A gassy joke in the US is to call "information" and ask them how to bake a cake. Only in the past few years have entrepreneurs in the west begun to promote telephone-based services, by carving small niches in horoscope readings, stock quotes and wake-up calls, usually for around $3.00 per minute.The Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corp. (VNPT) has them beat by a mile. For 300 dong (about two cents) per minute, this local service provider offers the splendid "108 Girls." Reachable by dialing 108 nationwide, they will tell you exactly how to bake that cake. They will also recommend the tastiest restaurants, provide train information, and recommend films and then tell you the theater and show times. In fact, 108 girls are obliged to try to answer any question at all. (They also provide addresses and telephone numbers.)
State-owned VNPT introduced 108 service in 1992 in response to increased demands for social and general information. It reflects the telephone's changing role and is enforced by a "value-added" strategy which supplements the subsidized (by foreigners) basic rates paid by Vietnamese. The Hanoi office started with just five employees; today there are 100, working in three shifts around the clock. Of those, some speak French and Russian, and ten speak English. 108 advertises in newspapers and on television. According to Ms. Pham Thy Nga, manager of the recently introduced international service (in Hanoi, 84-48-108-000), 108 does not keep a record of the number or length of calls, although she has noticed more tourists calling and fewer children.
Located in a single cavernous room in the rear of the International Post Office compound on Hoan Kiem Lake, 108 is as cacophonous and eclectic as one might expect. Bookshelves line one entire wall, brimming with dog-eared books and periodicals on history, finance, foreign relations, tax, fashion, as well as dictionaries. A full-time data collector updates the computers facing each operator. Recently, a doctor was even hired to field medical questions.
All the 108 girls, who Ms. Nga said are "all university-educated with sweet voices," wear beige, well-cut blazers. She emphasized 108's increase in recent years of callers seeking information about tourism, business, including many from overseas. Nevertheless, 108 remains a well-known stand-by source of entertainment for the idle.
Most requests, reported a 108 girl by telephone, are for a story to be read or sung. "Many children also call to say, 'Do you like my dad? He's single.' Sometimes the dad calls. Many men call to chat."
That's why all 108 Girls go by the name, "Thuy Tien."
Says one operator, who says she plans on becoming a teacher, "It's very funny and a chance to talk. That's why we're here."
