Using Internet Cafe in Vietnam
 

I have never been in an internet cafe, so I know nothing about them. I would like to use my hotmail for staying in touch while on an upcoming trip to Vietnam. My question: how to navigate a keyboard in Vietnamese, or are the keyboards in English? Do you just go to hotmail and use it like at home? Any information or links would be appreciated

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This is a great post. There is a more appropriate forum, Travel Technology, and I am transferring it there. Please follow it over there for what I am sure will be some excellent and helpful responses.

--richard, moderator

I used two different internet cafes in Saigon last march and they are no different from internet cafes in any other country.

Don't worry about it. You will have no problem.

Vietnam is awesome! You will have a great time.

Keba

And I used them in Hanoi w/o a problem as well.

Most hostels have attached cafes where english speakers abound.

Have a great trip! I was just there in March. If you have any other questions, feel free to backchannel me.

I've used internet cafes in Hue, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hanoi. All had western keyboards.

A missing piece of the puzzle is that, since Vietnamese is written using latin characters (just like English - though with some additional characters and diacritical marks), a Vietnamese keyboard will also be usable by English speakers.

- Michael

Possibly related: While most alphanumeric keys will be relatively easy to find, you might have trouble with certain characters. At an EasyInternet cafe in Amsterdam a few years ago I had trouble figuring out how to type an '@' character. So you might see something similar in Vietnam if their keyboards don't have a North American layout.

I had the same experience during leisure travel in South America and Europe. The "letter" characters were all available, although sometimes a few specific characters were in unusual places (too bad for touch typist). The more difficult problem was the puncuation and special characters. I think a German keyboard almost stumped me when I had to press three keys to achive the "@" symbol.

Thanks FT for the info and encouragement! I have just arrived home from the trip. I used the internet cafes in Thailand and Vietnam with no problem. It was certainly cheaper and more convenient than telephone.

FYI, you can find a lot of 24hr internet shops on Tran Quang Khai Street.
Also, all keyboards in Vietnam have North American layout (because a large portion of them came from the States - Can you say in Vietnamese: Dude http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/cool.gif you're getting a Dell !).