Originally Posted by
alex0683de
In my bookcase, I have a 2005 copy of Lonely Planet's South-East Asia on a Shoestring which contains the following advice in the Vietnam chapter (I'm paraphrasing, I can't find the quote right now):
As elsewhere in Asia, sex tourism is a problem in Vietnam. Some locals may react in a hostile manner when they see an Asian female with a Western male, assuming the former to be a Vietnamese prostitute, and confront her verbally, sometimes quite aggressively. The best strategy is to answer calmly in any language other than Vietnamese and the mistaken local will realise their mistake, shut up, and in most cases apologise.
The authors put it a bit more eloquently, but that's the gist of it.
It did seem to be a common enough occurence then to warrant inclusion in the guidebook, so I would not get overly worked up about it. Stuff happens, and life is too short to stay angry.
Hmmm, interesting. All I can say, however, is that the only place we experienced this was the one incident with the hotel guard, I did respond calmly in English, he persisted in Vietnamese, and didn't apologize.
A couple of other points: we were surprised by the number of western tourists that we saw. I know Vietnam is a popular destination, but I was very (favorably) surprised by the large number of westerners who were enjoying Hanoi along with us. I don't know for how long that has been the case, but it struck me that, at least in Hanoi and Halong Bay, the average Vietnamese has become reasonably sophisticated when it comes to dealing with foreigners. We were also struck by how friendly and welcoming all of the Vietnamese that we encountered were to us. Note, too, that this was at all levels, including people we encountered on the street. That's why the guard's conduct seemed so anomalous.
Also, while on the cruise boat in Halong Bay, we had a chance to observe some actual "professionals." A party of 3 Vietnamese business men, with their escorts, were on board with us. We knew their escorts were "working women" because, among other things, there was some rather obvious switching of partners. The point of this is that these ladies looked like pros -- their behavior, dress and mannerisms were what I would associate with "working women." My wife, who dresses very conservatively and usually wears little makeup, simply doesn't look the part.
When my wife and I travel through China, we will, on very rare occasions and with less and less frequency, encounter some Chinese, always male of lower socio-economic class and only in small towns., who resents our being together. That, however, is based on a, "this gweilo is stealing OUR women," attitude, rather than an assumption that my wife is anything other than my wife.
At any rate, as I mentioned earlier, this was a very minor incident and didn't mar an otherwise wonderful visit to Vietnam.