Saigon Suitcases

Sunday, March 06, 2016
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
The ship is a long way from Ho Chi Minh City. It takes about an hour and a half to get there so our guide tells us stories about "voting' in Vietnam's elections" and the importance of scooters. Then one of our fellow Australian tourists asks a lot of annoying questions, like "How much is a scooter"  despite the guide already telling us that it's about $800 US he repeats the price for the vexatious tourist, "Eight hundred dollars, US".
The tourist asks again, "But how much is that?"
"Eight hundred USD"
"But what does that mean?"
"Er?"
"How much is it in actual money?"
That's when the entire bus shouts, "Eight hundred US dollars!"

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There's traffic in Ho Chi Minh City . If you're from Australia, think of the busiest peak-hour road, then take away 80% of the cars, then multiply the number of scooters by 5,000%. But there are no real traffic jams, at least, not if you're on a scooter.

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Its hot and we wander for a while before making our way to the shops. Food is abundant and big hotels are happy to let us use their facilities. Finally we wander through Parkson department store and spot some luggage. We need more luggage. We take our time deciding what to buy (when I say 'we' I mean 'Steven', my decision making is usually fast, I find the most expensive one and tell Steven that's what I want - when he's finished giving me the stare of the impoverished man we buy the one I really want, the second most expensive).

One of the shop assistants helps us with our selections and by the time we're ready to pay there is only about 10 minutes left before we need to get back to the bus. It seems every check-out we go to is busy or closed. After riding up and down the escalators (the assistant jogging ahead of us like a crazed Muppet) we eventually pay then race off to meet the bus with bare minutes to spare.

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On the trip back to the ship everyone is quiet, so no more questions for our guide.

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