February 6 Saigon
A free and different sort of day. I went down for breakfast about 6:45 and had my usual for here - seafood soup, baguette with butter, cheese and cucumber and coffee. Vu (the guide) was late but when he finally arrived I gave him my hotel details and explained what would have to be done in order for me to go to Halong Bay. I had to run through it several times until he "got it". He is checking for me.
I ran into Brian and Melinda (from our last group) as I was leaving to go to the Chinese market but they talked me out of it saying there wasn't much there, it was too hot and extremely crowded. Given their recommendation I went to the big market downtown. It too was crowded and hot so I only lasted around a half hour. Tempted though I was by a few things I escaped with my wallet intact and not depleted. Didn't see any hanging ducks, chickens or snakes. No water bugs, crickets or other similar creatures either. But I did see pig tails and wished that I had some way to cook them. That will be high on my list when I get home I think. All of the meat looked well aged (as in having hung in the heat for too long) to my eye. None of the meat was wrapped, just open to the air and the flies....
To get to the market I took a taxi which cost me 32,000 dong ($2.00). To come back I decided to take a cyclo just for the experience and to get some shots from a lower level than the bus. When we arrived at the hotel the driver insisted on 150,000 dong (almost $10.00). We argued for a few minutes and I finally gave him 51,000 which was the upper limit of what i had been told it would cost. I shouldn't have given him more that 40,000 but wanted to get away from the hassle. He wasn't at all happy but at least didn't chase me when I walked away. Brian and Melinda had a similar experience with a taxi driver today as well. Going out on your own here is risky. I know that you are supposed to set the price before you get in vehicles here but that time I neglected to do so because the driver seemed very friendly (that alone should have tipped me off) and was trying to get me to agree to go to a lot of other places as well. From now on unless my guide is around I will stick with metered taxis I think.
The cyclo ride was interesting and not overly scary but I was happy that it wasn't rush hour. As it was there were a few close calls. At least I felt as if they were close. In spite of the argument I am happy to have had the experience.
Later I decided to go to a grocery store to get a few things. The taxi there was 14,000 dong which is less than $1.00. Turned out to be a Co-op which was also incredibly crowded with people blocking the aisles everywhere. Imagine my embarrassment when I went through the check out and saw that the total was less than I had in my pocket. I wasn't worried because i had 1,000,000 dong in the wallet I had hung around my neck but when I looked for it I couldn't find it. I also had US money but strangely they wouldn't accept that so I had to put some cigarettes back. In the taxi on the way back I found the other money down deeper in the wallet than I had reached. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
As soon as my laundry was returned I packed again ready for the bus trip tomorrow. Ugh. Oh well I suppose it beats the airport check in scene.
Just went downstairs to the restaurant for dinner only to find that the entire restaurant was reserved for another wedding party. Several of the group was also caught up in the same dilemma but we were told we could eat at the tables in the lobby. That we did. I had a wonderful dish of shrimp in tamarind sauce - one of the best dishes I've had so far.
While waiting for the bill I went outside for a smoke and to get away from the noise of the wedding party. As I sat one of the security guards came over (a regular occurrence) and told me that I looked like Hemmingway. That was so weird because the last time I was told that was in Key West Florida when there was a Hemmingway look alike contest underway. Never in a million years would I have dreamed of it happening in Vietnam!