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[imisssaitama]

Hi. Been learning Vietnamese from a Vietnamese friend in preparation for a possible move to the country this year. If I am to believe what she says Vietnam is a dangerous hell hole where you take your life into your own hands everytime you leave your front door. Brutal public stabbings, poisoning, snake attacks, horrific traffic accidents and tigers waiting to leap on you from every tin roof. (okay she didn't actually say that one but it was just for effect) I suspect she's a bit negative and blowing things out of proportion, although I'm sure those things happen from time to time. What's the reality? I know Vietnam is a third world country but is it really generally dangerous?

[RustyShackleford]

It's more dangerous than Saitama for sure.

Violence is relatively rare and easily avoided anyways. Traffic is deadly. Theft is rather common (although becoming more rare in my experience, especially outside the tourist areas)

[TRH]

I suspect that your friend is someone who lived through and escaped during the period while Le Duan was premier. During this Neo-Stalinist period, forced collectivization, loss of property rights and criminalization of private business led to extreme deprivation and the deprivation led to crime. Some were worse than others but people did what they had to for survival. My wife whose father was a true blue party member told me that she was a smuggler as a teen, taking sugar on her bicycle from her home province to the next, which incredible as it may seem was forbidden. Some Viet Kieu who visited Vietnam only when it first reopened in 1995, and not since, may have faced a lot of criminality. Ask your friend when the last time she was in Vietnam.

[sigmoid]

Personally, nothing consequential has ever happened to me during my years in VN. The things you most often hear about are motorbike accidents (often involving alcohol), overcharging and theft by taxi drivers, theft on overnight buses, money and/or other items missing from hotel rooms, bag snatchers and pick pockets, stolen phones, occasional burglaries, and various other forms of petty theft.

You can get a glimpse of what's happening in VN, a developing (not "third world") country, in the English-language press:

http://tuoitrenews.vn

http://e.vnexpress.net

Yes, it's state-sanctioned news but they do report on major crimes and accidents, especially those involving foreigners.

[imisssaitama]

Ok. Thanks all. My friend is 27 and was living in Vietnam last year.

[YellowMoon]

I have a friend who's been there for 2 years and she loves it.

[Prof.Gringo]