Hello Vietnam!! How I Got My Facebook Account Back!

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#philippines #reekay #vietnam

Author: Reekay V.

Since 2012 I’ve been traveling through various islands of the Philippines as a full-time Expat and spent 1999 living in Vietnam.

Share with me my ongoing adventures of life in the Philippines. Hopefully you find my observations helpful in your own adventures.
— Reekay

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179 comments

  1. I bet the trolls from certain YouTube troll/hate channels can,t wait to get into that Facebook account and start leaving more slanderous comments. Got to love the hypocrisy with their shady backgrounds. Have a safe trip and have fun in Vietnam.

    1. i don’t sweat liars. and i have a full life to keep me busy every day. i do what i do and those few who don’t like it can focus on something or someone else.

      as my mom always said, “if someone doesn’t like you, so what?” ha!

  2. This is a nightmare for travelling nomads. Everything wants sms cell phone verification now. Bank accounts, paypal, social media.

    1. TFA is a travelling nomad’s best friend, even more so than for an anchored expat – Serious banks, brokerages, PayPal, etc. (the travelling nomads’ and expats’ OTHER best friends all have more secure methods than SMS or e-mail to implement TFA. As Karl Malden would say today : Forget American Express, don’t leave home without big-boy TFA

    2. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea E-mail is a very poor way to implement TFA and while I loathe Fakebook, for their users’ sake, I’m glad they aren’t making a rookie mistake like using e-mail for TFA
      Pro-tip: Use a good hardware key that meets strict standards (No Chicom junk) when a service allows it (Fakebook did back when I had a test account just for keeping up with you, so they likely still do)

    3. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea It would be a drama if you lost the phone in the Philippines maybe you could look at getting on a post paid plan (rather than pre paid) that way if you do lose the phone they would assign your number to a new SIM.

    4. @celtosaxon nope. i already had my google-number on this account. but FB would not let me verify with that. in fact, FB no longer accepts google-numbers anymore, only mobile numbers.

    5. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea can you simply use a friend’s cheap alternate pre-paid phone as the relevant contact phone ?

  3. I Love your Vietnam Video’s. I just think Vietnam is such a Hidden Gem. People focus on Thailand and Philippines but Vietnam has alot of Value for the Money.

    1. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea …Please be Careful in your Travel with this Virus. Being so Close to China You maybe in Connect with people coming from there. Its not a Time to panic but to be Cautious of Big Crowds.

    2. i totally agree. it is a place for the true traveler who isn’t just looking for another ‘walking street’. it’s a place of culture and class, i really enjoy it.

    1. Beware. Death rate and mutation is much higher than the flu. Would not want to be caught in a communist country during an outbreak. I would worry they might burn me alive if I got sick.

    1. one could first off be curious why Reekay couldn’t login successfully ?? That in itself would be a huge fear for anyone! Is such a verification being required more often now for certain accounts operating from say, South East Asia in particular ?

    2. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea same thing happened to me but I would’ve had to go all the way back to the US to I just said forget it.

    3. yah, but worth it. i have over 13 years of photos saved there of my kids that i also didn’t want to lose.

    1. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea Good strategy. Be wise but don’t let fear rule everything.

    2. honestly, there are a lot of things i ‘could’ worry about, but don’t. i try to keep things in perspective.

  8. I’m suddenly having a craving for Pho. Super cheap prices. It seems like the streets and food in Vietnam is way cleaner than the Philippines.

  9. My (New) Facebook.. https://www.facebook.com/lifebeyondthesea.official
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    My MP3 Audio-Series.. http://bit.ly/ReekaysTravelMP3s
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  10. Great video once again Reekay. I will cover Vietnam soon and hope to be as informative as you in my videos. Enjoy the country! Keep up the good work. here is my channel trailer https://youtu.be/0DgTNljPLZM Thank you Reekay

    2. Please do! and feel free to put a link here to your video channel so viewers here can check it out. safe travels.

  11. Love your videos… especially when you’re in Vietnam. I served in the U.S. Navy there for a year-and-a-half, assigned to the Seabees for 9 months and then 9 more months at the Naval Support Facility in Cam Ranh Bay. The Seabees had about 15 teams spread throughout the Mekong Delta at the time I was there. Our HQ compound was behind Tan Son Nhut (old spelling) airport, and our house was on Truong Minh Ky Street (now Le Van Sy Street). I’ve seen videos of Le Van Sy Street, and things have really changed in the half-century I was there – and for the better, too! I really enjoyed the Vietnamese people back then, in the cities and in the towns and villages on my visits to Seabee team sites. Fortunately, we have access to many Vietnamese restaurants in Oregon (where my Filipina-Chinese wife and I live), and enjoy the food very much. Enjoy your travels, and thank you for sharing!

    1. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea Towns I can recall visiting and spending some time in in the Delta include Tan An, My Tho, Ben Tre, Can Tho, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu and Rach Gia. We also had teams I visited just north of Saigon in Thu Duc and Xuan Loc. Lots of interesting places to see; and I’m sure they’re so very much nicer today, just as is Saigon, as I can see from your videos. I betcha you’d really enjoy Can Tho, probably the largest city in the Delta. Nice floating market and restaurants along the river!

    2. awesome to hear. and thanks for your service. i still need to travel the mekong delta next time i return. 🙂

  13. Safe travels dude! Watch out for that virus! Glad you got that FB/craziness stuff worked out. I’m always good for some awesome pho. Lucky for me I live here in San Diego (you probably know we have plenty of Vietnamese restaurants).

    1. pake ed: are you one of those who believes everyone owes you something ? The day facebook and the other useless shitty bandwidth wasting social media people begin charging for their services, you may start complaining or give out stupid advice. Until then, there is zero obligation for them to facilitate anyone’s use of their services.

  15. Wellcome back to Vietnam, I always follow u, no matter where u r! I am Vietnamese.

    1. i really didn’t sweat it. i didn’t bother with a mask. i simply used alcohol gel about every 3-hours or so.

    2. not the simcard i had. when i bought it no mention was made if had roaming capability or not. (but it is available on other simcards from what i understand.)

  20. Were did you get invitation a letter to Viet Nam never heard of that before?

    1. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea Do i need one for the Phil. also ? Thank you Enrique [ fr USA ]

    2. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea TY expat often go 3 yr Philippines must leave country then return

    3. i got mine at the link below. it is required to have an invitation-letter PRIOR to boarding your flight. (PAL asked me for it when i checked-in at Cebu airport.) and it is required when you apply for your visa at Vietnam, or you don’t get past immigration. link..
      http://bit.ly/vietnam-visa-online

  22. Really? I still use a very old Mexican number to verify most things… Including Facebook… And the sms and code gets to me fine wherever I am… Currently in Vietnam

    1. which means your mexican simcard has ‘roaming’ as part of the sim package. the one i had from vietnam does not support roaming outside of vietnam.

  23. That’s the good thing about living in Asia. Other Asian countries are a quick flight away.

  24. Hmmm, facebook fiasco, or;

    1) Henry has a girl in every port & has to keep them all happy.

    2) Henry is a covert agent for the U.S. Gov.

    3) Henry has always had a fascination with the story of Typhoid Mary, and, once he began to develop flu-like symptoms, he hopped on the first plane…

    4) Henry has developed an addiction to Vietnamese cuisine & we shall see him come up with many excuses for why he has to hop across the pond on short notice, periodically.

    It really is a shame that Facebook is the “go-to” site for so many resources in SE Asia, yet, access is seemingly confined to individual countries. Maybe, you can place your Philippines phone number & Vietnamese number, each, as security checks – or are they , still, accepting only one?

    1. only went to get my FB account back. she still needs a passport to travel outside of the ph.

  26. congratulations on making that connection, I did not think it was possible to get through that airport that fast.

    1. Me neither. i went straight to the plane when i landed and still made it just in time.

  27. Well, can you get a Google Voice number when you are back in the USA and just keep that as your permanent US number and forward calls to your foreign number?

    1. Google is tracking your whereabouts. In about 2 weeks they will send a verification code to your USA number to keep your Voice number active when you are abroad. If you try to forward your calls to a foreign number, it won’t accept it. At least that’s what happened to me.

    3. i already have a google-voice on the account, for years. but to verify it won’t offer it as an option. in fact, facebook no longer accepts a google-voice number, only mobile-numbers.

  28. No immigration stickers for 4 months now in the Philippines!! Go figure!! Sheesh I had same problem

  29. Hi reekay. Yesterday, i just renewed my tourist visa. In spite of being here in The Phillipines 18 months, i had to get an acr i card for the first time which costed me 2.5k. Not sure why but i did want to be legal snd i paid. Do you have one? Just curious…thanks! 🙂

    1. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea thanks reekay. I really appreciate your experiences. Much happiness to you. Great videos…

    2. for a tourist visa, the ACR card must be purchased on the 59th-day visa renewal. it is then valid for 1-year.

      it could be that you were due, at 18-months, for an ACR card if it wasn’t collected at your 12-month expiration.

  30. Sign up with google voice. You will be given an option to choose a new number. You can select a free phone number anywhere in the USA based on what available in the google system. That way no matter where you are in the world you can you can get your text verification with the google number from Facebook banks, everything.

    1. i tried adding my google-number to my new account and FB won’t accept it.

      it’s ‘grandfathered’ into my old account, but they wouldn’t offer it as a means to verify. but my google-voice number works for other sites to get codes.

    2. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea Hmmm, that’s odd. All my notifications go to my Google number. Works for me. I wonder if they are geo locating you, but you should be able to use your computer, log into a VPN, attempt Facebook login, text sent to Google voice. Anyway, they must have geolocated you and flagged your account.

    3. i already have a google-voice on the account, for years. but to verify it won’t offer it as an option. in fact, facebook no longer accepts a google-voice number, only mobile-numbers.

  32. This is one of your best videos. Glad you got your FB account back. What a hassle! Facebook should compensate you and make this ‘verification’ process easier.

  33. How funny, I almost forgot about the paperwork I received and they thought I was overstaying. Luckily the paperwork was still in my secure loctote bag. lol

  36. If your in Hanoi let me know we can meetup and I’ll take you to a great vegan buffet restaurant.

    1. <-- vegetarian here. Would love to experience a Vegan Buffet. Could you link it here? Thank you... Was hoping to get over to Vietnam but the virus thing has me camping in Taguig/BGC Manila for another couple of months in hopes that like the Flu, warmer weather further North will help it fade away. I have a ticket to go home through Taiwan but when the Virus turned up there I booked a ticket through Incheon, Korea, where at the time, there were zero cases reported. Well as you may know that's a nightmare now. Sadly it looks like I'll lose my flight back home to Hawaii as a result of being unable to get a Virus-free route through AirAsia hubs. AirAsia sent me a notice it would refund my tickets. Just a good-will ploy IMHO as others who tried to deal with them may have experienced. There is no way to get a refund as there is no customer service help, or way to contact them, at all... Just hunkered down now waiting to see what happens. Thank you in advance again for the link, will get there eventually. ;-)

    1. i switched to wicking-shirts over a year ago.. much cooler than cotton or poly-blends.

    2. Lived in Southeast Asia twenty years. I must change my shirt at least four times in a day

  39. Is it called Saigon again? O’hare airport is still designated ORD (for Orchard Airport! and Chicago Executive airport is designated PWK for its old name Palwaukee!)

    1. the HCMC airport still goes by SGN. saigon never chose to change the name of the city, it was done ‘to’ the city after the war.

  40. Pho24 is one of the better ones I’ve had, too. lol. Did you try putting in your VN sim card to see if you could receive the text? I still have my PH sim card and even though I haven’t been in the country since October, it still works for receiving text messages. I’m in Malaysia now and just a couple of days ago, AirBnb locked me out. The only way to verify was by text to my PH number so I put my sim card in and crossed my fingers. It worked and I was able to get back into AirBnb. Regarding the photo, I did mine at the airport when I went to VN in November and I only had to wait around maybe 30 or 40 minutes. Maybe I just got lucky.

  41. 5:10 when the guy on the right coughs and the lady next to him gives him this both angry and paranoid look…hilarious XD

  42. Greetings, it is good to know that you are well, I saw you enjoying your favorite food in Vietnam again. Fabulous.

  43. I SEE YOU FEEL WELL IN SAIGON AND PHILIPPINES. WHAT ABOUT CORONAVIRUS??? NO PANIC?? TAKE CARE MAN

    1. not worried about it. i’ve got better odds of winning the lotto. 🙂

  45. Been following your channel for some time now Mr R ….. Could only wish I had your temporary problem. : )

    Cheers/Peace

  46. Oh no Reekay, I wouldn’t recommend going anywhere near NAIA airport. Last time I was there it was infeasted with people from China, trying to get into the US, that where stuck there. Not to mention the tons of people flying in from S. Korea…

  47. I’ve followed you for years. I debated if I should leave my reason for unsubscribing because I don’t want to be troll like but I decided to share why I am unsubscribing after all these years. It kind of gives me the creeps seeing you with your new girlfriend. I’ve heard you defend these types of relationships before so I know how you feel. For a man who sells yourself as a relationship coach (I admit I like some of your videos on that subject) from my view you are in a gross unnatural relationship.Ethically I can not continue to watch this channel.

    1. Should be a law for dating younger people ? Gross unnatural relationship ? They are both of legal age.

    2. it’s your choice, of course, whether to subscribe or not. and it’s your right to have an opinion on what you do or don’t find acceptable.

      but objectively, a man with a woman is far from ‘unnatural’. she is 21 years old, old enough to choose who she wants to have a relationship with. i’d bet dollars to donuts you chose who you would be in a relationship with when you were even younger than her. i know i started dating when i was 17. so it makes no sense (now) to suddenly say that 21 is ‘too young’ for a person to make that decision.

      either way, just putting that out there. opinions are not always based on reason or rationale. but they should be.

    2. still the same gopro hero3/silver. if/when it does break i’ll look at getting an upgrade. 🙂

  51. I really admire you Reekay you’re such a trooper you keep your business in order while still enjoying life looking forward to more videos

    1. figured i’d enjoy the turnaround since it was a necessity. 🙂

  52. Good Luck Buddy, hope all goes well. Great everything went well with the phone and trip.

  54. Reekay, When you plan to go back to cebu city maybe you could order the same tote bag for your lady. And she could used it as a purse.

    1. kinda big for her, she’s a bit small. 🙂 i’ll carry the heavy stuff myself.

  55. Thanks again for the shoutout. I welcome everyone to check out my channel.

  56. Cmon dude, your not gonna sleep, your goin straight to “Apocalypse bar”…lol, awesome memories of that place in 2009..have fun champion

  57. My sim card number expired in the 6 months i was out of Viet Nam…I understand it’s a common result.

    2. i registered mine with my passport, so after 5-months it was still attached to my physical simcard. (not recycled)

  58. Reekay have you heard about Vietnam’s evisa? No need for physical photos (you upload a selfie) and no need for an invitation letter. I used the government’s evisa system last time I went to Vietnam and was through immigration in 10 minutes. For a 1 day trip the evisa would have been perfect.

    1. yes, i looked into the evisa the night i realized i didn’t have my photo, but evisa would have taken 24-48 hours to process. so, not an option this time around.

    1. i love that stuff. one is made from plums (plum sauce), the other from soy beans.

  60. hey Reekay, you did realize there were 4 undercover police officers watching the crowd..if you look at the video, look for the man leaning against the pole that guy standing about 2 metres behind the bench the white guy with the camera and the guy with the dark sunglasses.

    1. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea yes they maybe scouting fates but they are police
      I can say that 100% …police dont nake much money at there jobs there.

    2. a lot of those guys loiter around and will try to arrange a private-car under the radar. one of them approached me seeing that i was waiting for my Grab.. offered me some other package-price, i told him ‘no’ and walked away.

  61. The cold dish is probably bun cha gio (pron. boon chai yo), my favorite. It is vermicelli noodles with chopped up spring rolls on top – yum!

    1. Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea – that’s another variation with chopped up meat, usually pork chop – sometimes I go a little crazy and get it with *both* meat & spring rolls!

  62. Glad you got your original Facebook account back Henry! I have one question for you I have been thinking about concerning the Philippines. Does the Philippines have a garbage service or recycling program? With so many people living on those islands, what the heck do they do with all the garbage generated – bury it in the jungle somewhere? I wouldn’t think they are dumping in the ocean.

    1. i’ve no idea where the trash goes once the trucks pick it up. i’m guessing there is a landfill area somewhere on each island where maybe they recycle some of the plastic for selling to other countries, who do the actual recycling,

  63. Hope you masked up well. Don’t wanna end up with the Virus just because of FB, heheh! Take care.

  64. just curious if you wore a mask at all during the flights as were just about everyone else seemingly on that flight?? And also… did apologize to that couple seated behind you if they were disrupted at all, lol, for being in the background of your vlog ?

  65. Did you consider just booking a flight that has Vietnam as a transit then you wouldn’t have even needed a visa you could have just landed, got the code in transit and flown away.

    1. since i was going to be in-town, i didn’t want to just turnaround in the airport.. i wanted to spend some time enjoying food in vietnam.

  66. Enjoy your short visit in Vietnam,me too I love vietnamian foods is really healthy

  67. Good news that you could recover your FB account.Your are young and strong to stay only 1 night after a night flight. I always stay a minimum of 2 nights in a city when travel and I have some business to do. For Vietnam I use the eVisa that I print at home and with the print I go directly to the Immigration Officer. They just stamp me in. Good for 30 days only and no extension with the eVisa. Enjoy !

    1. if i had no g/f, i’d have stayed a month. but i wanted to get back to Vi so i did the quick turnaround after a night’s sleep.

  70. Get a dual sim phone (or a spare/old second phone) and keep a cheap phone data contract in you own country and use that sim card and phone number for all accounts. Add a second sim card in which countries you travel in.

    1. @Reekay’s LifeBeyondTheSea But you wouldn’t need roaming data – that’s what the second sim card that you buy in another country is for. Your ‘home’ sim card is just so you can receive text messages or calls for security/verification. That’s all. In the UK a sim card can be had for £5 per month + extra charges when roaming but as a second sim abroad the roaming charges would usually be nil. It just maintains continuity with officialdom and financial institutions – and other accounts like facebook!

    2. roaming data with verizon is $10/day… not worth spending $300/month to have roaming data from the usa. cheaper to fly to vietnam. 🙂

  71. Saigon looks nice and pretty. Clean and less pollution. Nice restaurants. Beef pho with hot sauce and I believe it’s hoisin sauce. I love beef pho with those spring rolls.

  77. Rickie, im glad your trip was good. Mask up please, i cant stress this enough bro” Airo planes are the worst as they circulate the air inside the cabin. oh and by the way, you did receive some dirty looks at the shop when you walked in without a mask. : )

  78. Nice to see you getting around for me and my family were leaving from cebu March 19 see how we do going thru Korea back to corpus Christ.

  79. I have been following you for a while. I admire your mobility and your positive attitude. I wish I was more of a free spirit like you. I have a question and you may have answered it already and I missed it. It surely seems that Vietnam is much more beautiful and convenient place than Cebu except for communication, so when will you return to stay there longer and do you intend to take you Pinay with you? I would love to meet you someday in either place… 🙂

    1. yes, i will either take her to vietnam with me or stay in the ph with her until we can both get to vietnam and explore there.

  81. You need to get magicJack, and VPN , Get and make text and calls from USA. Or T-mobile when you visit the US, get free text anywhere in the world.

    1. had a MJack years ago. but then i got my google-voice number and call usa, unlimited/free.

  82. I always forget my picture , since I use an agent online, they take it and walk right into the visa office ,they get to skip the line.

    1. wasn’t enough time. was about to leave in a few hours. evisa takes more than 24-hours.

  84. Reekay tearing out his hair for a week. Ok I’m going! I’m going! Good morning Viet Nam!

  87. As always ENJOYED! A few things that really don’t make me mad but seem a little strange here. I had Ne sign me up for fiber optic cable yesterday (PTL. I was using Globe Prepaid before I came to Davao & temporary now) and on the fiber optic companies’ web page, it said their hours were 6AM-8PM. That morning Ne said I have to hurry to get there. I said, why they are open until 8PM. She replied yes but no one will be at the counter at lunchtime! OooKKK. When she returned she told me she couldn’t get the 100 Mbps but they had 50 & when they have 100 in Davao I could increase my speed. Fine. Then she went on to say they may be here tomorrow or the next day to install it, if not they would install it in at least 15 days. OOOkkk.
    It cost me just 3000 PHP for the two of us to fly here but I had to pay 7000 on overweight luggage. That does include the 3000 in boxes we just shipped. If you combine that with the rent & deposit on the semi-furnished apartment not to mention my visa is due, your talking about a chunk of change.
    So Ne said why don’t we buy the refrigerator on credit & pay it off next month. Ok. So she puts in for credit & also gives me a co-signer. They want to know who I was because we have different last names, she says he is my American boyfriend that has been here with me for a year. The guy says wow credit approved. That all Americans are rich thing actually worked for us. lol. That is something I have noticed at the mails. When we go through security they use a metal detector on her purse then the girl pats her down. With me, the guard just pushes me through. Go figure. Keep them coming.

  88. Man you must be acclimated well to the heat. I was just in HCMC last month and walking 5 minutes I’m drenched in sweat.

    1. after my first 3-months in the ph, ever since then i’m just fine with it.

  89. I’m glad you got your facebook back. I was locked out and they texted a verification code to my Philippine Phone. That’s just friendly reminder to delete the Philippine phone number when I go back to the states. If it happened there I would’ve been unable to get into my FB for like a month.

  90. I loved seeing a bit of HCMC again. Just one query with regard to your visa on arrival. Here in Australia both the Vietnamese Embassy and the local Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade strongly recommend we do not use the arrival method as there are a lot of scammers and as most Vietnamese Immigration officers cannot speak English. We get the visa before departure. How did you find it so easy in Ph?

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