HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - Vietnam's popular karaoke bars, renowned for hard drinking and prostitution, face tough new restrictions starting in July, according to a government decree.

The decree, issued this month by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and shown to Reuters Wednesday, bans karaoke bar patrons from drinking spirits, imposes fines for public drunkeness and limits the number of servers to one person per room to discourage prostitution.

From July 1, drinking spirits in karaoke lounges is subject to a fine of up to 1.5 million dong ($94), equivalent to a monthly salary of a government official. Public drunkeness in any place out of the home including in clubs and restaurants, is punishable by up to 500,000 dong ($31), the decree said.

Lounge owners would also be fined up to 4 million dong ($250) if they use more than one person per room.

Karaoke is not only recreational but also widely popular business etiquette in the Southeast Asian country of 83 million.

Last week, state oil monopoly Petrovietnam's financial arm ordered 21 officials to write "self-criticism" reports for not singing karaoke at a business contract-signing ceremony.

 

thats a lot of dongs h:

 

Man.....if i went over there with like 10G's .....sounds like i could live like a king....cus if $94 is the equivalent of 1 months salary for a Govt. Official...just imagine what it would be like it you had 3+ stacks..woooooo weeeee

 

Yeah you would have big handful of dongs.:grinpimp:

 

I am sure he would spread all the songs on his bed and sleep in it à la "indecent proposal".

 

Letter slip owned you smart guy :chuckles:

 

DAMNIT!!! if it wasnt for that error it would've been pretty funny

 

For real, hurry lets book our trip. Only 2 weeks left till the new law is in place

 

hahaha, I went there with 15G, wasted all in less than 90 days. buahahahah

Sure, it sounds like a lot, however, similar to Japanese Yens, a lot of things cost even more than those in US. For example, they have taxes like 200%+ on import cars, which make a 3,00USD Honda costs 10,000USD over there

Of course, there are things that's realy cheap.

But yeah, for 10K, you can live like a king, but not for a long time though.

Back to the topic - Damn, clubs and karaoke are what I really enjoyed over there though :naughty: