Ho Chi Minh City - General Info

[QUOTE=Pokey Penguin]Perhaps I am the one visiting the Twilight Zone version of NPK. I am trying to understand your directions, JD, but I have never seen a big cafe on NPK, unless it's only open in the daytime. Practically everything on NPK is closed at night except for the 4 hot tocs and about the same number of Bia Oms.

When you give directions, it would be better if you gave an orientation point. Right, left are meaningless unless we know which direction you are heading on the street.

My understanding is that NPK starts at VTS and ends at that Lotteria restaurant. Or is there a continuation of NPK that I'm not aware of, full of big cafes and seductive hot tocs with warm, friendly gatekeepers?

I'm not very observant, so next time I visit I will look for that strange blue door you spoke of, and motorbike ramp, as I have never noticed these things before. Also that phantom cafe.[/QUOTE]Those that know me know that I'm generally helpful, but with characters like pp on the increase, you can understand why I prefer to lurk.

[QUOTE=BBBJ]I read some reports here about there being 'FL's parading' in front of the Crazy Buffalo and Go2 bar. I sat outside the Crazy Buffalo for a whole freakin 2 hours (until 1:30am) sipping on a beer while trying to spot all these parading FL's. ...hoping to pick one up.

Well, I must have gone blind from the BBBJ-CIM I had earlier, cause for the love of Asian pussy, I couldn't spot them!

Sure, there's the usual moto-girl that flies by every 30 minutes or so, but in HCMC they're like Mosquito's: when it get's dark they're everywhere and annoy the crap out of me.

It was mostly backpackers, 'hippies' and teenage european/american girls followed around by their overprotective teenage boyfriends.

At 1:30am I paid for my drinks and walked down the street past the Go2bar (on my left). I saw a couple of bars with some girls inside, but that was pretty much it (assume the going rate is also the usual 800k-1milion in these places???).

So could someone please ...PLEASE! enlighten me about this place? Is Saturday night the one night that FL's stay home? Does the parade start after 2am? What am I missing?

As I was walking around I was also figuring that FL's or any self respecting SW would stay far away from a backpacker's area as they generally can't be suckered in to spending lotsa cash for a quickie, but then again... I might be totally wrong (hoping I am...).

Anybody? Please?[/QUOTE]There are unattractive gals in my opinion in go2bar and sitting in bars around that area. It maybe known as a backpacker area but you also get plenty of older deeper pocketed tourists who socialise in that area as such there will be quite a few FL around. The quality is similar to those found in apocalyspe. One of the guys I know who picked up an unattarctive gal, but he gave her a 8. 5/10 in looks stays in a hotel in that area. Normally she does the Singapore circuit as such it wouldn't suprise me if they use that area as one of the working strips.

Generally is there are a few gals sitting alone, nursing a drink and giving you more attention than what you would normally get back home from a gal, then chances are she is working. Just smile and strike up a conversation and the truth will come out.

The cost of the gals is a issue of your bargaining skills and luck. If the last 5 customers has given her 1 mill then even if she is worth less she won't budge on that price. If your not very attractive expect to pay more. If you look like you don't know what your doing pay more. Its possible to get 500k St in my opinion but given that q1 is a general rip off place, ie 1mill for gals older and less attracttive at apo than gals had at the 'massage' place. I won't be holding my breath for good deals.

PP is either a troll, extremely green (like a 12 year old), or .... perhaps the taxi driver took him to the wrong street?

I was there at 10pm last night and there's absolutely positively no freakin way you can miss the Cafe or the HT opposite to it.

May I humbly suggest that we move on to the next topic? The NPK HTs have been over-discussed already, and I'm afraid all these posts are starting to hype this place too much. This place deserves no hype. It's a simple place with very average girls giving a quick BBBJ+CIM for a bit of cash... that's it...nothing more.

If you're looking for eye candy, move on.
If you're looking for nice facilities, move on.

[QUOTE=Wendella]Phantom cafe? Uh... Pokey's gotta be winding you up here. That cafe is surely open evenings...and it's hard to miss. And if he somehow missed it (which anyone who's been on NPK knows is not possible) why refer to it as 'phantom'? Also, no one could visit that street in person and not realize it's a one-way. Sorry, my impression is he's here just to yank your chain.

This guy's looking like a troll. I mean... "Pokey Penguin"?[/QUOTE]

Hi guys,

I am visiting HCMC with my 26 YO cute and very bi khmer GF. We are looking for a VN cutie for some fun. What's the simplest and best way? We are staying in district 1.

Foursome is also an option if you are <40 and girl is VN and you can host. You can PM us

Cheers,

Lulu

[QUOTE=BBBJ]PP is either a troll, extremely green (like a 12 year old), or .... perhaps the taxi driver took him to the wrong street?

I was there at 10pm last night and there's absolutely positively no freakin way you can miss the Cafe or the HT opposite to it.

May I humbly suggest that we move on to the next topic? The NPK HTs have been over-discussed already, and I'm afraid all these posts are starting to hype this place too much. This place deserves no hype. It's a simple place with very average girls giving a quick BBBJ+CIM for a bit of cash... that's it...nothing more.

If you're looking for eye candy, move on.
If you're looking for nice facilities, move on.[/QUOTE]
Yes, BBBJ, agreed. But the sad and true reason for endless discussion of NPK HT and HBT and vicinity bars is that there is so little of this type of action in HCMC, at least that is accessible to foreigners and especially compared to other regional cities. To be real, HCMC is a casual mongerer's Asian nightmare. But if you have time and patience and a little bit of looks and a little bit of cleverness, SWT hunting can be some of the best in the region.
JD

Oops, I was wrong and JD was right. there is a new cafe on NPK. I never noticed it much, I guess because it's very quiet and there's hardly any people in it. I thought it was a restaurant or something. Sorry.

Boys, let me assure you that the Penguin is not a troll (whatever that is...I hate the way anyone with unusual or unorthodox posts on internet forums -- or a funny name instead of the usual unimaginative names -- is automatically branded a "troll"). I've been reading your reports for years, having them sent to my email automatically. Only recently, I learned about VPNs and anonymous proxies and started using them, which has enabled me to post more because it supposedly ensures that my posting remains private and secure.

I think I missed that cafe for the reasons mentioned...it is very quiet and there's hardly anyone in it, at least when I've been on NPK. I didn't look at it carefully because it didn't interest me. I thought it was a restaurant or another bia om or something. But I have now seen it, and saw the sign that said "Cafe." I also saw the blue door that JD referred to on the other shop, which is actually a blue gate, I think, light blue, but I was not sure because the street is so dark it's hard to tell the color. Perhaps JD meant blue sign, not blue door. That shop with the blue sign is the one that gave me the problem. Tonight I saw a busload of people pull up to that shop and go inside. Half an hour later when I passed by again, the shop's gate was shut. Wonder what that was all about.

I think, because I walk and don't drive, the fact that NPK is a one way street is not top-of-mind awareness with me, hence the questions about which way on the street.

Anyway, never mind...

Re Go2 and that Buffalo place...I went in those places a few times, went upstairs just a few days ago. There's virtually nobody upstairs these days, maybe because tourist arrivals are down, and I did not see any freelancers. I know I've seen a few freelancers occasionally wave at me from the upper floors of Go2 in the past, a few years ago. But WGs seem far fewer now in the PNL area than they used to be. How is Apocalypse lately? I stopped going there because there seemed to be only a handful of freelancers there, nothing remotely like the Thermae in Bkk. Last time I was at Apocalypse it seemed a waste of time.

I believe that freelancers mainly go to Apocalypse and Gossip on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Of the clubs I've been to, Gossip had by far the best looking girls, but I haven't been there in about a year. And tonight that disco on CQ, forget the name, was closed. Never been there to check out the action.

Against my better knowledge I went back to the backpackers area tonight to do some more 'research'. Expecting not to have much success I first paid a quick visit to my new favourite HT in NPK (thanks JD) to get my pipes cleaned and tension relieved.

2 objectives:
- get a better picture of the FL scene (if any)
- get a better picture of the girls in the bars, their quality and their price range.

Freelancers:

Instead of wasting time sitting outside at Crazy Buffalo or G02 bar, I just spent a good amount of time strolling around the area, observing and, at times, making myself look like I was ready to make a deal.

This time around I did spot an occasional FL. In total I think I spotted about 5 (the rest are all tourists, backpackers, hippies, etc.). They didn't approach me, even though I was making obvious eye contact with them and smiling at them. I also did not spot them approaching anybody else. I observed this for quite a while as I wanted to make sure they just didn't want to have anything to do with me.

The FL girls I spotted were all, without exception, butt ugly and old. 4 out of 5 had that nasty skinny heroine addict look with extremely heavy make-up. The other was probably in her 50s and also very unappealing. For those of you who know me a bit longer, I am very far from picky when it comes to pussy, but this was just not fuckable material, not even close!

Just for the hell of it, I approached one as she was standing on the sidewalk by herself. She asked me if I wanted massage. I replied "sure, come to my hotel, boom boom, 300k" expecting some negotiation to start. Well, I guess I struck a 'mama', cause she replied "I take you to many beautiful girls". I broke it off right there and moved on.

My theory about these FL's is as follows:
They're hoping to run into some totally drunk (or extremely desperate) tourist that can barely see and try to get a few hundred K out of him. Anyone who's even a little bit sober wouldn't go with them so they just don't bother with regular folk.

On a side note, please don't confuse the mainland China or South Korean tourist girls with freelancers. I noticed on two occasion's some young American guys approaching them as if they were FL's and the poor girls didn't know how fast to get away from them.

So in summary: the FL scene in this area is pretty much non-existent. While I have no doubt there will be the occasional legitimate and decent looking FL that gives this area a try, it's just absolutely not worth the time nor effort to come here hunting for a fuckable FL. You'll have more luck to pick up a FL at the Highlands Coffee shop in Saigon Center than here... and that's a strong statement!

The Bars:

Tried several of them around the area. Those bars where the girls outside try to get you to come in for a drink.

Again, a complete waste of time...

While I have no doubt that these girls can be taken out, their main and only purpose is to get you into the bar and keep you there for drinks. Every time I started talking about coming back to my place, they would come with some sort of excuse that you would have to wait. Most of the time they will say you need to buy them a Whiskey and then they'll go with you, after you do that, they'll find yet another excuse, but every time they want you to buy more drinks.

I found this really beautiful tall girl in one of the bars (bar girls in general were very average looking but sill fuckable for some bargain basement price), she said I had to wait till 1am when the bar closed to go with me. So I hung out with her...drinking... and at a quarter past one, she suddenly changed her story that the bar was now closing at 2am dictated by her boss and that I had to wait. So I thought ok, let me talk to her boss and see what it's going to cost to get her out of there now...but no deal. She did indicate that I could take one of the other girls, but this girl was super ugly (face and body) and old... I actually think she meant it as a sarcastic joke. Anyway... I think you all get the picture right?

As I left, the tall girl did give me her phone number (confirmed it immediately by calling her) and hinted I could call her before she starts work at 3pm. She did seem a bit embarrassed about the whole situation, but it could have also been an act. Will give her a call tomorrow morning and see if there's another scam lurking around the corner (can anybody guess)?

Conclusion: These bars are for drinking, and the girls get paid for selling you drinks, period. The classic carrot/stick routine.

So, I'm sad to say that I'll probably be hitting the touristy bar 29 tomorrow evening to get the usual 800k, 2x boom boom, experience. I know the mama pretty well there and she never forces me to buy drinks. I usually sit down for about 10 minutes, have a beer, pick a girl and take her back to my hotel. Compared to the crap you need to go through in the backpacker's area, it's a million times better, more efficient, better quality and, following the "time is money" principle, CHEAPER!

Tonight was the last time I'm going back to the backpacker's district for hunting. Unless you're a backpacker, hippie or just looking to get drunk/high, you have no business hunting there.

PP, thanks for moving on to another subject. Let's leave this NPK HT stuff behind us (in terms of discussing it) and move on to more interesting discussions.



[QUOTE=Pokey Penguin]Boys, let me assure you that the Penguin is not a troll (whatever that is...I hate the way anyone with unusual or unorthodox posts on internet forums -- or a funny name instead of the usual unimaginative names -- is automatically branded a "troll"). I've been reading your reports for years, having them sent to my email automatically. Only recently, I learned about VPNs and anonymous proxies and started using them, which has enabled me to post more because it supposedly ensures that my posting remains private and secure.

I think I missed that cafe for the reasons mentioned...it is very quiet and there's hardly anyone in it, at least when I've been on NPK. I didn't look at it carefully because it didn't interest me. I thought it was a restaurant or another bia om or something. But I have now seen it, and saw the sign that said "Cafe." I also saw the blue door that JD referred to on the other shop, which is actually a blue gate, I think, light blue, but I was not sure because the street is so dark it's hard to tell the color. Perhaps JD meant blue sign, not blue door. That shop with the blue sign is the one that gave me the problem. Tonight I saw a busload of people pull up to that shop and go inside. Half an hour later when I passed by again, the shop's gate was shut. Wonder what that was all about.

I think, because I walk and don't drive, the fact that NPK is a one way street is not top-of-mind awareness with me, hence the questions about which way on the street.

Anyway, never mind...

Re Go2 and that Buffalo place...I went in those places a few times, went upstairs just a few days ago. There's virtually nobody upstairs these days, maybe because tourist arrivals are down, and I did not see any freelancers. I know I've seen a few freelancers occasionally wave at me from the upper floors of Go2 in the past, a few years ago. But WGs seem far fewer now in the PNL area than they used to be. How is Apocalypse lately? I stopped going there because there seemed to be only a handful of freelancers there, nothing remotely like the Thermae in Bkk. Last time I was at Apocalypse it seemed a waste of time.

I believe that freelancers mainly go to Apocalypse and Gossip on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Of the clubs I've been to, Gossip had by far the best looking girls, but I haven't been there in about a year. And tonight that disco on CQ, forget the name, was closed. Never been there to check out the action.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Pokey Penguin]Boys, let me assure you that the Penguin is not a troll (whatever that is...I hate the way anyone with unusual or unorthodox posts on internet forums -- or a funny name instead of the usual unimaginative names -- is automatically branded a "troll").[/QUOTE]

OK if it means anything you sound like a real person, not a "troll" in these last few posts. A "troll" is basically someone who comes on just to f&*$ with people by making stuff up and pretending to be sincere. Winding people up, basically. Anyway, sounds like you aren't. It's a real problem in these kinds of forums, though -- on another one like this, there was a guy who'd come on and pretend to be a few different members all having a conversation, then anyone else (real people) who would enter the conversation would often get slammed by him or one of his fake personas. Stuff like that. So anyone who gets "branded" a troll -- it would be because people have suspicions they're not being real, basically are making stuff up in order to mess with people, to get a laugh at their expense. So I guess you could understand why some would get irritated by that.

But you're not one, so that's ok.

Also, about NPK -- it is a one way street but actually there's quite a few motorbikes that will go down it the wrong way, so it would be possible to not realize it's one way, esp if walking. I am one of those motorbikes that sometimes go down it the wrong way. ;)

[QUOTE=Wendella]

Also, about NPK -- it is a one way street but actually there's quite a few motorbikes that will go down it the wrong way, so it would be possible to not realize it's one way, esp if walking. I am one of those motorbikes that sometimes go down it the wrong way. ;)[/QUOTE]

WHAT??? Motorbikers going the wrong way on a one-way street in Vietnam??? This is an outrage! Call the police! Call the newspapers!

If we don't put a stop to this kind of behavior now, before you know it bikers will start driving on the sidewalks! Or even driving their motorbikes with one hand while talking on their phones and turning into a busy intersection!!!

Must say my experience of the PNL freelancers is quite different from BBBJ's. Most of the girls I've seen on the streets in this area have been young and attractive -- but always too small to interest me. Okay, not always...I have taken a few, even though they were small, and had about half good and half bad experiences. Good, from the ones on the streets. Bad, from the ones on motorbikes with a male driver.

Problem of late is that there are very few girls on the street. I have a friend who routinely gets girls in the park and he says that lately they've all disappeared. Sounds like more crackdowns by the Social Evils brigade. What a pity. VN has so much potential in this regard -- much prettier girls than Thailand, girls who need money. If VN govt really wants the country to become developed and successful it should harness its most valuable natural resource -- its poon. What a mecca this place could be, if not for the commie dogmatists.

Urgent advice required!

Guys, yesterday I met up with a girl from tagged. Early 20's and very sexy. The problem is that she seems like a decent girl. How should I go about blowing her off her feet in Saigon over the next 2 days so that I can get her in bed?

Is she one of those relationship hunters who wants to get a viet kieu or some highclass-ish *****.

Any advice would be appreciated b/c if you guys don't think it's possible, I just drop her and stick with the BJ and motogirls in D1, D7 and around NDC and the roundabout.

If she's fuckable, I will definitely post up contact details

Appreciated,

Harry

[QUOTE=Pokey Penguin]Must say my experience of the PNL freelancers is quite different from BBBJ's. Most of the girls I've seen on the streets in this area have been young and attractive -- but always too small to interest me. Okay, not always...I have taken a few, even though they were small, and had about half good and half bad experiences. Good, from the ones on the streets. Bad, from the ones on motorbikes with a male driver.
[/QUOTE]
You know guys, we talk a lot here about bad performance, poor service, lack of willingness on the part of the girl, etc. We've all read about [url=http://isgprohibitedwords.info?CodeWord=CodeWord908][CodeWord908][/url], sex slaves, etc, right? Well that's not only international, it's intranational. And SE is ground zero for this kind of treatment of girls and women. Try your best to be aware of why a girl seems reluctant to perform. Many girls are forced into what they are doing. There are threats of violence against them and or their loved ones to coerce them.

In addition, all the beggars, ticket sellers, flower sellers, gum and cigarette and book sellers around the PNL area are part of organized gangs. Nobody can operate independently in this area.

I will tell you two stories of girls forced to work the streets in HCMC.

1) Hoa was probably an ok girl who got involved with the wrong guy. She left high school, she left her family to be with him. He was no good, a drug user and a thief. She was neither, but she 'loved him.' He did petty crime like pickpocketing and snatching and stealing things off cars. He used the money to support them, buy drugs for himself and to gamble playing cards. He was always behind in payment for his drugs as his habit increased. He 'borrowed' from the dealers far more than he could steal. Eventually he was arrested for theft and sent to prison. He still had his outstanding debts to the dealers/mafia however and they came to get it from Hoa in the only way she could earn money for them. She refused at first, until the gang had her boyfriend beaten in prison. He called her and begged her to work with them to pay his debts or there would be more prison beatings. As she 'loved' him, what could she do? At first they rode her around on a motorbike with a male to strongarm her and make sure she did not try to run away, then later she had a female driver/minder, and as she got used to her new trade, they let her walk the streets, watching from nearby.

2) Nhi is from the southern Mekong Delta area. Her family were farmers on the land, when the craze of aquaculture began. They thought they would get rick quick and borrowed heavily to convert much of their land into shallow ponds used for farming shrimp/prawns. Her father is uneducated and the people who sold him the equipment, machines, pumps and chemicals were more interested in their short-term profit than in his being successful. The family did not qualify for any kind of bank credit and they were not connected in any way so there were no commercial or government loans available to them. The money they borrowed was from the money-lenders--the mafia, and the interest rates would make your head spin. These people think in terms of daily and weekly rates like 1% and 5%. No matter, her father was sure that when the first shrimp crop was harvested, they would have plenty of money to pay back the loans. Except that he did not get the chemicals, the food, the oxygenation right and the first crop all died about 3/4 of the way into the process. There was big money owed. So the family was forced to do what many have done before them. Turn over a pretty daughter to go to the city to 'work.' Of course they never say exactly what she is going to do. Work in a restaurant, sell coffee, as a maid, etc. But she is young and pretty and they can make a lot more from her in other ways.

Sad but true. So if you detect a bad attitude, poor service, an unwillingness, a lack of care for you as a customer, walk away. There are others out there who are working because they want to, and more importantly they can walk away when they want.
JD

[QUOTE=Happy Harry]Urgent advice required!

Guys, yesterday I met up with a girl from tagged. Early 20's and very sexy. The problem is that she seems like a decent girl. How should I go about blowing her off her feet in Saigon over the next 2 days so that I can get her in bed?

Is she one of those relationship hunters who wants to get a viet kieu or some highclass-ish *****.

Any advice would be appreciated b/c if you guys don't think it's possible, I just drop her and stick with the BJ and motogirls in D1, D7 and around NDC and the roundabout.

If she's fuckable, I will definitely post up contact details

Appreciated,

Harry[/QUOTE]

Buy her dinner somewhere nice but near to your hotel. After dinner just walk with her past your hotel and put the word on her once outside. Don't give her time to think about it.