A number of readers have expressed their thoughts on selfish behaviors at airports in Vietnam following a story published by Tuoi Tre News earlier this week.

Tuoi Tre (Youth)newspaper readers have been engaging in heated online discussions following an op-ed written by Nguyen Van My of Lua Viet Tours, regarding some of the unseemly behaviors he has seen at airports in Vietnam over the past several years.

These behaviors include passengers treating airports like their own homes -- lying on benches in waiting areas, placing suitcases on seats, and generally lacking social awareness of the other passengers around them.

My wrote that some passengers choose to nap by stretching across benches, fast asleep with their shirts pulled up above their bellies, ignoring those who are standing and without a place to sit.

Others, he said, opt to spend their time popping pimples or plucking hairs from themselves or their friends.

“No way,” Adam Halliday commented on the Tuoi Tre News story while Rick Ellis, another commenter, wrote “Pimple poppers ugh.” 

Alan Robins shared the sentiment. 

“Putting feet on chairs and picking their feet in public really annoys me [sic], so disrespectful [sic],” he wrote.

“I just read your article about Vietnamese airport culture,” a reader named Steven Johnson wrote in a message to Tuoi Tre News.

“I am a foreign tourist from Australia, the worst thing at your airports and for that matter, outside as well, is people coughing without covering their mouths!”

In his message, Johnson recalled a short flight from Hue to Ho Chi Minh City during his trip to Vietnam in February for the Lunar New Year holiday.

“A guy directly opposite me in an aisle seat coughed the whole flight,” he recounted. 

“Not once did he cover his mouth, spraying his germs everywhere that evening.

“And yes, I got sick the next day.”

According to Johnso, it is the lack of personal hygiene that foreigners will remember most about visiting Vietnam.

Some readers took a more neutral view, suggesting that these behaviors are the result of flight delays and long waits, and do not represent Vietnam's cultural characteristics..

“There's bugger all seats [in the domestic terminal in the Ho Chi Minh City airport] before you go through security,” Russ Harvey commented. “Electrical outlets [are] easier to find on Mars.”

“People get tired and it's hot so [it’s] no wonder people feel like sleeping. Aircon?! Bring your own fan.”

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