One of the least pleasant things about Vietnam (at least in the tourist areas), is their lust for money. Today when I took a boat ride on the Perfume river here in Hue the woman who negotiated the boat price was rather rude and you could see her hunger for money. I had to pay up front then when the 1 hour ride was over and I tipped the young girl working on the boat the ticket lady ran over almost knocking me over in the process to see how much money I gave the boat worker. You get a certain amount of this sort of thing in most all tourist areas everywhere in the world but here in Vietnam that sort of thing seems to be on steroids. It is tiring and NOT appealing, you feel like an ATM target on the streets most all the time (in the tourist areas).
Taxis here are also quite dodgy. They play games with meters, take the long way round, pretend to get lost, have no change etc. Not all Vietnamese act this way but many do.
I need to get out of this touristy world and back to the dump, back to my good Burmese friends in Mae Sot. I have enough of being a tourist, time to help others and make important pictures again. Tomorrow I fly to Ho Chi Min city for 3 nights, then it is back to Bangkok.
Taxis here are also quite dodgy. They play games with meters, take the long way round, pretend to get lost, have no change etc. Not all Vietnamese act this way but many do.
I need to get out of this touristy world and back to the dump, back to my good Burmese friends in Mae Sot. I have enough of being a tourist, time to help others and make important pictures again. Tomorrow I fly to Ho Chi Min city for 3 nights, then it is back to Bangkok.
