Know Your Prices

I got hustled within 60 seconds of being in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, aka Saigon). Rule #1 of traveling is to pay attention to your money. That’s both in terms of watching out for pickpockets and in terms of getting hustled. I forgot rule #1. It took me about 15 minutes to realize that it may have happened and another 10 hours to confirm it, but yeah, it happened.

I had just landed in HCMC around 1:00AM after a 30 hour trip from DC thorough Denver through Tokyo to Vietnam. I got some sleep on the plane, but not nearly enough, and what little sleep I got wasn’t quality sleep, so I wasn’t functioning at my usual 100% capacity (and my 100% is most people’s 75% anyway). As I exited the airport, I walked past the drivers who were offering rides but not part of the taxi line. I knew that they were going to scam me, so I walked to the taxi stand. The first driver was standing outside of his car, and I walked confidently up to him with my phone in hand and showed him the address of my hotel. He looked at it, said that he knew where it was, and said it would cost 700,000 Vietnamese Dong (VND). I did some quick math and figured that came to about $35 USD for a 30 minute drive*. That was a little higher than I would have expected, but completely within reason by DC standards. I agreed and got into the cab.

About 15 minutes later, I realized that I hadn’t even tried to haggle with him. Coming from the US, haggling over prices is not a common practice, and it didn’t occur to me that I should. Again, I blame sleep deprivation. At that point I guessed that I’d probably been hustled. I got to the hotel, paid the driver (as I understand it, it’s really bad form to try to haggle after a price has been agreed upon, and I didn’t want him to ditch me on the side of the road). I checked in, went to the room, drank a beer as I unpacked, took a shower, and had another beer. After the second beer, I started to feel almost back to my normal self, and I went to bed. I woke up several hours later, cleaned up, and went to the front desk. Among other questions, I asked them how much a taxi should cost from the airport. She said that they usually use the meter and it could vary, but it should be around 200,000 VND, or just under $9 USD. I’d been had.

As far as lessons go, it could have been much worse. I spent about $20 more than I should have for a taxi. But it was an inevitable and good lesson, and one that I’m glad I learned early. Know what your prices should be, and in the case of taxis, where you may not know how much you should pay (I should have emailed the hotel in advance to find out the cost), make sure they use the meter.

* It’s actually closer to $30 USD, but I was estimating. Poorly, apparently.