Foreigner Hardships

Just a few examples of some of the more frustrating things we have to deal with in Vietna, that I thought would be fun to share. The theme being: Demands for More Money, Just Because we're Travelers.

Situation 1:
After somewhat splurging on our hotel in Hoi An, we wanted to save a bit of money and take the local bus up to Danang (where the train station is), rather than spend the $10 USD for a taxi. We researched it ahead of time, and found that the rate for a one way fare to Danang is 7,000 dong (about 50 cents). So we show up the next morning and the lady on the bus says, 30,000 dong per person. We say, 'no way, we know it's only 7,000, but we'll give you 10,000 each). She laughs, and says, OK, 20,000 each. That's the price. We argue some more and walk away steaming, but she clearly doesn't care and won't let us on the bus unless we pay the higher price. She even says outright, 'Vietnamese, 10,000, foreigner, 20,000'. I try to ask her why, and suddenly her English gets very poor. I know we're not talking about a lot of money here, but sometimes the principle of the matter is more frustrating than the money lost. It is also amazing how nice she suddenly became after we paid and borded the bus.

Situation 2:
Today we are in Nha Trang, and with sore backs and shoulders from our 10 hour train ride yesterday, we decided to get a massage. We walked into a nice, professional shop and were pleasantly surprised with the reasonable rates. We requested a Swedish massage as neither of us were in the mood to get walked on, or get our hips pulled out of their sockets. The massage was fine. A bit mechanical, and somewhat rushed, but you get what you pay for, right? The thing that got us, was that as we finished they made us fill out a receipt for their tip (we had already paid the base rate at the front desk). Tipping is not the norm here, and since it was a less than spectacular massage, we weren't even going to tip. Then when we offer 25,000 dong each, they have the nerve to tell us that it is not enough, and everyone else gives them 50,000! We stuck to the 25,000 and left.

Situation 3:
Driving motorbikes to Danang from Hoi An, on a road that is under complete construction. A large group of small boys spies us and comes rushing towards us yelling, 'Hello, hello, hello!". We're on a dirt trail basically, and are forced to stop as they are surrounding us. We think it's cute, and of course assume they just want to talk to us and maybe ask for a coin (since that's what they all do). But when they started repeatedly turning off our motorbikes and demanding, money, and hitting Keith, it wasn't so funny anymore. They were small, so the hits, were more like pats, but again, the principle. It took some loud voices on our part to finally get them to leave without running them over.

Trying not to be too negative here, there are of course nice things that happen too, it's just that you find yourself remembering the bad more clearly. For example: genuine smiles, waves and pats on the back or arm from random adults, the kind gentleman that led us to the train station, or the cute woman on the train who clearly wanted so badly to talk to us, but didn't try because of language, and instead just kept borrowing our books and maps and smiling at us.