

But, now that I've grown used to this new level of personalised customer service, I can't imagine how I'll remember to pay my bills when I move back to Australia!

Just another day in Vietnam!