Vietnam II, A Less Serious Post

So tourists are generally dangers to themselves the first couple hours in a new city. The major dangers are traffic and money.

There were many things I observed when I stepped out of the airport, the cool breeze blowing, the ease at which I found my hotel pick up man (even if he was holding a sign that said Julte Cook), but I failed to notice that traffic ran on the right side of the road. I might have failed to notice this detail since traffic seemed to come from many directions. So tonight I was expecting traffic to come from a different direction so imagine my surprise when it didn't! Once I figured that detail out I also realized that I need to brush up on my city-street walking skills (something I was more adept at when I lived in Taipei and Bangkok). Traffic doesn't really stop here. I need to overcome my fear of having motorbikes swirl around me.

Then there is the minor detail of getting money from the ATM. I was confronted with 500,000; 1, 000,000; 2,000,000; 3,000,000 etc. I simply panicked seeing such high numbers. I knew that it was 18,000 dong to 1 dollar but I couldn't do my math fast enough to figure out how much money I was actually taking out. I had this nightmare that I would accidently take out all of my checking out in one accidental swipe. I ended up taking out 220,000 dong. I figured out later I took out 12 bucks. I hope I didn't get charged 9 dollars (like I did once) for withdrawing money internationally! Argh!