Vietnam - The Land of Dishonesty?

The trip to Vietnam is an eye-opener that everyone is trying to con you. The taxi drivers, the hotel owners and the hawkers are all trying to con foreigners that visit their country. I don't mind them hiking up the price but they way they try to cheat foreigners is so obvious and it clearly shows that they're not honest. Here are some personal experience:

1. Hotel Democracy's employee in Hanoi did not properly replace the bottles of mineral water and beer in my hotel room's fridge after the previous client left. The amount of the items listed on the door of the fridge was in Vietnamese that foreigners could not understand. On the last day, the hotel's management charged me for the mineral water that I did not consume. Luckily they did not charge me for the 3 missing cans of beer.

2. I bought some Vietnamese oranges that was supposed to be juicy and sweet as the one the hawker let me tasted. However, the ones I bought was different quality. They're juicy but not sweet at all. Even the colour of the flesh of the oranges looked different from the one I tasted.

3. A taxi driver in Hue tried to give all kinds of excuse to charge us extra even though the taxi fare had been agreed upon before we took his taxi. This proved that he was very dishonest and did not keep to his word.

4. The cheap Vietnamese t-shirts I purchased had all the colour faded and spreaded on all parts of the t-shirt. For the same price in Cambodia, I could get better quality ones. At least the Cambodians are more honest to tell me the difference between good quality and bad quality ones, even though the bad quality ones are not as bad as Vietnamese ones.

5. Roadside food vendors tried to sell large amount of food I did not need. It's an opportunity for them to make quick money by selling a lot to foreigners who could not speak Vietnamese. They would show you the unhappy face if you rejected the large amount of food and insisted on paying less for smaller quantity. I felt like walking away from such vendors a few times.

Generally, the Vietnamese are not honest. I am not saying all Vietnamese are not honest but the number of them that try to con you exceed the honest ones. I am not looking forward to visit this country again. I'd rather visit Cambodia.

There are also other elements that are not very positive about Vietnam:

1. Lack of public toilets. Men and women are very likely to end up doing their "business" in the bushes if you're traveling on a long distance public transport. Don't be surprise if you catch someone doing "business" in the middle of a field, even in Hanoi.

2. The beds on the train are filthy. I saw blood stain on the bed I was sleeping.

3. The toilet on the train is filthy but at least there's a toilet. There's no toilet if you travel by bus.

4. Drivers of public transport are reckless and drive very dangerously as well as speeding.

5. Public transport tend to be overloaded. You will notice passengers sleeping and sitting on the floor eventually as the driver try to make more profit.

6. The price of food is not cheap in Vietnam. They could be more costly than Malaysia sometimes especially when they try to rip you off. A restaurant tried to rip us off by charging us 100,000 Dong (~ RM15) per dish in a small town. Luckily, I decided to walk out of the restaurant.

7. All the food taste the same eventually. Malaysian food is still the best due to the influence from multi-culture.