Huế
It took me a month and a half to write these lines and is an effort to start discussing what to me it represents the south of Vietnam. After two months in the north, the expectations of the south were very high, I have already repeated in other entries, that the people and the country I loved, and I couldn’t understand why a lot of people criticizing the inhabitants of this place. Now, after I have visited the south of Vietnam, I can understand any of the comments of travellers who advised me and reported on the nature and customs of the people here, because if it has cost me both write is that I enjoyed very much in the north and almost nothing in the south, in fact there were very uncomfortable moments, up to the point to fight to retrieve my passport, but that then I’ll explain at the time.
After visiting the south of Laos, admire the nature and enjoy the tranquility that the country offers, I returned again to Vietnam, more specifically to Huế, former imperial city, where I stayed for a week, the city itself is nothing special, but there is the possibility to visit a large number of temples, give a tour of the perfume river or enter the palace Gia Long, the latter is the main attraction of the city and a UNESCO world heritage site, it is an enormous palace, but an important part of this is in reforms or to be restored, even so it is a place worth visiting to get an idea of how it should be.
In Huế I began to feel that the people of the restaurants and private transports were beginning to be a little annoying than the rest of the country and that predominated among the foreign, the tourists on the travelers, but anyway it was a pretty nice week, I met some guys who wanted to practice english and the following day one of them made me guide by any of the temples closest, I enjoy the city’s markets and I rent a bicycle to explore the river, where also I was able to enjoy the local atmosphere.
Huế since I went to Hội An, another city with a historic center heritage of humanity, Hội An has an old town, around which was the most important port in the southeast Asia, transforming into the city, at least for me, in a nice city, the only one that I have found in Vietnam. As this is an interesting city, attracts a significant number of passengers and while there are many backpackers, the number of tourists greatly exceeds, which converts the city in a business and to foreigners, in simple buyers in the eyes of the local people.
As I said at the beginning, I had to fight to get my passport and that happened right here, so the time has come to explain the reason for everything that happened.
In this city, such as in the rest of sites in Vietnam, when you walk into a Guest House, hostel or hotel, the first thing they ask you is the passport, until here normal,but they left it until the last day, and when you pay the room they will return it to you. As other times, I left my passport at the reception of the Hotel I decided to stay.
The problem came when the workers of the Hotel, a day before I was out, they gave me stole almost all the money that I wore in cash, more than 2000 $, at first, I would not be suspicious of them, I thought that it had been able to be any of the other tenants, but as I said, it was almost everything, but not all of the money, in fact they left me almost all the Dongs and the Euros and Dollars that I was wearing, they stole my the larger bills and left the small. All my neighbors were western, and a western when steals doesn’t give you a penny.
The Hotel had security cameras and one of them approached my door, so I went to ask for the images of the moment that I assumed that someone had entered my room, but first with excuses that they had technical problems and after that the images had been lost, they didn’t show me the moment. While awaiting the images, which lasted about 6 or 7 hours, there were two english girls that, like me, someone had removed the money from theyroom, and they had seen on the internet that it’s not the first time it happens, so I check on the internet and I found over 30 complaints and all were pointing to the workers of the Hotel. We decided with the girls going to the police to denounce it, and making a complaint we did, but it was a bit of a joke, the police never had the slightest interest in solve anything, which this makes me suspect that they receive some commission, since here this is very common and even you can easily see when you are traveling by coach from one site to another.
Resigned already that I could do nothing, I spent last night in the Hotel and the next morning I prepared the bag and I walked down to the lobby willing to not pay a penny for the room. They did not want me return my passport if I did not pay the invoice and i didn’t want to pay if they did not show my images of security, the discussion with the owner of the Hotel lasted an hour and a half, until he appeared with a bamboo cane of a meter long by about 15 cm in diameter and he attempt assaulting me with it, to let me out to another site, because I was scared to customers. At this point and with the help of a couple of Argentines who had my neighbors, I ended up on the ground fighting with the hotel owner and threatening to the girl at the front desk to return my passport, which ultimately they took me back. The name of the Hotel, if never you pass by there, it is Nhat Huy Hoang Hotel, although if you do not do like me, and you look first in the Internet the views of people, you will be more aware.
Since Hội An and with bad taste, I went to Nha Trang, a beach town without more attractive than the beach and the party, full of tourists vacationers who have come probably from Bangkok, because there are a few streets that have nothing to envy to the famous Kaosan Road. As you may have guessed by my comment, the place I did not like it at all, in fact I did not just any photo.
The last stop was Ho Chi Minh City or Sài Gòn, as you call it, as even among the local people is not very clear which of the names they like more. It is the largest city in Vietnam, but not much more I can tell you about there, of course that has monuments, parks and sites of interest, but after that happened in Hội An, already I didn’t feel anything, and the atmosphere remained similar, too tourism of party and compulsive shopping, transforms the population of any place in the world, in vultures to the hunting of they piece of meat and especially in these countries where the purchasing power is much lower than the west.
jordiboledaen 