Vietnam
Its always a nice feeling when the most valuable, hard to change note in your pocket is worth a mere 3.60gbp (a 100,000 Dong note). The huge numbers are still a bit of a shock, we're wandering around with miltiple million dong (40ish gbp each).
Actually, in every country we've been to, the prices have reflected the currency. I'm sure there's a name for it, in America everything was 5 or 10 bucks, in Japan 100 or 1000 yen etc. There's a pyshchological edge to it as well, I'll quite happily pay 11 soles for a meal and think that's cheap, but force 2360 won out of my wallet and I'll be sputtering.
Cat Ba island has really been hit by the tropical storm last weekend, we'd had a tour cancelled due to it but had no idea it was that serious. The beaches are covered in gravel and big stones, the walkways have collapsed in several places and everywhere big healthy trees are uprooted through the pavement. It'll be about a month before it gets back to normal, so time to find another beach. We went on a boat tour of Halong Bay, which is nice - lots of limestone karst rock islands (hundreds of them) on an emerald sea, a few private beach stops along the way (beaches that weren't facing the storm).
Vietnam is definitely high on the hassle factor. Already we've had people lie directly to us for minimal gain - e.g. "there's no more boats today, you'll have to stay the night" when there were 2 more boats.
Back to Ha Noi tomorrow, overnight train to Hue. We're passing on Sapa, a great trekking area in NW Vietnam- done tons of trekking, give us the beaches.
Actually, in every country we've been to, the prices have reflected the currency. I'm sure there's a name for it, in America everything was 5 or 10 bucks, in Japan 100 or 1000 yen etc. There's a pyshchological edge to it as well, I'll quite happily pay 11 soles for a meal and think that's cheap, but force 2360 won out of my wallet and I'll be sputtering.
Cat Ba island has really been hit by the tropical storm last weekend, we'd had a tour cancelled due to it but had no idea it was that serious. The beaches are covered in gravel and big stones, the walkways have collapsed in several places and everywhere big healthy trees are uprooted through the pavement. It'll be about a month before it gets back to normal, so time to find another beach. We went on a boat tour of Halong Bay, which is nice - lots of limestone karst rock islands (hundreds of them) on an emerald sea, a few private beach stops along the way (beaches that weren't facing the storm).
Vietnam is definitely high on the hassle factor. Already we've had people lie directly to us for minimal gain - e.g. "there's no more boats today, you'll have to stay the night" when there were 2 more boats.
Back to Ha Noi tomorrow, overnight train to Hue. We're passing on Sapa, a great trekking area in NW Vietnam- done tons of trekking, give us the beaches.
posted by Matt and Lizzie at
11:35 AM
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