16/10/2010

Fighting the white tax, hell yeah . . .

I started the day with some yoga and pilates, I'm trying to stretch as much as possible as I'm constantly cramped up on buses and trains, even when the bus stops or while on the bus I stretch out the old hammies, I'm getting more flexible, I can see huge improvements. Go me!

I wandered after my early morning of on the net updating blogs, how exciting ey, while waiting for miss young to rise. When she did, I asked for the veggie breakfast they said they would give me of veg noodle soup. Instead they brought this bowl full of salad topped with minging meat looking tofu, very convincing it was I have to say of pretending to be meat. So I spent the next half an hour sorting out what they originally said they would give me. I mean they just don't seem to understand that all they do is just not add the beef. Instead I got a diy soup served, a bowl of stock water, plate of salad and a bowl of noodles, which I just mushed all together, they are a funny bunch.

On my wander while Laura spent her time on the net I had discovered a beach, china beach, so we checked out and headed there for a few hours. It was so overcast but the sea was so warm. The waves were massive. A Tibetan guy and boy joined us playing in the sea, originally jumping over the waves, but here they dive under them, so that's what I did. After about half an hour, we got chased by life guards, to be fair there were signs everywhere saying it was too dangerous to go in, but it took them a wee while to realise. I also built a Fulwell Mill sand castle which is so life like it is unreal!

After heading back to the hotel to totally destroy their public loo by washing ourselves and using their hand soap, bum washers and sinks, we left in a hurry.

A hot walk to the bus stop, a pee stop by me in a garden centre behind the pots, I know but serious lack of loos when desperate waiting at a bus stop!

So it was good bye to Danang as we got on the bus to go to Hoi an. Only an hour trip, which makes a nice change. But still in this hour we manage to cause a disturbance. As soon as we sat down the ticket guy came running towards us asking for 50,000dong, we knew it was only 10,000 so we were like, no, its 10 and refused to pay or move, the guy was adamant it was 50, so we are getting louder and louder with our 'we refuse to pay its 10'. He pulled over at the next stop, more people got on, he got back on and came over. Laura whipped out her notebook and wrote the bus name, time, etc as he wouldn't give us a receipt, and we said if we pay 50,000 we want his name so we can check when we get off, he refused, we refused to pay. He still hadn't collected money off anyone else, and everyone kept looking at the back of the bus while we made a scene. He kept popping back and forth in between stops. He wanders over again saying 20,000 each, we were like, no 10. He said 10 for you, 10 for your bag, well we squealed no, our bags are on our knee, no, 10. Eventually he stopped pestering us and took 10 off us each after he collected 10 from everyone else. Westerners out there in Vietnam, stand your ground and refuse to pay the white tax!

After getting off and peeing in a bush, the usual routine, as I refuse to pay for a skanky loo, we walked straight to our hostel and checked in. No dorms were available so we got a 3 bed and were told someone might join us, I said to the girl make sure it's a hot fit bloke. Upstairs I was naked about to walk into the shower when a Steve our new roomie walked in. A guy and he was friendly enough. We all ended up wandering exploring the streets and an island together and going for tea. Xx