Before we begin ranting, we'd like to start on a high note and say that we had some great times in Vietnam. We spent an evening at the Saigon Opera House drinking tea and watching a show called the A O Show (a bit similar to cirque de solei) which was quite fun. We took a boat tour of the Mekong in a town called Can Tho where we had bun (noodle soup with pork) in the floating market, visited a noodle making factory and a fruit orchard (where we sampled all of the fruits). We also ate lots of good food: pho (noodle soup with beef), Vietnamese coffee, and bahn mi (a sandwich with lots of mystery meats, some veg, and liver pate). We also met a couple of friendly people - our Mekong tour guide, Kim, was awesome. We'll post photos in a separate posting.
Now the lows...we've said it before and we are firmly set on the idea that people are what makes or breaks a place. This was proven time and time again in Vietnam. The majority of the people that we encountered were not only unfriendly, but it seemed that they would do anything (I.e. lie, cheat or steal) to make a few bucks and/or get a few cracks in at the haoles. Some examples:
1) Just like in Europe and other places, upon entering an elevator, one must push the close door button. So, when investigating a new hotel for a possible crash-pad, I (Kristina) entered the lift, and then the hotel worker entered. As Todd began walking in, the worker pushed the close button and shut the doors on him. Then, she laughed.
2) During the bus ride to the Mekong Delta, Todd waited for a calm stretch in road before standing up to grab his headphones from his bag in the upper bag compartment. The driver looked back at him and slammed the brakes for no reason that either of us could tell. (This could have been a coincidence, but we doubt it.)
3) I (Kristina) found a shop with some custom blazers and skirts for work. I was told multiple times that everything was 50% off. Not only was I told of the percentage discount, the shop worker also calculated the new price to show me how good the discount was. So, I tried some items on, found a skirt and blazer that I liked and went to check out. She rung me up and gave me the price which was nearly the full price of my items. When I pointed this out to her, she said that the discount was actually only 10% and she apologized saying that her english was bad. I'd love to have believed that, but it's all crap. It was not a language problem. It was a lie to get me to pay more.
4) We booked a bus ticket back to Saigon from the Mekong Delta so as to avoid too much hassle on our return. The bus ticket price included a shuttle ride from our hotel to the bus station. The receptionist in our hotel told us to wait inside and "no worries" that the shuttle would come for us. After waiting almost 20 minutes, we decided to forgo the waiting and catch a cab. All hell broke loose once we arrived at the bus station. Not only did we barely make our bus, but some men outside of the bus station grabbed my arm and proceeded to take me away from the entrance saying that the place to book tickets was "over her". They were in fact lying. We needed to go into the bus office just like we though. Todd had had enough. I waited on the bus (holding our seats) while he yelled at the vultures outside who grabbed me and the woman inside the bus station for not sending a shuttle to pick us up.
5) While on the bus back to Saigon, a man proceeded to push Todd's leg out of the way to grab something. Since Todd is a nice person, we had to assume that the man had dropped something and was trying to grab it, so he moved his leg out of the man's way. The man then reached into the seat pocket grabbing Todd's water bottle. The man had messed with the wrong guy. Todd quickly realized what was happening and Karate-chopped his arm. The man jumped back and quickly left the bus. Hopefully, he's left with more than just a bruise.
It may seem that we are being silly, or that these kinds of things can happen everywhere, but we were only in Saigon for 3.5 days. These kinds of things were constant. Every time we had a nice couple of hours and we began to think that maybe we had it all wrong... we would get lied to again.
It is possible that our negative perceptions are not true of all Vietnamese people. And, a person of a different ethnicity could quite possibly have a very different experience. However, this was ours.
With our visit to the War Remnants Museum and all of the anti-American rhetoric fresh in our heads, We felt that the people were trying to get us back for all of the atrocities that our country committed during the Vietnam war. And, to be fair, our country did some horrible things. Americans basically crop-dusted their land and people with a deadly chemically (Agent Orange). The "intention" was to kill the plants and foliage so that the Viet Cong would be more exposed. It was "not known" that Agent Orange would affect people in such a negative way. The fact that it was not foreseen that a chemical of this magnitude could (and did) harm millions of people is disgusting and disingenuous. In fact, the harm still continues. People are still affected by the chemical and quite possibly may be for a long time.
So, in some respects, we can understand some residual hostility and anger towards Americans. However, it still sucks to be deceived and cheated. And, since we believe that the people make the place, we've come to the conclusion that Vietnam is not a place for us.
