GoBlue

So far, the running tally on the cost of ignorance (defined as the amount of additional money we've spent because we didn't know better) is somewhere around $75. The first major incident was a few weeks ago in Bali, when a taxi driver accepted 3 thousand-rupiah notes from Carl, who thought they were hundred dollar notes. Too bad. The second occurred today, and was far more conniving.

We departed Chiang Mai today and flew to Bangkok, spending part of our 3-hour layover researching places to stay in Hanoi. We arrived in Vietnam armed with a phone number for our selected hotel. After a bit of wandering we found a public telephone that didn't require a special credit card and placed the call, aided by a kind gentlemen (hint 1: "kind gentleman") who helped us dial. Carl made the reservation, during which time the kind gent showed us a card for a guest house of a friend of his in the same area of town we were targeting. We took the card, thanked him, and told him we were heading to the first hotel but that if the rooms weren't good, we would check out his friend's place. Hint 2: the woman behind him made eye contact with Viv and mumbled "no good" and made a face. At that time, we didn't know whether that meant the place, the man, or the deal.

We exited the airport, heading for the Airport Taxis that the Kind Gent instructed us to take (advice that seemed verified by the other Farange's (foreigners) filing into other taxis in front of us). 30 ridiculous minutes later (driving in Vietnam appears to be one constant horn-honking fest; immediate headache), we arrived at what appeared to be the backpacker strip. At an intersection, to my recollection, suddenly the taxi driver gestured to the side, as a fellow stepped up to Carl's front seat window to tell him that while we were there, the hotel was full. All three of us were confused: the hotel he was pointing at didn't say Golden Lotus, but the driver seemed to corroborate that we were there. The man was telling us not to worry, there was another hotel owned by the same company that was just around the corner and they had room. Carl asked again where the Golden Lotus was, the man pointed again at something that didn't look like the Golden Lotus, then opened my door and asked if he could get in with us. I said no, there's no room! (There wasn't, really, and the request seemed too weird). So he then said, "ok, I meet you there" and closed the door.

We exchanged another "what's going on" as the taxi took off again, and minutes later pulled up at another hotel. As we got out of the car, our bags were being whisked inside, leaving us to catch up. They offered to show us the room; Viv and Carl went up while I watched the bags and tried to figure out where we were on the map. They returned from upstairs with a shrug, confirming that at least it was clean and seemed relatively secure. So, we booked.

At some point we mentioned we had other friends coming into the city, and the folks at the Star hotel were excited to get them lined up to. We hedged, and they then said "here's our card - you show them?". (Sinister music). It was the same card the guy at the airport had showed us of his friend's place. Duped.

Our best guess is that the "kind gentleman" from the airport called a friend of his and told him that there were three of us headed to the Golden Lotus. Said friend then intercepted our cab (somehow before we reached the Golden Lotus - either the cab driver was in on it (seemed unlikely as he was making disapproving noises when he drove us from the first to the second hotel) or we were close, and they spotted us (we do stand out)). So then we got rerouted, and hustled along enough that we never got to catch up because we were too preoccupied watching ourselves and our stuff.

Knowing that somehow we'd gotten nailed, we then went to the Golden Lotus on foot, confirmed that they were not booked and in fact had our reservation and were waiting for us. Taking a lesson my dad taught Carl a few years back, we decided to consider the $20 we had paid to the Star hotel "F@%^ You Money", checked out 30 minutes after we had checked in, and went straight to the Golden Lotus hotel, where we were greeting with sympathy and even some anger towards fellow countrymen and feel we are being treated well. Chalk it up once more as the costs of ignorance; annoying/upsetting, but in this case pretty painless in exchange for toughening us up a bit. Welcome to Vietnam!

We just booked our next two adventures, and I am very excited. We're getting the heck out of this noisy, busy city and head tomorrow night by overnight train to Sapa, in northwest Vietnam. We'll do a 25km trek over two days, staying with hill tribes both nights, and then returning to Hanoi also by overnight train. We'll turn right around that morning and head out to Halong Bay for a 3-day excursion there. I have been to both places, found them breathtakingly gorgeous and a lot of fun - looking forward to continued adventures!