... in response to Vietnamese ladies....., posted by DaveB on Sep 24, 2001Hi,
Yes I have done business with Blue Dragon (it's called "Dragonfly International" now, I think). It's run by a Canadian named Bruce Metcalfe. I ordered some names from him back in 1999. I didn't have any problems.
I wrote to about 20 girls. One girl wrote me back and said she had a boyfriend, but her little sister would be intersted, and included a letter from her. I got engaged to her last year.
Like my fiance' says, there are good girls and bad girls on Blue Dragon. If you find a girl that still lives with her family, I'd say you'll have a winner. If you see a picture on the Blue Dragon website of a beautiful gril in a red dress and a guy that looks like Curly Joe DeRita in a black suit w/ red bowtie, that's me and my future wife at our engagement party. I got one of the good ones.
Before that, there was one girl that wrote me and told me in the first letter she loved me. Of course, I was skeptical. I didn't write her back. Then her friend emailed me and asked if I would be interested in HER instead. After a couple of emails, she said she was in love too. I was smart enough to know better. She emailed me next and asked me if I wouldn't mind flying her male cousin that lives in San Fransisco to Vietnam when I went. These are the kinds of girls you have to watch out for. If girls tells you she loves you right off the bat and then starts asking for money or to fly relatives out, etc., those you should drop her. It's easy to drop women by correspondence.
When I flew out last year I use AAA to buy my tickets. They had the lowest fares of anybody. That's before the National Guard had to start guarding us nationally, though. someone mentioned an $899 fare to Cebu from farmtours@psnw.com, it might pay to ask them if they have anything to Saigon or Hanoi. (Saigon is really Ho CHi Minh City, but nobody calles it that). You have to have a passport and a Visa to get into Vietnam. You apply for the Visa at the Vietnamese embassy in Washington. You have to fill out the forms (you can get them on the net), you have to mail them a fee plus send them your passport; they send it back with the Visa imprinted on it.They have an express service that gets it back to you in about 3 days (and it really does, I tried it). But then again, a lot's changed too. Check the website for the latest requirements.
When you go, have a spirit of adventure. THey have wonderful woman...and that's about it. I posted some trip reports last year around Oct or Nov. Should be in the archives.
Don't go by the U.S. Consulate unless you really have to. I went there because my inlaws to be told me there would be some kind of forms I would need. When I got there I found out I had to do it all in America. The next day the police came out. I remmeber when I heard the motorcycle I thought (joking to myself)"I bet that's the police coming to place me under house arrest". Sure enough, that was bascially it. Becareful what you joke for in Vietnam, even if you don't say it out loud. The police told my in-laws to be not to let me go walking around outside. Not alone, not with somebody, nothing,period. But sometimes we rented a van and went places...that seemed to be OK. I think the trip to the Consulate made them suspicious of me.
With things the way they are right now, I wouldn't think about a trip there. There are Muslims and Masques in Vietnam, but I don't know if they have "extremists" there or not. The State Dept. said today all travelers going ANYWHERE should be careful.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at d1684@hotmail.comnospam (remove the "nospam"), and I will try to be of help.
Regards,
D
