As we walked through the old quarter laughing about how gullible we were to fall for the great map scam, a lady carrying bamboo baskets across her shoulders filled with bananas and pineapples approached us to buy a banana. “No No bananas” we said. She smiled and nodded and went away... about 5 minutes later same lady comes up and ask if we want a banana.. “No No bananas today thanks”... about 10 minutes later same lady comes up again and ask if we want a banana.. “No No bananas thanks”.. She was following us through the old quarter for about an hour. Eventually she took her hat off and put it on my head and yelled out "Photo Photo". Jen relented and took a photo. Then she puts the hat on Jen's head and says "Photo Photo".. As I'm taking the photo she's piling bananas and pineapple pieces into plastic bags for us. "No no bananas" we say.. "yes yes bananas" she says...we took the bananas and said how much? 100 thousand dong she says. (100 thousand dong is about $6.65) "NO WAY!" we says "yes yes 100 thousand dong" she says.. I gave her a hundred thousand dong and she suddenly says to Jen... "a hundred thousand dog for you too". "No No" we say...Too much..she looks at us like we had just said something horrible about her mother..(the Vietnamese have that look down pat) I still say no and she then pulls her shirt across and shows me her shoulder and says "very heavy, very sore" pointing to the bamboo bar that carries the baskets across her shoulders. I'm a sucker, I'm a gullible Australian tourist. I give her the other 100 thousand dong... she walks off in triumph... We walk around the corner and laugh at how stupid we are to pay $13.30 for 3 bananas and 4 pieces of pineapple.. Oh well if you are going to get ripped off you might as well have some fun at the same time.
