Ho Chi Minh City - General Info

[Asia Rocks]

I have read couple of posts about massage palor in the past. However, do you guys have any new intel about message palor in HCM city recently? I will be there within a month. I need the FS kinda place. Most importantly, I am trying to stay away from LE.

Thanks,

FS

FS,

I do not claim to be an expert on MP in HCMC, but I think FS may be a stretch. I have been there several times in the last year or so and have done hotel fitness centers and one MP, big one, not far from Caravelle and Sheraton. In the hotel, HJ is no problem with maybe a little mock BJ thrown in and basically the same in the MP I visited. The MP rooms all have a clear glass window which limits the possibilities. Others may have had better experiences and I'd be glad to learn, as you, from them.
Bars on Hai Ba Trung are not bad value and, if you find the right GFE girl, you can get the deed done for $50.00 plus a small bar fine as long as you get back to the hotel before 11:00. This is a good option if you are trying to stay away from LE. Strike the deal, return to your room and ten minutes later the front desk will call to inquire whether you are expecting Ms.Thuy which, of course, you are.

Hope this helps and would glad if it stimulates other entries.

Enjoy, AR

[Fun Sex]

I have read couple of posts about massage palor in the past. However, do you guys have any new intel about message palor in HCM city recently? I will be there within a month. I need the FS kinda place. Most importantly, I am trying to stay away from LE.

Thanks,

FS

[Enjoying Asia]

I've been going there about 3 times a year for the past few years and was there in mid-July the last time. I would be a bit surprised if it has been shut down because it is not that obvious and quite informal. I was there around 9pm and I actually stood on Le Duan on the same side of the street as the Sofitel, maybe 50 meters before it dead ends into the zoo. The girls seem to do a circuit around this zoo area. I admit that it is not obvious because you may be one of the only people strolling around there at that time of night. But the girls will ride by on their motorbikes, u-turn, head back towards the zoo, cruise by Asian Rain, and then circle all the way back and repeat.

What time were you prowling?

Enjoying Asia

[Wendella]

Enjoying Asia,

I just wanted to clarify something you mentioned about this area by the zoo. If you go to the end of Le Duan, is this spot you go to that street running perpendicular to Le Duan, that Le Duan runs into? That would be Nguyen Binh Kiem street. If so, when you reach that corner, do you turn left, right or just go straight ahead? I have to say, I've been in that area a few times and have never seen anything happening there. Unless I'm missing it somehow.

Also, when were you there? How recently? Was it in the last 2 months or so? Things change, and maybe it's been shut down by now. Or maybe not, maybe I just haven't been there at the right time.

I noticed that Asian Rain was originally talking about a spot that was around the corner from Le Duan, not perpendicular to it but parallel, and where the road crosses over a bridge. This street is the end of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, actually named Xo Viet Nghe Tinh at this spot. And on that street, near the bridge, there's another entrance to the zoo, which isn't the main entrance, I think. Not sure.

[Txmanny]

Sixty,

You shouldn't have any problem if you tell immigration that it's for personal or business purposes. You only run into problems if the laptop is meant for a gift. Anyhow, worse case scenario is to give immigration $10 and you are off on your way.

[PoopieMunster]

Well I am in Vietnam now, and like in the past I have carried 2 laptops back while only declaring one. On my last trip I left both of them behind, and was hassled about it, but the 10USD slip was all it took to make things smooth over, although I honestly didn't mean to forget the second laptop, I was just to much in a rush being as I was finishing a ST about 45 mins before my flight was to take off.

Anyone in HCM want to have a beer or a wingman that is a VietKieu and speaks more then enough vietnamese to get by give me a call on my mobile 090 710 7956 and I have more then enuf contacts for the girls if you want them along with hotels in certain areas.

[Sixty]

Hi fellow mongers,

In Octobre I will travel to Saigon and considering of carrying a laptop with me.

Did anyone of you have experienced any problems at the airport, especially when you want to leave the country?

Or do you have to declare your laptop when entering the country?

I'm grateful for any advice.

Rgds,

Sixty

[Flyhere]

A word about money if I may.

Exchange rate: 1 US dollar = 15,800 VN Dong, making 10,000 VND about 70 US cents, and 100,000 VND about 7 US dollars.

Let's ignore the average, an average anything is pretty meaningless here.

In the US, say for a guy making $US60,000 a year, that's $5000 amonth or $4000 or so after tax. An AMP will cost $50+$100 to the girl, a SW (I'm guessing) will cost $50 all to the girl.

If you want cheap, you run down to a border town like Tijuana, and spend $US60 to the girl + $11 for the room.

Now in VN, the same guy may make the equivalent of US$300 a month, let's round it to $400 a month. That's 10% of the same guy in the US. You could argue that the cost of living is not 10% of the US, but twice as expensive. That makes a SW about US$10 and an in-call place US$20.

Reportedly those are what the locals pay, VND200K-VND300K, of course the "rich" Vietkieu or foreigners can be squeezed for twice as much.

I know things always seem cheap when you travel to the 3rd world, and people start blowing their money. Just remember US$100 is a lot, a lot, of money in VN.

[Asia Rocks]

Enjoying Asia,

Hey, great report, especially for first post. I would just like to piggy back on this to reiterate that, IMHO, these mini hotels are traps to either steal from you or scam you. The first time I was trapped, I had about $40.00 taken from my wallet which I did not discover until too late. The second time I had about $100.00 extracted which I discovered because of the prior experience and which the Ho casually returned to me in exchange for my promise not to throw her motobike down the stairs. But God knows what would have happened if I did. I never really figured out how they do this, maybe somebody under the bed or otherwise secreted in the room, but I have never gone to another mini hotel again and I would enourage all VN mongerers to be extremely wary of what sounds like a simple and innocent suggestion, "We go mini hotel".

Just my opinion,

AR

[Enjoying Asia]

Cheap P4P in Ho Chi Minh

I wanted to share my system for getting women in HCMC at a low overall cost. As many have already mentioned, the cost for women here has escalated steadily over the past 5 years to prices that are now definitely unreasonable. Especially at places like Apocolypse, Hai Ba Trung bars, and Karaoke clubs. At most of these places, you’ll end up paying at least 50 US for the girl, plus lady drinks, relatively expensive pool/billilards, and short time hotel. So it can all add up to 100 US for a few hours of fun.

So this post is for mongers on a slightly tighter budget. I now stay at Saigon Sky Hotel at 245 Hai Ba Trung. It is about 5 minutes by taxi from the Caravelle Hotel and heart of district 1. The hotel is clean, has friendly and accommodating staff, and you get a huge, quiet suite for 30 US/night. Regular rooms are 20-25 US/night. If you fancy posting or keeping up on WSG activities during your trip, the hotel staff will happily run an ADSL cable up to your room for an additional 2 US/day. Room service, laundry, etc., is also good and cheap. Most importantly, they are totally girl-friendly. An added bonus for fitness freaks is the barbell club just down the road (~135 Hai Ba Trung), where you can lift weights with some locals for 10,000/day (7 US).

Once you are settled in the hotel, go to the area mentioned many times by Asian Rain. I think the street where I actually prowl is at the end of Le Duan, close to the entrance to the zoo. This is actually a second entrance to the Zoo. So I now realize I've been working just around the corner from AR. This side is slightly less busy in terms of traffic than the main entrance. Sometimes woman stand near or sit on their motorbikes at the entrance just waiting for someone to walk by. Generally speaking the young women will be on their motorbikes, circling like crazy, slowing down so you can have a look, and (here’s the key point) waiting for you to initiate something. Once you see one you like, a simple hand gesture will be enough and they’ll pull up along the sidewalk. Then you negotiate a price and hop on their motorbike and back to Saigon Sky, just 5 minutes away.

I followed this procedure and there were about 10 girls circling when I strolled the area around 9pm. Most were in the 20-28 range and quite attractive. On this occasion there was one stunner that looked younger than the rest. I broke my usual rule of never taking woman that are too attractive, since the service is usually worse, but I couldn’t resist. Her name was Hong and she is 18 and absolutely gorgeous. She speaks zero English, so a phrase book or some other way to express numbers is helpful. We negotiated 200,000 Dong (15 US) for short time. She didn’t understand that I wanted to take her to my hotel, so we headed to a short time hotel she knew and it was already full. We then motored to a second one she knew and the guy at the reception quoted 400,000 Dong (30 US) for short time. After some negotiation, he moved down to 350,000, but I still thought it was a bit steep, especially since I already had a perfectly good hotel close by. He spoke English, so I had him translate to Hong that I wanted to go to my hotel. Once she understood, she agreed.

We arrived at my hotel and she formally checked in and the reception took her ID for security reasons. Once in the room, we had some chit chat (phrase book) and she started warming up a little, but she was very shy. Everything about this girl physically was just perfect. Slender but not too skinny, perfect skin, hair, tits, ass – everything! I have never seen such a beautiful pussy in my life. Unfortunately, shagging this girl felt like screwing a warm corpse. She hardly moved an inch and took some encouragement to move around into different positions. Even when I put her on top of me, she hardly knew what to do. Anyway, with that warm, tight pussy grinding around we finished our business and I sent her on her way. Before she could reclaim her ID at the reception, they called my room to check whether everything was ok so they could return her ID and she was free to go.

I have read a lot about SW’s and I think there are 2 main points to consider/defend: SW’s are not as “clean” as bar girls – use a condom to protect yourself; SW’s could steal, etc, and you have no recourse – reception will keep her ID so you have a layer of protection in case something goes awry.

Happy Hunting!

Enjoying Asia

[Txmanny]

Culturally speaking, Vietnam is still a conservative country where most of the "old-fashion" females are not allowed to express their affection publicly. Though this is a dying way due to the influence of the "MTV" generation, it's still not common for a vietnamese girl to express her interest in a male the way it's done so overtly in the states. Also realize that most girls that we speak of in this forum are girls that are in the business of entertaining guys. They should not be used as examples to generalize the cultural ways of the majority of other women in the country. So to say that vietnamese women are subservient toward westerners is an incorrect and grossly bias statement. Girls that work in the business of entertaining guys are exposed on a daily basis to all sort of characters. So they learn how to play the "game" quickly and are often more clever than their male clients. Therefore, they tend to be as shaddy as most guys that they encounter in their work environment. You shouldn't treat these girls that work in bars, clubs, and bia-oms any differently than a stripper in the states. Like it or not, those that entertain guys for a living are mostly of the same breed no matter what country you visit. If you are ingrained in Vietnamese culture, you will find that people, particularly in Saigon, are not subservient but quite the opposite.

[LexLuther]

Wendella,

You hit on a point about Vietnamese culture that Americans like myself (who were here two generations ago with U.S. military) found very difficult to understand. It's still a conumdrum to many of us. There may be a variety of reasons why Vietnamese do this. Perhaps they think it rude to say something which they think you don't want to hear. Or it may be a general attitude of subservience toward Westerners which causes them to fear disappointing us. It may be an Asian attitude which discourages saying anything negative.

Then again, perhaps they did intend to keep the appointment but at the last minute realized that doing so would subject themselves to censure from their fellow Vietnamese. It's hard to say. But it's important to realize that these people find it hard to be as direct and straightforward as Americans. It's a curious anomaly of their culture but an important one for us to be aware of.

Lex

[Wendella]

Just a warning to some, this place isn't always as easy to succeed in as you'd think by reading these posts. It's also common (I'm told and have experienced myself) to be played by a girl there -- she'll be very friendly and very eager to try to make a date with you, but the next day you'll discover that was a totally false impression because she'll cancel the date at the last minute... or else just not show up. And then maybe reschedule only to do the same thing again the next time. This happened to me and one of my friends there, more than once. It's possible to do better than this, I'm sure, but it's something to be aware of. There's nothing automatic there. Unless you get propositioned to go home right after the club closes and actually meet the girl outside, which could happen. I think that would be much more likely to actually come about if she is the one who proposes it. If you ask for that, she'll probably say yes (to encourage a good tip) and then it's questionable whether it actually will happen. Yes, so for ourselves, getting straight answers from these girls has been tough. My impression is that they'll always answer by saying whatever they think you want to hear.

[Michelangelo]

Will be going to Saigin first time in a couple of weeks. Where is 4 Trong 1 to be found? Sorry for asking if address has been posted before, but cannot find it. Thanks in advance.

While I am asking, is there any interesting place close to Windsor Plaza to be visited?

Thanks for all advice.

[Txmanny]

Hello,

In Saigon, girls who work at these "entertainment" establishments such as bia-oms, bars, clubs, etc. are working girls. You may occasionally find a non-working girl but this is rare; meaning she will not entertain your proposition unless you two have a relationship of some sort. At 4 trong 1, if you want the girl to spend the majority of her time at your table you must TIP. Here are a few things to know. Apparently 4 trong 1 is divided into sections, within each section you have one manager (1 of the tie guys) managing multiple girls assigned to that section. If you are at a section that your girl is not assigned to, she will not be able to spend but a few minutes at your table the entire night. What you must do is get there real early, find the girl you like, and ask her what section she is assigned to for the night. It will be different each night because they rotate. Once she tells you the section she is assigned to go and sit there. Ask her who is managing her section and ask her to introduce you to him. Greet him by asking him to toast with you, shake his hand, and tip him 50,000 to 100,000 dong. Tell him you like this bar because of this girl and would like her to accompany you tonight. Doing these things will ensure her company with you most of the night. However, be a little thoughtful and remember that these girls make most of their money via tip. So be a little understanding and let your girl "roam" to different tables through out the night so she can make her money. You not being pissy when she leaves every now and then and being understanding toward this will give of the "good-guy" vibe. They love a thoughtful guy and this will make your ultimate goal a bit easier to achieve. Regarding if these girls will prostitute - most will, a few won't, and some requires a little effort. You must have encountered the effort one :-) I met me one of those too. Just remember that these girls work at these places because they need money. Just catch any of them during their desperate times and you will get what you want when the price is right. However, if they are not in desperate times, the effort factor comes in. Anyhow, back to the subject at hand. The girl I liked there at 4 trong 1 did not go out with me after work regardless of my persistency. She informed me that she could meet up with me the next day before work (they usually get to work between 6-8pm) after I have been at 4 trong 1 a couple of times asking for her company each time. However, she found some lame excuse the last minute to cancel the first time we made plan. She rescheduled for the next day. I think this is some sorta ritual during the courting process to show that the girl is not "easy" in Vietnam. Anyhow, after going out several times I was successful with my conquest. The nice guy card does really work in Saigon. Most foreigners and viet-kieus have 2 things working for them: money and the chance for these girls to escape their current hardship (which most of the time is poverty) via marriage. These two qualities over the domestic male will give you the advantage you need to approach most young ladies in Saigon. Here in the U.S. it's usually the superficial trait that will give you the advantage to approach most young ladies. Anyhow, all you must prove on your date in Saigon if your girl is the "girlfriend" type is that you are honest. Most males in Saigon date multiple girls at the same time so there is lack of faith in the male sex by their counterpart. If you are able to give of the vibe that you are a nice and honest guy, you will be successful in your conquest. It's not that hard, just be courteous, humble, and thoughtful on your date. After 2-3 dates you will get what you want. Of course, this is just my opinion and it works for me. Many guys just prefer the old fashion way, throw money at the girl until it works. To each his own happy hunting.

TXM