It is easy to forget when making travel plan in Japan during the winter, Vietnam is hot and humid place. On the day I arrived in Hue, I was in an air-conditioned private tour vehicle, but from the next day onward, I would have to travel on my own. According to the weather forecast, thunderstorms will occur in the afternoon, so I decided to go sightseeing in the early morning when the weather was likely sunny.
However, the weather was not as forecasted.
In the next morning, I woke up a little early and found it was cloudy. Although it would have been photographically better to have clear skies, the temperature was supposed to be cooler when it was cloudy. At that point, the weather forecast still said sunshine in the morning, with thunderstorms in the afternoon. It was better to move out while it was not raining, and then if I waited a while, the weather was supposed to be improved.
I decided to go to the local market and then visit to the Royal Palace in Hue. I walked for about an hour, including the time to stroll around the market. Even though it was early in the morning and cloudy, I was already exhausted by the time I arrived at the Hue Royal Palace.
While I was looking around the Royal Palace, somehow thunderstorms broke out. I thought it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. Since I had left my hotel without an umbrella, I was forced to stay in the rain for more than an hour. I left the Royal Palace when it started to drizzle, and called a Grab at a nearby cafe to return to the hotel. Photographically, it wasn’t great time at all, but I can’t help it.
I decided to take a nap. When I woke up a little after the noon, it was sunny. This was the exact opposite of the weather forecast.
I decided to try again the Royal Palace for photographing. I did not feel like walking to the Palace again, so I called Grab again.
The sensible temperature was 43 degrees Celsius according to the weather forecast app, because of the high humidity after the rain. It must be the kind of weather that any sensible Vietnamese would not go out. Am I being an insensible stupid foreigner?
When I got to the Royal Palace, it was surprisingly crowded with Vietnamese. Perhaps it was because of the weekend, but there were many groups of people dressed in traditional court costumes having photo sessions. I was not sure anymore if I was an insensible or not, but I would likely not be called so. Or, possibly, we all were insensible.
I tried to distract by thinking of such trivial things in the middle of hot and humid Palace, I was sweating unusually. I needed to take a break somewhere before getting dehydration.
The entrance fee to the Hue Royal Palace is high, and it seems re-entry is not allowed. I visited a cafe just outside the exit of the Palace in the morning. If I go there again, I have to pay the entrance fee three times in one day. I already regretted my erroneous decision in the morning that led me to pay the admission fee twice, there would be no third time. As a result of earlier rain shelter at the Palace, I knew locations of benches and decided to take a rest in the shade.
By the way, there is a unit of “man” in Japanese, which means “ten thousand (10,000)”. Major example is “1 man yen (10,000 yen)” bank note. We always say something like three hundred man (300 x 1 man = 300 x 1,0000) yen for 3 million yen. When I put commas every three digits in usual mathematical way, they are out of alignment – i.e. 300,0000 vs 3,000,000. To be honest, I feel quite confusing from time to time. I understand 1 man (1,0000) as a sense of money, but looking at the number alone, 10,000 (or 10k) is consistent and easier to understand.
Since 1,000 Vietnamese dong is approx 6 Japanese yen, the Vietnamese dong and the Japanese yen are sensibly three or four digits different depending on how you round-up or down. To boast myself a little, I can do mental arithmetic to multiply two digits by two digits. Strictly speaking, I can handle 100 x 100 too, so I should be able say that I can handle three-digit multiplication by mental arithmetic. With this super mathematical ability, I think it is not so difficult to convert 1,000 dong into roughly 5 yen; but I have been extremely bad about it. As such, I always have poor sense of monetary value when dealing with cash in Vietnam.
Anyway, there were only a few beverage vending machines in the Hue Royal Palace, and a 500ml bottle of water costed 15,000 dong. In the city, I saw the same product was sold for about 10,000 dong. It was too late to regret my erroneous judgment leaving the hotel without water bottle.
I understood that 1.5 times of 10,000 dong is 15,000 dong, but I gave up converting 15,000 dong into Japanese yen. In any case, I thought it was a tourist-place price, but considering the third admission fee, it was probably an unavoidable choice.
I went to the vending machine, tried to put the three 5,000 dong bills. None of them was accepted, I gave up.
I walked further to a souvenir shop that had a refrigerator in front of the shop. I thought that the price of such water bottle was fixed within the Palace, but I was told that the same water was priced at 30,000 dong. I had thought the previous 15,000 dong was already tourist-price, but it was double of that. I thought the price was outrageous. I must be looked totally unconvinced, the lady at the shop explained that it was because the water was frozen.
Indeed, the water in the plastic bottle was half frozen and the water was ice-cold. According to economics textbooks, this is a high value-added business model that has taken away from commoditization. However, it does not meet my demand. Drinking water does not need to be frozen, and as long as it is drinkable, it does not have to be cold either. Economically, I saw this as downside of an oligopolistic market.
Would I regrettably accept 30,000 dong? Or, should I use the vending machine even if I may have to give up the change and end up paying 20,000 dong? I didn’t bother at all, decided to return to the vending machine immediately. It was literally a waste of time.
I looked at the vending machine carefully and found an explanation in English, which said that change would be given although it would be low-value notes. Good news. This time, I inserted a 10,000 dong bill, then the machine started working and the product came out. I did not understand what it meant. I wondered if the machine’s price setting was wrong, or if there was a user who had a problem with a refund just before me.
As for me, I ended up getting water at market price. I finally sat down on a bench and took a rest, feeling satisfied. I then counting on my fingers and estimating the price difference, I found it to be about 100 yen or less. Considering the fact that water bottle was tourist-place price at first place, the gap was probably within the margin of small errors.
After all, unit of “man” was not root cause of my problem. I am not good at banknotes that have many digits and look expensive. I guess I’m just not monetary rich in my mindset.
When I thought about it, I realized that the mental arithmetic I mentioned earlier had a few digits only, that seemed like too small numbers. I am a cheap guy.
Looking back my activities on that day, it seems the cheap guy keeps making poor judgments. I was exhausted, paid unnecessary entrance fee, and lost confidence in the extreme heat of Hue.