Apocalypse Now

There's a bar in Saigon/HCM City called Apocalypse Now. Fairly new and famous for being one of the first bars for the newly monied class. Young (and relatively rich) Vietnamese with the latest fashions filled the place in addition to a few Westerners. One one end were three DJ's keeping the place moving by playing songs with a heavy bass theme. On the other end was a pool table with phenomenal pool players! They could really play ... must spend a lot of time at it.

A bar is a bar, but what is interesting is that the people we saw inside were clearly different from the average Saigonese. There's a big economic boom going on in Vietnam, with a lot of new investment and construction. Someone has to be making money, and we saw some of them. How do you make money in Vietnam? First of all get into a position of authority and decision making, then be in a position to issue contracts. 'Commissions' take care of the rest. We spoke with an Australian women whose husband runs a architectural firm doing work for a major Vietnamese bank. She told us that any contract requires a commission -- in one case, a $30,000 assignment required payment of a commission to a bank officer (who was responsible for making the decision) of $2,000. Given the cost of living in Vietnam, it doesn't take too many of those deals to get rich!