Last year I asked if I should report on events which are less than positive as I had witnessed two bad and fatal accidents. The general consensus was that as it was part of life and part of my daily experience, I should include these events in my stories. This went through my mind when we drove past another fatal accident yesterday. A large truck and trailer were in the middle of the road with the front of the truck smashed up and the driver's cabin completely ripped off. The driver was dead and still visible, with people and police standing around with their brain in neutral staring at the remains. No one would even think of covering the body.

Tonight I read a post in Facebook "Five things I don’t like about Vietnam". This article was so close to my way of thinking, I thought that I could have written it myself some years ago. I will supply a link to the article for those who are interested.

First of all I want to say that I love this country and its people and would like the repeat that sentence five times. However, dealing and communicating is at times very frustrating. Before asking for something I need to think about it first and formulate questions as easy as possible.

My friend Eddie blames the education process and I agree with him. So can you really blame the people for not reacting or doing things like the rest of the educated world does. Eddie said many times that the education system is old fashioned and kids are taught what to think and not how to think. So what is my experience - is he right? I will give you a few examples of what I have experienced.

Take for example the hotel we are staying in. It is a good place, although only two star rating - wouldn’t you strive to get a three star rating and beat the competition? Not here. There is no forward thinking and that a happy customer may recommend to others to stay in their hotel. If someone has a good experience he may tell 3 others but if he has a bad one he may tell 6 others. We all know that - and why there are such things as customer service and client satisfaction monitoring systems in most western businesses.

athing by giving good service. Meanwhile, in the room half the lights don’t work and neither does the TV. (Not that I care, but all should work). I booked a room for two persons and in the comment section on their web page I mentioned that we are two males and want two singe beds. When we arrived we were given a room with a double bed, so staff had to be called and re arrange the room while we were waiting in the hallway.

After two days we had booked to go to Sapa. After paying the bill the staff forgot to return our passports. Then the pickup mini bus arrived and I walked out of the building and collided head on with the very clean glass door. My forehead hit so hard that the thick glass flew open. The staff looked concerned and just smiled (that is their custom and an expression of embarrassment and has nothing to do with them thinking it was funny – I know that). While we were in Sapa my friend Eric (who runs a travel agency - getup&govietnam) collected our passports and enquired if they could do business together so he could recommend his clients to stay there. A few days later he gets the prices which are several dollars higher than what anyone else is paying if they book direct! They obviously don’t know how things work.

Last night we arrived again at this hotel. I mentioned the passport incident and the inconvenience it had caused, which was met by a smile (see comment above) and no apology or any mention of having made an error. An hour later Gert and I left the building and, guess what? The door which is always open is now closed and again I smash hard into the plate glass door. Again they run around and look concerned while my head rings like a bell. “Is it so #%^%$# difficult to put some stickers on the glass?” I yelled. Later while walking through the streets we photographed some other hotel doors where they have stickers/stripes/blocks on the glass so you can see it is glass! Standard on any glass door in Australia. Tonight after coming home I mentioned the incident, the girl smiled and I told her that it is not funny at all as it could have killed me and closed their hotel and she could have lost her job. I think the last part of that sentence struck a chord. “We will take action.” she said Tomorrow I will show her the pictures so they know what to do because I already know that if I come here again it will still be the same although many people would have smashed into the glass doors after me.

Some examples one has to deal with.

1/

We enter a coffee shop. I ask: “Do you have Wi-Fi ? “, “Yes sir we have Wi-Fi”

I check my phone and ask the name of the connection as many are shown. Answer:” XYZ coffee shop”. Then I see that I need a password. Again I have to ask the waiter. “What is the password?”, “oh , that is 123456789”

I try to log in but nothing happens. Again I try to get his attention and tell him that nothing happens. He then says ”We have Wi-Fi but the internet connection is not working today” .

2/

A few days ago when we were at that nice and colourful market my SD card was full. I walked into a telephone shop look around and asked : “Do you have SD cards?”, “Yes” the man said. Meanwhile I open the camera and pull out my SD card. I repeat my question while showing him my SD card. He reaches out and opens a drawer and places a Mini SD Card on the counter.

3/

It is a very hot day and you stop in front of a place where they sell beer. ”Do you have cold beer, we mean cold bottles?” The answer comes quickly “Yes we have!” Then you park your motorcycle, remove your helmet and sit down. The owner comes back places several hot bottles on the table and glasses filled with ice blocks. We refuse and get back on the bike. Now Eddie asks the same question in Vietnamese and there are different words for cold beer in cold bottles and beer cooled with ice blocks. Again the answer in Vietnamese is “yes we have cold bottles’ and again we get warm beer with ice blocks.

It reminded me of an incident in India. The custom agent asked us to “zerox” (photocopy) some documents and said that we should go several floors up and go to room such and such. We found a large photocopy machine. We needed to copy the first page of our passports. We handed him our passports and the man noticed we came from Australia. Then (while we are running out of time) started an in-depth conversation about Australia and Australian politics. After ten minutes he says: “Gentleman I am very happy to provide some photocopies for you but our machine has broken down.”

4/

Finally, when you go to a restaurant you order your starters and when you are finished you orderyour man meal and after that your desert. If you say. I will have noodle soup to start, then the main meal with beef and vegetables and we have ice cream for dessert. . Well I kid you not, if you do the latter they bring the whole lot in one go! If, at the end of your meal your ice cream is completely melted and you point this out, they just look at you. Probably thinking, well you ordered it all at once.

For a bit of fun I included some picture of some nice ladies I photographed in Lai V] Chau last week. Just a bit of fun. Now I am sure if I show them to the staff they will say. That is not right the lady does not work here! I rest my case

I call this “Empty head syndrome”. It takes a lot of adjustment to learn to deal with this lack of forward thinking. Changing people is impossible as it starts with proper education and that calls for a change in political direction.

Last week Gert and I bought two rechargeable backup batteries for our phone. Gert’s worked fine but mine didn’t. I am glad that I remembered where we bought them and visited the place this morning. While on our way I rehearsed in my head how to tell them that I had a faulty battery and that I wanted this exchanged for a new one. Now if you approach this in the most childish way and pretend you are speaking to a five year old, things happen quickly. Any other way and it will be very time consuming.

I love this country and its people and it is up to me to adjust my thinking and action to accommodate the very different approach you have to make. Remaining calm and open minded is the answer and I have to keep on telling myself that it is not their fault as it all starts at primary school. I can’t generalise either as there are some very smart people here and it is them who rise above the rest at a fast rate. They are noticeable by their BMW’s, Audi’s and even the odd Rolls Royce we have come across and these cars are double the price of the western countries.

But, as I have already stated, all in all, I love this place and keep coming back for more

How are others experiencing Vietnam?

Check this link

http://ilefthome.com/5-things-dont-like -vietnam/