After so many years, I finally decided to go back to visit Vietnam. My american-born bf and I eagerly planned for our trip hoping for the best time since this is our first trip to Asia. After more than 20 hours of flying and passed through a few airports, we finally made it to Vietnam.

The VC official looked at my bf's passport and then asked him WHERE IN VIETNAM was born . I do not know how other countries' passports are but US passport indicates which country the citizen was born. So my assumption was that either US passport is different than othe countries or the VC official doesn't know how to read English. While waiting for my turn to enter the country, I saw a few viet kieu running around asking each other for $10 bills in order to put it into their passports to give to these VC officials hoping that this way might help them enter the country without too much problems. Problems??? What problems would it be when you are simply a traveler? Is it a stigma to be oversea vietnamese trying to go back to visit the homeland? You must bribe your way into a country??? I feel sad for viet kieu. I did not give a damn even though I've heard many frequent viet kieu travelers who travel to vietnam warning me about this little "procedure". I did not give them, who sit on their VC @$$ all day, my hard earn dollards. Imagine who much these corruptive bastards make daily. I think they make 10 times more than you sitting and filing 20 pairs of feet a day, or cleaning 20 rooms a day, or serving 20 tables a day, or even seeing many patients a day. For the very FIRST time in my life, I wish I am not vietnamese. I wish my last name would be non-Viet so those bastards would treat me with some respect. When it came to my turn, stupid VC official lamely flirted with me. It just grossed me out with his cheesy lines and stupid questions. I just smiled and bared my way through without showing that I was disgusted with his behavior because I was viet kieu and I did not want any trouble. Imagined if it was in US, I'd sue his @$$ for sexual harrassment.

I was so amazed to see how clean and well-equiped is Tan Son Nhat international terminal. However, to my HORROR, the domestic terminal is so dirty and obsolete . The air conditioner is not running properly, the chairs are all dirty, and the distinct difference between 2 terminals is the restroom. Domestic terminal restroom is so disgusting, filthy, smelly, no toilet paper, no paper towel or working hand dryer, no soap for washing hands; the floor is wet and gross; and the smell emits to all the way outside. The airport employees only smiled at foreingers and treat vietnamese like crap. They did not smile at vietnamese, I noticed, and acted so superior toward poor vietnamese. The flight attendants were so mean and had no manners. They did not know what customer service is all about. Gosh, at that moment I missed how Cathay and United attendants treated me, like a customer, better yet, like a human being.

After 2 wks spent in vietnam, suffered through terrible polluted air that caused us upper respiratory infections, we finally got to go home and went through the same treatment again. To make our experience worse, we got called in the the custom "office", which is a little room where the luggages travel though and are checked, hidden from the eyes of foreigners. The reason for being summoned to that "office" was that we bought some fake DVDs. We did not realize that those vietnamese cooking DVDs we bought in the bookstore did not have the "official seals." Hmmm...it is okay for fake DVDs being sold freely everywhere but it is illegal to take them out of the country...hmmm...VC must be afraid of "losing face" with the world . When the custom officials approached to informed me that I could be fined for buying fake DVDs, I remembered those bribing stories that I've heard from other vietnamese travelers, so I pulled out 2 $5 bills to give him. The dude TOSSED them back to me saying it wasn't enough. I got so upset so I angrily told my bf to give him $20 and the dude was angry and got offended since I got mad at him for "asking for bribe." Yeah, I am sorry for getting upset, Mr. Viet cong official, in the world that I live in, the civilized world, public corruption and bribes are not acceptable, they are ILLEGAL, and the crime is more serious than freaking fake DVDs. I so had to give him $40 just to get it over with. However, now I think about it, I am okay with paying that amount, because, after all, Viet cong official reputation and pride only cost mearly $40, even cheaper than a foot massage that I get in the back of the alley in Singapore.

Bye, bye, vietnam. I love you but I would never go back to see you are being ruled by such government. I will stay in the states or travel to other countries where I could proudly announced to them that I am vietnamese-american and get treated like a human being, not a walking ATM.

this is obviously a flaming topic

I suggest we should just ignore it to avoid any further war between Vietnamese raised oversea and Vietnamese raised in Vietnam

look at the poster, he or she only has only 1 post, what do you think of his or her identity?

Remember that in the past there had been a Chinese member who pretended to be a VNCH just to cause wars between Vietnamese.

Hand dryers still exist? Those dont work anyway.

too bad he/she had such a bad experience traveling through vn airport like that. it wasn't like that for me though... just like anything, there are good doctors and bad doctors....

phamgirl, just calm down, grab a glass of water
Once you release the heat, things gonna be fine. Maybe not now, maybe a few years later.

I see what you did there

maybe you should send a letter to the customer service or even higher than that, otherwise being all passive and telling everyone else is pretty worthless. if everyone that got screwed 10 dollars was smart enough to complain to the authorities like they do in the US, maybe things would change.

Well, I agree in some parts that custom officers in Vietnam is not like above-standard. But I think we should not run for page-long analysis about many moral, ethical-sides of the story.
I have experienced people complaining things like "Ôi, Việt nam sao mà ồn quá, bụi quá, ẩm quá, etc." or when I sat next to some awkward oversea Vietnamese on a plane who couldn't handle (or refused) to talk in Vietnamese with me. I don't have any bad feelings about those people. Sometimes, things go deeper. Hard to change some certain prejudices over a short time.
Just cheer up and stop criticizing each other over small things.

Are you a true descendant of Lac Long Quan and Au Co?



Lac Long Quan/Au Co delivered a lecture to all the sons/daughters:

Remember this saying and never forget.

"Whether you go up to the mountains or down to the sea,
you shall let one another know if you run into difficulties,
and you should, by no means, desert one another."




I repeat, you should, by no means, desert one another.


Does it make sense to you or not?

^ OH SNPS ^

we should not talk about Âu Cơ and Lạc Long Quân every where go though

When some Viets make me angry, I think of Lac Long Quan and Au Co and it calms me down.

Does it make sense to some of you?

Or you are still confused.

I want to buy this lacquer on wood about The Story of Lac Long Quan and Au Co. It is so beautiful.





Bui Huu Hung
Story of Lac Long Quan and Au Co
Lacquer on wood -244cmx610cm
Currently , Hang at the Vietnamese ambassy in Belgium (2002).

We don't need your kind to come back to Vietnam. Just stay in America and send money back home. Geez.

áo tứ thân is pretty
we should design more áo tứ thân
áo dài got so much attention already

During wedding, if the groom wants to wear male ao dai, what color should he wear?

Blue ao dai for groom

Yellow ao dai for bride


Are those two colors compatible?


Do you have other colors?

it's up to them

i like my wedding ao dai to be white, red, or yellow
his can be red or blue

Hehe, I ask my future wife, "Em oi, mai mot chung minh sinh 10 ddua con, nhu Lac Long Quan va Au Co nha em, nhung chung minh phai song ben nhau hanh phuc, dung co chia tay nhu ho"


It's so cheesy and corny and very meaningful.


5 daughters and 5 sons


hehe

Don't you need a guy to wed with?

I was in Vietnam 2 months ago and went through 4 airports - Tan Son Nhat (Saigon), Cam ranh, Da nang, Noi bai (Hanoi). I didn't experience any sort of stellar stories like the OP said. I never gave any dime to any airport employee/custom official even I lost my passport and visa while traveling through the country. At Cam ranh, the security guard stopped me for a few minutes but other than that, Da Nang and Noi Bai were a breeze.
The $5 tucked inside your passport to the custom officials was 4-5 years ago but now that practice has been cracked down hard. I don't see anyone doing that anymore these days.

ặc ai mà đẻ cho nỗi hở trời

XiXonCongChua, you should hook up with my Bro ASEAN ASIA. He has the hot for you.

you hear what he says?

yesterday shinasuka told me: "Ask your father if I can be his son-in-law"
since he asked first I guess he got the first spot in my list

I'll ask your grandfather, since his decision can override you father decision.

He asked you to ask, but did you ask... see.

Agree on the pristine new SGN airport terminal .
Agree on the crappy condition of the SGn domestic airport terminal
Agree on the unfriendly service of VNAirlines flight attendants They lack education, training, professionalism and look down on VNmeses.
Agree that most of air policemen in SGN are unfriendly, unlike in Hanoi.

Don't agree on VN passport controllers, and asking where you were born is their way to begging you money, while complying with anti-fraud procedures. Admittedly, they are corrupt but you aren't forced to give them money. I travelled to VN several times but never give them a dime. And don't know why but I'm very sad and feel anger when I see Vietnamese americans inserting a bank note in to their passport at the checkpoints . People familiar with the problem all say that Vietnamese from the USA are prone to it . They may complain about corruption don't realise thay are fueling it

You bought conterfeited DVD, you get caught at the airport, you paid to get through then you're complaining about VN corruption. Sure the customs is corrupted, but what you have done explains why this corruption keeps being on rampage.

.

I went back to Vietnam in Dec 2007 and Jan 2008 and the airport was very clean.

I don't think it is Vietnamese nature to smile to customers.

almost everyone here is disagreeing with the original poster


my dad said he had to bring "voi chín ngà, gà chín cựa, ngựa chín hồng mao"

Vietnam isn't the land of smiles like Thailand?

well doesn't matter as long as our GPA keeps growing more than 8% a year and we're becoming the Top 20 World Economy in 2025

If you have a 4.0 GPA, it's tough to have your GPA grow at 8% a year, don't you think.

^ lmao I meant GPD

hey it's not my fault, I'm a high school student and the word "GPA" comes across my mind all the time

No, you meant GDP.

^ crap why do keep messing the letters up? gross domestic product and grade point average

I knew it was a typo.

That is mess up! From what I read from her story, nothing seem out of the ordinary. Thing like that do happen to some people while it doesn't to other. If it doesn't happen at all then why would we be hearing about them. It is darn true that there is corruption in Vietnam as well as the Airport. You can deny it all you want but that will not fix the problem. First, Admit that it is the problem. Second, fix the problem. There is no need to flame the poster.

^Actually, I do fine the part where the officers took her into a private room for the DVD thingy a little far fetch(Maybe True, you never know) but other then that everything seem ok.

I agree on some points. I travelled to Vietnam (HCM) last Christmas. No bribe. But the officers there were very unprofessional and rude.

Told one of the guys lining up at check in to move to the back of the line for no reason. He started swearing and apparently was very upset. I think they told him to move to the back of the line for some government officials...
Another officer started flirting with my sister and asking for her phone number during baggage check...

I guess XigonCongchua has never had to be a "newbie" before. What did you do to to skip that stage? Bribe? I am sorry for being a newbie because everyone in this forum must go through that stage before becoming a regular. However, I'd think I would take longer than you to advance from this stage because I have a career, which hs girl like you doesn't need to have

I don't get the point of this. They won't take your bribe money? Maybe it's because they don't take bribes at all. After looking at your pityful attempts to bribe them, they might of took it just to get you to shut up and leave since it wouldn't be that big of a deal 8 years ago. It would be rather insulting if you try to bribe me, not knowing my backgrounds. Judging from your arrival at TSN airport, it seems that you have stayed in Saigon for most of your visit. If you're going to complain about the pollution in SG, then you shouldn't be travelling at all from your knowledge of city environments. It is a city of millions of people, and pollution is bound to be bad. Yet, you fail to know that you could find such city environments in any developed country such as Chicago or Los Angeles. You complain that your fake DVD's wasn't allowed out of the country, but yet you fail to realize that Vietnam is a developing country, starting to abide by internation copyright laws. It does so to fight counterfeiters and pirates, who are trying to manipulate and capitalize on someone else's work. You then talk about how there are "Customs" offices, but you fail to look infront of your own eyes. Every country in this world have a right to look at your luggage. The USA airport police does it to check on you. Why do you think that you are so safe from global terror? Why do you think that your DVD player or VCD player seemed to be opened up whenever you go from California to New York? They check it so it won't be a future devestating threat. Most, if not all things you claim, are not due to VC judgement, but from your own lack of judgement.

If you're Vietnamese, then you should go back and enjoy the country for what it is. Who are you to complain? Don't you know where you're stepping your foot into?

Regarding Transparency-Policy, I believe the information reported from the following 2 blog-posts to be balanced, non-exaggerated and accurate. From what I see, there isn't an appearance of bias from the author.

http://jjinvietnam.blogspot.com/2008/02/tr...bribes-fun.html

http://jjinvietnam.blogspot.com/2008/02/go...ption-task.html

So we're making progress in fighting bribery (graft)... But "Good luck!" if we always and forever tag along the coat-tail of Beijing IMHO. (Tagging along means for example: Once upon a time, Beijing opened up to market economy, VN saw that (a few years later) and realized "Hey, it's not such a bad idea. Let's copy them" and opened up to market economy; one day Beijing allows some level of general election with competing and fighting candidates, chances are VN also follows suit by allowing some level of general election with competing and fighting candidates...)

I'm not saying we should never follow Beijing footstep ! What I'm saying is: Be more diversified. Find out what is the best from many people and pick it up from them: a little bit from the Scandinavians, a little bit from the Canadians, a little bit from the Swiss, a little bit from the Japaneses, a little bit from the Singaporeans, and so on (to name just a few).

ANYWAY, sorry to bother you with my 2-cents What am I thinking that I am ?

dear the starter of this thread.
if youre complainning about corruption and at the same time you are willing to be corrupted for unneccessary things lik fake dvds, then youre pretty much self-contradicting.
go kill urself you hypocrite.

I was also got pulled out of the line for bringing back a few DVDs and I didn't give them a penny. I told them I didn't know its illegal and if I can't bring them out, why don't you just throw them away for me. I didn't know its illegal for real because I brought them in the mall and they are Viet music videos.

About those Vietnam Airlines attendants, they suck!!!! One of these reasons or both: 1. they are rich kids and want to travel and got there because of their high VC ranking official parents and 2. they brought and paid for their job position. Therefore, its corrupted as hell over there!!!

Read this article. this guy paid $20,000 but still couldn't get in after he got picked out of 150 candidates. maybe he's not well connected or nowaday, $20,000 is nothing compared to how much these people put in the pockets thru corruptions.

Article LINK

Vietnam Airlines was giving out scholarships to qualified students to study aboard, guess who got these scholarships???
the sons and daughters of these VC officials.

article LINK


but I must tell you, don't give up on Vietnam. We must find ways to change these. I know you're angry because we got discrimination from our own "kind".

Pharmgirl, I'm not sure how long ago this trip was but things had changed. I go back to VN 3X a year for business. Never did I have to give money at the airport. Back in the days yes, but not anymore. I never had a problem with the airport employees, I though they were ok...

What did you had in mind when you went back to VN? Did you think it was Paris or Rome? People go to VN to experience something different rather than the everyday luxury living in the U.S. Many go back to find something about themself. Yes, the VC are bad but you should not give up on your people. There are a few annoying things when traveling to VN but to be there with your own kind is the greatest feeling. If you go there thinking that its Paris than you're not going to have fun.

I think the officials were making money off of you b/c you're an easy target. My advise is don't be too easy next time, stand your ground. That's just an old trick that they used. People usually through back the DVDs then they'll just tell you to keep it and don't do it again. They have no proof that you bought the DVDs, just tell them they were gifts. i guess by looking at your passport they knew it was your first time therefore you make an easy target....I just got a bunch of VCDs back from VN...no problem. Though I tried to buy the real stuff unless the store only carries the fake stuff. BTW, if these DVDs were from VN then they're probably VCDs and not DVDs.

She f'ing feed the corrupted officers. Get rid of the DVD and pay the fine. It take two to bride so shut up.

This chic is a newbie to VN so she needs to learn the laws of the jungle! Yes there are a lot of corrupted officials but who cares just experience the country and have good times, I know I did...

So, b/c of the 40 dollars you wasted on the corrupted official (the illegal DVD was your fault since you purchased them and illegally tried to bring it outside of the country) and the dirtiness that you perceived about VN, you then decided to not go back again ever?

If VN (people and the country itself) as a whole mean a little more to you, then those unfortunate event shouldn't discourage you to visit again. But wait, you did mention you are "vietnamese-AMERICAN"

you coulda covert the DVD into an ISO format then go to a internet cafee and upload into your email. Problem solve! happy pirating!

BUT no! for the sake of being a b!tch, you brought the illegal copies of DVDs and gotten trouble at the airport which leads to bribery and you came online and b!tch about it just for the sake of being a b!tch. ...damn b!tch....making everyone life's a little bit less enjoyable with your constant b!tching. Which leads me to my next point.

ohh they treated me badly, no one is paying attention to me, the place smells bad, me me me! blah blah blah blah ching chang chong ding dan dong! Maybe if you look nice with big boobs (fun bags) then maybe people will treat you nicely. All the beautiful females never complain about not getting treated nicely, in fact, they always complaining about getting too many gifts and attention from men.

which leads me to my conclusion; you're ugly and a b!tch.

That's my 2cents and $hit yo.