Running on Empty/ The Long Road Home

Okay I'm not a bundle of laughs right now.

You've heard all the good "I love Vietnam" stuff so you're going to have to hang around and hear me whinge too. Sorry about that.

Post Ba Vi I have kind of collapsed. I took Monday off and spent the day in bed. Sometime during the day I started to feel not exactly quite right. A little hot and cold but I just put it down to general tiredness.

So I was back at work on Tuesday. Still knackered, still not 100% but thinking I was coming around. By Wednesday I was feeling ropey. By Thursday I was worse. Today I stayed in bed. I feel awful.

Next Thursday I go home. I'm looking forward to it. As much as I love it here - right now I need a soft bed (the bed that I am writing this from is literally making my arse numb as I sit up to type), I want a hot bath too. I also seem to have developed a fixation for proper wholemeal bread.

Anyway, there is something about Vietnam that always just leaves you knackered. I can't quite decide whether this is because living here is so difficult and every task takes that little bit longer - or whether it's because living here couldn't be easier and as a result of motorbike drivers who save you from walking and cleaners who save you from any domestic drudgery you just become incredibly lazy.

Anyway...no such chances for an easy life at KOTO. There's a million things to do before I slope off next week. Gotta be fit by Monday. In the meantime I shall lie here feeling hot, crappy and sweaty.

By the way, knowing that I would spend the day lying in bed on Friday I visited the DVD shop on the way home. I must stop doing that. It's not the purchasing of DVD that is the problems it's the people moaning about the price. Backpackers ...it's not compulsory to haggle over everything. Sometimes the price is the price is the price.

(Sorry I know that this has been covered before by other Vietnam-based bloggers but think of it as therapy for me. )

Anyway the scene went something like this.....

Four "European" backpackers with large bags taking over the back room of Victory DVDs on Hang Bac Street. They had a large list of DVDs they wanted. Most were Vietnam related films: Apocalypse Now, The Lover, Indochine etc. They were obviously aiming to put the films on at their hostel and avoid having to leave the room again - so much easier just to see it all on TV.

Anyway...after they had picked out a dozen films.....and they had asked for each to be checked out on the DVD player and screen there.......and they had checked the various lanaguages that were dubbed and subtitled...the following conversation started:

Backpacker: "So how much are the DVDs?"

Shopkeepers: "They are 17,000 each". (about one dollar, seven cents)

BP: But they are 14,000 everywhere else. (NOTE: Not everywhere else - just the places that sell the really poor quality copies that never work).

SK: "I am sorry it is a set price of 17,000"

BP: "But I cannot afford that."

SK "I am sorry"

BP:"You realise I could open a shop next to you. Buy DVDs at 14,000 elsewhere and sell them for 15,000 and become a rich man" (Note: Whaaaaaat? He really said this. Honest.)

SK: "I am sorry this is the price"

BP: "But we cannot afford this. We will go and not buy anything if you don't drop the price to at least 16,000. I cannot pay 17,000"

SK: " Sorry it is set price".

BP: "Then I leave".

I have seen this play out a a dozen times. God it annoys me. For the record this guy was arguing over 1,000 dong, around six cents. I am sorry but if you argue over this kind of money then you are a moron. Please stop embarassing yourself.

I didn't hang around long enough to find out but, what normally happens is that the backpackers who make a big show about storming out over one or two thousand dong, normally return inside 20 seconds, blushing and saying, okay...they will have the DVDs. Yup, that six cents difference really isn't worth walking across town for.

There is a culture amongst backpackers where they think they are some kind of charity. We get it at KOTO too. People come in, eat a meal, pay the bill and fill in their customer satisfaction form saying everything was fantastic but they shouldn't be expected to pay $3 for a meal because "they are only backpackers".

Mate, if you can afford to fly half way across the world and, most probably, take a year out from work, then you can afford an extra six cents on the price of a DVD or $3 for a meal. If you can't afford it then simply don't buy it. But there is nothing more distasteful that backpackers landing in developing countries and pleading poverty. You are NOT poor. And if you are, and if you really can't afford anything then go back home and get a fecking job.

You're making yourself look stupid. Trust me.

And I'm sorry, I am just tired and crabby right now. But...it gets me so mad. Expect more touchy feely stuff soon.