Comments on: The Price of Being a Foreigner in Asia

By: tu-anh

tu-anh — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:25:18 +0000

hey, i just stumbled across your website as its in the top 10 list of something (myeggnoodles tweet). Anyways its a great website that i can deffo relate to as my family are from vietnam and living in the u.k.

Yh, vietanemse sellers will always try to rip you off as they know that ppl will always try and haggle down the price so my little trick is to pretend not to be that interested in the item as in walk away (soom they will stop u) and it can go as far as 1/4 of their starting price .

keep on the good work!

By: Rebekah

Rebekah — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:51:25 +0000

EEEEKKK! Sherry! I always go to the same lady in the wet market now, she knows I live in HK, so I don’t get charged tourist prices anymore (though I doubt I’m getting Chinese prices).

I had an awful cab ride two days ago. The cabbie was rude, the cab stunk, his driving in heavy traffic was terrible…I normally round up unless the experience is bad and tip if it’s very good. It was $27, but he wouldn’t let me get out where I wanted (where I always get out…), so it clicked over to $28.50- this meant that not only was there no tip, my rounding up rule was out the window too. To top it off he cracked it at me when I gave him a $100 note (not considered a large currency here). He then gave me my change in coins, lots of them, including lots and lots of 10 and 20 cent pieces (about 1 and 3 US cents). I jumped out before I counted it, to find he’d given himself a tip by short changing me. Boy was I FURIOUS!

It took me about 15 minutes to calm down by telling myself it was about $US1 and he needed it more than me…but IT’S THE PRINCIPLE!!! I hate this stuff and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it- it’s not about money, it’s about being honest!

By: Nora

Nora — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:52:22 +0000

I feel your pain! But it is all in the name of “business”, and like you say – we can’t blame them for trying to make a buck. We can just be amused, and thankful that they’re not trying to rip us off for more!

When shopping overseas, I tend to decide for myself what I’m prepared to pay, and even if it’s still a rip-off, at least it is a price I was happy to pay. If I’m happy to pay it, and the vendor is happy to take it (duh!), then we all win, I guess.
(Having said that, I try to drive a pretty hard bargain – without being silly or too stingy…because it’s fun)!

By: Mary Richardson

Mary Richardson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:15:03 +0000

It’s just a fact when you travel in foreign countries. No matter how hard you try, you sometimes just can’t pay a local price…

but you know what? it happens in the States with immigrants living there. I heard many stories from ESL students who say they got ripped off because of their lack of English language ability… everything from car repairs to cable tv installation!

By: DTran

DTran — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:47:26 +0000

It’s not just Westerners. Being a Vietnamese oversea visiting VN, I’ve also had the same problem. The merchants usually recognize that I’m “Viet Kieu”, and they quote me differently. Electronic devices are more expensive in VN than in US for brand name merchandises.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:55:57 +0000

It’s absolutely part of the travel experience. But I’m not traveling, I live here – so no going home for me! When you live here you have to deal with this every day; and that can be frustrating at times. I’ve actually gotten quite used to it – however it’s normally not this blatent. I think it just points out what a huge differenc cultural difference there is between our countries.

By: Erica

Erica — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:31:46 +0000

Is this not part of the travelling experience??? You are only annoyed because you know better, they probably get away with it every day. If it annoys you soo much maybe it’s time to come home Good for them for trying i think, bet it makes their day when they get away with it.

By: Ba

Ba — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:25:34 +0000

Sherry – According to the Vietnamese locals (vendors), the westerners/caucasians are broken down into three different types/categories: Tourists (lots of money to spend), backpackers (little or no money to spend), and the locals (live and work in VN with decent amount of money). If you make 4-5 times more than the average salary in Saigon ($100-$200USD/month), you’re considered “RICH”. Depends on how you dress, you will be placed into one of these types. Similar concept also apply to overseas Vietnamese (Việt Kiều) but these Việt Kiều are judged by the way they speak. For some reason, these vendors are so smart, they’re able to tell even though we speak the same language.

By: Lilliy

Lilliy — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:03:59 +0000

That happens in so many places not juts in SE Asia. I went to places that don’t have tags or prices just so they can tell any price they want.
I went once to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and I was just browsing had no intentions of buying and there the shop owners are always inviting you in to just see, then they try to push you to buy once you just looked or touched something. So just for the sake of his pushing you ask the price a very common question there is “where are you from?” now mind you I was born in the US my roots are Uzbek and part of my life I was raised in Saudi Arabia.. many times people don’t know where to place me. So I start with US then say well I have a Saudi parent.. then say my family originally from Uzbek.. it was very interesting to see how the price tag changes.. from the original price it went down to by %60 and I am not kidding.
I just now see the humor in it and say no thank you and walk away or just say I will think about it.

By: admin

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:31:53 +0000

I am getting better at accepting it. I certainly don’t get as upset as I used to. It’s just one of those things that I find really divides us culturally! On the plus side – my negotiation skills have improved quite a bit over the past 9 months of living here!

By: Anil

Anil — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:44:06 +0000

This happens in many parts of the world but varies in how bad it is. I just accept it as part of the process and try not to let it bother me. Getting pissed off about it lasts way longer than it’s worth. (But hard not to sometimes!)

By: Lornadahl

Lornadahl — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:40:05 +0000

I’m so sorry to hear about that incident. As an Asian myself, I admit we’re guilty of assuming Westerners have lots of cash to burn. I dunno where it came from. Perhaps, we’re too insecure and we consider anything and anyone from the West as our complete opposites.

In my case, I realized it’s not always the case upon meeting foreigners on my travels and interacting with US-based clients over the phone for the last 6 years. I hope such treatment would change.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:06:08 +0000

@Lynn – you are right – I still was overcharged I’m sure. But I”m used to that here…but when they try to take it up another level it just irks me. Yes, I do agree, we have much more than them. However I’m not a corporate expat…I make very little in Western terms (hell, I’d be way below the poverty level in the States on my annual income here), so it just makes me mad that they think everyone white skin has money to throw around…not so.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:03:18 +0000

@Ba – there was a bit of hesitation, but I think that was becuase we said we saw her pull the sticker off. Yeah – I agree – you do have to negotiate everything here. It just really amazes me sometimes at how blatent the ripping off is!

By: Nomadic Matt

Nomadic Matt — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:12:00 +0000

they are not nearly as bad in other parts of asia….you don’t get that blatant in Thailand….this is one of the reasons why I hated vietnam so much!!

By: Lynn

Lynn — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:00:51 +0000

Sherry you realize you probably still didn’t pay the price you would have gotten if you were Vietnamese, right? In Hong Kong there were three prices – tourist price, local price and Chinese price. There was no way I could get the Chinese price, ever! It never bothered me though; it was just part of living there. I would jump right in and argue if they tried to charge me the tourist price, but after awhile I knew what the local price should be and could usually get it.

Different culture…and I always tried to see it from their point of view. To them we have so much and they have so little so it only seems fair to them to try to get as much as they can from us. I know its different for you because you aren’t living the typical expat life so a lot of times you really could use that “Chinese” price. Oh well…try not to let it get to you…its just how things are done.

xxoo Lynn

By: Dave and Deb

Dave and Deb — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:44:47 +0000

Wow, Mongolia, that is on our itinerary next year. I can’t wait to read what you have to say. Good job on the negotiations. I don’t know if Ba is right that it was still a ripped off price, but at least you got it for less that 30 bucks:)

By: Ba

Ba — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:53:21 +0000

Did she agree to sell it for 300k Dong with no hesitation? If that was the case, the sticker price was also the ripped off price. Venders in Saigon are getting tricky, they put price tag on the merchandise to make the buyers think that the price shown is the right price. Don’t hesitate to negotiate.