Vietnam - the place to go

Despite all the scares, we were blessed to have met good Samaritans along the way. Likewise having scares in about every stop we made, we met good and kind locals in the stops as well.

I called up an old colleague in Hanoi. Dr Bui patiently waited for us outside the theater where we caught the Water Puppet show while we trying to secure the local tour to Halong Bay before hurrying our way to meet him. He brought us to try a local dessert and accompanied us back to the guesthouse to pick up our baggage. Not to mentioned helped us contact a cab and negotiated a good price for us for the ride from Old Quarter to the train station.

On the train to Lao Cai, met a group of talented and nice young Vietnamese. Not only we were directed to the correct berth as the train tickets were all in Vietnamese words. We were very lucky to also bump into this same young people who saved us from the agony of fearing that we were given the wrong tickets and not able to get back to Hanoi. To top it, we were invited to join them for a birthday celebration. Ah... as to why I said they were talented. The birthday boy was blessed with birthday songs in different languages - English (of course), French, Italian, Russian and Mandarin. They did not speak all the 5 languages but everyone of them masters at least 2 languages, the very least - Vietnamese Language and another foreigner language. We joined one of them and sang birthday song in Mandarin. :)

Or in Hue, a nice train master who even personally came to inform us when it reached the station we wanted to go. In Danang, we met the very kind receptionist of a Hotel, the lady who brought us to cross the road, the uncle who doesn't speak English trying to tell us where can board the bus by "sign language".

All the way to Hoi An, the uncle who sold pastries and backpack to us in very, very reasonable price. To note that foreigners are always charged a higher price but this uncle charged us the same price as fellow Vietnamese. Not only that, when we returned to buy more pastries, he gave us discount without us requesting for it. With needing to bargain and negotiate in everything include food and bus rides, it felt really warm to know that we were given such good deal without having to bargain till the cows come home.

Despite all the warnings of scams given in guide books and the scares that befell us, I am glad to say that all the good people that we met has made up for all that. If I am a little too subtle in expressing, I can tell you that I love Vietnam, it's a great place :)


Side note: Aiyak... ppl chase dy...

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