One of the first things we did when we moved was purchase a cell phone. For $15 we pointed to a phone, picked its color (black), and then "chose" our cell phone number from a massive print out list of available numbers. (Note, for a little extra dong you could pay for a phone number with 1 less digit -- tantalizing, but not sure why that matters). In HCMC there are no cell phone service packages. Rather, every cell phone is run via pre-purchased minutes. These minutes have a shelf-life and expire at the most random intervals. When your minutes expire, you have to quickly find a retailer of your phone brand's additional minutes. Luckily, most of the coffee carts and cigarette carts are "minute reatailers" and have homemade signs, on cardboard, listing what company's minutes they carry. This allows you to simply stop your bike on the road, yell out your company name and the amount of money you want to purchase where a little lady will run the ticket out to you in less than 20 seconds.
Today, we had to laugh as we purchased minutes and got home to upload them to our phone. Adam grumbled over their quick expiration date -- only two weeks to use them before they are gone. Heidi gently reminded him that two weeks worth of minutes and texts cost only $2. Beat that, iPhone!
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| Our little cell phone and recharge card. If you would like to call, our number is (+84) 01256431194! |
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