I know some of our members live in Vung Tau.
I am wondering if it is less expensive there than Cambodia?

What prospects for work/ business ?

How about visas ?
Crime ?

Is the tefl situation about the same in terms of hiring people with few/no formal qualifications?

Vung Tau is a great, nice, quiet place to live if you don't require any sort of nightlife at all

More expensive but better standard. Cheaper outside the main towns same as KOW.
Lots of red tape for a business but a guesthouse, for example, is a much better proposition than in KOW.
Can get a business visa with an agents help.
Haven't seen much crime.
TEFL need good qualifications. Low salary.

Very friendly people, wonderful food.
I find the language difficult. I can understand them but they don't understand me.

Getting a work permit is a massive shit fight.

A nice sea breeze flows between the Front and Back Beaches. This seems to lower the temperature a bit.

Apartments range between $200 and $400. Includes a weekly service. Power between $40-60 dollars a month. Rooms usually very nice with most having a kitchen area.

People actually stop at red lights most of the time. Robbery is seldom heard of but if your drunk walking through a park at 3am you may get what you deserve.

Bar seen is very low key. Bar girls ask stupid money if you need company.

Bottled Tiger at happy hours or on a loyalty card less than a $1. Local draft even cheaper at local places.

Medical help for the usual problems is available. More serious problems HCM the best bet.

3 casinos and a Greyhound track on Friday and Saturday nights.

Food quality is high and many expat places to eat. Prices around $5 -8 for decent Western meal. Local food way cheaper

If its fast nightlife you want Vung Tau lacking. Airport 2 hours away so a trip to Thialand always an option.

At times the bars resemble an old mans home!!!! Tons of Australian retires.

Plenty of bars showing sport.

Vung Tau an option but visas expensive and seem to be increasing. Think 6 months now around $350- 400.

Plus you have a mini me Christ The Redeemer statue so when you are bored you can pretend you are in Rio.

Although there are few if any jobs in Vung Tau listed here, you can get some idea about the teaching market and the jobs that are available in Vietnam regarding requirements, pay rates, conditions, etc.

https://vietnamteachingjobs.com

If you're on Facebook, you can join this group:

English Teachers and Teaching Jobs in Vung Tau
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240038386658581/

In addition, there are 3 open groups (can browse without joining) where you can learn more about the VT scene.

Expats in Vung Tau (Vietnam)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/217363251682990/

Expats in Vung Tau
https://www.facebook.com/groups/169934546759523/

Vung Tau Expats
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1742678672700143/

I'm leaving Vung Tau after near two years. Probably stayed longer than I should have.

Paparazzi above gives a pretty good account of the place. However . . . the following is going to be pretty negative.

1. Counterfeit booze. Especially the buy one, get one free places. Was getting headaches regularly for the last few months. I stopped drinking Jager and Black Label and switched to far less popular Jameson. No more headaches.

2. Counterfeit water. Believe it or not. I stopped buying name brand water at mom and pop places because I felt I was getting sick. Once I started buying the name brand mineral water at Circle K and Family Mart, no more illnesses. A Viet friend approved of my decision, saying the water at the small shops, which charge more(!), could be using tap water.

3. Counterfeit beef. We suspected the beef was often not beef. A UK butcher took a friend into the markets and started pointing out the meat labelled "beef" here and there was buffalo.

4. Counterfeit coffee. Don't buy cheap coffee! It very likely has no caffeine and may be made of really nasty stuff. Lots of VN government reports on this. I bought the best arabica bean coffee I have ever had at Tam Phat shop on Trung Nhi. And I've also had the worst coffee ever in VN.

Other stuff:

Disagree about red lights. Viets can come at you from any direction, 360 degrees. Taxi drivers and truck drivers do not stop at corners when turning. Moto riders do not look. Ever. I have never felt more at risk on the streets as I did in VN. And then there's the horns! Non-f*cking stop, all day, all night.

Viet bar girls? Hardcore. Expensive. No lady boys! -- at least not for a few months now. Best bar in town is Red Parrot, by the way. Which had a Viet lady boy for a few months late last year.

Banks. You cannot deposit cash in your account unless you have a work permit and pay stub. Money must be traceable and therefore can only come from a wire transfer. Some banks also require a year visa to create an account. ATMs only dispense 2 million VND at a time on a foreign debit card. My bank, ACB (Asia Commercial Bank, preferred by many expats), will dispense 5 million VND at a cost of 1100 VND.

Anyway, FLB, go and visit. VT is a very clean, well managed, pretty city. They pull out all the stops on the big holidays. Amazing light displays on the shore road. At night the streets come alive with thousands of Viets enjoying the cooler, breezy evenings.

I've moved back to Bangkok for several personal reasons. At least for one year.

PS. Met a lot of great Aussies there. I will miss them.

Regarding visas. Getting harder to get long-term ones and they're getting more expensive. My first 1-year business visa in 2017 was $350US. Next time I could only get a 6-month for the same price, $350US. After that, I could only get a 3-month business visa. And a Temporary Resident Card for a two-year term was priced earlier this year at $1600US. It was half that before and half that before that.

Paparazzi and ExPenhMan have pretty well covered it.

I've been here a year-and-a-half... and love it

For beer, you can get 6 bottles of Saigon 'Red' or 'Green', or 5 Tiger, San Miguel etc. for 100,000 VND ($4.30) on a punch ticket.

As for driving, most people may stop at a red light but "most" can be 51%... that means 49% don't. THERE ARE NO RULES!!! I try to avoid driving on weekends when the 'Saigonistas' descend on mass for their weekend beach break.

Visa rules are in a constant state of flux. I came on a one year, multiple entry business visa. Now, I can only get 3 months.

You can deposit cash in a bank if you declare it (and have the form to show the bank) when entering the country. Getting an Immigration officer to understand you want to "declare" money can be difficult - "You change money there." (points to exchange booth).