Chinese are really good at imitating things. Vietnamese just make an exact copy. In the markets you can find major brands reproduction of basically every kind of clothes. Lonly Fake Planet guides are one of the most targetted copied items. They are available almost in every bookshop of the city. It is also quite usual to find people on the street trying to sell them. The guides always come with a plastic envelope - so you are not able to read it before buying. Anyway, internal pages are just photocopies, yet tge overall quality is impressive and at a first sight they all seem like the real ones, a real high quality fac-simile. After a while you'll soon realize that photocopies are not always perfectly readable, quality of paper is poorer and the book tents to lose pages if not used with care. Anyway, for 100.000 / 200.000 dongs ( 4-7 Euros, depending on the guides size and your bargaining level) they do their job and they can resist some weeks without collapse.
One of the most reproduced brand is the North Face. Shoes, Jackets, pants and backpack are spread all over the country. there are rumors that the North Face farm is located somewhere in Vietnam, therefore it makes sense that prices are quite low. Anyway, that's just bullshit, they are all fakes. And in fact as soon as you make it clear to shop owner (pretending you can easily recognise it) he starts to bargain the price.
Anyway, I just needed a bag for overnight staying and decided to invest my 7 euros. The new bag was really nice and I soon decided to replace my old one. I felt culpable then. It's strange how travelling for so long makes you establish a kind of relationship with your own stuff.
My new backpack was colourful, comfortable, handy and contains mucho more stuff with all those pockets.
Well, it lasted for just one week. I'm now back with my previous one, I hope he didn't take it too much seriously...
