MAGIC HOUR

I have used Ho Chi Minh City Airport several times for transit, but I have only been to the city once. At that time, I checked my luggage at the airport, took a local bus to the city center and eat pho. The actual time spent outside the airport was about two hours or less. If I keep passing through Ho Chi Minh City Airport for connections, I may dislike the city without knowing what it can offer. I decided to stay one night in Ho Chi Minh City and explore the city during my visit to Vietnam this year.

As I felt during my stay in Hanoi last year, it was difficult to choose a hotel in a big city in Vietnam, perhaps because I was caught the hotel rates in Japan before surge of foreign tourist, which was too low. Of course, there are many inexpensive hotels in such large cities of Vietnam, but they could be very different one another, hard to pick right one. Moreover, I am not good at hotels with poor sanitary facilities, so it is necessary to choose hotels carefully even though this was my first overnight stay in Ho Chi Minh City.

I first tried to book a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City for my Vietnam trip, but due to my complete lack of familiarity with the area, I could not find the right balance between location, facilities, and price. After endless searching, I made a reservation at a Japanese-owned hotel near the center of the city, which was almost newly built and seemed good price.

After that, I looked for a hotel in Hue where was my main destination, but I decided only on the basis of its location and style. Hue’s Perfume River has a bridge designed by the Eiffel architect office, who built the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and this colonial hotel is located at right in front of the bridge. Moreover, even a river-view room did not seem to be that expensive. Even though there are many nearby hotels in the same price range where were built in the recent years, I came to believe that the hotel must be a good old-fashioned place.

With this in my mind, I forgot the serious research I made when I first looked for a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. I felt that a colonial hotel with a river view would be nice choice.

Once again, I looked for a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City along its Saigon River, and found a nice hotel called Hotel Majestic Saigon. It is a luxurious and historical hotel. There are river-view rooms with balcony, but they are expensive as expected in the high-class hotel market in Ho Chi Minh City.

The style of the hotel was probably influenced by the investment at the time of construction, but I thought that the hotel’s day-to-day management is affected by the current owner’s rate setting. If building is old, it will take more time and efforts to maintain service level which is highly likely impact to their sell rate. The hotel in Hue was inexpensive for such maintenance needs, and I had a feeling a bit uneasy about it. A luxury hotel on the last day seemed not a bad option. Still, if I think calmly, a newly built Japanese-affiliated hotel would be better option.

Although I pondered for a while, I still could not come to a calm decision. In the end, I decided to change my reservation to Hotel Majestic Saigon. Even better or worse, I initially booked a non-river view room but changed it to a river view room with a balcony at the last minute. I conveniently forgot that one night stay in Ho Chi Minh City was more expensive than two nights stay in Hue. As I stayed in a good old-fashioned hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, I wished to see good old Saigon.

It turned out, the first hotel I stayed in Hue was ok. It was not as bad as I had feared, nor not that good either. I thought the old-fashioned building would shine if there are more cost spending on maintenance, even if the price was higher. In the end, hotel rates are probably influenced by market, not by the maintenance itself.

Majestic Saigon, on the other hand, was wonderful.

When I arrived the hotel, main streets around were closed for vehicular traffic and the hotel staff was waiting in line. They even had a bouquet of flowers. I assumed that high-ranked government officials would visit that night.

I initially thought to make a gesture of accepting the flowers, but I knew they would not get the joke and it would embarrass them. This is probably the first and last time I made a calm decision regarding this hotel.

Speaking of bouquets, there is a flower market in Ho Chi Minh City. I enjoy going to local markets in Vietnam, but this was my first time at a market specializing in flowers.

The next morning, I got up early and took a Grab to the flower market. Although I might be a little late from its peak time, the market was colorful. After that, I visited two old-fashioned markets surrounded by modern buildings.

Staying at a good old hotel and visiting good old markets. To be honest, I was not too interested in the modern and chaotic Ho Chi Minh City, but my stay gave me a slight remainder of Saigon as it used to be.

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.

As a salaried worker who has to work at the end and the beginning of every month regardless of holidays, New Year holidays and Japan’s Golden Week in May (GW holidays) are almost non-existent in my life for last 20 years or so although the situation has gradually changed in past few years. Even so, I have never gotten the point of making plans for GW holidays in well advance, however, I began to contemplate as May approaching.

There were times in the past when I believed I could go to Europe with four consecutive holidays using red-eye flights. As time goes by, my body is aged, airplanes can no longer fly over Russian airspace, and the value of Japanese yen continues to be weaken. After all things considered, I concluded that Southeast Asia might be the place to go during this year’s GW holidays.

Still, the schedule was rather tight. The only flights I could choose were the most expensive ones, leaving Tokyo at late evening of May 1 and returning to by another red-eye flight arriving in the early morning of May 7.

It was already too late. Both Singapore and Bangkok flights were too expensive. I then searched for flights to/from Ho Chi Minh City, which were relatively inexpensive. Indeed it was about a half the price of Singapore or Bangkok. I quickly booked the round-trip flights, and then searched for my final destination in Vietnam.

I narrowed down the search by weather trends. It seemed that Central Vietnam was the only place in the country where was not in rainy season at the time of visit. I had already been to an old town named Hoi An in Central Vietnam, but I found an another ancient city called Hue.

On May 2, I did some rather loosely works (or killing daytime) in my office, came back home to pick up my luggage, and then headed for Tokyo Haneda Airport. I did not have much luggage, so I tried to take a local bus from near my house but I missed the bus right in front of me. This bus route is not famous for reliable schedule, I left the home little late but it seemed the bus was running on time because of the good traffic conditions during the GW holiday season. I ended up walking to train station but made to catch the express bus to the airport. Still, it was a bad start for me, as I was late for schedule at the very beginning of the trip.

I was thankful to the majority of other passengers onboard who had a good start of their trips, the plane made on-time arrival to Ho Chi Minh City Airport early in the morning. I came to Vietnamese immigration checkpoint with my brain and body sleep-deprived and tired. As usual, immigration checkpoint at this airport did not seem to be functioning efficiently. Since there was no information on where to line up, I went to the end of one line, which seemed to be shorter than the others, but all lines seemed so slow anyway. I became nervous because I made separate ticketing for a connecting flight on a low-cost airline with a rather tight connection. The passenger next to me who was going to Phu Quoc Island was already in despair.

It was no big damage to me when I missed the local bus and had to walk to the station like last night, but it might be problematic if I miss the connecting flight – I just could not walk from Ho Chi Minh up to Hue as free recovery. Remembering that I messed up my own plan from the beginning, I stood in line with a gloomy feeling. Nevertheless, while I was waiting in line, immigration officers seemed showing up for work one after another, and numbers of operating immigration booths were gradually increased. As a result, I was able to pass through with a little time to spare. It would have been better for my mental health either the arrival of my flight adjusted to schedule of immigration inspectors, or the immigration inspectors came to work prior to the flight arrival.

Anyway, I was able to board a domestic flight to Hue without issues, continued on to Hue Airport. I arrived at my hotel in Hue smoothly, there was still plenty of time before check-in.

I was planning to charter a car via Grab for about 4 hours to go to sightseeing spots in the suburbs, but I could no longer charter a car from the app. I thought about requesting a normal one-way dispatch, but I was not sure if there would be a taxi available coming back to the city central. I asked the hotel staff about taxi charter, they ended up calling a travel agency and introduced me to a private tour.

I was told that the driver would be able to pick me up in 20 minutes, I signed-up for the private tour. Because of the tight connection at Ho Chi Minh City Airport and I arrived at the hotel so smoothly in Hue, I had not been able to go to an ATM after arriving in Vietnam to get local currency. Although the hotel had a bank on the 1st floor, it rather looked more of an office than a business branch for public, and there was only one ATM which was not working. I walked around the hotel and found an ATM, but even that time, I could not withdraw money due to a communication error. Remembering I missed the local bus last night, I felt gloomy again. This trip might not go well.

In the end, I couldn’t get local cash by the pickup time, so I started the tour by visiting a bank before sightseeing. The driver could speak English, but he did not seem to understand my intentions at first. I cannot complain about it – no one would request a tour without having any local cash at all.

After a while, I found a bank branch and asked the driver to stop the car. Thanks to him, I was given VIP treatment by a security guard escorting me from the parking lot to ATM. This time ATM worked fine, and I was finally able to start real sightseeing tour with peace in mind.

First, I was taken to the Khai Dinh Imperial Mausoleum. This should have done on the first day of my visit to Hue, as this was main place I came to Hue. It was a gorgeous tomb of a Vietnamese king who was greatly influenced by French culture. It was a wonderful place, I felt it was a good decision to come and see. Although it is a famous tourist spot, it is in a quite remote area and I did not see any cabs available for way back to the city. It was a good decision to come by chartered car too.

After visiting another king’s graveyard and a Buddhist temple, I returned to Hue city. For unknown reasons, I was taken by boat from the Buddhist temple back to the city. After all, it was just a substitute for a souvenir shop the tour operators might get commission or something else. The boat was surely on the river, so it was impossible to hide or escape, and their price was as same level as the airport. I would rather had a beer than mass-produced souvenir items, but supply and demand did not match. Earlier I was looking for an ATM, but now I guess I am the ATM. Still, the river breeze was cool and I didn’t get lost in the heat wave on my way back.

It was a generally successful first day of the trip.

I had gloomy feeling because I missed the first local bus, but I should have rather focused on the fact that I made to catch my flight from Tokyo then connected domestic flight as planned. If the main results are good, I should consider all are good. There is no use in worrying about unnecessary details.