I've been in Vietnam for the past week and it has been an amazing experience.
One thing I've always found difficult was orienting myself in a new country or city, so when people come up offering you cab rides in currencies you are unfamiliar with it can be difficult to know when you're being taken for a sucker. In this particular instance I was taken for such a fool. This guy came up offering a cab ride for 100,000 dong (about $6) and after declining the offer he followed me to a cash machine. Afterwards, I went to a information desk and asked what the appropriate ride should cost, upon which I was told it should cost 30,000 dong (about $2). I went back to the guy and offered 30,000 dong, which he promptly agreed to (warning sign #1). I followed him out the airport and things got a little weirder as he quickly directed me to an area outside the airport / taxi loading area at which point I stopped and realized that something was a little off. Lucky for me as the guy tried to convince me to continue, a cop came up on a motorbike, laughed and directed me to were the legit cab drivers were (I later found out the common scam is to get you in the car and take you wherever the hell they felt like).
After this incident everything went fine and I met some people at the hostel and headed straight for a bar. Unfortunately, the bars in Vietnam close at midnight, so after only 1 beer we returned to the hostel where they served us until 2am.
The next day I did a little sight seeing and visited Ho Chi Minh's body and some other minor sites. On Monday I went to Halong Bay for three days and chilled out on the beach and enjoyed the scenery. Finally, last night I took a night train to Sepa which is a small northern community with some beautiful mountains and many minority villages.
Due to the early closing of the local bars in Vietnam my drinking experiences haven't been spectacular, and I missed an opportunity to see Japan play Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup (soccer), which based on the people that invited me would have involved heavy drinking.
On Saturday I'll be heading to Bangkok and leaving for Ko Pha Ngan on Sunday. Ko Pha Ngan is the site of the full moon party which promises to be interesting, if not drunken. However, I plan on avoiding those Thai buckets...
By my calculations, through a series of stupid decisions I've overpaid stuff by about $30 so far in Vietnam...not bad, yet it still doesn't sit right (if you know me, then you should know how I feel about spending money unnecessarily). One a similar note, I find it hard not to haggle over 15,000 dong, even though it's equivalent to $1, but everyone seems to do it!
New pics are up on facebook. Enjoy.
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