khunwilko, I agree...WHY is a good question to ask oneself. Some of us who have lived in Asian and Sub continental Communities, have come to understand that it's not only our litter but our western attitudes that pollute environments...it's exporting our habits to Countries where previously there has been no history or expectation of what we force upon them. In Vietnam the Tour Companies will never say "don't tip"...why would they? The facts are usually available from locals who experience the lack of service from their fellow Countrymen, often because a tourist does not have the knowledge or respect of local traditions and just goes about doing what they do at home.

"Tonkin Tours in VN, owned and run by Vietnamese, recommends $10 a day for guides and $5 a day for drivers. Am I hearing that some of you think this is way too much?"

That is absurdly high.

"Maybe THEY are ok with it, but i am NOT. If they want to call me a "silly farang" for giving more than $1 USD , so be it."

CaliNurse, do you realise the damage you are causing to residents with this attitude?
Pleas, just because the US has this appalling practice called "tipping", do not export these excessive tips to other parts of the world. Locals will actually laugh at you.

Lyndie - well said! I could not agree more.

It is of course the prerogative of the tipper to tip as much or as little as they choose, but we all should really give a little more thought to our actions and the socio-economic effects they have on the communities we visit. Tipping will only ever be of questionable benefit to the small percentage of people working in tourism or related industries and, even then in these industries it is only a small proportion that are customer facing and thus likely to receive a tip. The detrimental effect on those not working in the tourism sector (or even those who do but are not customer facing) should be obvious to anyone given a little thought.

Tourism is undoubtedly of great benefit to developing countries such as Vietnam but we should be very wary of exporting our own cultures and ideologies to these countries lest we destroy the very reason we want to travel there in the first place.

http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/wor...onditions.html

Thank you, Lyndie and crellston. I had pretty much given up the fight here, and you've put it better than I can.

This insistence on importing tipping to non-tipping countries is the worst kind of cultural imperialism. The perpetrators would be the first to complain if visitors from non-tipping countries didn't tip in tipping countries, so how about a little reciprocity? Whatever happened to "when in Rome"?

However much I hate the system, I've lived in the US long enough to know that tipping becomes a kind of reflex, and even a source of social anxiety when out of the country, but all the more reason to pay attention to what you're doing.

Just think about what foreigners throwing money around looks like to the locals. The Chinese don't call it "the stupid foreigner tax" for nothing, and that's probably one of the kinder reactions.

I just (re)read "Turning the Tables", by Steven Shaw, founder of egullet.org. It concludes with an essay against the system of tipping in US restaurants. Happily, I found an earlier (but very similar) version online:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/op...shaw.html?_r=1

thursdays..thanks for the link. Happy travels all!

A friend who's a regular on the Fodor's travel board for France says you can always stir things up by raising a question about tipping. Another topic that for some reason makes people go bananas is locks on suitcases.