Hanoi

[Silly Puppy]

Any hotels in VN and China (communist countries) that accomodate prostitutes for their customers MUST somehow bribe the officials. I believe there is no exception to this rule. The ones who do not pay on time or try to operate secretly will be cracked down and punished.

Surfer,

Your report while is long has some interesting points. It is ironic that foreigners may enjoy a better sense of security over us South Vietnamese or Vietkieu in Hanoi. I'd never go to that place by myself for being afraid of getting robbed. On things to see I do not wish to see Ho's Mausoleum because the guy and his gang brought so much blood and tears to my people. His gang is now enjoying the sole supreme and absolute power holder role and trying to reap as much benefits as possible in case power changes hands within the same party.

The story about Trung's army (mostly led by women) got psyched out by the naked Chinese army is hilarious and fictitious. I heard of this story when I was young and also thought it was true. Keep in mind that the Vietnamese at the time were still very primitive and had no such sense of decency which came from Chinese Confucious thinking. The Amazon warrior women when they see a naked man probably will hunt him down for rewards

[Dollar Bill]

I mean, a guy whose handle includes the $ sign--how much integrity can he have?
Don

$Bill my nickname from the old days when I lived in the US and use to visit strip joints. We are all just a "dollar bill" to the girls in this line of work, nothing more. So when strippers would ask my name, I would just say Dollar Bill.

Pretty innocent huh?

$Bill

Mark up a couple more post of Don's with some reference to Surfer. It almost appears that Don has a CRUSH!

[OzzieSuds]

I don't see the point of bashing Surfer for expressing his views and experiences but I also don't see the need to read such long posts.

As for the truth behind GF hotels and bribes etc I am prepared to believe that it could be all of what has been discussed as not much happens in VN without money changing hands. I am also prepared to believe that punters on occasions have been able to smuggle their friends in.

I also adhere to the view that some discretion is required on a public forum such as this. Posting or even PMing of phone numbers etc and specific hotels etc can cause a lot of trouble.

What I do know is that if I want to be sure of being able to bring friends back to my hotel and not some unknown short time dive then I had better choose one of the smaller cheaper hotels.

My experience in HCMC and Hanoi is that these hotels are usually clean and well run with very personalised service.

[Dashing Don]

I gave up after the second paragraph. The one about the emperors hundreds of years ago and all. Where's the broads? Who got laid? Who didn't? Sounds like a monger's version of War and Peace. And I fought off more than one professor in college who tried to get me to read that goddam thing.

This thing reminds me of the now-banned Juniour's reports. They used to run for pages too. I never read more than the first paragraph. His used to begin with 'I arose at seven am and prepared some coffee'. Jesus!

Surfer, ya gotta know your audience. Mongers have an attention span that is as long as a cum shot. Keep it short. Thats my advice to you.

Don

[Surfer]

Because of the police state that is VN, I would never post pictures of girls or comment on which hotels are girl friendly on a public access board such as this.

[Surfer]

i arrived in the north by air at ha noi’s noi bai airport which, unlike sai gon’s, is spacious and new. ha noi is only a 1 hour flight from hong kong while sai gon is 2 hours flight from either. when i was there, the weather was beautiful with highs of 70 and clear skies, but it is often cold (though rarely rainy) in december. summer is oppressively hot and humid, so november-
december, and march-april are the suggested times for visiting (unless you like hot and muggy).

the airport is about 35kms from the city on ha noi, a city which has had close to a dozen names over its lifetime, thang long having been the most durable and famous. there is a freeway that begins right outside the airport (one of only 2 or 3 true freeways in the country) making it pretty quick to the outskirts of the city (40 minutes if no traffic). taxi fare is $10, agree in advance of course, but you can take the viet nam airlines bus to the center for $2. now this freeway with 100kph speed limit (highest in the entire country) has crossings for oxcarts, bicycles and pedestrians. suffice to say that things that crossed slowly that met fast moving vehicles created much roadkill when the freeway opened (reputedly 5 fatalities on very first day!) . while some measures have been taken to reduce the carnage, i suspect it is still quite high and offer anecdotal evidence to support this hypothesis.

new century disco is the hotspot, but you better have a high tolerance for 3 digit decibel levels and second hand smoke (read: a brew of 1,000s of carcinogens) in concentrations that are clearly harmful to health. god bless california's absolute prohibition on smoking in any enclosure except a private residence or hotel room. to breath fresh air again softens the sting of
returning to america the repressed!

just southwest of the lake, no more than 10 minutes taxi ride from the old quarter (should be no more than 20,000dong taxi fare), this huge, dark, two story, disco is somewhat reminiscent of jakarta’s stadium (though no firebreathing dragon). huge numbers of unfriendly bouncers and drink pourers (cute girls who wander around looking for empty glasses which they promptly
refill from the purchased bottles of johnny walker that are stocked on most every table) provide a major employment center. the patrons appreciate it so they can keep hands free for lighting cigarettes and fiddling with cellphones. add to this tremendous crowds of people bumping into you all the time and it should not surprise that i hated these aspects of it.

however, the pairs of hot dancers in sexy outfits dancing up on the bar downstairs in the middle, who look like they are on x (anybody who knows jakarta should think of the professional dancers at tanamur’s or jj’s ), add more appeal. plus there were a fairly large number of lookers there for the taking although most were in groups with at least one or two guys. free lockers outside are a nice touch for storing your fannypack or whatever. no cover, but drinks are $3 or $4. i saw only 2 other roundeye, who were old and ugly, hanging by the exit looking for stragglers. beware fleecing by taxi drivers on the way home late at night (seems to close at 1am despite local rule requiring midnight closure). i made good eye contact wit a few but the earsplitting noise coupled with the difficulty of understanding vietnamese made it challenging to communicate. to put it mildly.

so after enjoying watching the scene inside for an hour or so, when an english speaking woman with a trim and hard body hit on me in very forward fashion near the door of the club, instead of spending some time feeling the vibe i rashly agreed to go to her minihotel. she merely asked “we go hotel i massage you” while stroking my stick. i had taken the vitamin upon arriving, so i was ready to go. also, truth be told i could no longer tolerate either the smoke or the techno blasting at 120db. first warning signal should have been when i got fleeced for 200k at the hotel desk (place was a dark dump). we went upstairs, never having discussed money, then got a good massage and good (but not great) boomboom. all was finished within an hour. so i gave her a generous $30, but she threw a "you give me fifty dollah" hissyfit. she tried every trick in the book, but i refused to yield and after saying "if i man i boxing you"while her face was red with anger, she stormed out. i then grabbed a taxi for the 3 minute ride back and he demands "$5 dollah". i offered the $2 in my pocket, double the rate i had paid on the way over when the guy used the meter. again, an ugly scene requiring me to get the clerk of my hotel to come out to the street to play mediator while the driver bitched and moaned for a good 15 minutes before grudgingly accepting double the true fare. an ugly pair of back to back confrontations that i do not look forward to repeating and among the uglier incidents i have had in years of mongering, however, would not dissuade me from the white skinned beauties for which ha noi is famous.

on my second night, i walked along the lake looking for xe om girls but saw none. i did have 2 guys ask me if i was interested in going to some bar where there were girls, but i eventually just sought a non hustling taxi driver. found one who spoke a bit if english. first he drove me to 2 casas (they exist in ha noi) in a rich area north along west lake (ho tay)near the london school of design (i recall that sign) where they presented a lineup of about 12 girls in the same way it is done in colombia. the quality was soso, none better than a 7. after perusing all of them several times, noticing which made eye contact and smiled at me, i eventually picked one of the 7s. she was a 19yo looking spinner with porcelain skin (no boobs though ) and she got a huge grin when i picked her. but then the negotiations began thorough the taxi driver as interpreter. the pimp (a guy about 30) wanted me to use an onsite room for the assignation (and wanted $40). i countered with $40 but at my hotel fir several hours. a first he was adamant that she could not leave, but then the girl said something to him (like she wanted to go with me) and he said ok. things were looking up. but then the negotiations began, and he insisted on $100 for take out. i balked and we bailed. the driver said locals would pay 150,000 ($10) he said take out is rare (because expensive and few locals have private rooms for sex.)

he said he had a girl in mind and kept calling her until he ran out of credits on his cell. eventually she called and we went down to the south (residential) part of the city to meet her. she turned out to be very gfe, but she speaks zero english (and he very little). we agreed on 900,000 ($50) for all night, she gave him 300,000. despite difficulty in communication, we sat at
a local style restaurant while she ate something, then we crossed the street and knocked on the metal shudders to wake the guard. he lets us in, then tapped his pillow suggesting a tip. the night it turned out great and as soon as she saw the camera she stripped down and started posing suggestively. what a welcome change from times when you have to battle to get a risque foto (plus pay extra). very responsive and agreeable. fun girl who smiled and acted happy. i have her number and her permission to give it to friends who might visit (perhaps easiest through the taxi driver, bao, who can be reached at deleted). she did not want to leave in the morning. very accommodating girl, but my vietnamese is better than her english (which should tell you something).




[Surfer]

Prov and Don are following me to yet ANOTHER thread, about ANOTHER place where neither of them has ever been. I travel and share info (and pictures) they criticize and flame while adding nothing. Sorry to all readers of THIS folder that my attempt to share m,y experiences caused these two obsessive losers to pollute this thread too.

Pakmike: I SAW IT IN HCMC (the handing of a packet of cash from the Hotel manager to the cops in a White jeep marked SAT) WITH MY OWN EYES. My friend who has lived in Dako, near Dien Bien Phu bridge at the edge of District 1, for many years also told me how it works (which his Vietnamese partner confirmed). I am NOT bashing VN at all, but to deny that the police force is willing to accept a little Bia Om money to look the other way(as they do in MANY countries) is to deny reality IMHO.

Maybe they were cooking the books at my hotel in HCMC, but the cops looked at no papers. They sat out front, silenty, for at least 30 minutes until the inhouse bar closed. They watched foreigners enter, and exit, with VN girls dressed in a suggestive manner. They OBVIOUSLY knew what was going on. One cop got out (there were 4), walked in the nightclub (to ensure it closed apparently), then about 5 minutes later the manager walked up to the boss (in passenger seat) and handed him a wad of dong then they drove off. I was 5 meters away inside the lobby surfing the internet and saw the whole thing quite clearly.

And I am speaking of what I observed in HCMC, not in Hanoi (I did get hit up for a bribe by the bellboy to bring in a girl thee, but saw no cops). Also, the cops were REALY cracking down on sidewalk cafes; we saw the cops pull up in a van, seize all the tables and chairs from the sidewalk and haul the proprietor off to the station. I am told they must pay biog "fines" to get their livlihood back. Because you do business in VN, and because it is well known that the police monitor ALL internet usage (including on this site), I can TOTALLY understand why you feel the need to disagree.

Good luck to you.

[Pak Mike]

i think what surfer meant was that the owners of these hotels would have to pay bribes to the government. the guests of the hotels are not bothered by the police. having living in vietnam for over 2 years, i realize that everyone who's operating any kind of business are required to pay a monthly "tax". these taxes do not go into the government funds but directly into the pockets of the person who's collecting it. minus a percentage that goes to his boss.

my experience on this one is that those who are paying this monthly "tax" are the businesses that are "cooking the books" by under reporting turnover etc. in my case, i keep everything 100% clean and welcome these characters to go through things with a fine tooth comb, and when they find nothing send them on their way with a smile. a few businesses are waking up to this now and doing the same as it is cheaper in the long run to pay all the taxes that are due through the proper channels. at the same time the government is getting smarter at cracking down. for example a lot of raids recently on shops with imported cosmetics. if they could not produce purchase documents etc the stock was confirep001ed.

[Dashing Don]

I just read Dollar's report and the first question that came to mind is:

How many dollars did Surfer pay Dollar to write this sycophantic 'report'?

I mean, a guy whose handle includes the $ sign--how much integrity can he have?

If this is Surfer's 'following', then I can only laugh. Not much opposition here.

Yo Dollar! Pm me will you? I want to counter Surfer's offer.

Don

I think that is pretty funny about the racial shit. Haven't you been given that label long before???

Surfer has been to VN and has posted a FANTASTIC report with tos of fotos. He posted on a different private board where there are not so many idiots (present company included).

[For those that think that Surfer is full of shit.] Go ahead and believe it; you will be missing out on GREAT mongering advice and info.

$Bill

PS - in the last 25 posts of Don's:
10 posts NOT mentioning Surfer (40%)
14 posts mentioning Surfer (56%)
1 post censored by Jackson for being off topic. (4%)

[Dollar Bill]

Surfer likes to make up things and present them as 'facts'. His imagination is elastic. His memory is spotty.

Between that and his racial comments, well, I think that the Vn mongers should be on notice.

Sorry, I just have to call a spade a spade.
Don

I think that is pretty funny about the racial shit. Haven't you been given that label long before???

Surfer has been to VN and has posted a FANTASTIC report with tos of fotos. He posted on a different private board where there are not so many idiots (present company included).

For those that think that Surfer is full of shit. Go ahead and believe it; you will be missing out on GREAT mongering advice and info.

$Bill

PS - in the last 25 posts of Don's:
10 posts NOT mentioning Surfer (40%)
14 posts mentioning Surfer (56%)
1 post censored by Jackson for being off topic. (4%)

[Dashing Don]

Haven't been to Hanoi but I did stay at the New World Hotel in Saigon a couple of years ago. Its one of the 'official' hotels in the city. There was a no-girl policy there. Quite strict.

Surfer likes to make up things and present them as 'facts'. His imagination is elastic. His memory is spotty.

Between that and his racial comments, well, I think that the Vn mongers should be on notice.

Sorry, I just have to call a spade a spade.

Don

[Prov1]

Total nonsence. These places are full of VN guests, and I have stayed at these places numerous time with VN "companions". Secret is a respectable facade and discreetness, it's as simple as that. Those who see a bribe-taking cop behind every tree won't progress too far in understanding how things operate.

I agree Pak Mike. Some of this wacky stuff Surfer is reporting is not just nonsense, it's bullshit. If you look at his posts, it's unclear if he's even been to some of these destinations.

[Whisper1]

Total nonsence. These places are full of VN guests, and I have stayed at these places numerous time with VN "companions". Secret is a respectable facade and discreetness, it's as simple as that. Those who see a bribe-taking cop behind every tree won't progress too far in understanding how things operate.

I think what surfer meant was that the owners of these hotels would have to pay bribes to the government. The guests of the hotels are not bothered by the police. Having living in Vietnam for over 2 years, I realize that everyone who's operating any kind of business are required to pay a monthly "tax". These taxes do not go into the government funds but directly into the pockets of the person who's collecting it. Minus a percentage that goes to his boss.

[Pak Mike]

ALL hotels must pay bribes to have VN guests alllowed in. The reason, or so I am told, that minihotels are more likely to be guest friendly is that the 5 stars are hit up for bigger bribes (and often balk at paying the bribes demanded).

Total nonsence. These places are full of VN guests, and I have stayed at these places numerous time with VN "companions". Secret is a respectable facade and discreetness, it's as simple as that. Those who see a bribe-taking cop behind every tree won't progress too far in understanding how things operate.

[Surfer]

I will take your word for it that there was lots of action available inside the Hilton. I believe the Hilton was paying big money to the cops if that was the case. I personally saw the local police come to pick up their nightly bia om money from the hotel where I stayed. I think I wrote the whole story on here last Christmas.

They are the least communist, and most materialistic/capitalistic, people I have ever encountered, so I agree with you about the economic situation.