Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We had to say goodbye to beautiful Hoi An and make our way to Hue. The trip took us 4 hours via bus but the time went by quickly. It seems like the further north you go into Vietnam the more beautiful the country becomes; especially, when you are on the coast.
Once we arrived at Hue we checked into the hotel and then had a cyclo ride tour around the city square. The cyclo ride was a lot of fun; however, it was hot out - it was 39 degrees! The ride lasted for about 10 minutes until we got to our destination. But then as we neared the point where we had to get off the bike to walk about, the driver of the cyclo kept saying "money, money, you pay up there." Our tour guide said to only tip them 20,000 dong ($1) and I thought I had that much but I didn't and the guy kept saying "50,000" "50,000" and when I pulled out my little amount of change that I had he just laughed and was like "no, 50,000" and all of my bills were above 50,000 dong and then I had roughly 12,000 in small bills. Needless to say, he ended up not getting anything from me because he wasn't willing to take anything less than 50,000. Apparently, a lot of the other drivers also gave other people on our tour a bad time because they weren't willing to give the driver more than 20,000. So that dampened the experience. Speaking to the tour guide after, she said that Contiki has paid for the service and they also include a tip; so whatever we pay is just an extra. Its annoying that some of the Vietnamese people have to be that way, but at the same time.. guess I should have had 20,000 dong; although he probably wouldnt have accepted it.
After the ride, we walked around Thien Mu Pagoda and the Imperial Citadel. Unfortunately, I lost interest during the visit because it was uncomfortably hot and all I wanted to do was sit somewhere with some A/C and drink something cold.
I was disappointed by Hue, nothing seemed amazing or stood out in the city and with the cyclo ride tip fiasco, that damped my mood even more.
- comments