Chua Huong (Perfume pagoda)

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Hello again,

Lynne has a new camera! so great things are expected from this! We booked our tour via the hotel we were staying at they had the best price (The Advisor Hotel, Hanoi, 51 Nguyen Sieu, Old Quarter) Bus collection at 8am (suppose to be from our hote and as the streets are small and crowded we were ok that it collected us from around the corner) It delivered us to a travel booking office where another bus collected us for the tour. it is 70k's form Hanoi, including the boat ride, the bus loaded up with people and our guide said his hello's in his best broken English. The actual tour company was AST travel in Hanoi, please remember this and AVOID booking anything with them if you should travel to Vietnam. The trip to the pagoda was uneventful ( the roads are still very rough but being expanded and upgraded). We arrived at the boat harbor to see approx 70 small steel row boats jostling for position at what is loosely called the boat control station ( this is the place where the tour guides yell at a guy who hands out the tickets telling him to hurry up!) Some scuffles broke out on the dock as the ladies who row the boats pushed and shoved for position hoping not to miss a fare.
We board our boat with another couple! Vietnamese boats seem to follow 1 rule, once loaded ensure the water line is as close to the rim of the boat as possible and with 75mm to spare i am surprised that she did not insist and more people in the boat but off we go! As you have seen by now the Vietnamese row opposite to the English and this was a source of great debate as to which is easier until we saw some women rowing with their feet! Yea no sh*t their feet and they make it look easy! our driver talked to every other boat drive and seemed to be the local news and gossip lady. The boat ride was for an hour and on a wooden seat i have some special memories of bruises on my ass down to the bone. Another memory of the motorized boat passing and it's wake causing slight concern amongst all the low slung boats. Some more beautiful sites of Lotus lilies vibrantly pink in color.
We arrive at our dock and disembark for lunch. A good feed. The guide suggests we take the skylift for an extra cost but we decline. By this time we have began chatting with others on the tour and the guide seems to be getting more and more scarce. The guide gets a free ride to the top on the skylift with a couple who opt for the ride and wait for us there. 45mins later and a lot of water we reach the summit and meet the guide. He briefly talks to a couple of the group replies to a couple of questions and returns to sit outside the exit, Lynne is not happy! we enter the pagoda/cave and eaves drop on conversations from other guides giving their groups detailed information on the many Buda's and their relevance to the culture. After leaving the temple we decide to catch the skylift to the bottom and we advise the tour guide about the meaning of the words "Tour Guide". He is most apologetic and states "I do this because most tourist just want to take photo" this is a sign he has given up on explaining....but this is his job! Hmmmm not good. All the people we travel with on this tour feel the same and this guide is in for a verbal tip only and he won't like it!
Down the bottom and back to the boat. The row back was uneventful and we approach the dock the lady rowing sparks up and says "My tip now!". Caught a little off guard as a group we put our heads together and decide on a 20,000VND tip, now as i was removing my share from my wallet the rower had moved in and when she spotted only a 10,000 note she decided to suggest (by sticking her finger in my wallet) that a big green 100,000VND note was better. So at this point that no tip will do! Wow! what a reaction...she went off...she complained to our guide and he stayed out of it, she then followed us all the way back to the bus yelling and it is funny how good her English was at this point!
Back on the bus and the general consensus is that the guide has not done a good job, even when the Vietnamese tourists departed they did not tip him. Then he handed us a proficiency questionnaire, you know the type, how good was the tour, what could be improved etc....The entire bus went silent, we all glanced at each other, then pens started scribbling, the pens ink started to change to a red color as we drew blood from the guide and used it to write comments on his performance. The sheets were handed back one by one and he read them at this point i think he realized his tip was gone and the drivers share with it. The next lady was dropped off at her hotel and the conversation between the driver and the guide became more intense. The deal was collected from our hotel and dropped off at our hotel. (NOT GOING TO HAPPEN). The bus drove past the next stop and we advised the guide and the guide advised the driver who stopped and went off!!! The guide asked the couple to get off and said i walk you to your hotel it is 1 block away....the couple exited and the driver barked something the guide pointed and said you go this way! door slammed shut and bus moved off again...we were the last ones left! We tell the guide our hotel address which he relays to the driver and the temperature in the bus went through the roof. The driver yelling at the guide, Lynne yelling at the guide. At one stage i think the guide yelled in a language he did not even know. We were dropped off where we were collected from, the Travel booking office. NOT HAPPY! was the only words spoken to the travel agency, the poor girl there was trying to deflate the situation but it was way too late! We found a place for dinner and sat fro a cold beer chatted and laughed about it. It will take a day to recover from this one.

NEXT TIME HA LONG AND CAT BA ISLAND!

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