Vietnam - Stolen Fathers

This is the story of a Vietnam war hero you've never heard of. pilots ferrying their family and friends to U.S. ships in stolen military helicopters.
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People seemed disrespectful and uninterested in the locals. We stayed in budget places, and the people there were amazing. A lot less jaded about tourists than Thailand, friendly and smiling. That held true in Ho Chi Minh City, once we dodged the crappy backpacker restaurants and overpriced souvenir shops. I got off the beaten path quite a bit. I self-biked the Mekong Delta. In fact, one of my worst experience was trying to take the local bus instead of the tourist bus.

My friend and I were treated pretty badly. Shopping is easy, I read someone said they were tugged on their shirt, perhaps you must understand how important the money is to these people, its colourful full of life. London is the biggest rip off, Vietnam is great, some say they do not get change, knowing the Dong its worth so little to give change is stupid, like it would be so little like a few cents. I have travelled to Vietnam for the last 20 years often,also going to Cambodia, Thailand also, but Vietnam is the pick of the three, rip offs are high in Thailand.

Vientam Airways look after us traveller so good, on the other hand Jetstar is terrible for lack of service, poor food, poor time keeping, changing days, have no lost bag service and the price is not much cheaper than Vietnam air. The markets are goodto shop in, once again you must understand the Dong. Both times I went as a backpacker and both times I had an amazing time. Most taxi drivers tried to rip me off. From the airport in Hanoi they took me to the wrong place but I was wise to that scam. We also got ripped off by another guy with a dodgy meter.

Our Halong back trip was also fantastic. When we returned to the hostel in Hanoi they had given our room away despite our booking. So we had a worse room for 1 night. Everywhere you go there are people trying to rip you off. Even in London and New York. It sounds like you had a series of unfortunate incidents that brought you to this conclusion. However, I seemed to attract lots of them here. Vietnam really is still a 3rd world country despite how grand the government over there makes it looks. Put your money and gold where noone can see not in your pocket or purse LOL. I do agree with the others that once you stray from the mainstream you have really amazing adventures there.

This is a nice, balanced essay and I appreciate that you write about the negative aspects of travel. Some travel authors only accentuate the positive and choose to just ignore writing about the negative. Every traveler is different and every trip is, too. I hated it there. I guess the solution is to get away from the tourist areas. Vietnam is definitely a marmite country — you love it or you hate it. People I know either totally love it or completely hate it.

I enjoyed Vietnam and would love to go back. Travelers have to be on their guard for ripoffs throughout SE Asia, not just in Vietnam. Having traveled through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, I have experienced attempts at short changing, deception by tourist agents, aggressive begging and other annoyances in several countries. Vietnam has a very developed tourist infrastructure compared to Laos or Cambodia. There are many buses and hotels on the tourist trail specifically catering to backpackers. People involved in the budget tourism industry know what backpackers are looking for— including some shady operators who have honed their con artist skills.

There are very targeted scams, like having a dozen illegitimate businesses with the same name and logo as the main bus company set up all over town. It can be frustrating as a foreigner, but if you travel with your guard up and take simple precautions e. To be honest, I found southern Thailand even worse with respect to the negative aspects than Vietnam. Yep — I had a great time also. Would go back in a heartbeat. And might have a horrible time next time. I had a pretty horrible time in Ethiopia and Russia, but I know plenty of people that have loved those places. I simply had a bad time.

I am sorry that you feel that wat about Vietnam Matt. But that is no different to any other country in SEA. In Thailand you will get charged 3 times the price for a T-shirt then a local would , and in India the chai is double the price for westerners. It sounds like you had a combination of bad experiences. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I will definitely return to Vietnam. Interesting to hear your take Matt. It seems, as with anything, that money is the great divider. I even spoke with people who had worse experiences, such as a guy who was mugged in Nha Trang by a woman who was on the back of a scooter which rode up to him, she jumped off, grabbed his … attention … pulled all his cash out of his pockets then jumped back on the bike and took off.

Obviously, this poor fellow was in a bit of a bind as to whether to fight back especially against a woman , and so all he could do was let it happen. I think that the fact that travel in Vietnam is basically a geographic funnel adds to this situation, though. That is to say, in the towns along the tourist trail, vendors will overcharge and mistreat customers because, even if they upset them, they will be moving on in a day or two, and another sucker will be along shortly.

The only town I kind of enjoyed was Da Lat, and that was probably because tourism there seemed to be somewhat subdued compared to anywhere else along the trail possible because most people chose to travel through Mui Ne instead. I would prefer to spend my time, and money, in a country where you are not taken for granted, or milked for all you are worth. My time in Burma, for instance, was some of the most relaxing, and connected, time I ever spent, even though the people there have alot more to complain about than the people of modern-day Vietnam.

Yikes what terrible experiences!!! Went through Vietnam with my 2 kids last summer. Thought it was amazing. A bit like what Thailand was like about 15 or 20 years ago — less developed tourist infrastructure but still not bare bones. See it before it gets really popular. Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. Vietnam is one of the countries I really want to visit. This puts me off, but I guess the temptation of at least one visit will remain.

Thanks for sharing something beyond just the good stuff. Like I say I was tad surprised as it is obvious from your post that you are a long term traveller. In general the sooner that people leave those backpacker places behind, the sooner they escape being ripped off. Ohh I have no problem overpaying. They were mean about it. They need the money more than me. Then again sometimes you have no choice. One of my favourite memories of my first backpacking trip, back in 97, was drinking a local cocktail called Vietnam Star. It was about 25c a glass, we went through a few bottles of spirits.

We went the next day and they had doubled the price. They either lost money on the deal, or wanted to make more money. I have a strong feeling it was the former. An American in Vietnam complaining about being treated rudely? Should the Germans owe me because their grandfathers put Jews in camps? They apologize and move on.

Do young Australians have to bear the cross for what was done to the Aboriginals in the early 20th century when they had no control? NomadicMatt is so right! I understand that people hold grudges for a long time and I know this is hard if you were treated badly. I have Irish family and when i go to Ireland and my english accent is heard people get funny because of the history betwen England and Ireland centuries ago!

But when they here I am of Irish descent they say that is fine but it gets my back up. Its wrong and people shouldnt blame a single person for wrongdoings by a country in its past. I am planning on going to Asia and Vietnam! Hopefully I wont have a problem being English does help with Vietnamese people. I want to respond for a few reasons — 1. My other concern is that you arent willing to consider the likely impact of being an American in a country in still a very sore place following a horrific act of war from the US..

You mentioned that its not your fault and you didnt do it, just in the way todays Germans didnt murder Jewish people, or Australians myself didnt murder Aboriginal people. I would argue that as an Australian person I have the responsibility to educate myself, understand and pay respects for the ills of my ancestors against Aboriginal people and Vietnamese people for their participation in what was basically attempted genocide.

To say you have no ties to your cultural hegemony as a white American or your ancestors crimes in hideous wars is a very ignorant disposition to carry around and to me it somewhat explains why the beautiful Vietnamese culture was lost on you. Your writing raises lots of debates among us, the Vietnamese. Sorry for all such bad experiences you had here. We surely have to do a lot to improve the tourism industry and we are doing that. Like many other travelers commented, they also encountered your experiences and they found lots of beautiful things about places and people, too.

I am the young generation born after the America-VN war ended. We are not taught that Westerner owes Vietnamese but to put aside the past and look forward to future cooperation. There is no hard feeling to the Westerners from Vietnamese, even from the veterans who were prisoned and mostly-dead tortured by American agents or method. We are living for present and future, not for the past. We look forward to the day you return to Vietnam and have great experience.

I am in Hochiminh City, you have my email add. You feeled annoying about the women who made the drink for you because you thought that she laughed at your face. You might be misunderstood them. I know that kind of plastic water bag. They feeled pleasant about that, that why they laughed. They are happy with a little bit strange when you use that kind of product from them.

Some times you see this behaviour when you buy Street Food. It is not because they are successed in cheating you. All American people are warmly welcome in Vietnam. Ask other American about that. Interesting article and really helpful comments. Interesting to read about off-the-beaten track and on-the-beaten-track in terms of ripped off-edness. Thom loves the beaten track because the LP writes about it extensively whereas I prefer a little off the track for that very reason. Vietnam will be the last country in my list going my the treatment i underwent while in Hanoi.

My company tour this year is to HCMC sigh. Hope history does not repeats. I had exactly the same experience as you in Vietnam Matt. I had a few worse things happen than what you mention in Cambodia but still loved the place. Previously recently for a free promotional tour thing in NY you wrote that to understand a place and the people you need to look at their history. How experienced were you when you travelled to Vietnam? As I travelled more I showed less sympathy for people trying to rip me off and worked my way around it a lot better.

I feel a veteran traveller would have less issues their than someone in their first months in asia. Interesting way to look at it. I had been on the road 9 months by the time I got into Vietnam. This was back in We met some wonderful people, loved the hustle and bustle of the cities and of course the food was incredible.

The point is though, we all need to take a step back some times and ask ourselves how representative our experience is? So much can depend on your mind-set at the time and matters of absolute chance such as crime, getting ripped off and getting ill. If nothing else it does have a considerably lower banana pancake quotient than the rest of SE Asia.

Very interesting points here. I was in Vietnam a few years back but as part of an organised tour with STA Travel so we had all our accommodation prebooked and transport organised. We also had a Vietnamease tour guide with us so they were able to help us out should we need. I also agree with some of the others, perhaps you were on a well carved backpacker route where touts are known to aggressively target travelers.

I traveled to Vietnam in when tourism was relatively new there. The landscape and the people impressed me for a couple of reasons. As for the people, I agree they are aggressive, a bit sour, but I took it as some hard-line entrepreneurship. They have an energy to forge ahead, not feel sorry for themselves, and get on with it. Personally, I admired that. North Americans can be whiny, myself included.

As for getting ripped off, that never happened to me. I had an argument with a hotel desk girl about handing over my passport, but later on I made her smile. The way you were treated could be because you are American. You never mentioned the countries of origin of your friends…? I plan to go back this trip and venture more North. The Vietnam War museums are great!

Such great communist propaganda about how brothers and sisters beat back the imperial dogs of the french and the americans! I have lived in Vietnam for 4 years. Statistically there is a. My wife is from the Mekong Delta and we lived in Vung Tau for the last 6 months. Because Vung Tau is populated by mostly northerners, none of our neighbors would speak or even look at us.

Whenever my wife went to the market I could not go, the prices increased dramatically. When we traveled to Hanoi because my wife had a southern accent and the words were different she was ridiculed and made to say things over again while the street vendors would snicker. The level of prejudice in some parts of the country is saddening. We are now back in Saigon HCMC now and I have been subjected to every scam so I am no longer a target but the tales of woe are abundant and I have seen people loose everything they owned.

I love my extended family who are the most accepting and supportive people and I love the country. I stay there for those things, I have seen Vietnam change in the 10 years of my travels throughout Asia and it is as cutthroat there as Manila, Bangkok or Pnomh Penh and until the worldwide recession is over I would stay away. I met your travel partner Shannon this weekend. She had the opposite to say. A perfect example of two people, same place, two different experiences.

I just found the vietnamese a bit open and rude about it.

Ho Chi Minh - Wikipedia

How could you believe the guy who translated, while he was American too? I never used a guidebook in Vietnam and I got off the tourist trail quite a bit. I took local transportation many times, ended up on small towns in the north, and biked around the Mekong Delta with friends of mine. I have and always been a traveler who enjoys getting off the beaten path. So sad to hear you had such a bad experience in Vietnam! Breath of fresh air. Vietnam was on my first tour of Vietnam and we hit a few situations where people were superb. In Dalat the bikers took us to the hospital as my girlfriend started to feel really sick 40 minutes into it and they really helped us there.

When she felt sick in Mui Ne one of the local restaurant owners made up some special drinks for her for me to take back to the room although we had built up a good bond there. In Nah Trang we had a great night with locals in one of the late night bars. We travelled as a couple backpacking and took the normal bus route from South to North which I never looked forward to, but despite being droppped off with no accommodation we found some superb stuff just from the touts on the bus and I really thought it would be the other way round.

In Hoi An we had a superb little restaurant we frequented and got treated so well it was hard to believe and the food was superb, and very cheap. As some of the comments and responses have indicated you get good an bad experiences in many countries depending who you travel with, how you react to things, and just the circumstances you end up in. If you do go, this is one place I found it was really good to splurge on accommodation if you wanted a break from backpacking….

As for the post itself, good that you speak your mind, but I hope others only treat it as one experience, which may be wildly different from the experience they have. My comments are from a trip inlate I think age, race, and appearance can definitely factor into how we are treated abroad. And you make a good point that they may not have fond feelings for the West. While I really enjoyed the architecture and history of Istanbul, I hated just being there.


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It was all in attempts to get me into their establishment. Yelling at me that their restaurant was better than the one down the street, and pulling me into the cafe so I could look at the menu. When we were lost, a nice older man came by and offered to help us find our way. Some of the people in the markets definitely tried ripping me off, and some of the men were straight-up harassing us—one guy working at a restaurant got very physically affectionate with me and it was not OK. Some of them were harmless and friendly, probably just really hurting for money.

But after a few days there I was dying to just walk down a street and not feel bombarded by people trying to get my money. Sorry this was so long…. Clearly it appears to be a glass case of emotions with all the responses, but Ill be sure to watch out for women who try pull sell me water bags without the lemon and sugar, international heads will roll.

You have a bad experience and it clouds your perception of a place. A friend of mine complained about her time in Paris because everyone was rude. And we all have our loves and hates in travel, but you seem to be painting Vietnam with a pretty broad brush. But if you went back, would you be able to go without any negative perceptions? Not sure if I ever will travel to Vietnam, though I would love to, but I imagine I would go gladly willing to spend all the money I could to a nation so ravaged in the past.

I imagine I would like feeling as if I am balancing out the world a bit. Then again, you may be just exactly right. If they treat me like dirt and try to rip me off, why should they be entitled to anything at ALL? The Vietnamese have every right to hate Americans. Who are you in your comfortable world to tell them how to behave now. It is for sure Vietnamese, from youngsters to old veterans; do not have hard feeling to Westerners. The war ended 37 years ago. My father was Northern soldier and got wounded in the war.

He sometimes also told us his post-war thought; there is no hateness to American. I lived there 2 months, even fractured my forehead in a random bike accident. Everyone there was nothing but super nice. Most backpackers get used to Thailand and assume everyone is going to want to be there friend. I hope you give the country another shot with an open mind. Oh man, you described my experience to a T. Seriously, I have no idea why the people were so rude there.

They constantly tried to rip me off, laughed at me while doing it and some bastard even tried jumping my cab meter. Not to mention, the constant beeping and honking of a million motobikes drove me nearly insane. Needless to say, when I landed in Laos, it was like I was reborn. They say Vietnam is a country that you either hate or love. Like you, I definitely leaned towards the former.

We went to a restaurant and my two friends got a menu in English. My menu was in Vietnamese and the prices were markedly lower. We ordered our drinks from the Vietnamese menu and made sure the waiter knew about it. When we had finished our drinks, the tab came and of course it was with the English menu prices.

We called the manager and a 15 minute argument ensued. In the end, we refused to pay the inflated prices, gave him the money and left the place pissed off. Ruined what would have otherwise been a great afternoon. My first time in Vietnam was for a total of two months backpacking as part of greater Asia-Africa trip, traveling south to north, in ; amazing. No issues apart from constant demands from street beggars like India. Now, in , I revisited on an overland trip from Bangkok into central China, via Laos and the Bien Dien Phu route, and I still loved traveling Vietnam even thou I knew there were a few inflated prices …but no rudeness, quite the opposite.

But I have had negative experiences in Russia — drugged, robbed; Iraq — arrested as a spy; mugged in Brazil; YET these things never soured my outlook or experience of these countries. I love everywhere …. I totally disagree on the fact that Westerners, and Americans in particular, owe something to Vietnam. I tend to think that people enhance or ruin my experience while travelling around a country. I guess that at some point I just learnt to ignore them which is a shame I know but I felt that I had no option.

I might agree with you or not but I totally understand that what you write is based on subjective info. My wife and I spent 3 weeks in northern and sother vietnam and had a great time. Loved the vibrant 24 hour street culture, bia hoi beers on the street, and amazing kayaking ih hailong bay. I first went to Saigon in — just after it opened — before there was free travel within the country which is why I never got permits to leave HCM and when there was no Lonely Planet! In I went back. We stayed in local hotels — often with locals, caught local buses generally — we got the normal bargaining of course — but nothing worse than anywhere else in SEA.

We did once get a backpackers bus from HCM to Mui Nee — we had booked a hotel which we knew was in to the south of the town. To my amazement out of 40 odd backpackers on the bus only us and one other couple got off. The tout tried to tell us there were no taxis in town — I just laughed at him it was the middle of the day — I could see traffic.

I thought we would start a charge off the bus — but all the others just sat there waiting to be taken to a no doubt over-priced hotel! The so-called independent travellers were more passive than your average bus tour! There does seem to be quite a disparity- I met people who loved it and people who hated it. I was not such a big fan of Vietnam.

It was too touristed on the main routes and met more than my share of rude people along the way. I had a local rip up money and throw it at me on the train which was probably the most insulting. I also had a lady in a grocery store give me candy instead of change. I absolutely loved Sapa and the smaller towns like Dalat. I found for the most part that the people working in hotels were really friendly and gave great service.

I do sympathise with everything you said, and could see how it would all get a person down. But despite it all, Vietnam is my favourite place in the world, and I go back again and again. A word on the candy instead of change: But it drives Vietnamese people crazy too. Sellers are pushy, walking around is not a pleasant experience with the trafic and constant motobike offers. Shopping is IMO very boring, the few malls are dull, the markets I went to were disgusting. IMO Thailand and Malaysia have much more to offer, with less hassle.

My number one personal complain about Vietnam is really how dull it is. I have just returned from one and a half months in Vietnam and had the same experience as Matt but worse, despite meeting, mixing and dining with some of the local people. When I was with a Vietnamese I was treated as a curiosity and never ripped off.

However when I was on my own it was a nightmare, I was stalked, stolen from, laughed at by rude police, and hotel staff. I felt terribly unsafe. The experience has nothing to do with whether you are nice or not. Vietnamese generally, are rude and aggressive, even the expats who love the place admit this dire quality of the people. And they do not believe in any kind of decent service in return to be paid. And those from the US, I met many Vietnamese from the South who had fond memories of Americans soldiers who often fed them and took the children on boat rides and attempted to protect them from the Communists, they were grateful.

It is a complex country with a complex history. I attempted to understand the culture, but the people made my journey unenjoyable. I met 45 travelers including myself who were stolen from and mugged. Crime is increasing there and I would appreciate knowing where people can complain, travelers seem to simply walk away after being treated so badly but I think travelers need to demand more in this case.


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    • My journey was the trip from hell and it was the people who made it so. Of course it happens elsewhere but not to the extent I witnessed in Vietnam. The Balinese were advised to improve their attitude and they did. I feel the same way about Bolivia as you do Vietnam. I also had a string of bad circumstances happen in Bolivia that left a bad taste in my mouth. Everyone has their country they hate… right now mine is Bolivia, yours is Vietnam. To each their own.

    I spent three weeks backpacking in Vietnam this summer and had an amazing time. Although I was scammed a couple of times and experienced occasional hostility, most people were incredibly welcoming and hospitable. And in my opinion the sites, culture and beauty of Vietnam made up for any rare unkindness. To be honest I found some of the other tourists to be more unpleasant. I guess sometimes you get lucky. We can totally relate! Vietnam was the most frustrating place we visited during our trip around the world.

    Fortunately I guess we met a fun group of travelers to spend our month in Vietnam with which made it fun and easier to watch out for one another. An odd discrepancy I noticed was that the people who have no stake in you are friendly and eager to help you out this happened all the time when my motorbike broke down in the countryside whereas the people who deal regularly with tourists tour operators, guesthouse owners, vendors etc.

    Incidentally, I wrote about all this on my blog, which was eventually discovered by an expat in Hanoi who blew his top off and rounded up all his Twitter buddies for an online attack. Expats are so touchy. Anyway, their neighbours the Cambodians are much friendlier and frankly Cambodia is more interesting anyway. Never made it to laos, but I hear good things. I went to Nam back in 04 for the first time since I was 2 yrs old back in As we shopped in Saigon, the vendors did their best to grab my attention and pull me away from my family. The street beggars stalked me constantly and accosted me when I was alone.

    At Vung Tau Beach, street vendors ruined our picnic by pleading with me to buy their stuff the entire time we were there. Despite these incidents, I had a great time because my mom haggled for me when I wanted to buy something. She made sure I got the correct change although I tipped big everytime. She showed me where to go and where not to go to ensure I had a great time all the time.

    Hope you have a better experience next time….. Ive been to Vietnam and loved it…what did you expect? There are prices for locals and prices for tourists.. Otherwise none of us would bother travelling…. I expect and have no problem paying the tourist price. What bothered me was the attitude and overall unpleasant experience. I went to China directly after Vietnam and found the average Chinese person to be way, way friendlier than the average Vietnamese person.

    They might be laughing about your big nose, height, bald spot, etc. Generally speaking, Southerners are more friendlier than Northerners. The south has more animosity towards the north because of what happened after the unification and how people were treated, not because of American abandonment. Get over your selves. Business people are generally rude and the locals know this. There are currently a lot of scams that are NOT run by Vnamese but by people from other countries, on tourists.

    Most of these criminals are from the Philipines, China, Nigeria, etc,. The Vietnamese scams are more low level street peddler stuff and rigged taxi meters. Here, you have to be a complete idiot to not get on friendly terms with your neighbors. And I will go out of my way and say that this is generally what happens all over the world. Give it another chance. How many tourists actually meet real Vietnamese citizens — damn few. Most travelers are only in contact with hotel and travel people when they tour the country.

    I have made several very good friends in the north of the country mostly Hanoi , and I go back to see these friends and to make new friends there. Vietnam is the real thing, but too many travelers want Disneyland! Yes, everyone should speak English for your convenience Einstein. Then to hear people bitch and moan about trivial things like getting your 2 cents returned in candies is utterly asinine.

    So for this author to believe what a backpacker has to say about how Vietnamese people teach their children is borderline insane. I was just going on what an expat who had lived their for 10 years told me. In fact, my beef with Vietnam has nothing to do with colonialism. It was about the poor attitude I saw while there. It if difficult to be treated fair for foreigners in Vietnam, especially white people. However, It may happen the same for Vietnamese. Some Vietnamese people don't have a good awareness about the way they treat tourist.

    Obviously, the lost their long-term customer. I agree that while the risks, like those mentioned in this article, are greater, I think the rewards are as well. Yes, I was ripped off, too. Literally, a xe om driver took the money from my hands. I met some hostile children. I was laughed at by strangers and I laughed with them.

    But a stranger on a bus also bought tea for me and a woman on a train gave me food. I met a guy at a cafe. After we talked for two hours, he paid for my coffee and gave me a ride across town for nothing, even after I offered. And I could go on about all the Vietnamese I met and who I will remember for nothing more than their curiosity and kindness. I think it helped that the sentiments were often mutual.

    I have visited many countries in Asia and I have to say that Vietnam was my favorite! I found the locals to be extremely friendly and helpful. I will say that I too was ripped off by street vendors and such, but I guess that is something that I was used to as I had previously lived in Thailand for almost three years.

    I out of all the countries I visited in SEA! Cambodia stood out the most! I can spend a whole month there and not get bored! But I ventured mostly off the beaten path. I think most idyllic places that get overrun by tourism tend to be more of a pain to travel to, and require more vigilance, especially in the tourist areas. I also believe that you reap what you sow. For years I have been dismayed to see travelers go through countries in SE Asia and totally disrespect the culture.

    Anyone who has been there knows what I mean. We have, for better or worse, changed these cultures by our very presence. I only wonder how much longer that is going to last. As a former backpacker and now running a tour operator I have also noticed the odd difference in experinces between the budget and more upmarket travellers.

    As Matt says those travelling in a more organised manner definitely seem to have a better time. However bear mind that backpackers are regarded wth much suspicion throughout the region. Perhaps Vietnamese are just more overtly rude to those they consider cheap. Bad move as in the long run many of our clients are grown up backpackers looking to return inn more stlye.

    I spent three weeks in Vietnam in and enjoyed myself, though on every bus I took I had to fight to pay something akin to what the locals were paying. I was warned about this before going, and so watched what others were paying, and then handed over the same. I actually traveled to Vietnam for the first time last June and spent a month there. I experienced many of the negatives you mentioned, whether I was thought to be a local or acknowledged to be a foreigner usually happened as soon as opened my mouth and uttered my broken Vietnamese.

    The mentality of many of the locals seem to be that the world is a dog-eat-dog kind of world. Locals from different regions of Vietnam are known for different temperaments. The northerners are described as mean, hardworking, and smart. The southerners are described as more laid-back, lazy, and go with the flow. Although I had my share of run-ins with rude, pushy, scamming, etc. Glad I chanced upon your site!

    This is my exact same sentiment as well. I had a few nasty experiences in Vietnam and it so tainted my view of the country that I vowed never to go back there again. I was harassed by a tutu driver who, despite my repeated refusals, kept following me around. Finally I pitied him and gave in. I refused and he got aggressive and threatened to wait at the lobby of my apartment.

    High-end or backpackers will face the same issue … the only difference is that the high-end travellers wont quibble about being overcharged. Like any path one takes, YYMV on any travelling experience. I spent a month there in and loved everything about it: And I did NOT travel in luxury!! Just one more point: India, Cambodia, Thailand, etc. And hoping that all the bad things never happened to me…. I had an awesome time in Vietnam, but I think maybe it was because I knew ahead of time they were going to try and overcharged.

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    He wouldnt give me my change back. After 5 minutes of constant voice raising he finally gave in. Only bad experience of the trip. Sucks you had a bad time in Vietnam! See Thailand is one of my favorite places. In my travels, I have met so many Americans who hate most Americans.

    Look on the bright side of life! I too had a bad experience as Nomadic Matt had in Vietnam… I just got back from Vietnam less then a week ago. I a Korean-American had traveled there with my wife Taiwanese and her friends a group of 12 Taiwanese. I am not a stuck up person either and I have also traveled else where in Asia but this type of experience is a first. Just the look in peoples eyes just seem scheming like they are out to rob you. Even the service at the Intercontinental in Hanoi Westlake was mediocre. I was staying on the first floor and the cleaning people decide to leave my balcony door unlocked and shades open for all to see my luggage and belongings.

    At the airport departing, the ticket counter lady would not let one of our tour group members to fly back to Taiwan, even though he carries a Taiwanese passport and 4 days prior flew in from Taiwan. Only after 2 hours of arguing they allowed him to get his ticket. Everything is so corrupt there… I was so turned off to this country. I have traveled to Shenzhen, China many times for business and when that gig was up I vowed never to go back to there, but after Vietnam and dealing with the people… Shenzhen and the people there seem to be more civilized and warm.

    Hallo, your comment is an absolute truth that so many people here in Vietnam cannot speak out of a polite courtesy. It should be repeated over and over and over again until this bad reputation spreads and influences tourism in this country. I have been working here for over a year and even some of my students would suddenly bring out a obsessive underlying idea: Vietnamese culture has become a poor leftover of what it could have been. Take a motorbike for speeding and not caring about traffic rules, icecream and superficial window shopping and consuming. Moral values have thinned from its original Confucian core.

    Add an extremely bad social infrastructure and non-transparent government. Instead of sharpening their critical thinking about their own country, Vietnamese evade thinking by cheating non-Viets and racing through the traffic. It is a very sad state of affairs. The place that you seem to like most. I was totally ripped off.

    Cab drivers will charge me an outrages fee, not at all going by the cab meters. One cab driver even wanted after more after we had negotiated a price! But you know what, it is a poor country, so I let things slide. But I suppose no one likes to be looked upon on as a walking ATM and definitely no one likes to be ripped off no matter where they are. Communism causes the people to do those type of things. I went to Vietnam last year, and you would think that they would treat me better because of an ethnicity similarity, but absolutely not.

    Jealousy and distrust are the key traits. What a corrupt system! I may be too young to understand everything, but I do know about the war in that caused my mother country to be this way. Just got a bad experience again and still trying to recover from it. Boy I miss Thailand and Laos badly. Of course tourists get ripped of in those places as well, but at least they do it with a smile!

    I just spent 6 weeks in India and had a very similar experience. Sure, I had a few good interactions, which I appreciated immensely, but sadly these were quite rare. The people always make or break a place and shape our interactions. Matt, Bummer about your experience. I ate inexpensively and got help when needed. He walked off without asking for a thing. I did get the hang of crossing by the next morning.

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    Asian countries , I plan to return to Vietnam. Man, so you got ripped off dollars. I think the people that travel Vietnam need to stay longer. Once, you live there longer, you know their rules. You start to hustle. For instance, if you showed up to a restaurant and they charge you more, so be it. The next few times, go back and bargain with them. Say you charged that person less and you charged me more. Are you kidding me??!!! Also, reality check for people. After traveling to other countries, you will surely find out you got it made in America or England.

    My wife and I just got back from Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand and we agree that Vietnam was our least favourite country to visit. Compared to Thailand and Cambodia, people in Vietnam just tended to be less friendly and in some cases downright rude. The vendors, taxis and tuk tuk drivers were in many cases demanding or expecting tips, or obviously trying to rip us off — which is very off-putting.

    We did encounter some wonderful people too, but it was very hit and miss — whereas in Thailand in Cambodia it was almost entirely positive. So your point about catering to affluent travelers rings true as well. I had a terrible experience in Vietnam, but I have wanted to return in order to try and rectify the experience. Now I am questioning whether it is worth it.

    I was in Ho Chi Minh volunteering with orphaned disabled children — many disabilities that are a direct result of the war.


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    That experience was completely wonderful! I do not regret that time for a second and those children really touched my life. But, during our day tour of the city, my expensive DSLR and brand new lens was ripped right from my hands by 2 men on a motorbike. They created a distraction by pretending to run into me. You never think that could happen to you, but it did and it was quite traumatizing… not the material aspect, but the fact that someone could look you in the eyes and violate you. It was hard to get over and during my time in India, I hardly wanted to pull my camera out.

    I found many Vietnamese people to be sweet and friendly. It was just this one experience, which really could happen anywhere, that tainted my view entirely. I recently travel to New York and was robbed at gunpoint in a public restroom while 20 cops were walking outside central station. In Chicago, I got lost in a bad neighborhood and again was robbed at gun point. So lighten up and do not paint the whole country in a single brush! I never knew thinking people in location X are rude makes you a racist. Are the people who say that racist too? We will get a good laugh out of it. Thank you for exactly putting into words what I am experiencing here…was talking about it last night even.

    I can see why Vietnamese people dislike Westerners. You are obviously too young to remember the Vietnam War, which the Vietnamese people call the American War, but hey, it was a totally disgusting war, which, in the end, the West did not win. Villages were bombed and totally destroyed. Children died, screaming in terror. Give your head a shake! And maybe you are right that that horrible history makes them behave like that to tourists and give tourists a feeling of unwelcomeness.

    I am not arguing if they are right or wrong to behave like this, but I do think you agree that I personally have nothing to do with that history. There are lots of good people in Vietnam. Probably you need to get away from the tourist areas to see it. I have to say that for somebody that has travelled so much, you are very ignorant. Having travelled extesnively and lived within SE Asia, I think your comments are representative of many backpackers who think that they deserve better than the locals. When you were in Vietnam, did you not notice the conditions that many locals live in?

    And overcharging is not limited to Vietnam… the only difference is that people in Thailand do exactly the same thing but with a smile on their face. I guess that makes you feel a lot better. An additional point is that Vietnam has not long been open to the western world. As a result, the level of English is extremely low in most places in Vietnam. So quite often the language barrier makes it difficult to embrace the people and their ways of life.

    I hope that you will realise how ignorant you are in the future. Vietnam is an inspirational country where people have suffered so much in the past, and yet they just get on with life without complaining. I for one hope that other travellers ignore your advice and go see Vietnam for themselves!! I will never return to this boring country ever again! I find Cambodia and Laos much more friendlier and interesting than Vietnam! The beaches and Islands in Cambodia are way more superior than Vietnam beaches! We are 31 hours until we leave Vietnam after having spent 2 weeks here and it cant come soon enough….

    Dont get me wrong, there have been some lovely and helpful people we have met along the way mostly the guesthouse owners , but nowhere else in SE Asia have we been so consistently the target of racism and money grabbing. I cannot shake the feeling that all they see when we walk down the street are a pair of dollar signs. Every time we see a newly arrived tourist falling for one of the very common scams we sigh because it just means that the locals are more and more likely to continue to scam and the few honest ones struggle to get along.

    Now dont get me started on the constant hassle from touts….

    Vietnam 40 years on: how a communist victory gave way to capitalist corruption

    I mean compare Vietnam to like say Thailand, Malaysia, or even Cambodia it just pales in comparison! I know people who spent a month in Vietnam. But for me days is enough! Saigon and Hanoi are a shithole! Wow, sounds like some of you really had a bad time in Vietnam. But keeping an open mind is part of the main point of travel. I know I will still go back to China because the positive things to see, do, and eat outweigh the bad which is a matter of opinion. What I find most interesting is the sheer number of people who were positive about Vietnam. To reduce French pressure for extradition, it was falsely announced in that he had died.

    His influence among his Vietnamese comrades faded significantly. This view has been refuted by Ton That Thien's research as well as the work of Hong Ha, who researched the Comintern archives. The Japanese occupation of Indochina that year, the first step toward invasion of the rest of Southeast Asia, created an opportunity for patriotic Vietnamese.

    He was jailed in China by Chiang Kai-shek 's local authorities before being rescued by Chinese Communists. In April , he met with the OSS agent Archimedes Patti and offered to provide intelligence to the allies provided that he could have "a line of communication with the allie". He repeatedly petitioned President Harry S. Truman for support for Vietnamese independence, [36] citing the Atlantic Charter , but Truman never responded.

    In , when he traveled outside of the country, his subordinates imprisoned 2, non-Communist nationalists and forced 6, others to flee. In Saigon , with violence between rival Vietnamese factions and French forces increasing, the British commander, General Sir Douglas Gracey , declared martial law. In September , a force of , Republic of China Army troops arrived in Hanoi to accept the surrender of the Japanese occupiers in northern Indochina. When Chiang forced the French to give the French concessions in Shanghai back to China in exchange for withdrawing from northern Indochina, he had no choice but to sign an agreement with France on 6 March in which Vietnam would be recognized as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.

    The agreement soon broke down. The purpose of the agreement, for both the French and Vietminh, was for Chiang's army to leave North Vietnam. Fighting broke out in the North soon after the Chinese left. In the final days of , after a year of diplomatic failure and many concessions in agreements, such as the Dalat and Fontainebleau conferences , the Democratic Republic of Vietnam government found that war was inevitable. The bombardment of Haiphong by French forces at Hanoi only strengthened the belief that France had no intention of allowing an autonomous, independent state in Vietnam.

    On 19 December , representing his government, he declared war against the French Union , marking the beginning of the Indochina War. According to journalist Bernard Fall , he decided to negotiate a truce after fighting the French for several years. The French negotiators arrived at the meeting site: Inside they found a long table with chairs and were surprised to discover in one corner of the room a silver ice bucket containing ice and a bottle of good Champagne which should have indicated that Ho expected the negotiations to succeed.

    One demand by the French was the return to French custody of a number of Japanese military officers who had been helping the Vietnamese armed forces by training them in the use of weapons of Japanese origin in order for them to stand trial for war crimes committed during World War II. In February , after the successful removal of the French border's blockade, [57] he met with Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong in Moscow after the Soviet Union recognized his government.

    At the outset of the conflict, he reportedly told a French visitor: But even at those odds, you will lose and I will win". Following the Geneva Accords, there was to be a day period in which people could freely move between the two regions of Vietnam, later known as South Vietnam and North Vietnam. All the parties at Geneva called for reunification elections, but they could not agree on the details. This plan was rejected by Soviet representative Vyacheslav Molotov , who argued for a commission composed of an equal number of communist and non-communist members, which could determine "important" issues only by unanimous agreement.

    North Vietnam argued that the elections should be held within six months of the ceasefire while the Western allies sought to have no deadline. Molotov proposed June , then later softened this to any time in and finally July Undersecretary of state Walter Bedell Smith delivered a "unilateral declaration" of the United States position, reiterating: Between and , the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and " land reform ", which resulted in significant political oppression.

    During the land reform, testimony from North Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every village residents, which extrapolated nationwide would indicate nearly , executions. Because the campaign was concentrated mainly in the Red River Delta area, a lower estimate of 50, executions became widely accepted by scholars at the time. As early as June the idea of overthrowing the South Vietnamese government was presented at a politburo meeting.

    North Vietnam created the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam in December as a " united front ", or political branch of the Viet Cong intended to encourage the participation of non-Communists. He nevertheless maintained considerable influence in the government. In , he purportedly corresponded with South Vietnamese President Diem in hopes of achieving a negotiated peace. Between and , 40, Communist soldiers infiltrated into South Vietnam from the North. By early , American combat troops began arriving in South Vietnam, first to protect the airbases around Chu Lai and Da Nang , later to take on most of the fight as "[m]ore and more American troops were put in to replace Saigon troops who could not, or would not, get involved in the fighting".

    The scope of the action shocked the world, which until then had been assured that the Communists were "on the ropes". The optimistic spin that the American military command had sustained for years was no longer credible.

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    He was taught to master Classical Chinese at a young age. One of those is Poems from the Prison Diary made when he was imprisoned by the police of the Republic of China. This poetry chronicle is Vietnam National Treasure No. It is used in Vietnamese high schools. He started to create more poems in the modern Vietnamese language for dissemination to a wider range of readers. Because of staying nearly 30 years in exile, he could speak fluently as well as read and write professionally in French, English, Russian, Cantonese and Mandarin in addition to his mother tongue Vietnamese.

    In many state official visits to Soviet Union and China, he often talked directly to their communist leaders without interpreters especially about top secret information. While being interviewed by Western journalists, he used French. As President, he held formal receptions for foreign heads of state and ambassadors at the Presidential Palace , but he personally did not live there.

    He ordered the building of a stilt house at the back of the palace, which is today known as the Presidential Palace Historical Site. By , with negotiations still dragging on, his health began to deteriorate from multiple health problems, including diabetes which prevented him from participating in further active politics. However, he insisted that his forces in the South continue fighting until all of Vietnam was reunited under his regime regardless of the length of time that it might take, believing that time was on his side. The true date of his death was falsely reported by the North Vietnamese government on 3 September and remained so officially for over 20 years because he had died on the anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

    A week of mourning for his death was decreed nationwide in North Vietnam from 4 to 11 September Six years after his death, several PAVN tanks displayed a poster with those same words on it during the Fall of Saigon. However, the name provokes strong anti-Communist feeling in a substantial number of Vietnamese. His embalmed body is on display in Hanoi in a granite mausoleum modeled after Lenin's Tomb in Moscow. Streams of people queue each day, sometimes for hours, to pass his body in silence.

    His portrait and bust are featured prominently in most of Vietnam's public buildings, in classrooms both public and private schools and in some families' altars. He is frequently honored in schools to schoolchildren. He is even glorified to a religious status as an "immortal saint" by the Vietnamese Communist Party, and some people worship the President, according to a BBC report. A Life presents much information on Ho's relationships. As a communist, he was one of the international figures which were highly praised in the Communist world. Various places, boulevards and squares named after him around the world, especially in Socialist states and former Communist states.

    Busts, statues and memorial plaques and exhibitions are displayed in destinations on his extensive world journey in exile from to including France, Great Britain, Russia, China and Thailand. In , UNESCO officially recommended to member states that they "join in the commemoration of the centenary of the birth of President Ho Chi Minh by organizing various events as a tribute to his memory", considering "the important and many-sided contribution of President Ho Chi Minh in the fields of culture, education and the arts" who "devoted his whole life to the national liberation of the Vietnamese people, contributing to the common struggle of peoples for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress".

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Ho Chi Minh disambiguation. Anti-imperialism Anti-revisionism Commanding heights of the economy Communist society Communist state Democratic centralism Dialectical logic Dialectical materialism Economic planning Marxist—Leninist atheism One-party state People's democracy Popular front Proletarian internationalism Socialist patriotism Socialist state Theory of the productive forces Third Period Vanguardism. Bolshevism Marxism Leninism Trotskyism.

    Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Retrieved 10 December Retrieved 21 December Nha Xuat Ban Van Hoc There is troubling conflicting evidence, however. When he was arrested in Hong Kong in , he attested in court documents that he was The passport he used to enter Russia in also gave the year as his birth date. The World Transformed To the Present. New York, New York: University of California Press. Father Of A Nation. Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture [2 volumes]: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture.

    Retrieved 30 January Vietnam Past and Present: Retrieved 12 June Archived from the original on 10 May Retrieved 11 June