Avarice and Generosity, a two-sided coin in Vietnam

So on with the blogging about experiences in Vietnam..

hmm where to start?

Life flipped upside down pretty much the first week we arrive here. Even as we tour the city and visit all these sites so new to us, there have been little traces of a different style of living that's going to make me adapt to something completely new. For example, life here is extremely more active than life in the States. Not to say that's bad or anything; I rather enjoy all the walking and stuff, it's just tiring. And sweaty. ahaha. Ooh and the oily, fatty food. That is going to be something that really irks me. However, I guess it'll complement the walking around that we do, up the down flights of stairs all day.

The people here are amazingly nice, but it's too soon to say; many will rip you off immediately and others will not attempt to take advantage of you whether they can get away with it or not. However, that is not to say that I can classify them into groups upon seeing their interaction with me. It was startling to see their interaction with different groups of people. I have seen them attempt to rip us off over five times within the first week. I have seen them treat other EAPers much better because they are more fluent in Vietnamese. But there seems to be a different side when they treat those who aren't foreign. At a phone store I went to with Linda, an old vagabond woman wandered across. I believe she was either very old or handicapped, but she was begging for money. She only had to ask once before the man working in the store went to find some money to give her. He did it without hesitation; it was so selfless. He didn't proceed to try to rip us off (or at least not to the extent of my knowledge), however I can crossapply his actions to many other locals. To them, we are just a bunch of rich tourist. Their life is business, and it's very hard to come by. And so, they'll do whatever they can to make a living out of their work, and seeing as how we are so wealthy in comparison, they are not going to think it such a bad thing to try to take advantage of our wealth. However, they know how harsh life can get here, as they are barely making by. So when they see someone else who is not so fortunate enough to make a living, whether physically unable to, uneducated, or just ill of luck, they don't hesitate to share their good fortune. I believe some consider it a social responsibility to take care of those who aren't able to take care of themself, because it's a community and everyone understands how hard it is to try to get by. It's also reflected in our families in America; the refugees that continue to send their savings home, and have done so ever since leaving Vietnam. My parents do so, even though the very much disagree with helping the Vietnam government in any way.

So to sum up, I'm not going to hate on them so much if they try to rip me off, even though sometimes I really want to punch them in the face. To me, it's a big principle; it's just not right to charge foreigners higher prices; it's like intentionally lying to someone, because we don't know how much it should. However, I guess it's not a big principle in this culture.

Something that ties in with this is bargaining. I've already written about my abhorrence of bargaining here although as they've taught us, the underlying purpose behind this is to get a fair price. The locals try to even out the large wealth disparity between tourists and themselves in a fair way by bargaining with tourists. If both parties can get to an agreeable price, then the transaction is made. Otherwise, the tourists are free to bypass the store, as there are the same merchandise just a bit down, or the store owner will just tell them to not do business at that store. Bargaining is, by definition, compromise, and that is fair because it is upon one's fault for accepting the price. I just don't like the effort.

On dispelling things that my parents have warned me about (as well as the whole Asian population of SoCal), Vietnamese people aren't super obsessed with money. They are not always out to get your money, nor are they willing to share if they have a fair amount of money. It's just easier to note upon here because it is such a big issue here, an everyday ongoing issue that the locals must think about.