Is anybody traveling from USA to ho Chi Minh city this April?

With all due respect to the OP, anyone who carries a parcel of any kind through customs for a stranger has to be out of their mind.
I most strongly recommend no one does so for anyone, at any time, to any country.

A friend of mine got death penalty and I cannot believe anyone would even ask such a thing

@Fred @ Rayhakit

I fully understand your concerns and also wouldn't do this for anyone except for close friends I fully trust. But this is actually often practiced among the vietnamese community overseas, especially befriended university students. It's just quite strange to ask complete strangers to do this for you. I mean we have a global parcel delivering infrastructure, sure it will cost a bit, but why bother strangers when you can use those services, right? How much will you really save.

Parcel delivery services aren't that expensive for small items but would increase the cost by a significant amount for someone on a low salary.
That I can easily understand.
However, the potential for a very long sentence in a dump of a prison surrounded by very unpleasant people would make carrying unknown items for a stranger a very bad idea.

I'm not sure what's more insane; someone willing to bring back unknown goods for a complete stranger or a complete stranger asking other strangers to bring back unknown goods... on a public forum of all places. You're better off playing Russian roulette if you like to live that dangerously.

In all seriousness why don't you just send it like others have mentioned. I'm assuming she asked you to buy those goods for her and you want to send them back otherwise your situation doesn't make sense at all.

I go back home to the states 3x a year for work and I have gotten stuff for friends and strangers... Even on this site. But I get the list of what they want and buy it myself, send them the receipt and then they PayPal me the money. That's the only way to guarantee the safety of the person bringing stuff back. Otherwise it's just not worth it.

JVo18 wrote:

I go back home to the states 3x a year for work and I have gotten stuff for friends and strangers... Even on this site. But I get the list of what they want and buy it myself, send them the receipt and then they PayPal me the money. That's the only way to guarantee the safety of the person bringing stuff back. Otherwise it's just not worth it.

Yes, I actually wanted to suggest that too, but then again, I thought: why should someone make that effort for strangers? But hey, do it, meet new people, make new friends

Thanks for all your comments. I appreciate them very much. I understand the fear,  uncertainty, and  the risks associated. But I have lived in expat community elsewhere and we do that all the time for one another.   I know many people in this forum have not traveled, nor lived as expat in a far away country. Or even if they did, they did not emerse themselves in the full expart experience. Here are some reasons we in other expart communities accept to take items we inspect.

1. The person would open,  see, and inspect  the items before deciding to accept to deliver them.

2. It is very very difficult to mail items like cologne. We all heard the experiences of people who did and had to pay in VN three times or more than the original price. And even someone's item returned to Australia undelivered, but he entered VN with the same item freely. He got no questions, no fees.   

3. It takes around  2 days for the item to reach the recipient than if mailed.

You don't have to take anything for me, but I posted to see how people would respond, think, and reflect on this simple practice among experts elsewhere around the world.

Thank you for helping me learn additional experience about how other people think, live, and practice life when they are away from home. I learn everyday, even from a child.

In almost 50 years of travelling, I've been to 60+ countries, have lived in 3 continents, and never once received a request to take a package with me on the train or airplane.  Buying something and bring it back? Yes, I've done that quite a few times for locals and expats.  We (spouse and I) even spent two full days dealing with bureaucracy on behalf of an expat and travelling to his hometown to search for his ancestry record.  Taking a package, opened or sealed?  Never.

As the OP said, we did not immerse ourselves in expat communities, but we didn't move away from our home to surround ourselves with people who moved away from their homes.  We've participated in a gathering here and there with other expats and helped one another with local issues in real life and on various forums, but immersing -- why?

I personally know several people who regularly carry packages between Vietnam and the US (as carry-on or part of their check-in allowance) in exchange for their airfares, but that's another story altogether.