Concern over Vietnam's drinking culture as cheap booze and rising wealth fuel consumption
As rising wealth fuels a 200 per cent increase in drinking, a country with no word for hangover may need to reassess its relationship to booze
A scantily clad DJ gyrates to ear-splitting music as the crowd of drinkers order more towers of lager: welcome to The Hangover, one of a new crop of 'beer clubs' raising concerns about Vietnam's drinking culture.
At as little as 30 US cents a glass, the communist country has long been one of the cheapest places in the world to buy a beer and, over the past few years, alcohol consumption has risen at one of the fastest rates anywhere.
But increasing wealth has brought new drinking options to a country which has no real notion of alcoholism and no specific word for a hangover.
Bars are still mainly the preserve of well-heeled expatriates and the Vietnamese elite, so beer clubs - with their music and air-conditioning - have sprung up over recent months as a funkier alternative for young, local drinkers, many of them committed to the cause.
"The purpose of drinking is to get drunk. It will be a waste if you are not drunk," Vo Van Bao, 21, said outside The Hangover, where he had come on a recent Thursday evening with friends.