If you’ve been to South East Asia before you will know both the charms and annoyances that come with visiting that part of the world – I’m sure it’s not just this part of the world mind you as every country has their own unique quirks.
Just for fun I thought I’d do a quick post on some of the Travel ‘Games’ you play when you’re in these countries – a bit of a warm up to the series of posts that show what we got up to in Vietnam.
First up is everybody’s favourite travel game…
1. Scam or not a scam
How to Play – This game can be played with any number of people, generally you need at least yourself and one other. Often the other person will approach you (which is quite a big sign that it’s most likely a scam, although there are exceptions) trying to sell you something or take you for a ride on their cyclo or some other such nonsense that you wouldn’t usually do, but hey you’re on holiday!
Example – On your first day in Ho Chi Minh City you have decided you want to go to the War Remnants Museum and worked out where it is on the map and start walking. After a few hundred meters and old fella on a cyclo starts making conversation whilst biking alongside you. You proceed to tell him you don’t want a cyclo and he proceeds to be insistent the he is the best cyclo driver on the face of the earth and we really should go for a ride. After discussions surrounding price and no real price confirmed (huge mistake numero un) other than him saying we pay what we think it’s worth (there was an uneasy feeling in my gut at this point but figured what’s the worst that can happen) we gave in and hopped on the cyclo (mistake numero deux). He takes you for a bit of a tiki tour before stopping for a drink before our last stop (the place we actually wanted to go!), gets you to write in his book about how awesome he is and then brings up the PRICE of the ride… an argument ensues and results in us walking off down the street refusing to pay him anything because I damn sure ain’t paying him the equivalent of $60NZ per hour like he thought he was worth, I would laugh in someone’s face if they even told me that in New Zealand! We pay what we think it’s worth, we think it’s worth nothing when you don’t even take us where we want to go mate! Long story short we got where we wanted to go after a bit of a kafuffle, voice raising and haggling (and paid about $12 for the experience, which I still think was steep for Vietnam!). Moral of the story, agree on a price before leaving and don’t necessarily trust the guys that have books full of great comments from fellow travellers – as much as the comments written are legit, this is BEFORE they have the stress / arguments with the driver.
Upside – when you are taken for a ride over here you generally don’t get taken for that much when converted into your home currency, just live with the fact that you are the rich tourist and will be charged more than locals. They generally need the money more than we do.
2. How many hours late will we be?
How to play – Choose your form of transport or day trip, pick a number of hours late you think you will arrive at your destination. Wait. Wait some more – Patiently.
Example – Overnight train from Hanoi to Hue – left at 7pm and was to arrive at Hue at 7am the next morning. Not too long after 7am we approached a train stop – you guessed it, not ours… We finally found out from someone that we were still ages away and rocked on in to the Hue train station just after 9am if my memory serves me correctly. In this case the winning answer would have been 2 hours late 😉
Upside – When you are stuck on such transport you really can’t do much else other than relax (or stress that your late – not advisable, you’re on holiday!). If you’re lucky enough to be able to read and not want to reach for the nearest vomit bag then it’s a good time to catch up on that book you purchased at the airport and really haven’t read a lot of since you are so tired at night time from all your day time activities.
3. How long until we get asked if we want a tailor/cyclo/menu/etc
How to Play – As you are leaving your accommodation place a bet on how long it will take until someone asks you if you want a ….. (insert item here, common ones in Vietnam are Taxi’s and Cyclo’s as well as getting clothes Tailored).
Example – Walking down by the river in Hoi An at around 5pm at night, before you approach the stretch where all the restaurants and street stalls are you turn to your significant other or travel partner and ask them how long they think it will be before someone asks you to look at their menu. Continue walking down past the restaurants and get approached by EVERY SINGLE person holding a menu even though you tell them you have just eaten. In that case you must want to stop for drinks right?
Upside – you get good at saying no – something a lot of us could do with learning back in our lives at home. Sometimes saying yes all the time is tiring and we should occasionally say no.
Which travel game would you most like to play?
Do you have any other travel ‘games’ to add?
OMG you have no idea how stuff like this freaks me out! Jason and I are heading off to Thailand in a little more than a week and I’m terrified that we’ll be scammed into buying heaps of things -I’m really bad at saying no to people!