Good Morning Vietnam

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Well here I am in Vietnam...

And it was bound to happen sooner or later, I had my first truly bad experience travelling so far.
Had a 10 hour bus ride feeling very sick yesterday from Cambodia to here (Ho Chi Minh City) and as soon as I got off the bus I got into a "meter" taxi, he put my big backpack (with all the clothes and stuff in it, I keep the valuable stuff with me in a seperate bag) in the front seat and I sat in the back. He litterally drove around the block, in a circle and dropped me off and told me that would be 350,000 dong (20ish dollars) I told him no way he was getting that, and he started to get very upset and yelling, I told him to relax but he certainly didn't. He kept insisting I give him 20 then he finally went down to 10 (which is still ridiculous, it shouldn't have been more than a dollar) so I told him to call the police, but he refused, he said we could drive to the police station but that would be a minimum of 25 dollars...so I told him to forget that... I tried to undo the window to get someone that spoke Vietnamese and English, but as soon as the window went down he started to drive. So in the end I just gave in, handed him 10 dollars and got out (teaching him a few english swear words)

Sure it's only 10 dollars, but this was my very first experience in Vietnam, and if I hadn't done some travelling before hand I would be very turned off from it all. Well I hope one thing in buddhism is true and that's Karma.

Anyways, not a great start to Vietnam but I can't let one bad person and one bad experience ruin it for me... I'll relax today and walk around the city today and find some sort of activity to do tommorow if I'm feeling well enough. I have been sick on and off the whole trip, which is a drag, I wasnt sick at all last trip so this is all new to me. But hopefully I will adjust so I can try some weird crazy foods again.

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