Unbelievable~,~<<
Hi guys,
We all need your story. We are getting so tired of him. And he actually right now keeps trying creating more and more CS profile on here to spam. The last account of him was Kim Freeman.
Oh gosh, we were so annoyed by this guy.
And to be honest, I am having all the emails about his spamming around.
And... really, even Facebook and his blog.
So, we do need your help about that. :(
We need a hand from you guys!
Thanks a lot!
Phuc
We all need your story. We are getting so tired of him. And he actually right now keeps trying creating more and more CS profile on here to spam. The last account of him was Kim Freeman.
Oh gosh, we were so annoyed by this guy.
And to be honest, I am having all the emails about his spamming around.
And... really, even Facebook and his blog.
So, we do need your help about that. :(
We need a hand from you guys!
Thanks a lot!
Phuc
Hi
guys, that Joey is being annoying in Saigon now! He hurt a girl, live
with poor people's help and pay nothing... Now, he becomes dangerous for
us in Saigon that he has a hundred of his acct in couchsurfung with
random names of girl and boy! Let come to SAIGON couchsurfing to save
us, us VN couchsurfing, specially to save some honest Vietnamese people
they will be his victim! PLEASE HELP,
You
can change your email settings on Couch Surfing. I use Google Email and
have my CS emails automatically sent to certain CS folders that I make. I
try my best to be organized in life because you will always run into
annoying things and people no matter where you go in life.
Unfortunately, people spend their whole life trying to run.
- Hey,
I'd like to learn vietnamese or improve my english. If you want to improve your french: you're welcome :) I live in Ba Dinh district and available all the weekend. It would be great to exchange our culture.
See ya,
Nass
Hide replies - Hi guy´s,
I am planning to go to Vietnam from Shenzhen, I should arrive at Hanoi Airport to enter Vietnam. As I saw different advices concerning the Visa to enter, can someone tell me if it is possible to get it at the airport when I arrive or if I must get it previously?
Thanks for your reply.
Regards,
MaxHide repliesHi Max
If you would like to get visa at airport( visa on arrival,) you need visa approval letter first.
Visa stamp fee is 45 usd now
and visa approval letter is some usd ( 3-8) it depend on how you get it. normaly contact to a travel agency , you need to send them passport scan, then they will send you approval letter, print it and apply at airport .
Have a good luck
- Hi everyone,
I have an urgent request for advice/information. I arrived in Hanoi yesterday and had my purse with all my cards and cash and also my phone stolen last night. I am left with only $10 AUD cash, no credit card, no way of getting any money out of my bank account and no food or water since yesterday afternoon. Luckily I have got travellers cheques which I thought I could cash today so that I have some money.
However, the AMEX website and all other online info I have found about the cashing of travellers cheques in Hanoi says that they can only be cashed at authorized foreign exhange banks. Since all banks here are closed today that's no good for me right now.
I also read that Travellers Cheques are accepted as payment at the big hotels. Does anyone know which hotels here accept travellers cheques? Even if they won't cash them I can at least use them to buy some food and water. I am staying on Hang Ga street in the old quarter, so the hotels near here that accept tc's would be most useful.
Thanks,
Kirsty.Hide repliesJust to let everyone know, a wonderful kind-hearted couchsurfer has helped me out until I can get my tc's cashed tomorrow.
The response from couchsurfers offering to help me was great and has restored my faith in humanity after the incident yesterday.
Thank you so much to everyone who offered help, you are a wonderful example of what a couchsurfing community should be, without Hanoi CS I would be in a much worse situation. I will be at the Hanoi Couchsurfing meeting tonight and look forward to meeting many of you.
Kirsty. - Can i ask you guys? All most people who wanna be a host then they must speak English very well or how? I'm new member.
I wanna improve my English and to have some new friends. If you want then you could be contact with me on Facebook: facebook.com/huyen.thuong.399 or my inbox.
Thanks
Hide replies - Hi guys,
this is the first time i post my ask in this web.
Im workinig now for a Japan company. Before ive learnt English by myself so its not really good. But English is really interesting language and also useful. I know a bit out of Vietnam through the stories which told by the people i met. But when i graduated, chasing the with the time to find a job to live by my own then my English is bankrupt :-) (its just for fun). Then i see, on this web, a lot of people want learn English, im too. So why dont we establish a club to learn English together. And its good be great if any foreigners want to help us even just oneday in VIetnam we are willing to help u to see HN. We will help u when u travel in VietNam, we can teach VietNamif u want and, show u around in Ha Noi. IF anyone has the same idea, pls contact me follow this email: hanhqn.87@gmail.com. tkx guys. Have a nice day1 - Hi there, I will be coming to Vietnam for a 11-day journey, solo. Starting in Hanoi on 31st May. Hoping to stay few days and travel to Sapa and Ha Long Bay before going to the South. Hoping to meet CSers here, share life stories and cultures. It would be great if you can show me around :)
I m also thinking to visit Sapa / Ha Long Bay, is there anyone else interested?
Cheers
MerlinHide repliesHi..Welcome to Hanoi.. If you need to find people who can hang out and just walk with you, taking experience each others or find some one who can show you around the city. I present to you our CS Hanoi Travelmate group. Our members are people who really friendly, they came here for helping tourist more understand about hanoi city and moreover they want to create an effective environment for improve their english.
Please contact everytime if you have time
Email : cs.travelmate@gmail.com
Web : www.hanoitravelmate.com
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/HanoiCouchsurfingTravelmate
Hot line 01663669171 or 0988860986
- The person/ account member I want to mention here is Original Oatmeal Joey Arnold who have posted many nonsense topics and stupid spammed replies.
His profile: http://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html?id=5GVYSQ4BP
As you guys may know about his activities recently. He seems not to understand the human language at all since keeping asking the same questions.
To my understanding, he is trying to get attention from us to get help/ support/ sympathy since repeating the same chore: I only have $400, I am American. Wow ! such an American !~
Do you guys know any mode in this web CS to report his account as a spam?!
We are not a charity fund or a social free information center. Kick him out of the group~
We may give the warning to all members not to reply his questions !
For a safer and helpful CS community (as usual)
THide replieshe's a troll, i'm pretty sure he's enjoying all the attention and simply takes please in being annoying. Sadly, CS updated the web site some months ago and they didn't do a very good job, leaving the service susceptible to spam like that.
The best thing to do is for everybody to completely ignore him, and if he gets no attention, he'll go away (...and probably find some other people to annoy)I've seen Oatmeal Arnold post something similar quite a few months ago. Guess he really does love Vietnam. But honestly guy... Vietnam has no place for you. Only visitors who can contribute or appreciate its beauty. Respect its laws and policies and just follow procedure and maybe they'll grant you another visa.I want to travel the world. A school told me they would hire me. I came to Vietnam but the school did not hire me. Now I am in Saigon looking for work. I will figure things out. I am not annoying. I am not spam. I will get back on my feet again. Things will get better. I will not give up in life. I just want to travel the world and help others and make people laugh and smile with one Original Oatmeal at a time.Couch Surfing illegally deleted my account and profile on their website. I gave CF $20 USD and I want my money back. I will sue them. I am very angry. I was not given any real warnings about anything that I did wrong. I did not do anything wrong. I did not violate any rules on CF. This website did not give me any warnings.
OriginalOatmeal@Gmail.com
(84) 0-163-425-1695I got pretty fired up after reading this thread---here are my thoughts on it.
Y'know, for a social community that prides itself on being inclusive and welcoming, I'm getting a very different vibe here.
It seems that CS talks a good game, but the reservoir of goodwill kind of dries up when the rubber hits the road.
Joey seems like a nice enough fellow, (you youtube video is weirdly hilarious--I'm getting a definite early Peter Jackson vibe here...any "Bad Taste" fans out there...no?)
He doesn't seem to have threatened anyone, or been cruel, a jerk, or a bad host--y'know stuff that would matter.
His capital crime seems to have been having bad social skills, not picking up on cues, and being repetitive.
In this department I have nothing but sympathy and empathy for the guy---being notoriously hit-or-miss in my own social interactions in my misspent youth....actually the jury's still out if I really mastered the seldom mentioned but quite important art of socialization.
Speaking for myself and any other social retards out there, I think it's pretty lame how Joey got nailed to the wall because he's a bit annoying and "not cool." I can tell you that it's not an easy go in life if you're not socially adept, and it probably doesn't do much too help the situation, when you get publicly humiliated on a forum after you try to reach out.
Talk about kicking a man when he's down.
The "mean girls in High school" impression isn't really a very open-minded or pleasant way to deal with those who are different.
It's become verboten to pick on people of different races religions or sexual orientations...heck, even nerds have experienced a sudden respectability and 'not cool to made fun of' status. but tragically it's still open-season on people who are awkward or not all that good in playing it cool.
We need a new PR guy.
But, I figure we're all flawed human beings and all deserving of getting some slack cut for our own foibles.
Over-wrought moral summarizing statement time
Isn't there a little "Joey oatmeal" in all of us??@ Ryan Coleman:
I wasn't gonna respond on this topic anymore, but well, here's my thoughts: A number of people (including myself) genuinely tried to help this guy out - he was rude, ignorant and selfish. Zero appreciation for the people offering help. Only constant demands to give him the answer he wants and feels he's somehow entitled to because he's american.
The CS community is open and inclusive, but does that mean we need to tolerate racism and close-mindedness? I would say absolutely not and since he doesn't seem to posses any bit of good manners nor does he seem to have any interest in true involvement in the community (all his posts are all about him), i'd say this is not a community for him.
I appreciated CS for a long time before it became a commercial web site. Now they turned into a business and more and more users like this guy, who are much better fit on twitter or myspace, are trying to rudely butt into CS.
yes - it's a welcoming community - but it's a community of 'give and get' - and if somebody's only looking to demand more for themselves and offers nothing, not even a 'thank you' in return - it's not a community for them.
that's my thoughts.Thanks Matt D, I totally agree with your opinion~
For you guys reference, all of his nonsense posts/ threads have been deleted so far, and you guys experience no stupid comments/threads (uh, oh, nice, I paid $20...) All problems just about HIS problems. Indeed, he may share on his FB or another locations.
Dont jump into conclusion when you just read this thread.
I dont say thay he is not a talented guy, everyone has their own capability, I respect that,
But as long as you dont respect the whole community (here is Couchsurfing), you will definitely be kicked out of the human beings group~
I will not delete this thread.
TrangI did click on his Fb last time when trying to define who this nerd truely is. Saw that he has many vietnamese friends who are also trying to help him with his visa. They help him, provide him information/ procedures, after getting no response from him but his same continous demands/ questions, they start to get mad~
Not sure its good to share this truth but sadly we Vietnamese (in general) have disease of "white people admiration". We are just the same, bad ones, good ones everywhere and trying to get fit~
if he is just a guy with bad social skills this thread is not a nice thing.
if he is a troll then this thread will make him post more. The worst thing you can do about a troll is to pay attention to him and especially argue because of him.
In either case this thread should not be continued.
If somebody is annoyed by his repetitive posts and lack of good manners he can leave him a negative reference stating this: that's what reference feature is for. Creating a thread about this is not a good idea because of reasons pointed above.
Repetitive posts should be flagged and deleted by admins, not answered with anger (again the same reasons as above apply).I agree with Matt's opinion. I think everyone here was quite tolerant and helpful at the first sight, but Joey seemed not to care about what people advised. He was all about himself and his visa drama. And he posted too many threads with the same thing. Personally I don't like him (i just felt he was trying to advertise himself and his social networks - by the most stupid way of course), and in general, anyone who was trying to help him realized he had some problems (not only bad social skills but annoying attitude) finally. In my opinion, it's necessary for the community to warn other members about some not-nice people in the site, because maybe they will host/meet those people once day and instead of having a nice time, all may become the pain in the ass. Ryan had his point, but he didn't know the real situation and made Trang upset. I just wanna say everyone has his own opinion, and has right to like or dislike someone, but when you join a community (I refer CS), make good things for others, I mean Trang was right to start this thread to warn people about that guy. Too many people wasted their time for him, and it was the time to tell them the truth.Ryan Coleman, you a fan of Star Wars? I do like Peter Jackson. There is a bit of Oatmeal in all of us. I am in Saigon now and things do seem better down here. I like asking a bunch of people many questions so I can compare answers. I am not proud of my youtube videos. i want to be the next Will Smith. I might be getting a 3 month single entry Vietnam tourist visa extension at chi Cafe in Saigon for $42 USD. I might be signing a work contract Thursday with a school. Maybe they will take care of my visa.
http://youtube.com/OriginalOatmealdear Trang,
I agree with you on the inferiority complex that a lot of people have (interesting matter would like to discuss this some day with more people). But I don't see how this is relevant now. You come across as an intelligent person, don't you think its better just to ignore him rather than using these strong words. Obviously in they eyes of many he lacks social competence but that should not be the reason to get this angry. He contacted me as well, several times.
Dear Joey, the fact that a lot of people within the couch surfing society perceive your behavior as unpleasant (euphemism) should make you think about it..
good luck and love to all!@Abdullah ratt
It seems that you are an intelligent person so that you keep quiet & ignore things like that? Not me !
As I told before & Bien Nguyen's recent post, I do not stand still here for him to mess up with this Hanoi Group~
Dont get me wrong, i am not angry at all. I know what I do & what I talk/ write here.
Have fun ~
T
Tons of people love me. A few bullies come up to me and tell me that I am not likable. New Star in Bac Ninh, Vietnam and Muong Museum in Hoa Binh told me I suck. Doctors said when I was 6 years old that I would never pass the 6th grade. I ended up doing years of college at a bunch of schools. I do not lack social skills. I know how to reinvent the social world. I just don't follow the politically correct social rules. people think I am crazy for thinking outside of the box. Like Taco Bell, think outside the bun and have fun having it your way, good to the last drop or your money back.@Matt: you should unsubscribe from Hanoi group. Actually I always unsubscribe from any group I join, so I don't have too many emails in my inbox.
BTW, I think everyone should ignore Joey if they feel annoyed by him. After I read that he needed to see doctors when he was a child, I think I should have been more tolerant.
Be happy folks!You can change your email settings on Couch Surfing. I use Google Email and have my CS emails automatically sent to certain CS folders that I make. I try my best to be organized in life because you will always run into annoying things and people no matter where you go in life. Unfortunately, people spend their whole life trying to run.Hi guys, that Joey is being annoying in Saigon now! He hurt a girl, live with poor people's help and pay nothing... Now, he becomes dangerous for us in Saigon that he has a hundred of his acct in couchsurfung with random names of girl and boy! Let come to SAIGON couchsurfing to save us, us VN couchsurfing, specially to save some honest Vietnamese people they will be his victim! PLEASE HELP,Hi guys,
We all need your story. We are getting so tired of him. And he actually right now keeps trying creating more and more CS profile on here to spam. The last account of him was Kim Freeman.
Oh gosh, we were so annoyed by this guy.
And to be honest, I am having all the emails about his spamming around.
And... really, even Facebook and his blog.
So, we do need your help about that. :(
We need a hand from you guys!
Thanks a lot!
Phuc - Hi All,
I've just recently moved to Hanoi and am curious about how to get more involved with a buddhist or satsang community or at least a meditation group. I haven't learned much Vietnamese yet so I guess I'm looking for a group or community that is accessible for English-speakers as well. Can anyone offer some advice?
Cheers,
MandieHide repliesHi..Welcome to Hanoi.. If you need to find people who can hang out and just walk with you, taking experience each others or find some one who can show you around the city. I present to you our CS Hanoi Travelmate group. Our members are people who really friendly, they came here for helping tourist more understand about hanoi city and moreover they want to create an effective environment for improve their english.
Please contact everytime if you have time
Email : cs.travelmate@gmail.com
Web : www.hanoitravelmate.com
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/HanoiCouchsurfingTravelmate
Hot line 01663669171 or 0988860986
Hello Mandie,
How long do you stay in Vietnam? I have searched on the Internet and found some info. However, they dont leave any address. So I think the best way is that you go to some pagodas and talk with monks there. Some groups organize their activities in the pagodas. However, I am not sure a foreigner can join them.
I hope you will find it soon. If you cant, please leave me a message and I will ask around for you. I am not in Vietnam now, so it will take time.
(It is great to know that you like Thich Nhat Hanh's philosophy and Tran Anh Hung's movies)
Enjoy your time in Vietnam!
LD.Hi Mandie,
I used to pratice meditation with a group in Ciputra. They do speak English because the prefect who is holding satsang every Sunday Morning is Indian. You can contact to Ms. Kieu Van : 090 4764555 for more information. She speaks English well. We all welcome u to join us and every activities are free of charges xxx
Annie
