Bills on paper, bills on birds

 Thursday Nov 9th

By now I had the boat’s routine kind of figured out, you weren’t going to find the never empty coffee pot until 7am and then it disappeared after brunch. So I just hung out in the room a bit longer than the day before.

A few good byes to other passengers over breakfast. More hovering (in a good way) by Helen my ‘Butler’. An offer for more kayaking in the morning, but the kayak’s seats are wet and it took my jeans shorts 2 days to dry after the first time. Mostly I just enjoyed the serenity of just being on the water with impeccable service.

Until about 9:45. During the cruise I had 3 alcoholic drinks, and bought a glass of wine for my wonderful German cigarette machine. Averaging about $10 a drink, so $40 all said. More U.S. prices than Vietnam prices, but they do have you at a bit of “It’s the only game in town”-itus. I handed over my piece of plastic to the purser/barman and he jammed it into his hand held machine pushed some buttons and my phone chimed with a text from the bank “$37.65 has just been charged to your piece of plastic”. Cool ! Well not cool. His machine never got the confirmation and the bank’s text was not a regular text but one of those that is temporary. Once read it goes someplace else into the ether of broken bytes. Okay, I’ll pull up the credit card account page on my iPad. Easy, except all my backing passwords are locked safely at home on my Windows machine, not in the iOS ecosystem. I tried to reset the password, but with 2 factor authentication they could not send a text to my normal phone since I am using a Vietnam sim and my T-Mobile sim would not connect to their cell towers. Soon enough I did get an email from Plastic Card Company “Your account has been locked!”. On one hand I really appreciate the security protection the are providing, on the other … well there is that barman.

I could have given him the 400k Ho Chi Minh’s and told him to reverse the charge once he got to a decent signal. But I had lost my patience with them I had paid a premium price to ride their tub and they were going to cheap out on 4 lousy drinks and basically call me a liar, because their system was faulty. I didn’t raise my voice, but said “Call the police if you want. I paid and if your machine is faulty it is not my responsibility. I am not running the card again and not giving you cash.”. —— so have I every told you about Vietnamese jails? ——not really. We both came to the understanding that this could get ugly in front of other passengers and I didn’t care. Poor Helen was about to have kittens, she had spent the last 3 day kissing my ass and it was ending on this note? I knew she was in a totally different part of the system and this was out of her hands. When I get home and get the account unlocked, if the charge isn’t posted, I’ll reach out to the company and fix it. — The lucky thing is that that particular credit card, I had brought along only to use as charges for the cruise. Thanks to some Diety it wasn’t like my Amex or bank debit card.

One thing the tourism trade here has learned is the online reviews matter and they aren’t shy about asking for a good one. Even down to asking that they individually be mentioned in the positive review. Helen really did deserve her accolades. Tim, well he did do his job, and did get my ride to Tam Coc arranged so I’ll give him a mention.

On leaving the boat I was given a tote bag, but everyone at one time or another was given the same brown sack with the tote bag inside. Helen did come over and hand me a 500 VND bill (about $.02) as ‘Lucky money’. I don’t completely understand the lucky money concept, but I do sometimes put a penny in my shoe when traveling. Maybe it’s the same thing. Anyway it was a sweet personal touch from a very hard working woman and I appreciated it.

Luggage packed, board the tender and soon on dry land. A bit of a cluster **** everyone going to different modes of travel, by different companies, but it all got worked out. I was really torn about the their to accept Heidi and Jergen’s invitation to ride with them, but the potential of a four or five hour ride making small and probably large talk really scared me. I was afraid, by the end of the ride they would hate me, so I in the end did decline their more than generous offer and take the bus. Thank you again Heidi and Juergen for the generosity.

The bus was a bus. A nice bus, but in the end just a regular plush seat tour bus. I am glad I didn’t have to lay on the floor or climb up to my seat. The driver drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on his cell phone, his other on the horn all the while picking at his cuticles.

There seemed to be to be three types of honks. 1. I am here. 2. Move it! 3. Get the $%^&* out of the #$%ing way you fatherless dog. We got to hear all of them several times over the next 4 hours.

We arrived at Tam Coc and the bus went to each hotel and dropped off people. Mine was a hint past the main of the town, but the town is a mess. Restaurants, massage parlors and the occasional family run convenience store. All wanting you to drop in. The place I am at is a little quieter, but a 10 minute walk to town.


I had booked the room for 3 nights through Hotels.com. I gave the owner my passport which she photographed and handed back to me. I said I had reservations, but though her heart is big her English is small. As well all know, my Vietnamese is Google translate, so not so good. She tells me that I can only stay 2 nights because they are fully booked, and would have to get a less than ideal room. Fine! I’m tired, we’ll work it out tomorrow. to which she started packing my bags onto her moped and said hop on and she’d take me to a nice homestay. I totally balked at that and said give me the two nights. Well I’d have to stay in a ‘Family room” which would cost additional. Fine, fine, fine, give me a room. The room overlooks the highway and the neighbor’s dog even barks in it’s sleeping but it does have a door that locks, a bed and a toilet.

Dinner hour was approaching,so I walked into town an hour later and 3/4 of the way there she pulls up to me on her scooter and shows me that she had my reservation all the time from Hotels.com, and thought I was just a walk in. Uhhh… That’s one of the reasons I handed you my passport when I walked in, I thought. Besides having it emblazoned on my day pack in nearly 3 inch letters and a giant yellow plastic tag on my other day pack. Oh, well, tomorrow, tomorrow it will get sorted out.

Dinner was food. Chicken Pho and Chicken fried rice and a beer. Both servings full servings as a meal in themselves so I over ordered. The total bill under $5. I’ll order smarter tomorrow.

Back at the room, an Apple TV episode and lights out at 10. The trucks quit driving outside and the dog went to bed.