Down the drain. The more I hear about Viet Nam the more I’m sadden. Apparently it’s all business over there .

One can send one’s kids overseas for a university education or one can leave them at home. 

It’s going to cost pretty much the same and well if they leave there’s no guarantee of a job when they get back.

Amongst the wealthy over there the running joke is it costs a billion dong a year to send them overseas . After a 4 years degree it’s 4 billion dong. 

For that amount of money you can pretty much buy them a high up position at a major company. 1 billion will buy you the first rung of the ladder then another will buy you one more thus your little one will be quite set up and comfortable by the 4th billion.

Yesterday he bought some tomato seeds for home. I asked him how is he going to get them home? Won’t the airport Customs officers stop him? Oh no I won’t have a problem $500,000 dong should do it. 

You can bring anything in for $500,000 dong. 

When we went back in 2003 every step of the way was bribery. Guess not much have changed only worse. And he wonders why I don’t want to go back . I don’t want to have to fork out money just to travel in peace.

I want to be able to leave tips as I see fit for good service not hassled for them before I even get the service. 

I want my family safe not eat food unknowingly laced with chemicals.

I want to be able to order food with prices written down and not when I go to pay the prices are 10 times as much as what was agreed because I’m an expat.

I want a lot for my holidays and well Viet Nam just don’t cut it.