Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 26 Jan 1993 18:53:28 -0800
From:         Pham Phan <pphan@HPLDSLA.SID.HP.COM>
Subject:      Vietnamese flock home for holiday

Hello friends,

I would like to post this article which printed in the San Jose Mercury News
on Jan. 22,1993 for you to enjoy during the Tet festival.

Typos are mine.

Happy New Year to all.


Pha^?m Phan

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            VIETNAMESE EMIGRES FLOCK HOME FOR HOLIDAY

By Ken McLaughlin
Mercury News Staff Writer

New telephone links,improved airline service and cozier relations
between Vietnam and the US have promoted an unprecedented return of
Vietnamese emigres - roughly 20,000 from Northern California alone -
to their home land for Tet, the lunar new year that begins Saturday.

 " it's about double from last year, " said Samantha Nguyen, manager of
 Travel Express in San Jose. She and other Vietnamese-American travel
 agents based their estimate on the number of visas issued by Vietnam
 through foreign embassies and consulates.

 Travel agents said many Vietnamese are going back to check out business
 prospects since the US is seriously considering whether to lift its
 trade embargo against Vietnam.
 Nine out of 10 local Vietnamese-Americans booked flights to Ho Chi Minh
 (formerly Saigon), Nguyen said. The rest are flying to Hanoi. The
 average round-trip air fare is $1,200, agents said.

 " Every departure is sold out," said Chi Ha, manager of Unique Travel
 in Saigon. " People just feel really comfortable about going back. The
 goverment has really opened up. Every time they go back, it just gets
 easier and easier. "

 In addition to a growing number of charter flights, China Airlines has
 established new Vietnam service. And Singapore Airlines, Malaysian,
 Korean Air, Philippine Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Thai Airlines have
 all added Vietnam flights.

 In many cases, passengers don't even have to change planes because of
 direct service. Because of the embargo, however , US carriers still are
 banned from flying into the country.
 But the US gradually eased embargo rules in 1992 as Hanoi showed more
 willingness to help account for the US soldiers still listed as missing
 in action.
 The first significant step came in April, when the State Department
 announced it woulg permit telecommunications services to resume between
 the two nations. Major long-distance companies such as AT&T, Spring,
 MCI all jumped into the market.
 Before last spring, Vietnamese emigres had to use black-market carriers
 to phone home,usually relaying calls through Canada or Australia.

 Before the direct service was restored, emigres paid as much as $8.00 a
 minute to the black market operators. By contrast, AT&T now charges
 $2.51 for the intitial minute, $1.77 for additional minutes for a call
 from the US mainland between 11:00am and 5:00pm.
 People who call Vietnam on a regular basis say that initially the
 service was spotty but that the rapidly growing number of direct
 circuits between the two countries has dramatically improved
 connections.
 " It's very easy now, almost like calling in the US. " Nguyen said.
 "It's very clear."
 The biggest problem is that few Vietnamese have their own phones, which
 often makes it hard to reach people, said Vu Van Loc, executive
 director of the Indochinese Resettlement and Cultural Center in San
 Jose.
 Vietnam has 70 million people  but only 100,000 phones - one for every
 700 people - and nearly half of the phones are in Ho Chi Minh City,
 said AT&T spokeswoman Shirley Chan.

 U.S. phone companies have tried to make it easier to track  down people
 by establishing messenger services aimed at using human power when
 telephonic power is unavailable.
 It works like this, Chan said:

 A customer bookes a call in advance through an international operator,
 who relays the request to a Vietnamese operator. In turn, the
 Vietnamese operator dispatches a "runner" to track down the person
 being called so he or she can go to a calling center to receive the
 call at a set time.
 Or, if that's too much trouble, Vietnam citizens can simply find a
 phone and call relatives collect.
 A lot have been doing just that to encourage relatives to come home for
 the start of the Year of the Rooster, Nguyen said.

 The 1990 census counted about 100,000 Vietnamese in Northern California
 - about half of the people live in Santa Clara. But refugees agencies
 say the group was seriously undercounted, in large part because so many
 ethnic Chinese from Vietnam checked the Chinese box on the census
 form. Agencies believe the number closer to 150,000.
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