A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
I'm becoming just a leetle bit annoyed with some of the expatriate men living here in Saigon.

For western women, pretty much all but the young and beautiful among us are screwed in the romantic life department. Vietnamese women are tiny and gorgeous, and many are perfectly willing to go out with western men, even though it completely torpedoes any chance of their ever marrying a Vietnamese man. Of course, there's tons of prostitution too, and for men there's considerably less stigma attached to their participation than there would be in the USA.

I find myself getting very cynical about this. When a guy at a bar told me his sob story about his Vietnamese girlfriend (who "looks like a Cosmopolitan model") dumping him for someone richer, it was all I could do to keep from saying "serves you right for being so damned shallow". This guy was average looking, but a bit overweight in his mid thirties -- did he really believe a "cosmopolitan model" would give him the time of day if he weren't paying all the bills? This poor sap honestly thought he had found True Love, and had been discussing marriage with her.

The only reassuring element of the whole situation is that most of the older expats I meet here are extremely clear-eyed about their prospects for True Love with a gorgeous girl 30 years their junior, and most have at least one "learn the hard way" kind of story to relate. They still won't date American women, but at least they know what they're paying for.

© 2003 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 4:15 AM