Yes here I am now in Ho Chi Minh City - I am very proud of myself for how I've been crossing the roads - I think I've been doing quite well! Shuffle shuffle shuffle, pray pray pray. It is like one big free for all in some of the massive intersections - everyone just goes! Big buses and trucks have right of way (if they can get through the already crowded road), then cars, then scooters and then bicycles, all beeping and honking (defensive driving) and then the scooters start going on the footpath cause there is less traffic on the footpath!! Haha!
Getting here across the border from Cambodia was kinda funny - at first exiting Cambodia was a drama - people kept telling us to change lines and we're all moving about all over the place only to come back to the original line! I think sometimes people just feel like they have something to do by telling people to move around. We had to have all our fingerprints scanned too! Nowhere else has done that...
Then we were told that Vietnam wanted to scan our luggage before we entered their country. So we all get off the bus again and find our packs and trudge along to another building only to find that the man scanning our luggage was actually reading the newspaper and not even looking at the screen!! Ha! At least this time we didn;t have to pay for the stamps in our passport! When we were entering Cambodia the officials were making us pay $2 or $3 for stamps as a scam - you couldn't get out of it cause they just wouldn't let you cross the border! It's not a lot of money but it's the principal and imagine how much they make in a day! Ha! So this is how it works in Cambodia...
Then when we were arriving in HCMC, one of the bus company men welcomes us and tells us that we can use American Dollars in Vietnam - same as Cambodia. A few hours later I have found out that they want us to use American Dollars and not Dong as then they can charge whatever they like! So now I have Vietnamese Dong.
THEN, when we get off the bus, I tell a moto driver that I want to go to a guest house called Yellow House as per Lonely Planet. So he takes me to this guest house that does not say Yellow House and tells me it is Yellow House! So I say, no, this is not Yellow House it;s another place and he and the guest house women start arguing with me saying that Yellow House has closed and they are the new guest house! So I say, "but the address is different!" and they argue with me for a bit longer trying to convince me that this is the new guest house and when I didn;t believe them the moto driver says, "ok, I take you to Yellow House" - hahaha!!!
So we go and he shows me that the address for Yellow House actually shows that the building has been knocked down - so he was right when he said it had closed but he was trying to get commission by taking me somewhere else and telling me it's Yellow House!!
So then he ended up taking me and this other American guy to a stip with many guest houses and here I am now, sharing a room with this American (who I might add is a typically very ignorant Missionary guy who already fell for a scam that is written in the guide book because he thought he didn;t need to read a guide book!! Stupid!!).
So I've figured out a rough plan for how I will spend my next few weeks in Vietnam with the guest house people who are very friendly (actually this is the first time that there are all female staff at the guesthouse - usually it;s men). I was about to book a tour to the Mekong Delta with them, but then as I was walking down to the night market, I met a guy who I thought was just another tout but he pulled out a reference book of all these messages from his customers saying how genuine he was! Anyway, I trust him and tomorrow he will be taking me on his scooter for a 2 day and 2 night trip to the Mekong Delta.
Tonight he already took me around on his scooter for free taking me around the city and seeing the main monuments. He was the one that told me to use Dong and not dollars and he helped me with putting money on my sim card. Then he took me to a cheap Vietnamese place for dinner which he shouted (but actually I didn;t think the food was that good and I didn;t eat much and afterwards I had to get more food! I was expecting a bunch of fresh herbs etc but it was actually pretty boring! Disappointing for my first Vietnamese meal). He also told me that the night market is just an expensive place for tourists and he showed me the markets while I was still on the scooter and he was right - just a bunch of touristy stalls like Paddy's Markets and a bunch of Westerners - I would mind the Westerners if the stalls were actually good! So he said he would show me a real Vietnamese market.
So! Thats the plan. Funny how I have already experienced 2 attempted scams and I've only been here a few hours! And funny that the moto driver and guest house woman were actually trying to convince me that their place was Yellow House!! I should have taken a photo of "Yellow House"! Hahaha
xxx Orna
