Buying Pearls in Vietnam

[Caitlin]

Thanks for that series of photos! Pearl farming in Vietnam! What a great pioneering effort on your part to be the first with photos from Viet Nam. Great Reporting!

 

[GemGeek]

Judi, be sure to visit John Tu. Sadly, I'll only be in Tucson for a couple of days.

 

[Cees]

the photo shows a Vietnamese 32 inch South Sea pearl strand, the pearls vary from 7.2 to 8.8 mm

 

[KarinK]

Preeetyyyyyyyy!

-Karin

 

[Adeline Leigh]

very very lovely; loving the graduated colours and ombre effect.

 

[jshepherd]

I just came back from Vietnam last week. My advice for buying pearls in Vietnam would be "DON'T." There are pearl shops everywhere, especially in Halong Bay. The sellers are all ready with presentations about pearl farming and stories about the industry, but I did not see a single strand of genuine Vietnamese akoya at any of the shops. They all carried commercial grade Chinese freshwater pearls at massive markups. Every time I told them that they were from China the reaction was incredible.

Oh, and one seller was even selling shell pearls claiming that they were coral.