RE: The lowdown on Ho Chi Minh/Vietnam - datasheet
It's been a little over 2 weeks since my HCMC trip, and I am finally posting some of my thoughts.
I won't go too much into things that have already been covered here by others since I'm relatively new to RVF and it was my 1st trip there.
My stats: English speaking Korean, early 30s
Game level: Low
Main game: Tinder
Dates: late Sept. to mid Oct. 2017
Logistics:
I booked an airbnb at Icon56, a midrange condo with rooftop pool, vinmart (convenience store on 1st floor), and 24/7 security. Mine was a 1BR with good fast wifi, cable TV, 2 AC units, fully equipped kitchen, washing machine, among other useful appliances. Price was about $50 a night, no deposit required. Icon56 is pretty well known to most cabbies and ubers, and is just a 5-10min uber to most nightlife areas in D1. If you get a place here, ask the host what floor the place is on. I stayed in a lower floor, and was woken up by a school's loud announcements and music almost every morning (try to get a higher floor).
Some people here have posted about guards being strict about letting in girls in apartments/hotels. At Icon56, only once in the evening was I stopped by the front desk to "register" my female companion. They said if she stays the night, my room would be charged $10 a night, so you can just bang her and have her leave before it gets too late. I think it's all about luck in these serviced apartments. If they see you and feel like bothering you to register your guest, they will. But in my 2 weeks there, I was only stopped once.
Prices:
I found HCMC cheaper than Thailand and the Philippines. The food seemed healthy and tasty and the most I paid for a drink was 140,000 dong ($7). In Korea, only dive bars have drinks that cheap, so I was quite happy.
Transportation:
Use uber if you don't mind waiting a few min. for the driver to arrive. Otherwise stick to vinasun and mailinh taxis (the legit ones with proper meters). When it wasn't raining, I enjoyed taking uber motos (scooter). May not be everyone's cup of tea if you don't like breathing in pollution but it is faster than cars and an experience.
Phone:
I got a mobifone sim with supposedly LTE data and voice; however, very few spots in HCMC seemed to have LTE. Most of the time I was on 3G, and it was a big drain on my battery. I don't think you really need to get a plan with voice as you can call girls using data on viber/whatsapp/etc. A ton of places offer free wifi if you order a drink/coffee, so I didn't really think you need a ton of data here if you're here for a short time.
Pipelining/Setting up dates:
Just tinder with a few daygame sprinkled in. I set my location to HCMC a week or so in advance and started pipelining. Funny thing is, the daygame was a fluke. The girls would open me by asking if I was Korean and giggling. All I had to do was chat with them a bit and get their number and meet them for dinner/drinks/coffee after they finished their shift. I think it helped that I had a friendly smile on my face and was a lone male foreigner.
My main source of girls was tinder though. I noticed there are way more girls here than in Davao (as expected) and you won't really run out of chicks to swipe. So you can be picky and weed out the bitches and P4P ones.
Places to see:
- Mekong delta tours: I had fun on this full day trip with a mixed group. I got the fb of an older portuguese girl but she flaked after (said she was too tired after the trip).
- Strolling the area around Bui Vien in the evening: lots of places to people watch with a cold cheap beer in hand and many drunk backpackers if that's your thing (most were whales or couples though).
Viet Girls:
I found Vietnamese girls quite refreshing compared to Thai and pinays. I wasn't asked to buy shit by most girls, unlike what I'm used to in SEA. Girls were genuinely very happy and thankful when you buy them a meal/drinks. Pinays started wearing me out asking for taxi money and little gifts they saw in shops. Vietnamese girls often make at least an attempt to split the dinner bill and if she considers you her "special man" she will be paying her share of cabs and drinks. I even lost my prada wallet in an uber once, and the girl I was meeting helped me call the driver and drove me on her scooter to the rendezvous with the driver. And then she gave the guy some money out of her own pocket even as I was preparing to hand over some myself. This actually blew my mind and made me want to keep seeing her, which I did.
Their English level is not as high as pinays, but simple conversations were possible. They seem to be better educated than Thai and Pinay girls, have more varied interests, and are just more fun to be around. I think if you learned some basic to intermediate Vietnamese, Viet girls would be much better LTR material than both Thai and Pinays. This is coming from a guy who's lived in the Philippines for 10 years (albeit only 3 short trips to Thailand).
SNL is possible if your logistics and game are tight. However, I only got 1 SNL (via tinder). She was a 22 year old with a Kakao account, hinting that she chased Koreans.
Most of my lays came after 2-3 dates (4 girls in total, but one was just a BJ as she claimed to be a virgin...and I didn't want to deflower her). I think the key is to show you are a gentleman, flirt with her, kino, and then bring her back to your pad for the home run. However, my main method was bf game instead of just pure seduction because I wasn't hunting in clubs/bars. Many of the girls are employed at a real job, so they will often only have time to meet for dinner/drinks on weekdays. Many also work Saturdays (most the girls I met said they work a halfday on Saturdays), so keep that in mind when setting up your meetups.
I went to Vung Tau with a girl I met off tinder. I found the beach a bit lacking when compared to Thailand and Philippines, but it was nice to get away from the hectic city of HCMC for a few days. Most girls recommended Phu Quoc, which requires a short flight. I will have to check it out next time I visit.
I ended up keeping in touch with just 1 girl (the one who helped me retrieve my wallet). She is just too sweet and easygoing!
Other girls:
As I mentioned above, there are many female backpackers and tourists, but most will not be bangable.
There were 2 exceptions: Japanese and Korean tourists.
These I found in abundance in the malls (Vincom Mall and Saigon Centre), but I didn't have a chance to try opening as I was with a girl every time. But in my experience picking up Korean girls in Khao San, I just had to ask them if they were Korean (in Korean) and most receptions were warm. My suggestion for Korean girls is to just open with "Hi, are you Korean?" in Korean (Hangook saram ee aye yo?) and then switch to English after you exhaust your Korean.
For me, since I'm Korean and speak fluent Korean, I could game them in their most comfortable language and also easily show off my English when ordering drinks/food, which tends to impress them (they always comment that I sound American, which I can use to boost my DHV by sharing stories of living/studying/working abroad).
Nightlife:
- I didn't do much clubbing this trip so I won't say much, other than try to find what the happy hours are at the places you want to go. Not really for your budget (it's still pretty cheap) but more so you can maximize with more sets to open.
Summary:
If you can, I would suggest staying for at least 3 weeks or more. Things are a bit slow paced with girls here and it will take you a few dates to get most girls to put out. I often didn't have enough time to slot in girls and keeping up with dozens of girls on tinder/viber/whatsapp started becoming tedious. I prefer to stick with 2-3 ones I like being with, and meeting just 1 girl a day. Vietnamese girls are probably my favorite Asian girls now. I will be trying to return in the winter because I miss it so!
Also, I've been looking at moving there permanently since my trip. I really loved it that much. Luckily for me, there are a bunch of Korean companies there that need Koreans who can speak English, so I have started jobhunting! Like Zerdame, I have begun using Duolingo to learn Vietnamese as I think it's really appreciated by most Viet girls (and also to raise my value to foreign companies in Vietnam).
I hope to meet some of the RVF expats there in the future. I'm sure I barely touched on what actual life is like there in my 2 weeks. But I really loved what I saw and think it will be my next permanent destination. Many thanks to all the posters before me who gave great tips!
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