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Mola_Ram 12 Dec 2019 02:20:11 22,150 posts
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RyanDS wrote:
A new scam for me in saigon. Got taxi from the airport, I know should be around 150,000. I have done this enough times so got meter fair etc. Got to destination and the guy said 800,000. I looked at the meter and very cleverly he had painted over the final digit, so instead of seeing 1790 it displayed 790 and he was trying to convince me that meant 800,000. I offered him 200,000 and he started haggling so I dropped to 150, then when he got angry saying okay 500 is fair I dropped to 130, gave it to him and walked off.

Really fucks me off, I always leave large tips and would happily have paid 250 if he had done proper price or even tried to graft me for double. But when they start trying to do 5 times the price I get really offended.

I have to admire the ingenuity of it though.

Had it a few times in Myanmar, where the drivers (correctly) assume that an extra 2,000 kyat is peanuts to me, even if they're charging an absolutely ludicrous price in a local context. I managed to avoid most of it using Grab, but it was pretty funny when it happened.

fontgeeksogood 12 Dec 2019 06:23:08 8,342 posts
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RyanDS wrote:

fontgeeksogood wrote:
It's paradise out there, people are friendly, and you can rip off taxi drivers
Oh fuck of you sanctimonious cunt. Do you ever come into this thread to do anything apart from shit on it?

Sorry, hope I didn't ruin your holiday

RyanDS 12 Dec 2019 07:05:47 12,977 posts
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Meh. Sorry to snap. You're being a dick but that's no need for me to be rude. Was stressed with work.

Anyway, back to my blogging which I know you hate. War
remnants museum this morning. Horrific.

I found it worse than Hiroshima or the Cambodian killing fields. Those were history. The war museum I started crying at exhibits, so many pictures of dead and deformed children. Then walked into the children's art room... fucking children still living with scars of the war. A girl in a wheelchair all palsied running the till, a blind kid with blank skin where his eyes should be playing piano, another kid with stumps for arms and legs walking around painting and so on. Kids, teenagers, still living with the results of the american war of aggression, maimed by either leftover cluster bombs or the effects of the tonnes of agent orange that have contaminated the country. Just wanted to run away.

fontgeeksogood 12 Dec 2019 08:14:35 8,342 posts
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I don't hate it, I actually like reading it but I'm a dickhead as well. An enigma

fontgeeksogood 12 Dec 2019 08:15:12 8,342 posts
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Although that doesn't sound enjoyable maybe you ARE travelling after all

RyanDS 12 Dec 2019 08:23:31 12,977 posts
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fontgeeksogood wrote:
Although that doesn't sound enjoyable maybe you ARE travelling after all

Not enjoyable at all. But I feel it is important. I do think when you see a place you should see the good and the bad, I want to learn the country not just walk around having fun. I am not going to do the full on charity work and spend a month building an orphanage, I am too much of a selfish cunt for that. But I think you do need to see the poverty, see how the local people live and at least try to empathise and take some time to reflect on how lucky we are to love in such a prosperous, safe bubble.

And then I go for my massage and spend the night doing a walking food tour or getting drunk playing pool.

On that point, booked a motorbike food tour of saigon for tonight, splashed out 20 of my British pounds to spend 4 hours stopping at 7 restaurants/food stalls to do my Ecosse street food tribute.

On a random note, I always thought it was called Ho Chi Minh city, as it is on the maps. But I have been corrected very abruptly that that is the foreign and government name. It is Saigon and everyone in Vietnam calls it that. Ironic that only the foreigners call it by the name of the national hero. Although the longer I am here the more I think he is only a hero in the north.

fontgeeksogood 12 Dec 2019 08:27:18 8,342 posts
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I once saw where the staff lived in a hotel in Cancun, agree its important to see the reality of a country

Armoured_Bear 12 Dec 2019 08:29:39 27,867 posts
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RyanDS wrote:

fontgeeksogood wrote:
Although that doesn't sound enjoyable maybe you ARE travelling after all
Not enjoyable at all. But I feel it is important. I do think when you see a place you should see the good and the bad, I want to learn the country not just walk around having fun. I am not going to do the full on charity work and spend a month building an orphanage, I am too much of a selfish cunt for that. But I think you do need to see the poverty, see how the local people live and at least try to empathise and take some time to reflect on how lucky we are to love in such a prosperous, safe bubble.

And then I go for my massage and spend the night doing a walking food tour or getting drunk playing pool.

On that point, booked a motorbike food tour of saigon for tonight, splashed out 20 of my British pounds to spend 4 hours stopping at 7 restaurants/food stalls to do my Ecosse street food tribute.

On a random note, I always thought it was called Ho Chi Minh city, as it is on the maps. But I have been corrected very abruptly that that is the foreign and government name. It is Saigon and everyone in Vietnam calls it that. Ironic that only the foreigners call it by the name of the national hero. Although the longer I am here the more I think he is only a hero in the north.

That�s interesting about Saigon, I thought the same as you.
Good stuff in the street food, man the street food in Vietnam is amaaaaaazing!

elstoof 12 Dec 2019 08:42:24 24,808 posts
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fontgeeksogood wrote:
I once saw where the staff lived in a hotel in Cancun, agree its important to see the reality of a country

Hooking up with the hotel staff is the best right

challenge_hanukkah 12 Dec 2019 08:44:10 11,887 posts
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elstoof wrote:

fontgeeksogood wrote:
I once saw where the staff lived in a hotel in Cancun, agree its important to see the reality of a country
Hooking up with the hotel staff is the best for contracting an STI right

fontgeeksogood 12 Dec 2019 08:48:34 8,342 posts
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You're both right

fontgeeksogood 12 Dec 2019 08:49:10 8,342 posts
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Are you seasoned Travellers? Hopefully Fuzzy doesn't see this thread

RyanDS 12 Dec 2019 08:58:53 12,977 posts
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fontgeeksogood wrote:
You're both right

Rash cleared up yet?

fontgeeksogood 12 Dec 2019 09:10:04 8,342 posts
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I don't know, I haven't kept their details

elstoof 12 Dec 2019 09:24:15 24,808 posts
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So we boiled it right down to

Holiday - hooking up with hotel staff

Travelling - paying for prostitutes

Am I missing anything, no, ok cool

RyanDS 12 Dec 2019 09:35:02 12,977 posts
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elstoof wrote:
So we boiled it right down to

Holiday - hooking up with hotel staff

Travelling - paying for prostitutes

Am I missing anything, no, ok cool

What if you stay in a 5 star resort and never leave the complex but get prostitutes shipped in?

elstoof 12 Dec 2019 09:47:30 24,808 posts
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Why would you do that

fontgeeksogood 12 Dec 2019 09:51:48 8,342 posts
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Last time I went to Cancun the only other Canuck staying at the resort did exactly that - he'd booked the holiday for him and his partner who dumped him a week before they went, so he went to Coco Bongo and took two ladies of the night (who were also ladies of the day a few hours later).

I made a mental note of the jacuzzi they were in and didn't go in it the rest of the holiday

RyanDS 12 Dec 2019 09:53:16 12,977 posts
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elstoof wrote:
Why would you do that

Ugly staff?

elstoof 12 Dec 2019 10:09:30 24,808 posts
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Have you ever seen a beautiful prostitute?

RyanDS 15 Dec 2019 13:42:34 12,977 posts
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Food tour of Saigon was epic. I dont count myself a foodie, but I do like trying the local food. Oh my God, I would honestly move here for the street food alone. We did 8 stalls or restaurants and every single one was up there with a top restaurant in london. In london I get pho once a week and the one here for �1.20 blew my mind. Ecosse would wet himself (I assume he has already been here though)

Then yesterday got to Hai Phong, 3rd biggest city but feels like a small town. Did halong bay today, my friend who works here organised it, just the two of us, 6 hours on a boat for 30 people and we paid $18. Local knowledge is a killer!

Anyone doing Vietnam, I recomend. Apart from the teachers I have to seen foreigner here. After the hustle and bustle of Saigon it is a different world.

fontgeeksogood 15 Dec 2019 14:56:19 8,342 posts
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It's the gutter oil which makes the difference

JamboWayOh 15 Dec 2019 15:02:58 16,597 posts
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Living in Vietnam for 2 half and a years I personally couldn't abide HCM, I just found it lacked character and felt like another big Asian city tbh. Plus district 1 is just a hell hole for the most part.

Edited by JamboWayOh at 15:03:25 15-12-2019

Armoured_Bear 15 Dec 2019 18:44:32 27,867 posts
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RyanDS wrote:
Food tour of Saigon was epic. I dont count myself a foodie, but I do like trying the local food. Oh my God, I would honestly move here for the street food alone. We did 8 stalls or restaurants and every single one was up there with a top restaurant in london. In london I get pho once a week and the one here for �1.20 blew my mind. Ecosse would wet himself (I assume he has already been here though)

Then yesterday got to Hai Phong, 3rd biggest city but feels like a small town. Did halong bay today, my friend who works here organised it, just the two of us, 6 hours on a boat for 30 people and we paid $18. Local knowledge is a killer!

Anyone doing Vietnam, I recomend. Apart from the teachers I have to seen foreigner here. After the hustle and bustle of Saigon it is a different world.

Yep, I have

I loved the street food in Vietnam, I had a bit more of it in Hanoi than Saigon, very keen to go back.
Think my top 2 street food towns so far are Georgetown in Penang and Hanoi.
😋

I think my biggest trip next year will be Taiwan, Penang (to visit a mate who has moved there ) and Japan.
I�d probs have chosen Vietnam over Penang if she hadn�t moved there.

Armoured_Bear 17 Dec 2019 13:05:31 27,867 posts
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I'm off to Australia tomorrow, Adelaide till NYE then Port Douglas in Queensland, 2 nights in Brisbane before heading to Hong Kong, 3 days there to break up the trip back home.

I'm going to melt, aren't I?

DaM 17 Dec 2019 14:15:09 17,416 posts
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Armoured_Bear wrote:
I'm off to Australia tomorrow, Adelaide till NYE then Port Douglas in Queensland, 2 nights in Brisbane before heading to Hong Kong, 3 days there to break up the trip back home.

I'm going to melt, aren't I?

Yes. Looks mental, glad we aren't going over, we spend the occasional Xmas there.

Last time it was well over 40C in Melbourne. I normally charge about, but had no choice but to walk slowly and take it easy.

You'll probably die in Queensland.

Edited by DaM at 14:15:35 17-12-2019

Jono62 17 Dec 2019 14:17:17 23,338 posts
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Australian Street Food is amazing

Armoured_Bear 17 Dec 2019 14:36:15 27,867 posts
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Jono62 wrote:
Australian Street Food is amazing

No it isn�t , don�t torture me!!!

elstoof 17 Dec 2019 14:41:13 24,808 posts
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Wallaby slow roasted on the roadside bushfire, heavenly

fontgeeksogood 17 Dec 2019 14:42:22 8,342 posts
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Anything, with a tinny up its arse, on the barbie

Travelling... • Page 69