Good Morning Vietnam!

To give you a sense of how I feel about the place so far, I'm going to rank order the cities I have visited so far:

1. Sydney
2. Chiang Mai
3. Melbourne
4. Bangkok
5. Kuta (Bali)
6. Yogyakarta (Java)
7. Hanoi

As Joc mentioned in her blog, we were greeted in Vietnam by both incessant horn honking and getting ripped off (read Jocelyn's blog for the details). In general, Hanoi is a big, dirty, loud city with non-descript food and scenery and aggressive merchants. We recently found out that our friends were ripped off twice in taxis by paying with large bills and being refused their rightful change. It is also not uncommon for foreigners to be required to pay for many things that are free for locals. In general, I get the feeling that we are viewed as a means to making money with little interest in or concern for us otherwise (I mention this specifically because this is not at all what we experinced in Thailand). Long story, short: I'm happy for the experience but will be equally happy to move on earlier than planned . . .

PS - Did any of us mention yet how much horn honking is here? It is indescribably unbelieavable. Think New York city times 200!

written by  GoBlue on June 14, 2007 from Hanoi, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Carl's Circuit
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