First Impressions of Vietnam

Another country, another one of these articles.

- The official currency of Vietnam is the Dong, which is fun because the name is pretty great to say, and it is 16,000 Dong to the Dollar. Becoming a Vietnamese millionaire is as easy as one trip to the ATM.

- Interestingly enough, the US dollar is also very big here, especially for hotels and other higher priced items. So much for the capitalist pigs.

- Vietnam might be the cheapest country yet of the tour. 15 dollars will get you a pretty decent hotel room (AC, TV, hot water, sometimes fridge) and food is dirt cheap. Our dinner of two bowls of Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) last night was less then 2 dollars.

- Every bowl of Pho we have had in Vietnam has been spectacular. At less then a dollar is most places, and very healthy, I think we will be eating quite a few more.

- Even after seeing the rest of Asia, Vietnam is the small motorbike king. There are a few more cars in Saigon, but in the Mekong Delta where we were before I would estimate that %99 percent of all vehicles on the road are a motorbike. We rented one to look around Chau Doc and on the main road out of town you could see at least a mile down the road, and every vehicle was a motorbike, hundreds of them.

- The people of Vietnam are the friendliest so far. People smile and say "hello" all the time. Kids love to see you and get so excited if you pay attention to them. For the most part this friendliness seems very genuine. Even annoying hawkers can be fooled around with, and will often want to just chat with you, after they figure out weather you want to buy anything.

- After all this time we finally had a cab man try a meter scam on us. When we arrived in Saigon, we got in a cab and after less then a KM I noticed that the meter was already at 5 KM and 28,000 Dong. I complained and he said, or so we thought, that if would only be 14,000 Dong to take us to where we were going. When we got there he tried to take 50,000 and not give us any change. Nisha took the lead in bitching him out while I got change and ended up giving him around 20,000 Dong, which is about what the meter should have been.

- We have been travelling on a lot of speedboat ferries lately. First we took one from Penom Penh in Cambodia to Chau Doc in Vietnam and then from Can Tho to Saigon. Great way to travel around the Mekong. As fast as a bus and more comfortable, with a better view. They are a kind of long thin fiberglass boat with a roof and windows, set up pretty much like a bus inside. There is sometimes a little deck on back you can hang out on as well. Powered by twin I/O engines, these things move along over 30 knots. On our trip to Saigon, there was some driving down a crowded delta canal filled with sand barges that would make the average New Hampshire Marie Patrol officer pee his pants.