In the welding trade I've worked with plenty of Vietnamese. One of their main cultural problems is an affinity for crack. I've shared housing with them while in New Orleans. On that occasion when I first agreed to share a place with a guy who had been working there for some time I moved in and just started paying my share of rent which was very low. First up was cleaning the place up. I can't stand grungy filth so every weekend I fixed things that are just standard maintenance like changing out burnt light bulbs and cleaning the grunge around the kitchen. It's like my new roommate had no concept of cleaning up. I kicked out some of the week end losers who were mostly crack addicted fishing crew. My roomie was grateful in a way but still bitched because I have a way of establishing some authority and house rules when I am paying part of the bill. One house rule was no drugs no matter who came by to visit. One of my other coworkers was a tall Vietnamese who I liked for the most part. He had fled Vietnam after killing a bunch of commie soldiers while operating a train engine. The way he told it, he noticed that while passing a certain base the soldiers would congregate on the tracks, smoking and relaxing. His route took him by there late at night so he made a plan. One night he turned off his lights and didn't sound his horn. Just swooped through like a silent ghost leaving behind a tangled mess of torn up bodies and screaming soldiers. At the next station which was mostly abandoned he stopped and hosed down his engine very carefully. The train behind him went through the same area right through the gore and so when he stopped on schedule at the next stop they had radioed ahead to inspect his engine and couldn't find anything wrong. When the train behind him stopped a short time later the wheels were covered in gore. However, knowing that trick would only last a short time as timing of schedules was inspected he fled. From there he went to Amsterdam and then got a Visa and asylum in USA. This guy was one Vietnamese I actually liked completely and trusted but he had his own flaw. Drinking. Eventually it cost him a very good job when he started missing work. So, here's what happened and why this guy is important. One evening after I had cleaned the place up, Tuan (my big Vietnamese friend) I, his girlfriend and my roomie are having a nice dinner I had laid out for us. A very relaxing and enjoyable evening. Two of the old stoner losers showed up and wanted to join us. Ok, fine, no one has any objections to sharing our meal. Then in a couple minutes one of them starts boasting how he scored some weed. I've no real objection to someone having some weed on them but decorum and manners mean a great deal to me. A young lady was in the room and it seemed rude to just start bragging about something dumb like that. Then the idiot pulls out his bag of weed to show it off. I asked to see it, the guy hands it over and I toss it right out the open door. I tell him weed is fine but keep it in his car and don't ever bring it in, especially when we have a lady guest. Instantly the two guys get up and want to fight. Tuan tosses them both out on the sidewalk and tells them if they want to fight they have to go through him first. They curse some and then take off. We go back to our meal and laugh it off. Dumb asses. We don't need a couple idiots around. Next day we hear that they had left in a bad mood, smoked some weed and then went to visit another home. In that home was a young lady who had been promised him by the mother as a future wife. She had bilked the guy for ten thousand dollars as a dowry payment. The father knew of this but you know, MONEY! He kept his mouth shut and let this scam go on. The guy is now paranoid that it was a scam (It was) and demands his money back. Of course they don't have it and tell the two guys to beat it. Very arrogant. The dad gets a gun out and tells them to leave. The guy who is being scammed pulls out his gun and they start shooting. Both the father and the guy are killed along with the daughter who gets caught in the cross fire as she tries to protect her dad. The mother survives and the other guy ends up in jail. One of his friends called us to say he had left his jacket hanging by our door when he came to visit and for some reason they want it back. We didn't even look in the jacket to see why they want it back. Just handed it over when the friend came by. We did take turns at our shared apartment trading off with week end dinners. One weekend it was my friend's turn to bring home the dinner and he proudly brings in a Styrofoam clamshell with my meal. I open it up and am confused by what I see. Some sort of red meat with basil leaves on top and some red sauce. So what is this? Turns out it was raw pork with basil and raw pig's blood as sauce. And these people are always mystified why they get sick so often. That Laotian coworker I told about, her mom and dad ate squirrels, turtles, roasted grasshoppers, and perhaps things I knew nothing about. Worst thing her mom served me that I just couldn't eat was fish head soup. Nasty, greasy, plenty of bones and very little meat. Hey, in my defense I tried but finally gave up. No can do. I learned to ask what I was served before I took a bite. Snakes, beetles, what ever. As a joke I offered to catch stray cats and give them for meat. For some reason they think cats are sacred.