It is safe to say that Hanoi is not yet a tourist mecca, much less a commercial city. The people here are almost unbearably friendly, especially considering our little dustup 30-some years ago, and this makes it hard to treat tourists in the customary manner.
I had to get a photo taken yesterday for my Cambodian visa, which brought me to a tiny camera store located behind my hotel. The place was perhaps eight feet wide, and stocked largely with rolls of film, plus about eight Vietnamese people waiting on me. They offered me tea and a cigarette, and charged me $1.50 for the photo. Given the price of photo paper and color ink, if they do this for all of their customers, their profit margin must be a few cents.
The taxi drivers, too, have not yet got the hang of tourism. They take a deep breath and quote a price twice the going rate, which works out to perhaps an extra dollar.
I'm told Saigon is more what I'm used to in the way of tourist traps. I find out on Tuesday.
And you went to Vietnam, why exactly?
(Just asking because I missed the post of what the purpose of the trip is)
JKc - The Atlantic has a writer who's been operating up the river. His methods have become...unsound.
Actually, it's more like 40 years ago, not 30. God I'm old.
So I am assuming this means you arrived safely, Megan? :grin: I hope you tell us all about it sometime... with pics too.
It was long John F... 04/30/75 was the end, end of what was begun in '73... so 32, 34? Depending on who you talk to it started in '50 with the French... we were surely there in force by '56 as advisors, which Kennedy increased to 15,000+ and full on in '65 with 200,000+ ... In essense you were both right, just looking at beginning and end.
JKc - The Atlantic has a writer who's been operating up the river. His methods have become...unsound.
If I had to pick on member of the Atlantic's stable of bloggers to send up the river and stab Colonel Kurtz to death, it would definitely be Megan.
And I mean that only in a good way, seriously.
Speaking of whether or not a city is a 'commercial' one, or not, you should try finding a Coin Store--you know, a place dealing in Numismatic phenomenon. Should be telling..
Well, that's interesting, except that Hanoi is kind of a tourist mecca, and people here are incredibly commercial. And, in fact, taxi drivers will routinely leave their meters off when tourists step into the cab, or do something I haven't managed to figure out yet which causes the meter to run twice as fast as it's supposed to, or will take strange detours to prolong the mileage and up the fare.
However, they are noticeably less brazen in such things than are taxi drivers in, say, Nigeria. Whether this has to do with being less "commercial", I'm not so sure. I think it has a lot to do with having relatively effective law enforcement, as compared to Nigeria, and a Party policy of being nice to foreigners in order to encourage investment, which filters down quite visibly to the grassroots level, through obvious mechanisms.
My point was only that they clearly haven't figured out just how much they could cheat me, if they wanted; they're pikers compared to, say, the Greeks.
My point was only that they clearly haven't figured out just how much they could cheat me, if they wanted; they're pikers compared to, say, the Greeks.
I think you've just been lucky in the particular cheating taxi drivers you've gotten. We had drivers that asked for so much it was hilarious, as if Westerners usually paid $40US to go a few blocks.
Mostly, though, they won't cheat you because they don't want to cheat you.
The taxi drivers, too, have not yet got the hang of tourism.
Besides, it makes me sad to see "getting the hang of tourism" equated with cheating. In many of the Asian tourist meccas I've been to, there is absolutely no cheating (gov't corruption excepted). I prefer the "we'll be nice to our guests" approach to having the hang of tourism.
MayBee: The ones with the extra-fast meters are called "parachute taxis " (taxi du - falling tone). I can never understand that -- why parachute? -- but that's what they call them!!! Usually about double the price.
Megan: Ho Chi Minh City has similar problems with taxi drivers -- at the airport someone always asks me if I'd like to go to the centre of town for an exorbitant fee, but I find most taxi drivers are pretty cool down there.
In general I'd say people in both cities are well aware of cashed-up tourists. Both have tourist trap areas.
RE: taxis, as a resident I know which companies to take and so my bad experiences are few and far between these days.
Touch wood.