I came back to VN back in the early 90s. I put $10 in the passport at Tan Son Nhat airport. I passed by the gate with no questions asked. A friend of mine did not put anything in the passport and they searched him for hours and asked all kind of questions. Do they still do that? and what the price nowaday?

Heh on my way home from VN, I told my parents I'm gonna test not putting any money since both of them were like "Oh no you have to." So I went through and was lucky to be let by cleanly. I just gave them my passport and tried not to make eye contact or try to see what their were doing.
Then my parents did the same too without giving them money.

But looking back, that was kind of risky. And the fact that I don't know very much VN makes it even scarier.... meh
Oh this was about 1 and a half months ago.

You should not put any. If you make sure you fill out paperwork correctly on the plane then they have no reason to ask you for money. If they reject you more than 3 times to go back to the end of the line, give them 5 bucks.

don't give them anything, if they start to give you hard time, make a scence, start talking rude, or loud, so everyone look, then they'll let you go.

NO, don't do that. Things could get worse. They will take you inside to a darkroom and leave you there for days. No one could hear your screaming. Few bucks buy you peace of mind and freedom.

so you think talkin rude and making a scene would work in VN. Hummm I doubt it.

yeah that's right...
when i was in vietnam, at first i didn't put any money in there, then they took my green card and my chinese passport, town to a room to exam it.. i like what the fu-k are they doing.. $hit.. later i put $10 in there.. they just let me go..

You don't have to put anything in unless you've bought some pirated CD's or other stuffs you shouldn't have. I made the mistake of giving the guy $20 instead of $5.

see that just wrong..
in china, if they found out u have those.. custom just take it away

which is bad thing for me..

u should try this urself Bang and tell us how its gonna work out !!

i'll try when i have a chance, hehehhe. hope they don't take me to the dark room .

You just raised the bar for everyone.

I tottally agree... I have been to Vietnam 4 times now and I have NEVER given them money... Neither has any of my family or friends. In fact, I thought there would be more problems if I tried to do that type of thing

my mom,grandmother and uncle went to VN last Christmas. My mom and grandma each gave $10 and they let them in no questions asked. My uncle didnt give squat and they were giving him a hard time. The funnie thing was when they stepped outside to catch a taxi there was a white woman standin on the curb with a suitcase. SHe was trying to flag down a taxi. When a taxi stopped and she was about to open the door, someone just ran and took her suitcase

holy sh*t...^... ghe vay

make sure to put 100$ or else they might kill u. j/k. man i had a fing bad thing with these hai quan biatches. i was deporting vn and didnt know they make you pay a fee to depart. well, i went through the x-ray and the commies told me to go back and get my ticket to get pass the gate. one guy fing holding my passport and wont let me bring it with me while i run back to get my ticket. by the time i got back, he was gone. the fing bastard left my passport with some other guy at the counter. i was to my brother, "Thang day no di dau roi?", well some hai quan heard me and shouted in an angry voice "Thang nao!" he was pissed and staring me down, i had to apoligized. hehe i was stressed out.i thought the bastard took my passport and sold it for money. anyway, i couldnt find the money to pay for the tickets in my backpack and they didnt have an atm that worked! . so i went back to the tables i slipped the 2 vc some some money before and asked for my money back.. hehe they were uncomfortable with all the costumers around but they slipped it back to me and gave me this pissed off look. well, i still didnt have enough and i plane was boarding already. the airport lady told me that i should take the plane tommorow, but luckily some nice man saw us, and sampathized with us. he gave 10$ enough to buy to tickets. we thanked him and ran with our bags to the plane. the whole plane were waitiing for us. heheh.. moral of the story. dont F with the vc.

Actually there's no going rate, at least put in 5 bucks. I was there back in April of 2004, there were 2 doors I had to go through in order to get outside of the airport to see my relatives. Anyway, I put some $$$ on the first run and then after I got through it I ran out of small bills so i did not put anything on the 2nd time. This one girl was giving me such a hard time, she asks what are you here for and where will you be staying at while you are here, that little fu-king b!tch!!! they just want $$$ then they'll let you go, so i reached inside my pocket and gave her $10, her face turned 180 degrees, amazing! With a smile she lets me through, this was in Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi by the way. So it's best just to slip some inside your passport, don't give them $hit b/c you are in THEIR COUNTRY and they can give you HELL!!!

Its not just at the airport my friends, whenever you're in Vietnam and local people know you're an overseas Vietnamese than the first thing they would try to do is rip you off.

One question, was the "little fu-king b!tch" hot?

Please don't put anything.

I was there last April. Did not give them anything

Sounds funny, what happened to you?

I think u guys got it all wrong......... because I just came back from Vn yesterday and I didn't have any problems at the airport....... yes there are people that ask some questions but after i answered all of their questions then they let me go and I didn't have to give them ANY MONEY AT ALL ....... I think u guys r a bit impatient and Just want to get out of the airport as soon as possibe......... I mean people there has to do their job and therefore they have to ask questions .......

Hahaha... she was tappable though...

Agreed...

No, I think we had different experiences, you got lucky that they did not ask you for anything, I am very patient and they still give me a hard time, been back to VN 4 times already and everytime is the same. Anyway, wouldn't hurt to give out a little though...

Last summer, during my tirp to Vn I didnt put any money in my passport. As I went through the cusoms, the guys said my name out and I said " yes". Then he started to speak vietnamese to me. I was like " what, what are you talking about" I didnt understand viet just to let you guys know. Then he let me pass. But my uncle on the other hand had some problems because he didnt put any. He was questioned until he gave him 5 dollars to go drink coffee. That is a $hit load of coffee you can buy with 5 dollars.

Viet's coffee is too strong. I stood uptil the next day with 2 cups of coffe at night time.

[QUOTE] [quote=X_anh_yeu_em_x,Jul 15 2005, 10:32 AM]
Last summer, during my tirp to Vn I didnt put any money in my passport. As I went through the cusoms, the guys said my name out and I said " yes". Then he started to speak vietnamese to me. I was like " what, what are you talking about" I didnt understand viet just to let you guys know. Then he let me pass. But my uncle on the other hand had some problems because he didnt put any. He was questioned until he gave him 5 dollars to go drink coffee. That is a $hit load of coffee you can buy with 5 dollars.

Viet's coffee is too strong. I stood uptil the next day with 2 cups of coffe at night time.

[/quote]

Yes the coffe is really strong, but i recommend you trying some "LUA MOI" with a few drops of cobra's blood, good $hit!

Off course people are impatient, I went back to Vietnam during the summer and it was above 35 degrees celcius and we had to line up in the long queue having relatives waiting outside. As soon as we got to the counter, dad slip AU$10 in our passports, they let us go through easily without a single question.

There are two gates that you must pass: the visa, password, green card gate and the baggage gate.

In the first gate, you don't have to give them anything. In the second gate, you might want to give those guys something if you don't want them to cut your boxes and examine the materials. Personally, $10-20 for the 2nd gate is sufficient.