Interrogated by a local

Hi.

On my recent trip, to Saigon I met a nice young man on Grindr. He invited me out for drinks with his friends at a diner in one of the back streets off Đề Thám. Despite the obvious risk of getting rolled, I took up the invitation. (Though as a precaution, I stuck my ATM cards, my good phone, and most of my cash in the hotel room safe, before heading out to meet him).

The risk turned out to be worth it. He was a lovely guy, of 25 years, very good looking, was clearly into me and I was into him. He was just passing through Saigon, and was visiting his friends here. They were really nice too. I had a great night. They paid for all the drinks, food, cigarettes, everything.

Only one sour point in the night: some tough guy at the diner came up and and decided to interrogate us. He tried talking to me first, with his broken English. But my new Grindr friend quickly got between us and started answering all his questions.

My Vietnamese is pretty poor, so I couldn't make out what they were saying. Whatever the nosy twirp's problem was, this was the first time, in all my visits to Vietnam, that I've received any hint that anyone there even gives a shit what I do.

And I find it ironic, because it was one of those rare occasions when I was doing absolutely nothing sordid, or even sleazy. Sure, I'm in my late forties, and he was in his mid twenties, but we were both consenting adults who clearly liked each other. So who cares? At this point, there wasn't even any suggestion of money changing hands.

Anyway, the nosy moron nearly soiled the atmosphere of the evening. Luckily he didn't succeed though.

Grindr friend came back to my hotel room that night. He fucked me twice, I fucked him once. After we'd run run out of condoms, we had to find other, creative ways to satisfy each other, until 4am, when he had to leave to catch an early morning coach to his hometown.

I asked him if he wanted money, he said no. I walked him back to his hostel, where he'd stashed his stuff, bought him a beer from the convenience store before he went in. We shared a cigarette, Facebooked each other, and made a conviction to at least try and catch up, if we're ever in the same part of the world again.

Congratulation to your success!

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Originally Posted by extronaut

Only one sour point in the night: some tough guy at the diner came up and and decided to interrogate us. He tried talking to me first, with his broken English. But my new Grindr friend quickly got between us and started answering all his questions.

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Do I understand this correctly? You, your new friend from Grindr and his friend were having dinner and stranger walked up to your table and tried to start a conversation (interrogation) with you, and your new friend from Grindr answered on your behalf? Very unusual and awkward.

who knows what it was about, it is after all not a democratic state so possible a plain clothes policeman making sure that the westerner wasnt a journalist or something along those lines....or maybe he was a mb trying to muscle in on the cash source

He could have been a plain clothed policeman. He had the manner of a cop. If he was, it would explain a lot. At the time, though, I just pegged him as a jerk who was sticking his nose in because he was drunk, and wanted to get macho. That would also explain everything.

And yes, Grindr friend did intervene, got between us, and answered on my behalf. He did so with urgency, as if he felt there was danger in this situation. My Vietnamese is shaky, at best, but I could pick out a couple of phrases like "he's a friend of mine", and "I am 25 years old."

Perhaps the guy saw me as some old pervert who was exploiting impoverished Vietnamese youth, and as a macho man, it was his duty to do something about it. If so, he had the situation completely wrong. This was just a case of two guys who met on Grindr, having a drink together, enjoying each other's company. One was considerably older than the other, but both were fully consenting adults, and there was nothing sordid or even vaguely sleazy about it.

The funny thing is, though, I have taken many a Vietnamese rentboy to my hotel room in the past. And never, has anyone even raised an eyebrow at me. My overall impression is that Vietnamese people don't give a shit about that sort of thing, as long as everyone concerned is an adult. Was I wrong?

Get a fake UN (or maybe CIA or something) ID card made up, and flash that around when necessary. That should do it.

thats one way of getting locked up....you should stip living in a HBO fueled fantasy world

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Originally Posted by extronaut

I asked him if he wanted money, he said no. I walked him back to his hostel...., bought him a beer from the convenience store ... shared a cigarette.... Facebooked each other and made a conviction to at least try and catch up, if we're ever in the same part of the world again.

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You do realise that in many parts of the gay world when all of the above takes place it does mean that you're now basically married to the guy right !!?? :-)