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Apologies for the length of this entry, but read on if you would like to know how we fared against the hard core tourist rip off.

It had to happen, we have been dreading it but finally we hit scam central and the Vietnam that we hoped did not exist. It was a day trip by so called ‘dragon boat’ to the numerous tombs of the 18-19 century emperors located along the Perfume River.

This was the morning of TET, and as we set off from the hotel we were told by the hotel staff that moto taxi’s would not be included in the trip and that at a couple of  sites we would have to walk, but walking was possible. No problem we thought. We were also told that as it was a public holiday admission fees would be waived.

As the boat sailed our beaming tour guide plied us with home made “fruit brandy” to celebrate the New Year. Then he told us that moto taxi’s were available but at a special TET price. Here we go we thought!!

Next the girl came around with the menu card that contained food at highly inflated prices. “But lunch is included in the price?”. The reply came, “Ah, it’s TET, you have rice cake only so order more food’.  We continued to protest, and the guide got involved, ‘Market shut, only rice cake, so order more food’.  We refused and decided to see what would happen at lunchtime.

First stop, the Thien Mu Pagoda, one of the symbols of Hue and home of the monk who burned himself in protest of the actions of the South Vietnamese Government during the war. See pics

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Arrived at the boat stop for the first tomb which required a short walk from boat to the site.  Guide told us ‘need moto to save time, only 90,000 Dong! (approx 4 GBP), and as you no pay admission fees today the money you save  go to the moto driver‘.  We refused to pay, and in protest along with half the boat set off for the site on foot.  A 10 min walk later and on arrival at the site, of course, we had to pay to go in!!

Cheryl decided to tell the guide what she thought of the situation, and following her ‘rant’ he sulked, and all ‘guiding’ came to a halt from then on,  Neil joked with a fellow traveller, ‘I love it when my little rottweiller gets going!’

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The tomb was spectacular and serene, see pics. The whole site was like a country park and we could easily have spent half a day there. The king, Tu Doc was only 153cm tall and suffered from short man syndrome as he had the honour guard of stone mandarins made shorter than himself (see pic with Neil standing alongside)

Much confusion when we got back to the boat, as the guide had not bothered to tell  everyone what time to get back and  he had to go and find two Scottish girls who got lost (his fault as he didn’t bother to check the walkers knew where to go).

On the boat, the table had been set for lunch so we took a place and looked at the unappetising fried rice cakes and a plastic cup of goo which turned out to be pumpkin.  Several dishes were placed in front of those who ordered from the menu.  We asked the guide for assistance – what is supposed to be included? He babbled on about Tet, rice cakes and order from menu, we stood our ground and asked what can we eat without charge?.  Things got heated, the guide said market shut, market shut!  We said so where did all the ordered food come from? Oh that’s the boat family’s own food, he said. Finally he lost his temper and stormed off, I no talk to you no more!  Neil chased after him – and bellowed ‘you are the guide, do you job and explain what’s going on’.  The boat owner lady finally pointed to a dish of pork & prawns and one of noodles and said that was ours, no charge.  The two Scottish girls sat quietly, did not complain and got nothing.

We didn’t enjoy the conflict, or the meal as it was pretty ropey, but were really disappointed in our fellow travellers who didn’t protest, not even on behalf of the Scottish girls who would not say “boo to a goose“.  I guess that’s why the scammers keep doing it

In the absence of any guiding we reverted to Lonely Planet , and Cheryl took on a mini tour guide role for some of the other travellers who were interested in the sites.  There was another spectacular tomb, Minh Mang, who didn’t appear to be vertically challenged like Tu Doc.

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Last stop was for a tomb built in the 1920’s which didn’t get a great write up in LP and looked to be approx 2km from the boat landing point.  After the fuss at the first stop we were running very late as we arrived at the docking point.  The guide leapt to his feet. ‘This tomb is 4 km walk and there are no motos here.  I don’t go here. You can have 40 minutes.  The trip back to town will take 1 hour 45 mins’  He didn’t want to bother with the stop and was trying to persuade us to just head back!  Of course we spotted the ruse so decided we were getting off and going………for a sneaky coffee in the village!  A few other people got off the boat and did pretty much the same thing, waste 40 minutes just to annoy the tour guide.

Overall, the trip was very good and the sites were really fascinating. It’s just a pity that the guide chose to be an arse when he grew up.

That’s pretty much all of our travels in Hue. We’ve since met up with Frankie, a lady from Oz who gave us lots of tips for Hanoi and Laos. In addition, as TET continues for some time after “the day” we’ve had a number of attempted scams by quite a lot more arses!

“It’s TET, Government say all tourists must pay double fare for bus!. Yeah!!

“It’s TET, your meal cost 50,000VND each not 40,000VND as in menu”. Yeah!

“It’s old menu, wine not 50,000VND it 90,000VND”. Yeah!

“Water cost 20,000VND”. Yeah! (Actual cost 50mts up the road with our nice man was 8,000VND!).

Every time you buy something, if it’s not priced as it is in HCMC, you can see them looking at you and working out how much they can fleece you for.