where I learned to hate pho.

Mebbe it's just me... I can remember walking into Dick's Supermaket on 4th St. In San Jose and a couple of Lion Supermarkets, almost gagging from the smell coming from the produce dept.
[and I smoke a pack a day, mind u]
Was really weird, seeing large fish swimming in an aquarium in the meat dept.

Kinda sad, in a way... I met lotsa very hot, rather intelligent Vietnamese women back in Cali, all of whom spoke pretty good damn English.
But no way could I hang in Nam.

they're rather computer literate. I had a couple Vietnamese bosses back when I was a computer tech.

I find this incredulous. All the Vietnamese wimmenz I ever met was the kindest, gentlest, most laid back
peoplez u can imagine.

Cambodian wimmenz, Korean wimmenz, and even Taiwanese wimmens and Filipinas,
to a lesser extent than Americans tho], are capable of Postality, tho.

spike, are you always drunk when you post?

Cool thread. I have been to Vietnam. The people are awesome.

nice thread OP! Want to ask you: I'm thinking of visiting south east asia sometime soon, so which place would you say is teh nuts in terms of girls / beatches / leasure, nightlife? Philiphines, Vietnam, Thailand, some other? Thanks

Sick Thread, keep it coming _UM

I have only been here so I can't comment too much on the other places although I have heard various things. As far as real girls, they're are plenty here. You have the ones that grew up in the city that have money and go out like a normal girl would in the west. Then you have the ones that are living in the city but are from the country. They typically are more traditional and conservative and are living here working. Also in the city you will find some working girls or part time working girls especially at the bars. Some can look real good but generally they wear a lot of makeup and don't look as good as you may think.After drinking I went with a couple my first trip here but am over it, I wouldn't do it again. I don't enjoy it and you don't need to do it anyways. Nothing wrong with it and most are cool just not my thing.

I live in the city so the nearest beach is 4 hrs. There are many beautiful beaches here you can travel too. I like living in this city and then when I need to get away I can go to a beach somewhere. In thailand you live on the beaches.

I think it would go.

for girls Vietnam>>>>>>>>Thailand
for beaches Thailand>>Vietnam

Yeah completely understand what you are going through, there are tons of beautiful girls here but very few that you can have a long term relationship with.

On a side note, why does Hien look so cute in the second pic but nothing like the first pic? Makeup? If she looks like the second pic hook a brother up =)

have you taken any classes on the language? How hard would it be to pick it up? This is a sick TR, I definitely would not mind living there but I am not sure how much fun I would have only knowing english.

Funny you ask as after a total of about 14 months here I am starting to be more interested in learning it. I only know random words and the numbers. It's honestly something I have done just fine without. But I know that if someone came to the usa and lived for a year and couldn't speak a word I'd be saying "learn the ****ing language"! So I don't want to be too much of a hypocrite. It wouldn't be that hard if you get taught but if you didn't I imagine it would take years. They use the same alphabet as us so.




hmm idk I think hien looks good in both pics. She's a cute girl.

subscribed plz keep it up! moarrrr pixxxxxxxx

voted 5*

Ok camera is dusted off. Need to buy a battery charger tomorrow.

nice read

No. Alcohol's never really been my favorite drug.
But some people say poasts like that are the reason ima be on SSI the rest of my life.

Wow amazing thread. May just have to come down for a few weeks at some point.

Do cool music acts ever come to Saigon?

I've been living here 2 1/2 years and took classes for 1 1/2 years. Definitely do it, it helps out so much to learn Vietnamese and be able to converse with your neighbors, random people and most importantly girls. All the locals joke that the best way to learn Vietnamese is to get a "tu dien di bo" (walking dictionary)and if you are talking to a local guy he'll tell you to get a couple...in different sizes and shapes...For roughly the last year and a half I dated a girl who spoke English well and all we did was speak English. My Vietnamese got better but not as good as my roommate.

My roommate after 4 months spoke Vietnamese so bad that no one understood him. Did the same thing all foreigners do and started dating the bar girls here. The bar girls here speak a decent amount of English and you can get away with not speaking Vietnamese to them. Then he went to Apo one night and met this girl from a Japanese restaurant that spoke no English but was pretty hot. With a Vietnamese dictionary on his iphone and 8 months and probably 6 girlfriends later he speaks fluent enough Vietnamese to flirt and tell jokes in Vietnamese.

Classes run around $3.50 an hour for group and $5.00 an hour solo in district 5. It's at a university so you'd expect to meet some hot girls there. You don't... =(

Just read the whole thread, awesome TR!
A question though: i always was under the impression that the partyscene in places like Vietnam was very heavy on xtc, like, everyone would be doing it at just about every party there. I suppose it can't be that extreme, but is it so that it's a generally accepted thing to do at a club or outdoor party?

From what I have scene it's pretty uncommon. I have been here a total of 14 months and only have seen it twice. The one time I did it last time I was here, that's the time I mentioned it in the thread. It's rare for me to do it as well or any drugs so there may be more if your looking for it but this place def caters to more of the good ole fashioned drinker like myself.

Not really anyone like famous or and big name dj's really.

But there are all kinds of local cool places where bands and singers go and play all kinds of different music. I found this new place called acoustics that has bands and singers from like 8 to 1130. So you can go there get a table have a few drinks and hear some music and even a few classic rock covers. Then after perfect time to head somewhere else if you like.

actually, in my opinion it's not really necessary to learn Vietnamese if you are going only on a short trip. nowadays a lot of people in Vietnam can hold basic conversations in English, although the vocabulary may be somewhat limited and they speak in an awkward accent. however, I find out that the locals are incredibly receptive to travellers, although some sneaky vendors or even businesses would attempt to charge visitors a different rate.

saigon (or ho chi minh city) is probably the best place in Vietnam in term of cosmopolitan feeling, night life, luxury and stuff, and the standard of living there is not that high. moreover, the customer service and courtesy of people are usually incredible. on the down side, southern cuisine isn't that good. most of the yummy dishes can be found in the northern cities though. anyway, it's a very +EV to date a local girl since you can't fully experience the culture there without a good guide.

for clubbing, actually the scene is quite complicated. asian men are very protective of their female acquaintances, so picking up a wrong girl may put you into a difficult situation e.g. getting beaten up by a gang of youngsters or even getting stabbed. Vietnamese kids nowadays are ****ed up. for XTC, it's not rare but not that uncommon either. normally drug users would gather at a private party instead of going clubbing or outdoor.

in addition, people in Vietnam have recently started playing poker quite a lot, so you may be able to find very juicy live games up to NL500. I'm sure that there are incredibly soft high stake games but they are private.

all in all, i really think traveling to Vietnam is a good experience, but it's much better with a local guide. hope my information help.

I guess the extent of the music scene here is pretty non existent but some group mnstrkrft or something is here that everyone is going gaga over. And backstreet boys will be here later this month. Don't know mnstrkrft and don't like bsb but that's the extent of it.

Acoustic is nice, another one like that is Yoko.
Acoustic was actually why I moved to HCMC. I went there and listened to the house band and this singer sing "Born in the USA" but they changed it to Born In Saigon and halfway through the verses they changed it to Vietnamese. The place was packed and standing room only and everyone was singing along and I was like "yeah I could live here". 2 weeks later and I moved from Hanoi to Saigon. Oh yeah I heard that singer later died of a heroin overdose.. but man he was good when he was alive.

haha mstrkrft

It's the two dudes from death from above 1979. That will be a good show, they're fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmdPQ...eature=related

how do you meet people that speak english in vietnam? or better, if I went to vietnam how would i be able to do **** like this and not end up sitting in my apartment 24/7 with no one to speak english to ?

i laughed i came i saw