VietNamNet Bridge – Economic crisis does not make Vietnamese rich men to forget their luxurious and strange hobbies. They still spend money in the hobbies that were perhaps for kings in the past.

Monkey brains

Monkey brain, bear hands, snake fetus and eagle eyes used to be processed into cuisines for kings and aristocrats. Today, some rich people are willing to pay a lot of money for these “foods.” However, the merciless food is strongly criticized by the media and the public.

The most inhuman cuisine is monkey brains, which was used by Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi. The brain is usually eaten fresh, spooned out of the skull while the monkey is still alive.

Eating animal fetus is also a fearful hobby of the rich. Viper fetus is considered the top. This “cuisine” is processed as follows: A chef grabs a viper by his left land. He uses a very sharp knife to cut off the snake tail. Snake blood runs into a glass. Again, the chef chops off the snake into two pieces. Bowel falls from the snake stomach. Its heart and gallbladder are separated and put into two a big glass of wine. The third stab is made to the snake fetus. Baby snakes fall into a plate.

Snake foetuses.

Rich men drink two glasses of red (snake blood) and green alcohol (snake bile) before dipping baby snakes into a boiling broth pot. They believe that these cuisines can help enhance their sexual strength.

Eating meat, drinking blood and bile is not enough for rich people. They even eat eagle eyes to have bright eyes and be strong.

Eagles must be at least one kilo in weight. An eagle’s legs and wings are bound tightly before a chef uses a sharp knife to scoop its eyes out. After taking the eagle’s eyes, the chef uses a pastel to strike the bird dead to process into dishes.

Building big family temples is also a hobby of rich men.

Five years ago, the public was amazed by extravagant hobby of Mr. Tran Cong Loc, former chief procurator of the southernmost province of Ca Mau. Loc built the biggest family temple in Nga Nam town in Soc Trang province. The temple is located on a 7,000sq.m of land. From outside, it looks like the building of mandarins in the past, with lotus pond, a semicircle bridge, timber columns carved with sophisticated patterns, etc.

Luxurious coffins.

In 2011, Nguyen Duc Luong, Chairman and CEO of Hanoi-based Truong Linh Housing Development JS Company, became famous for building a temple for his father, a war martyr, in Chi Linh district, Hai Duong province.

Luong spent a million USDs to build this temple over ten years (1998-2008). The temple is situation on a 5,000sq.m campus. It is surrounded by Kinh Thay River and Chi Linh Mountain. This position is praised to be very good by fengshui experts.

The temple is built by iron wood imported from South Africa and laminated with gold, by hundreds of builders who were artisans from Son Tay. It took them several years to build the temple but Luong was not satisfied with the work. He hired other artisans from Nam Dinh to re-build the temple. The final work is a real artwork.

Tran Cong Loc's family temple.

Mr. Vu Hong K, a rich man in Hai Phong city, built his own tomb on 3,000sq.m in Kien An district, Hai Phong, at the cost of over $1 million.

K went to Thanh Hoa to find rocks of the best quality. He did not use explosive to explore rock but used human physical strength. Each piece of rock was worth $500-1,500.

Three artists and hundreds of skilled workers worked in five years to finish K’s tomb in 2010.

Mr. K's tomb.



Mr. Luong's temple.

Buying coffins worth hundred US dollars is another hobby of rich people. These people order coffins though they are still healthy. They usually hire artists to design and hire skilled workers to make coffins.

Coffins of rich people are often made from rare wood like. A coffin is priced from $400,000-600,000.

Breeding wild beats is a new hobby of rich people. They race to seek strange and rare animal from Laos, Cambodia, India, South Africa, etc., for example ostrich, wild boar, deer, monkey, tiger, python, lion, etc.

Compiled by T. Cham