Practice English on the bench — the café they pick bills at 6x

The conversation is free; the venue they walk you to bills at around six times the fair price. One pattern, two costumes. Around Hoan Kiem Lake's south shore and St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi, friendly "university students" ask to practice English, then steer you to a partner café where an accomplice presents the inflated bill. Near tourist hotels — most reported in Hue, with the same play in Hanoi, Da Nang, and HCMC — an older "teacher, waiting for my children" chats warmly and walks you to a restaurant with the same ending.

Here's the thing: strangers asking to practice English is genuinely common in Vietnam, and usually exactly what it looks like. The chat is fine. The escort is the…