Bad Taxi Driver!

June 1-4, 2008

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So Long, Farewell…

The last few days in Vietnam were bitter-sweet for me. I knew that in a few days I would be heading back to China and then to countries I’d only dreamed about visiting. I would also see my brother and mother. It had been almost a year since I’d seen my brother and about six months since I’d seen my mom. But at the same time, I would have to say good-bye to my new friends and I would probably never see them again.

We spent our first day back in Ho Chi Mihn shopping. We bought cheap jewelry and lovely trinkets. Dong is worthless outside of Vietnam and no one will change dong back into dollars. So, anything that caught our fancy, we bought. It started to rain, but we just put on our rain ponchos and kept going.

The next day, two of the ladies left to go back to their homes in Europe. The day after that, another one left to continue her tour of Asia in Cambodia. I was the last to leave.

My flight to Beijing was on the morning of the fourth. It was an early morning flight, so I woke up before the sun rose in order to pay my hotel bill and wait for a taxi. The front desk clerk called one for me. When the taxi arrived, the door man help me into the cab.

He put my backpack in the trunk and told me that the ride shouldn’t cost more than 100,000 dong. I already knew that the ride should cost about $5, because I had asked many agents and other tourists about it. I even made sure to set aside double that, to make sure I could get to the airport alright.

To me, the price didn’t really matter, I planned to give the cabbie all the dong I had left which was about 300,000 dong. The ride lasted about 8 minutes, but even from the start I knew something was wrong with the cab’s meter.

The meter started at 50,000 dong. When it hit 100,000 dong I looked back; I could still see my hotel out the rear window. When we got the airport, the meter said 382,000 dong! I didn’t have that much money on me.

I handed him a 100,000 dong note. He waved his arms furiously, refusing to take it and pointed at the meter. I told him that the hotel man said it should cost less than 100,000 dong and that was all he was going to get.

He took my money and folded his arms. He wasn’t going to move until I paid his full amount. I told him that I wanted my backpack and pointed to the trunk of the car. He ignored me. I was not going to get out of the car and give this man the opportunity to drive off with my stuff.

During my trip I noticed that people in Vietnam like to shout a lot and I figure I would try it. I sat back in my seat and I screamed at him, “I want my bag NOW!”

He turned around looking quite shocked. I had yelled so loud, all the people standing outside the airport turned around to look at me. I opened my mouth, about to yell again, but he was already out of the car. He ran to the back of the taxi to get my bag for me. Once he was standing on the sidewalk with my backpack in hand, I got out the vehicle.

He handed me my bag. I put my arms through the straps, turn to him and politely said, “Thank you.”  I did drag him along for a bit when I walked away because he didn’t let go of my bag. But he couldn’t hold on forever.

I reached Peking 7 hours later and ended up giving my useless dong to the people affected by the earthquake. They took up a collection on Dragon Air.

The Tourist Rate

I usually don’t mind paying the tourist rate for things. As a tourist, I pay more for items sold on the street than a local would. It’s a bit unfair, but the things bought in South East Asia are still pretty cheap even with price hike. A dollar might not mean that much to an American, but its worth a lot to that vendor.

What I hate is when the tourist rate is used as a form of disrespect. That taxi driver looked at me. I was a female traveling alone. He probably thought I didn’t know any better and even if I did, I would be too scared to not pay his overpriced charges.

I don’t mind paying 20% extra for fruit from a vendor who walks all day in the hot sun to feed her family, but I will not pay 282% extra to an obnoxious cab driver for an 8 minute ride in a cab with an obviously broken meter.

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Endless boating

May 30-31,2008

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The Mekong Delta
(đồng bằng sông Cửu Long)

How to get there:

You can take a bus there or go with a tour group. Unless you have something particular to see, I recommend taking a tour group. Ask other tourists who have been there what group they went with, what it included, and how much they paid.

There are tons of agencies all over the Vietnam that you can book a tour with. Shop around and do not ever feel pressured into buying a tour. Remember there is a high agency to tourist ratio in southeast Asia.

And as always, if something seems shady, go somewhere else.

Notes:

• You might not want to stay here for too long.
  • You can’t swim in the water… well you can, you just might not want to.
  • The bugs are really vicious in some seasons.
  • And, it freakishly hot!
• The extra money you pay for the home stay, might not be worth it. Try to find people who done the home stay and ask them about their tour.
• Never go anywhere in Vietnam, southeast Asia, or the world for that matter without your own soft TP, Purell, and coins to pay to get into the bathroom.

Map:

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Phở Away From Home

We finally decided on a Mekong Delta tour. We left our big backpacks at the front desk of our hotel. Since we were coming back, the hotel staff agreed to hold them for us. I also left most of my money in the hotel’s safe. We then had a traditional Vietnamese breakfast of phở at one of the many phở restaurants before starting the day.

Phở is also eaten for lunch and dinner in Vietnam. But it’s all the rave as breakfast.

Another Tourist Trap

On the tour, we were taken to several places where we could buy stuff like coconut candy or things made from bamboo. There were countless opportunities for me to waste my money. This is probably why the tour was so cheap. At one point, we were driven around by a poor tiny horse. There were 7 of us in the carriage and the man kept trying to get the horse to go faster. The horse took us to a place where we had free honey and tea and we could get our pictures taken while holding a snake.

We just want to talk.

My group and I paid the extra money for a family stay. We thought that we would sleep in a bungalow near a Vietnamese family’s house and we would eat and socialize with our host family. That was exactly what we got, except that the family never seemed to want to talk to us. Other than at meal times, we never saw them. They were nice to us and cooked us very delicious meals, but we all got the feeling that they really didn’t like us.

Water water everywhere, but not a place to pee.

The next day on our tour, they boated us around the Mekong Delta from one place to another to buy more souvenirs. Just when we were all thoroughly sea sick and on the verge of tossing our cookies into the river, they let us go and we were able to stand on dry land again. There was a mad dash for the pay toilet, then we got on our bus and headed back to Ho Chi Mihn City.

It seemed to me that people go to the Mekong Delta to say that they’ve been to the Mekong Delta. There isn’t a whole lot to do on the swampy land, but look at it and buy crappy coconut candy.

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Scooters, naps, and PJs

May 28-29, 2008

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Ho Chi Minh City
(Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh)

How to get there:

You can get here by train, plane, boat, or bus.

Airport -

• Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
• Watch out for taxi scams.

The Train -

• GA Saigon
• Timetable and fares

Long Distance Bus Stations -

• Cho Ben Thanh Bus Station – This one is downtown and near many tourist sights and hotels.
• Mien Dong Bus Station – Buses to and from northern destinations
• Mien Tay Bus Station
• Cholon Bus Station

Website:

• City Website

Videos:

• Tourism Video: Eating

Map:

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Leaving Paradise

There were four of us from Paradise Resort that were going to Ho Chi Mihn City, so we decided to travel together. We left Paradise and spent a short time in Nha Trang. We reserved our train tickets from the travel agent that the owner of the resort recommended. The agency wasn’t all that great.

The lady there was a bit rude to my friends and me. We bought the train tickets with no problem, but then she tried to trick one of my new friends into buying an overpriced visa to Cambodia. The lady lied, by telling my friend that a visa cannot be bought at the border. Then she tried to pressure us into buying a package tour of the Mekong Delta, but refused to tell us what was included in the tour unless we paid first.

We walked around Nha Trang for a few hours sampling street food and browsing in a very nice book store with no books in English. When we went to pick up and pay for our tickets, we ran into a couple who had left Paradise a few days before. They joined our group to Ho Chi Mihn City.

Saigon

We all boarded the train and talked about our plans for our time in the city that used to be Saigon. The choice was between the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi Tunnels. Since I am a bit cluster phobic, I had very little interest in wandering around a cramped underground labyrinth.

Once we got to Ho Chi Mihn City, it was easy to find accommodations. We stood on the sidewalk in the part of town we wanted to stay. We put all our packs in a pile and as we were about to plan our next move, the hotel guards started to approach us. Guard A from Hotel A offered us a price. We turned to guard B from Hotel B and asked him if he could beat the Hotel A’s price. In the end, we went with a really fancy, yet forgettable hotel because it gave us the best deal and it came with free internet.

Most hotels in Vietnam have free internet for guests.

We did a walking tour of Ho Chi Mihn City courtesy of the Lonely Planet: Vietnam. On our tour we saw lots of the sights the city had to offer.

Since most of the things I did on this leg of my trip were planned and executed by other people, I don’t have the information about them like I usually do. I didn’t have this blog back then and I didn’t take notes.

While traveling in Vietnam I noticed three things about the city dwellers.

1. People sleep any and everywhere.

Naps are very important and you should do it wherever and whenever you feel the need to snooze. The most popular type of nap in Saigon is the scooter or motor bike nap. There’s also the hammock in a bus nap, the butcher’s meat cutting table nap, the park bench nap, the sidewalk nap, the chair nap, and many more! This inspired me to make a special album called Naps Around the World.

2. People love to pile stuff onto their scooters.

How many family members you can get on your bike? Just five you say?! You are going to have to improve your motorbike stacking skills. You could at least try to get some dogs on there! How about 4 or 5 fat pigs, a chicken, and a couple boxes of geese? I’m sure grandma wouldn’t mind holding onto a TV or two as you speed down the dirt road at a whooping 35 mph. While she’s got the TVs your nephew can hold on to your week’s worth of recycling. You should also never leave home without a few empty cardboard boxes to pick up anything else that might catch your eye. Remember, the key is to never have empty hands aboard you scooter. Everyone must do their part.

3. Women love to wear pajamas outdoors.

They could be cotton, silk, or satin. They could come with or without cartoon characters. You don’t have to stop wearing your PJs when you get out of bed, or even when you leave your home. Neither do you have to wait until dusk to put them back on. Wear them to work. Wear them to school. Wear them to the temple. Wear them when you just need to go outside to yell at people. You have a fancy party to attend? Why not wear those silky pajamas you got for Christmas last year?

I ♥ Vietnam!!

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Paradise

May 19-27, 2008

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Paradise Resort

How to get there:

• Go to Nha Trang, either to the train station or the airport and take a taxi from there.
• It’s best to call the resort and have them reserve a taxi for you.
• If you don’t, just know that the ride should cost about 20USD more or less. (about 15USD if you are going by motorbike.)

There is a bus, but I don’t have any information about that. (If you have information about the bus, please leave a comment.)

Cost:

It depends on the room. The one I had was 20USD per night for single; 15USD per person per night for double, and that was in 2008. The 20USD, or what ever rate you pay for your room, covers 3 meals a day.

Phone:

• 084-58-670480

Website:

• Nha Trang – Yahoo Article “Great Places to Retire Abroad”

e-mail: paradise_doclech@hotmail.com

Notes:

• Paradise is in the town of Doc Let, which is near Nha Trang. It take one or so hours to drive to Doc Let from Nha Trang.
• There is nothing to do here. The website advertises “internet services” but there really isn’t any. There is a slow dial-up connection in the owner’s office and if you ask nicely he’ll let you use it. But it’s not good for anything more than sending a quick email to family and friends to say you’re still alive.
• Don’t expect to get any surfing done at the resort. There is an internet cafe within walking distance. But, keep in mind that on a really hot Vietnamese day, nothing is really within walking distance.
• There are no TV’s.
• You can wash your clothes by hand or for a small fee you can pay one of the ladies to wash your clothes for you. They will do it by hand.
• If you want to go into town (Doc Let), the owner will gladly give you a lift for free. He drives into town just about everyday in his WWII era jeep. Just be ready to leave when he’s ready and to head back when he heads back. If not, you can pay someone with a motorbike to take you to the resort. There’s also someone willing to make a quick buck.
• Bring some books and lots of sunblock.

Map:

View Larger Map

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Reservation for one

For the first time ever, I planned ahead before going to Nha Trang. I looked online for a nice place to relax for a couple weeks and found it in Paradise Beach Resort in Doc Let. Then I made, dear I say it… reservations. I sent an email with my expected date and time of arrival.

This will most  likely never happen again. So take pictures now.

While traveling in Vietnam, I had heard stories of tourists who got into cabs and asked to be taken to Hotel A only to be told that either Hotel A is closed, Hotel B is better, or they are taken to Hotel B and told by the driver that it is Hotel A. The cab driver usually gets a commission from Hotel B to drop off naïve tourists.

You should travel with a picture of your hotel and its address if you have made reservations.

I knew that by the time my train would pull into the Nha Trang station I would have been on the train for over 24 hours and I would be in no mood to deal with dishonest or pushy cabbies. So in my email I asked the resort owner to have a taxi there waiting for me. Because of the low price of the lodging I knew that the taxi would not be free. The guy that was called had a deal with the hotel and charged me a flat rate of $20 for the hour long drive to the resort.

Other guests who got their own taxis ended up paying two or three times what I paid. One cab driver got “lost” and demanded an unreasonable amount of money.

I still don’t want any pineapples!

When I got off the train, there were vendors galore! About twelve people tried to talk me into buying a pineapple before I made my way to the pushy cab drivers. Many of them tried to carry my backpack for me. I was successfully ignoring most of them when I saw a lonely looking man in the distance standing next to his van as if he were being punished by his grade school teacher. He was half-heartedly holding up the most wonderful sign I had ever seen. It said, “Josie Paradise”.

Guest 1: And What did you do today?

Guest 2: Nothing.

Paradise was a great place because there was nothing to do; absolutely nothing to do. There was free internet there, but it seldom worked and it was really slow when it did. The resort was never crowded during my stay. When I first arrived there were five guests, including me. My days were spent eating, swimming, reading, and sleeping.

My day would start around 6 am. I would just lie in bed, then go for a swim. Sometimes I would wake up earlier to watch the sunrise. After swimming, I would go to the main building for breakfast. By 7:30am, I would be full and would have met everyone staying at the resort. Everyone seemed to wake up early there. At breakfast, we would talk about traveling, the best spots at the resort for a nap, and how great it was to be there.

I would take a nap after breakfast, then read a bit and go swimming before lunch. All of this was done without the aid of a watch. The girls who worked there, walked around the resort at meal times, calling everyone to eat. After a while I stop caring about the time.

In the evenings everyone would have dinner together. Since there was no TV to watch and nothing to do, we would all sit in the main hall after dinner and just talk. We would talk into the wee hours of the night, like 8 pm, and then head off to our beds.

I met all sorts of fun and interesting people there. I ended up traveling with 3 of them to Ho Chi Minh City. There was nothing eventful that happened while I was there, except for the day the Russians showed up and the two times I went to the market with the owner.

Oh, and the meals there were great. If you go there, try the salad. I would have stayed there for the salad alone! Everyone eats together, like one big or small family depending on how many people are there. There was always salad, a main dish or two and fruit for dessert. Sometimes there was soup and once there was banana cake.

I left Paradise totally relax and unable to cope with the real world. It was hard to use a watch again.

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Mangosteens & Rombutans

May 16, 2008

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Nha Trang
(Nha Trang)

How to get there:

The easiest thing to do is to take the train from Hanoi, or wherever you are, to Nha Trang.

You can buy your train tickets at any hotel, hostel, or shady looking travel agent selling on the sidewalk sitting on a cardboard box. Though I would recommend that you buy your ticket from a place that looks like it will be there again tomorrow.

There is also an airport in Nha Trang.

Website

Notes: I bought my train ticket through the hotel in which I was staying, Hanoi Blue Sky Hotel.

Map:

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Ahhh… The Mundane Life!

After my trip to Ha Long Bay, I had one more night in Hanoi. When backpacking I think it is important, every now and then, to spend a day doing nothing but wandering around the city aimlessly. I like to pretend that I live in whatever city I’m visiting and just do mundane things like read a book on a park bench or buy fruit.

No Thanks.

As I roamed Hanoi that day, I realized how impossible it is for anyone to just walk down the street quietly. I had to walk while constantly saying, “No, thanks”, “I don’t want any”, or “I already have one” to all the street vendors. The most aggressive of the vendors, were the ladies who sell pineapples. During my short stay in Hanoi I would be chased for blocks by two or three of them at a time, whenever I went out. I can only eat so many pineapples before my mouth gets sore!

I had a long train ride to Nha Trang and I wanted some fruit to take with me on the journey. I wanted to try some new fruit. I can buy pineapples and oranges anywhere. I was dying to sink my teeth into some crazy, funky Vietnamese fruit that I had never tried before. I had seen ladies selling unique looking fruit as they walked down the street. They always seemed to just wizz right past me not giving me a second look. On my last day in Hanoi, I stopped one of them.

She had some sea-urchin looking fruits in one basket and small black round fruits in the other. The baskets were balanced on her back in a yoke-looking device and she walked as if she were late for a very important meeting.

I had to grab her arm because she was going so fast. She stopped to look at me as if she thought I wanted to mug her. I asked her, “how much?” She didn’t understand me. I pointed to both baskets of fruits with both my index fingers at the same time.

She put down her yoke and handed me one of each. Again, I asked her how much it was. Then she took out a knife, cut the fruits open for me, handed them back to me, picked up her yoke and went along her way. I quickly ate both fruits and ran after her. By the time I caught up with again her she was selling a bag of the “sea urchin fruit” to a local woman. I pointed to the bag and then to myself to say, “I want some too.”

She seemed completely confused. “Why does this foreigner want to buy this common fruit when there are lots of pineapples around?” Of course, the pineapple ladies from all over Vietnam smelled a fruit buyer and had encircled me. I begged and pleaded for this lady to sell me her fruit while trying to shoo the pineapple people away. Finally she sold me a bag of “sea-urchin fruit”. I point to the basket of the other fruit and she said, “No.”

While I was paying her two motor bikes crashed into each other head on. Both drivers were fine, and in the commotion I was able to sneak away from the pineapple people without them noticing.

You Own Me 10,000 Dong!

That evening, I left Hanoi for Nha Trang. When I got to the train station I showed my ticket to the uniformed lady at the door and she let me in. As soon as I was inside, some guy in a uniform came up to me, grabbed my ticket, and told me to follow him.

I noticed that his uniform was different from those of the station workers. So, I grabbed my ticket back from his clutches and headed for the train. There was only one train in the tiny station so it wasn’t difficult to guess which one was mine.

I walked quickly, slipping through the crowd alongside the train to get to my car. The man chased after me. He was yelling at me and complained that he had shown me how to get to my train and now I owed him 10,000 dong.

I stopped and turned around to look at him. He was still running behind me and needed a little time to catch up. I told him, “Actually, you are following me. So YOU owe me 10,000 dong.” He didn’t think it was funny. He walked away feeling dejected and probably cursed my ancestors.

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Ha Long Bay

May 15, 2008

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Ha Long Bay
(Vịnh Hạ Long)

How to get there:

There are many companies that offer trips to Halong Bay from Hanoi and other cities in Vietnam. Just shop around and ask other tourists for their advice.

Cost:

65USD should get you an air conditions room for a 1 night trip with a roommate. More than that and you are just being ripped off.

Don’t feel like you must shell out extra cash to pay for an a/c room on the boat. At night it gets pretty cool and all you need is a fan which comes with standard accommodations.

Website

Map:

View Larger Map

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Overpaying and Getting Less

Through the Hanoi Blue Sky Hotel, where I was staying, I booked a 2 day, 1 night trip to Ha Long Bay. Standard accommodations cost $45 and deluxe accommodations were $65. The price included transportation to and from Ha Long Bay to Hanoi, 4 meals, all the water/ tea needed for the stay, kayaking, and sightseeing of one cave. Beer and soda could be bought on the boat. Deluxe accommodations came with an a/c room and more meat dishes with the meals.

In Vietnam I noticed that many prices were given in U.S. dollars or Euros. Some places even encouraged payment in these currencies.

Most of the people on the boat had booked their trip through the Hanoi Blue Sky Hotel or one of the sister hotels. I had actually met two of the people, a father and daughter, on the trip back in my hotel lobby the day before.

There were two guys, however, who had paid for the boat stay through an agency. They had to find their own transportation to Ha Long Bay from Hanoi and back. To add insult to injury, they paid $95 each for standard accommodations.

I didn’t think that the delux deal was worth it. There were only 2 people who had paid for better  accommodations, an Austrilian girl and me. There was a lot more meat with each meal, but we couldn’t eat it all and ended up sharing with everyone on the boat. At night, eventhough it was never hot, we cranked up the a/c to freezing and used extra blankets to justify paying $20 more than most of the other guests.

I don’t want undelicious cookies; I want batteries!

If you go out to Ha Long Bay there is no need to bring water, soda, beer, or horrible tasting cookies. There are more vendors rowing around selling these things than there are people willing to buy them.

No one want to buy them because these items are usually being sold from the tour boats at lower prices. Plus the tour boats keep their drinks refrigerated. And you don’t have to yell over the side of a boat and haggle over prices.

You should, however, bring extra batteries, sunscreen, chocolate bars, and tasty snacks, because none of the vendors there will be selling any of these obviously sellable items.

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Fun With Uncle Ho

May 14, 2008

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Hanoi Blue Sky Hotel
(Khách Sạn Hanoi Blue Sky)

The Golden Time Hostel*

How to get there:

Address:

2 Hàng Gà, Hà Noi, Hanoi, Vietnam

Phone:

• 3923 0514
• 3923 1849

Website

Videos:

• Tourism Video: Hanoi

Notes:

• *While looking up information on The Hanoi Blue Sky Hotel, I noticed that the name has changed. They might have redecorated too.
• You can book tours of Hanoi and to Ha Long Bay here.
• Free internet
• There is a restaurant in the hostel
• You can pay to have your laundry done here
• You don’t have to stay at Hanoi Blue Sky Hotel or any of the other sister hotels to book a trip or tours with them.

General/ About Vietnam

• When you get to Vietnam pick up a map of the area from any hotel, hostel, travel agency, or tourist information center. Once you have one of those you’ll be able to find anything.
• Having a map of the area in Hanoi is very important. Every block has a different street name so once you know the name of street something is on you can easily find it with a map.
• Wherever you choose where to stay, make sure you bring a picture and the address of the hotel. One common trick that taxi and motorbike-taxi drivers like to pull is to take you to the wrong hotel. When you say, “I asked for ABC Hotel!” They will tell you that the name changed. They usually get a commission for bringing tourist to certain hotels.
  • Sometimes hotel do change names, like with this one. But it has been years since I stayed here. Most likely a hotel will not change names between the time of your booking accommodations and your arrival without telling you.
• Also for taxis, NEVER agree to a flat rate fee. The flat rate fee will always be way higher than it should be. Always demand that the cab driver use the meter. If he doesn’t want to use his meter, get out. Taxi drivers are a dime a dozen.

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The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
(Lăng Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh)

How to get there:

It is about a 15 minutes walk from Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi.

It shouldn’t cost too much to take a taxi, motorbike taxi, or a cyclo. You can also take bus #9 or #14.

Address:

5 Pho Ngoc Ha
Hanoi, Vietnam

Phone:

• +84 4 942 1061

Website

Cost:

• It is free to enter, but you are not allow to bring anything like a purse, camera, water bottle, ect in with you.
• There are lockers you can rent for a fee. If you are on a tour, your tour guide will hold your stuff for you.

Hours:

• 8:00 – 11:00  Tues-Thur & Sat

Videos:

• History Channel: Ho Chi Mihn

Notes: It’s best not to say anything bad about Ho Chi Minh while in Vietnam.

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Museum of Ethnology
(Bảo tàng Dân tộc học Việt Nam)

How to get there:

The Museum is located in Cau Giay district, twenty minutes by taxi from the city center. Take the #14 minibus which runs from Dinh Tien Hoang Street, north of Hoan Kiem lake, to the Nghia Tan stop a few blocks from the Museum.

Address:

Nguyen Van Huyen St, Cau Giay, Hano

Phone:

• (84-4) 37562193

Website

Hours:

Everyday 8:30 – 17:30 except Mondays and Vietnam New Year’s day

Cost:

• Adult – 25,000VND,
• Kids – 5,000VND,
•  Kids under 6 – Free

Notes: Don’t forget to check out the grounds.

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Ngoc Son Temple
(Đền Ngọc Sơn)

How to get there:

It’s the shrine in the middle of  Hoan Kiem Lake.

Hoan Kiem Lake is in the tourist district of Hanoi. Most hostels or hotel worth visiting is within a walking distance of this lake.

If you have a hard time finding this place, just stop anyone walking around and ask them for directions.

Remember that you can get a free map from just about any hotel or hostel.

Cost:

3,000VND

Hours:

• 8:00 – 17:00 everyday

Videos:

• Tourism Video

Notes:

It gets pretty hot in Hanoi during the day. It might be a good idea to walk around in the evening rather than in the middle of the day. You could even end your walk with a visit to the water puppet theater.

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Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre
(Múa rối nước)

How to get there:

It is very near Hoan Kiem Lake. Ask anyone in the area and they will be able to point you in the right direction.

Address:

57b Dinh Tien Hoang Str., Hanoi – Vietnam

Phone:

• (84) 4 39364335 or
• 39364334 or
• 38255450

Website

Cost:

• About 1 USD
• with an extra .50USD if you want to take photos.

Hours

Notes: It’s one of the few things in town with air conditioning!

Map:

View Larger Map

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No Dong

The bus dropped me off somewhere in Hanoi. I had no dong and no plans, but I had met a cute couple on the bus. We chatted at one of the rest stops. They had reservations at a hotel in Hanoi and planned to take a taxi there. Since it would cost nothing extra for me to ride in the cab they told me that I could join them.

Once again I would like to say that I love the name the Vietnamese picked for their currency!

No Rooms

Once we got to their hotel, I was told that it was fully booked. The receptionist, who happened to also be the owner of the hotel told me that she and her sister owned another hotel. She called a guy who she referred to as “little brother” and told him to take me to the other hotel. I hopped on his scooter, shoved my afro into a helmet, and held onto my backpack.

He took me to the Hanoi Blue Sky Hotel. When I got there, the receptionist, who happened to be the sister of the first lady, started to check me in. When I told her that I didn’t have any dong, she said that it didn’t matter, “You pay when you check out. This not China!”

I ate dinner at the hotel because I could put that on my bill and pay it later. I even signed up for a few trips. I knew that I would find an ATM at some point before I checked out or at least stay until I found one. If all else failed I could pay in US dollars or Euros, both are welcomed if not preferred over the dong.

HSBC is my bank of choice. They have ATMs in many countries. When I got money in Vietnam from an HSBC ATM, I paid no ATM fees.

Just to meet some people

In the hotel by the front desk, were posters of day and overnight trips. There was a book that had the trips laid out in detail, with prices for different levels of accommodations. One great thing about the Hanoi Blue Sky Hotel was that the sisters who own it, also owned a junk on Ha Long Bay.

A trip to Ha Long Bay is a great way to get ripped off if you don’t know who to book your trip through.

I usually don’t like tours, but I was traveling alone and wanted to meet some people. There was also the additional benefit that while on a tour, I would not to get lost. I picked one of the Hanoi City tours with tickets to see a water puppet show in the evening.

We first went to  The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Uncle Ho looked a bit creepy, but the man has been dead for almost 40 years. He was the first dead communist leader I had ever seen. I would end up seeing many more.

Actually, only two. Kim Il Sung has still eluded me and it turns out that they eventually buried both Stalin and Evita Perón, not that Eva was a communist leader.

Next it was Ho Chi Minh’s vestige right next to the Mausoleum. I loved that the house he chose to live in was so modest with 3 or 4 BMWs parked out back. I’m sure it’s what the people wanted.

Our next stop was to the Ethnology Museum. It’s really not very interesting indoors. I really don’t care about the many races of Asians that live, or have lived in Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos. Which means I care even less about each individual group’s pottery. To be honest I’m only impress by air-tight containers…

But the grounds of the museum was more interesting. There were many displays of housing for the plethora of peoples who peopled south east Asia. Tourist are encouraged to climb in, on, up, and around the structures. And I did! Plus there were some very interesting fertility tombs. Though, I think that once your dead, you’re infertile for good.

We passed by a few forgettable temples. The only one that stood out in my mind was Ngoc Son Temple which was in the middle of the lake. There were some monks doing some serious praying that day, but I don’t know what for.

Then there was the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. The water puppets show was all in Vietnamese and lasted 50 minutes. It got boring after about 10 minutes, but the theater had air-conditioning and was worth all 20,000 Dong (2 dollars at the time) of the ticket price for that alone!

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Crossing Over

May 13, 2008

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Hanoi
(Hà Nội)

How to get there:

By Bus from Nanning -

The bus station is called Lang Dong Bus Station. You can get there from Nanning Train station by taking city bus #6. The city bus costs 2 Yuan. There might be more buses that go between the train station and the bus station, but the #6 is the one that I know.

Once at the bus station you can buy a ticket on the next avaible bus out. They seem to run every two hours or as they fill up. There will be empty seats on the Chinese bus because the bus in Vietnam is much smaller. You change buses at the border, so the drivers never leave the country. The ticket costs 150 Yuan.

The ride is about 7 hours, but it will seem longer than that once they start to play the horrible Vietnamese pop music and the guy next to you starts throwing up in the aisle. I heard the Hanoi-Nanning train is worse, though I can’t see how.

I recommend getting someone to write a note for you stating that you want bus tickets to Hanoi.

Website

Notes:

• Make sure to bring your own pen. They do not have pens at any of the border controls and you will need to fill out a few forms.
• Depending on what country you are from, you should get your visa before going to Vietnam.

Map:

View Larger Map

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Want some Dong?

When I got to the Lang Dong Bus Station, a bus to Hanoi was just pulling out. I bought a ticket on the next bus and went downstairs to the KFC and had breakfast. I got some water and snacks from one of the “mini-mart” stands at the station.

If you take this bus, make sure to use the bathroom before you get on. There is no bathroom on the bus and the first rest stop is a good 2 hours away.

I made sure that I was the first person on the bus. I might have even annoyed the gate attendant by constantly asking, “Can I get on the bus now?” I wanted a seat in the front row. If this bus were to crash, I wanted to see it coming.

Before we pulled out of the station they handed everyone a bottle of water and a barf bag. Then they played a Hong Kong action/comedy with English subtitles. I couldn’t watch it because reading on buses makes me nauseous, but at least it wasn’t horrible loud music videos.

Before traveling to China I went to my bank in Korea and got some money changed into yuan, euros, and pounds. They didn’t have any dong or tögrög. But at the border, right before going through the Chinese immigration check, there were money changers. They surrounded us and told us about the great rate they would give us. They spoke in Chinese, English, Vietnamese, and French.

I thought about changing some yuan into dong there, but there were so many of them and they were all yelling at me all at once. It was a bit intimidating and I wasn’t sure about how legal changing money on the street was. So I entered Vietnam with no dong.

I think one of the most enjoyable things about traveling in Vietnam is being able to constantly refer to their money as dong, which is pretty much what it’s worth.

A Mad Rush

The Chinese boarder is on the eastern end of Pingxiang. There we got off the bus and into a glorified golf cart, provided by the bus company. It drove us up to the entrance of the Chinese immigration building. We went in, filled out a form, and stood in line. Everything was somewhat orderly.

When we came out the other end the “golf cart” was waiting for us. Some people chose to ride in the cart, others walked to the Vietnamese immigration check in the western end of Dong Dang. The cart cannot enter Vietnam, so those who rode in the cart had to walk part of the way anyhow.

In the Vietnamese immigration building it was a mad free for all. I had no idea what to do. I had to push and shove my way to the front of the crowd to ask questions. The man behind the glass window handed me a form to fill out. He didn’t say a word to me or even look up from his paper work. I had to hand in my passport along with the form.

The officer doesn’t just take your passport; you have to almost sneak it into the pile of passports on his desk. Anyone with a Vietnamese passport can jump the line by placing their passport on the top of the heap. There really isn’t an actually line, just a line-like form of chaos where people crowd around and yell until they get to go next.

I watched as he worked on his pile with my passport in the middle. Vietnamese people who had just arrived would toss their passports at him and quickly get it returned to them. Eventually my passport made its way to the top of the pile. When he was about to pick up my passport and check my visa to let me through, his co-worker plopped a mountain of passports on top of mine. That moved me to the back of the “line”.

I thought of some excuse, like, “I forgot to write the date” to get my passport back. I pretended to write something on the form and I put it back on top of the pile. This enabled me to skip all those people and move onto the next section of the immigration check.

Is the Doctor in?

Next was the health check. Vietnam wants to keep out contagious diseases so they do health checks to make sure that people don’t bring in any infectious illnesses. They do this by charging you 2,000 Dong or 2 Yuan then giving you a piece of paper that says you’re healthy. There is no actual doctor nor is there any screening for any disease or virus; just a piece of paper.

Once given the OK to enter Vietnam I exited the building and looked for my new bus. My old bus went back to Nanning taking the people that came in from Hanoi. I found the new bus. It was significantly smaller than the Chinese bus.

Because I was among the last to get on, my new seat was in the last row next to a very fat man who kept trying to use me as a pillow when he wasn’t throwing up.

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