Many among Hanoi's wealthy class are willing to pay billions of VND on luxury items in order to show their status.
Expensive coffins
Decorated coffin
Mr. P, of Hanoi bought an early coffin for his father.
According to him, usually sells for at least VND3 billion (USD144,000) for the quality of the wood. The coffin has been carved with mythological creatures and plated with gold. The coffin he picked for his dad cost around VND10 billion.
Ornamental trees
VND1.6 bilion henna tree
Bao, of the Tay Ho District, in Hanoi, has many ornamental trees with a total value of tens of billions of VND. Especially his two trunks pine tree which was asked by a customer at USD80,000 but he refused.
USD3000 ornamental fish
The platinum fish
Vu Kieu Ly, an owner of Viet A arowana fish said he provides fish imported from Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore at millions of VND, some fishes from famous species will have prices at USD1,000-3,000.
Chinh Ngoc, a well-know fish owner with his arowana fish collection with 12 arowana fishes that worth USD 24,000, a USD10,000 platinum fish. Those fishes, which are said to bring wealth and good luck, are happily live in their millions of VND tanks.
Elaborate plank beds
Plank bed
The plank beds made by Tran Duc Tuan are priced at around VND2 billion.
The fine detailed carvings that Tuan has spent years making, along with the tightly fitted wood, is what makes these beds special.
Tuan said that some people have offered to buy beds for prices as high as VND2 billion, but he refused.
Bird raising
USD10,300 yellow nightingale
Ly Hung Tu, of Hai Ba Trung District, owns a bird collection worth around VND1 billion, which includes six nightingales and seven red-whiskered bulbul.
According to Tu, the most expensive type of bird in his collection is the yellow nightingale. He bought the bird from a friend for USD9,000 because his friend needed money to buy car. After a while, the friend wanted to buy the bird back for USD9,500 but Tu kept it.
Recently, he also refused another offer from a friend at his bird club to buy a bird for USD10,300.
The cages can also be quite expensive. Tu owns around 30 bird cages, some worth tens of millions of VND. The cheapest one that he owns is worth VND4 million.