The title above is in reference to a saying that's found on T-shirts all over South East Asia. I'm not really sure what it means or why it is so popular, but the locals tend to use it a whole lot. It's appropriate to mention it given the particulars of this city.
While I won't go so far as to say that things are more hectic here than in HCMC, I'll definitely admit that it's in the same ballpark. I'm staying in the old quarter which is only enhancing my perspective on things. For one thing, there are no signal lights. Well, there actually are signal lights, they just don't work. The streets are very narrow and there is a constant parade of all manner of people getting around in all manner of ways. The traffic signals would only congest everything, so they just don't function. So in some ways, crossing the street here is even more hair-raising than in HCMC. The old quarter itself is rough around the edges, to say the least. I can certainly see why people think this area is charming and all, I had just hoped it would've been a little more placid.
The ride to the hotel took almost as long as the flight from Hue. Traffic moved about as fast as a funeral procession. I've seen a few things since I arrived yesterday morning, but really, my plan is just to walk around a lot and take in the city. I'm not a museum person all in all. There is the Ho Chi Minh tomb where you can actually see the guy's body. But really, that just doesn't do a darned thing for me so I think I'll skip that. Last night after eating a great bowl of noodles in a fish, crab and pork broth for just over $1, I walked down to the corner on the same street as the hotel and sat on a tiny little stool and enjoyed the 3,000-dong bia hoi...the fresh beer, which is even cheaper than in Hoi An. It's a lot of fun just to hang out down there with locals and foreigners, literally on a street corner and enjoying the evening.
It's very humid at the moment, though not so hot. I'm going to hang here at the hotel ($22/nite) and relax a bit before I venture out for more scenery. By the way, I am in the country illegaly as of 12:01 this morning. I've tlked to a bunch of people about my expired visa and they all say the same thing: Don't worry. You'll be fine. No problem. Etc... I guess in two days I'll find out for sure. Oh yeahh...
Yesterday I searched for an internet cafe that had Skype and a camera so that I could chat (and see) my family in Italy. Found a place and was told by the youngish guy running the place that it would cost 5,000 dong per hour, about .30. Great. When I returned a while later, the guy was gone and an older guy was there instead. He said the rate was 15,000 dong/hour. Under a dollar, but 3 times what I had been told earlier. I somehow managed to communicate to him that I was told something far less and he went along with it, albeit none too thrilled about it. When the time came to pay, the little monitor on the screen said 2,000 dong. He demanded 3,000. The difference is a pittance, but it is symbolic of the all-too-frequent gouging of the foreinger that goes on here. I encountered it (unbeknownst to me at the time) from the moment I stepped foot in this country and am still being victimized by it. Perhaps 'victim' is too strong a word, but this isn't about money. It's the principle of the thing. In Hoi An when I rented a bike for example, I was told 15,000 dong even though the woman before me had been told 10,000. When I pointed this out, the renter gave me the 10,000 price. Yet the next day when I went back to the same woman, she again tried to get 15,000 out of me. I guess this is the price (literally) of being a foreigner here. It is a shame because I'm obviously not wired to think that this is a fair practice, whatever justification the folks here may have for doing business this way. Hate to round out my two weeks here this way, but hopefully as I've blogged, I've pointed out the good, the bad and in this case, the ugly. It's the kind of thing that people tend to think about when they decide to return.
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