Amelia and Dave's Asian Extravaganza: 04/28/10

Arrived in Hue to a swarm of young Vietnamese men trying to secure our custom at their commissioned hotel. When all you want to do is get your bags off the bus and orient yourself, it’s a tiring dialog of ‘no thank you’ ‘we’ve already booked’ ‘no, thank you -we just want to get our bags please’. To escape it all we jumped into a taxi which after 3 seconds we realised was a big mistake. He asked for flat fee first, then agreed eventually to put his meter on. He proceeded to take us around in circles on the scenic route and then eventually to our hotel after we threatened to get out. The scams, lies and hassle can be disappointing and tiring and only seem on the increase as we head further north.

The hotel we got dropped off at was a little out of our price range and of course super nice. They were lovely and took us to a sister hotel with cheaper rooms. In contrast perhaps not as plush but overall our room was excellent value (a/c, cable Tv, fridge, bath, balcony etc) for $12 a night. As usual the staff asked us where we were going and what we were doing each day, then urged us into taking a river tour. In fairness we planned on taking a river tour eventually. We were also nicely urged into a private car to the airport. The line was drawn however at the DMZ tour (de militarised zone, the border between the old north and south Vietnam) which is over 100kms away.

Dave sitting in front of the flag tower within the Hue Citadel

Our the front of the Ngan Gate outside the purple palace.

Dave in front of the Emperor Gia Long's reading room

Dave in front of the Thai Hoa Palace

The Koi in the lakes near the entrance to the Thai Hoa Palace

You could pay 2000 VND to feed them and they were very hungry!

Every time that you venture from your guest house or hotel you are accosted by locals and asked EXACLTY the same questions. First they try to get your attention by clapping, then they say ‘hello’ and as we are not completely rude we respond with a greeting - bang, they have you hooked and proceed with ‘where you from?’… ‘Australia’…. ‘ahhh Sydney or Melbourne?’… ‘Melbourne’.. ‘how long you in Vietnam?’ ‘ 1 month’… ‘very nice…have you done a tour?’ ‘no thanks’ ‘how about an easy rider bike tour’ ‘ no thanks’…. ‘do you need a car to the airport’ … ‘no thanks man’ … ‘you have guesthouse?’… ‘no thanks’.

Today we got scammed into having lunch with a nice man who said he had family in Melbourne and would love to chat. He then paid for lunch and said he would be happy if we bought him a bottle of wine for him to enjoy with his family and the monks at his temple. We agreed, but he wanted Dave to go to the market alone with him which we declined as politely as possible - so we just had to offer him the money for the wine and his face suitably lit up. We asked how much it normally was, he said we should choose how much - but the nicest bottle was $250000 VND, we decided on $100000 VND and handed it over. 2 seconds later a cyclo driver told us the man was a liar and scammed tourists often. We may sound stupid for being believers but it’s so hard to be rude and cause confrontation when you feel something isn’t right.

We never get scammed out of a lot of money - the most damage is done to our trust when we reach out to create genuine connections with local people. Overall we have found many of the Vietnamese that we meet on the street (in the North) to have an ulterior motive. Every time you walk down the street we feel like we have giant neon dollar signs above our heads. It’s hard to be made a fool of, it’s hard to travel when you are not respected enough to part with your money for a genuine service or item at a fair price for both parties but mostly it is hard to feel compassion and understanding for the hardship that ultimately motivates some people to treat you in this way. This is not an overall Poo Poo of the Vietnamese people, on the contrary so many have been delightful, friendly and lovely. Let’s call it a observation of a slight issue that has been wearing down our armour.

On another positive note Hue offered us some stunning temples and palaces which we explored on bicycle and foot. The tour turned out to be well run and interesting too - most stunning were the beautiful tombs of 2 of the previous emperors.