My boyfriend and I have just returned from travelling around Vietnam.  We had a great time in southern Vietnam, visiting Saigon and Hoi An.  However, I have never before in my life met a more revolting group of people than those in northern Vietnam.  I have traveled extensively throughout Asia, Europe, America and Oceania and have never been treated as badly as we were in Vietnam.  EVERYTHING was a scam and everywhere you turned, someone was trying to rip you off.  This wouldn't be so bad if the people were not extremely mean to you in the process.

For example, each time my boyfriend and I stepped out of our guest house, we were harassed by motor bike taxis.  When you told them that you didn't need a ride and that you want to walk, they would openly mock you.  We went into a bar and split a very large bottle of beer.  When my boyfriend asked to pay, the waitress laughed at us and mockingly told the bartender that we only had one beer.  Never mind that it was only 12 p.m.   In Hanoi, our guest house turned the water off in the middle of the night and when we woke up at 7 a.m. to take showers they had still not turned it back on.  We had to go downstairs and wake up the staff (who were sleeping on the middle of the reception floor) and ask them to turn it back on.  THey tried to tell us that they would do it later.  We then had to demand that they do it immediately.  They had an entire hotel trying to shower and use the toilets and they didn't care at all.   And on top of that, they tried telling us that we had to pay an extra "tax" before check out.  What a rip off!

Some of the men that we ran into thought it was fun to whack my boyfriend on the back in a "friendly" way when he wouldn't buy what they were trying to sell him.  After a few times, Chris started hitting them back. Since he was twice the size of most of the men, it was pretty humorous how quickly they would back off.  

Every other traveler (whether they were Caucasian or Asian) experienced the same type of treatment in northern Vietnam and absolutely hated the place.  For a country that is trying to grow their tourism industry, they have a lot to learn.