Cat and I decided to try and head up to the restricted floors to get Janice and the rest of the gang. The only catch, the elevator requires swiping your keycard to get to your floor and ours is only good for the peon floors and wouldn't work for the executive floors. We decided to hitch a ride to the 18th floor and crossed our fingers. It stopped....on the 17th floor. Grrrr... We hopped off, pressed the elevator call button and waited with baited breath. The elevator came but it was empty. Shoot. We called and waited again. Still no go.
Cat decided to text George to come get us since they were also on the "special people" floor. All of a sudden the elevator opens and one of the hotel staff was inside. We hopped on and pretended that we belonged on the executive floor but "oh no our key didn't work!" The staff looked at us a bit suspiciously but helped us out by swiping her key.
Janice and Rich weren't ready to leave yet so I decided to meet George and Rodney at breakfast. George mentioned they had gone to the 17th floor to get us, heard Cat's voice as they got out of the elevator but there was nobody there! It reminded of a movie scene, you those scenes:
Girl walks into elevator at the same time guys walks out and they miss each other by a hair's breath
The hotel included a breakfast buffet. Oh my. Now THIS is my kind of breakfast buffet. They had all the traditional American fare like an omelette bar, cheese, toast and cereal. But sprinkled betwixt these were little nuggets of treasure such as congee and these Vietnamese rice noodle thingies that had dried shrimp snuggly wrapped inside. Come out little shrimpies! They also had pho...for breakfast! I saw this after stuffing my face already but make a mental promise to try it tomorrow.
Janice and Rich join us and we take over a table of six to spread out our various maps, Lonely Planet guides, pens and paper to map out our days to come. Our agenda for day 1, take it easy and explore Saigon in a relaxed style. No problem. I'm still a bit tired from the trip so a relaxed walk, sightseeing tour sounds perfect. Lonely Planet suggested a route for a two hour tour so Cat, George and I set out. Janice and Rich headed to the train station to get passes for our trip back in about a week.
The hotel gave us a map with a suggested walking tour outlined. We all decide to set off and reconvene at the Ben Thanh Market around noon.
Map in hand, we set off on our little tour. It's unfortunate there wasn't an mp3 walking tour like they had for Italy but we religiously followed the map and took photos at the highlights. Crossing the streets were a bit hairy with all the traffic but we soon realized there was actually an order to the chaos. As congested as the traffic is, it moved relatively slow in order for all the cars and scooters to merge. If you crossed the street, you just start walking slowly and the traffic will do their best to go around you.
Cat and George playing tourist.
I couldn't resist either.
We make our way towards the Ben Thanh Market and get there right around noon. There was a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on one of the corners with free wifi so we chose that as the meeting spot to wait for Janice and Rich. We hadn't been there for more than 5 minutes when the dynamic duo stroll in. They had no idea we were there! They just happened to select the same coffee shop, how crazy was that?!!!
The Ben Thanh Market was right across the street. It was interesting to note that the vendors would approach Janice and Cat, grab them even to try and get them to buy something but they left me relatively alone. I'm wondering if I just look like a local or they think all Chinese were good hagglers. It was nice not to be grabbed as I'm actually terrible at haggling. I enjoyed my leisurely browse.
My first attempt at haggling came along when I saw a beautiful scarf. For those that aren't used to haggling, there's definitely an art to it. I ended up paying $7 for the scarf which I thought was a pretty good deal but I had a feeling I could have gotten it for cheaper. Next time.
Janice had organize a cyclo tour so we all met around 3pm outside the market. The cyclo tour guides had agreed to 15,000 duong which is less than $1. Really? Hmmm...that's crazy cheap so we all agreed, hopped in the seat and they whisked us away straight into Saigon traffic.
The ride was unnerving to say the least but after a few minutes, my heart palpitations lessened as I experience first hand, the skill of these cyclo drivers. As they drove us around they pointed out historical landmarks and tidbits of information. We stopped off an herbal shop then a temple where I wrote my name on a red paper and pinned it to an incense for good luck. The incense is hung from the ceiling of the temple and would burn for a week.
[pic to be attached]
The final stop of the tour was...happy hour!!! We pull into a pub, order drinks all around and Tien (the lead tour guide) whips out an autograph book for us to sign. We pass it around, hand it back to him and he glances at it only to hand it back to us asking us to put "Tien Rocks". Hmmmm...modest aren't we?
I was talking to Rich who sat on my left when all of a sudden I heard a commotion and voices being raised to my right. Huh? What the heck is going on? Janice looked pissed and was arguing with Tien. It appears that Tien is trying to convince Janice he said 1.5 million duong per person, not 15,000 duong. Whoa...that's about $75 per person! No way! Cat jumped in and the conversation really got interesting. Heated arguments insued with accusations of the cyclo riders misleading us on the price of the ride. Eventually, Janice offered them 500,000 duong per person which is roughly $25. We refused to give them any more than that. It was an unfortunate turn of events but overall, it was still an amazing day and $25 was a more than fair price to end up paying. A suggestion I will have for any future travelers to Vietnam, always negotiate the price of anything up front and dont' be afraid to call them out when you feel taken advantage of. Cab drivers will try to overcharge as will any of the other tour type operators. Be careful.
It's late evening and we opted to walk back to the hotel rather than let the cyclo riders take us back.
No comments:
Post a Comment