At noon, Do Ngoc Thuan, 34, was seen recently busy preparing snacks to sell. He peeled young mangoes amid the tinkling sound created by the gold bracelets on his wrist.

Thuan has become famous as he always wears a lot of big, heavy gold jewelry.

The gold jewelry with many sizes and weights are worn by him on feet, hands, neck, ears and chin. Some jewelry is sophisticated and engraved with his name and nickname. The weight of all the jewelry is 50 taels.

“The set of bracelets on my left wrist is 10 taels, while rings and bracelets on the right wrist weigh 20 taels, and the three necklaces are 20 taels. So I am wearing 50 taels of gold,” he said.

“All of the jewelry is made of gold. These are not fake. Everyone who has doubts can come here to examine them,” he said.

Some items worn by Thuan have the weight of 1-2 taels of gold. He owns a precious gold necklace worth over VND700 million. He chose most of the products.

Thuan has had the hobby of wearing big gold jewelry for many years. He says he does not imitate others wearing gold jewelry.

“I wear gold jewelry to satisfy my personal taste and I have been wearing them for many years. I don’t imitate anyone and I wear jewelry not to show off or to lure customers,” he said.

“I began wearing gold jewelry before I opened the snack shop. I do this simply because of my personal taste. I am happy when wearing jewelry and I don’t care about people’s comments,” he added.

After many years of wearing jewelry, Thuan has a passion for the metal. When he has money, he will buy or order gold jewelry to expand his collection. He said he recently ordered a set of gold necklaces.

However, he admitted that wearing so much gold causes him trouble.

The necklaces are heavy and when he sleeps, the jewelry make it difficult for him to breathe. Meanwhile, his fingers are pierced by rings which scratches the skin and causes bleeding.

However, he never thinks of removing the collection of gold jewelry worth billions of dong, despite the inconvenience.

“I like wearing it. It makes me happy,” he said. “I also wear them because I want to please my customers. They come to my shop to see me wearing the gold jewelry.” 

Ha Nguyen

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