Woken up around half six by Minh, most people of the family are already up and about, though doing nothing in particular. Minh takes us for breakfast, a noodle soup with offal which was really good and the bloke from yesterday who spoke a bit of English joins us. We then move round the square for coffee which is different to normal Vietnamese coffee, not milky but still very sweet. They say my bike isn’t ready till five, and after lots of waves and smiles from the locals back to Minh’s place and to a hammock. Michael gets called inside and five minutes later calls me in. Minh’s sat down with a pen and paper listing down what money we owe him. This is a bit of a shock to us, as every time we’ve had something (coffee, tea, food, football…) we’ve got out wallets out and money in hand and Minh has downright refused our money, sometimes forcibly. What’s more shocking is the amount is outrageous, nowhere near what it has cost. Immediately things take an uncomfortable turn and people are hovering about. Football has gone up from the 10,000 VND to 100,000VND, him going off to register ‘costs’ 200,000VND, he writes down 500,000vnd. (Later, after we sorted this, Michael said he wrote it down to begin with, Michael took out his wallet and handed him 500,000vnd, he saw more money in his wallet and started pushing for more.) We’ve been watching him pay for things whenever he has and we work out it is no more then 200,000vnd for the both of us. We get him to phone the bloke who studies banking at HCM and explains this is what he has spent on us and we need to pay it back. We finally settle on 500,000vnd for the both of us after some painful negotiations. Let me say this, it’s not the money that’s fucked me off at all, fuck the money, its £16 for the both of us for lunch, dinner, breakfast, coffee and sleeping, what’s pissed me off it’s just plain lies, deceitful, dishonest and damnright cunt-y-ness. I feel taken advantage of. It’s also ruined the brilliant, spontaneous, authentic, one-time experience, eating with the men, playing with the kids, going through their English books, grandma popeye smiling her gums out while shelving my overgrown rat-tail Mohawk, people being nice just for the sake of being nice has disappeared, it was really disappointing and created an uncomfortable atmosphere. I was so fucking angry. What frustrates me even more is both me and Michael were going to give him money as a token of gratitude for the wonderful time Minh had been showing us, we talked about it the night before and agreed on 200,000vnd each. I go to check on my bike and it’s still being worked on, having to replace the front casing as it was fucked. Back to Minh’s place and have a walk around with Michael though it is too fucking hot. Back to Minh’s and they don’t really want anything to do with us, it’s amazing how much things have changed. We sit in the back and read in hammocks, I finish The Tiger’s Wife (which I have mixed feelings about, bits were bloody marvellous while others just bored and frustrated me, for a bit of chick lit it was far to attrition-al.) About 3 Minh comes in to say my bike is ready. We go down, I ride Martha, she sounds so much better and back to Minh’s to pack up and get the fuck out of there. I can’t get out of there fast enough. There are also no pictures of these two days as the first day I was just enjoying it so much I didn’t want to bother or do anything to disrupt the groove, I wanted to take everything in, live how they lived and not highlight any differences between us, though after this morning I don’t want anything to do with them at all. I drive angry down the road 50kms to Ca Mau, instead of carrying on we’re both knackered (emotionally and physically) and want our private space, so find a hotel which was actually really nice, shower and have a good Vietnamese dinner (where all the people involved were lovely, smiling and patient, plus didn’t charge us whitey prices), then back to the air con’d room in nothing but a towel for sweets and movies!
Monday, 2 April 2012
day 277 Ca Mau
Woken up around half six by Minh, most people of the family are already up and about, though doing nothing in particular. Minh takes us for breakfast, a noodle soup with offal which was really good and the bloke from yesterday who spoke a bit of English joins us. We then move round the square for coffee which is different to normal Vietnamese coffee, not milky but still very sweet. They say my bike isn’t ready till five, and after lots of waves and smiles from the locals back to Minh’s place and to a hammock. Michael gets called inside and five minutes later calls me in. Minh’s sat down with a pen and paper listing down what money we owe him. This is a bit of a shock to us, as every time we’ve had something (coffee, tea, food, football…) we’ve got out wallets out and money in hand and Minh has downright refused our money, sometimes forcibly. What’s more shocking is the amount is outrageous, nowhere near what it has cost. Immediately things take an uncomfortable turn and people are hovering about. Football has gone up from the 10,000 VND to 100,000VND, him going off to register ‘costs’ 200,000VND, he writes down 500,000vnd. (Later, after we sorted this, Michael said he wrote it down to begin with, Michael took out his wallet and handed him 500,000vnd, he saw more money in his wallet and started pushing for more.) We’ve been watching him pay for things whenever he has and we work out it is no more then 200,000vnd for the both of us. We get him to phone the bloke who studies banking at HCM and explains this is what he has spent on us and we need to pay it back. We finally settle on 500,000vnd for the both of us after some painful negotiations. Let me say this, it’s not the money that’s fucked me off at all, fuck the money, its £16 for the both of us for lunch, dinner, breakfast, coffee and sleeping, what’s pissed me off it’s just plain lies, deceitful, dishonest and damnright cunt-y-ness. I feel taken advantage of. It’s also ruined the brilliant, spontaneous, authentic, one-time experience, eating with the men, playing with the kids, going through their English books, grandma popeye smiling her gums out while shelving my overgrown rat-tail Mohawk, people being nice just for the sake of being nice has disappeared, it was really disappointing and created an uncomfortable atmosphere. I was so fucking angry. What frustrates me even more is both me and Michael were going to give him money as a token of gratitude for the wonderful time Minh had been showing us, we talked about it the night before and agreed on 200,000vnd each. I go to check on my bike and it’s still being worked on, having to replace the front casing as it was fucked. Back to Minh’s place and have a walk around with Michael though it is too fucking hot. Back to Minh’s and they don’t really want anything to do with us, it’s amazing how much things have changed. We sit in the back and read in hammocks, I finish The Tiger’s Wife (which I have mixed feelings about, bits were bloody marvellous while others just bored and frustrated me, for a bit of chick lit it was far to attrition-al.) About 3 Minh comes in to say my bike is ready. We go down, I ride Martha, she sounds so much better and back to Minh’s to pack up and get the fuck out of there. I can’t get out of there fast enough. There are also no pictures of these two days as the first day I was just enjoying it so much I didn’t want to bother or do anything to disrupt the groove, I wanted to take everything in, live how they lived and not highlight any differences between us, though after this morning I don’t want anything to do with them at all. I drive angry down the road 50kms to Ca Mau, instead of carrying on we’re both knackered (emotionally and physically) and want our private space, so find a hotel which was actually really nice, shower and have a good Vietnamese dinner (where all the people involved were lovely, smiling and patient, plus didn’t charge us whitey prices), then back to the air con’d room in nothing but a towel for sweets and movies!
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