When we left Saigon's Ben Thanh Market (read about it here), we saw some cyclos and their drivers lined up outside. Although it would only take about ten minutes to walk back to the hotel, we thought it would be more fun to go back this way. A fare of VND 15,000 was agreed upon per person -- or so we thought, as you'll see later in this story. The drivers gallantly helped us step into the cyclos and then pushed off, pedaling directly into the busy traffic with nothing more than a few hand gestures to the other cars.A cyclo ride is a good way to see how traffic works in Saigon, though you need a fair bit of courage to do it. Anything on wheels shares the same road, so your flimsy cyclo is at times jostling neck-and-neck with big trucks, or immersed deep in a knot of swerving motorbikes. Even loaded handcarts are pushed or pulled down the road as well. Drivers use their horns constantly to get attention, letting the other vehicles know where they are.
Traffic signals, curbs, and lane markings are merely suggestions only; pedestrians on the sidewalk must always look out for motorbikes driving up on the sidewalk to cut around traffic. To make a turn while driving a car, just stop in the middle of the road, hit the turn signal, then gradually inch over to the left or right.It all looks terribly dangerous and I kept expecting to see major accidents on every street corner. But I didn't see a single one. The constantly moving and swaying vehicles seem to do a kind of dance, actually, as I discovered when the hotel sent out a car to pick up me up from the airport. Hermetically sealed against the street noise, all I heard was the Nutcracker ballet's "Waltz of the Flowers" on the radio, which made the perfect soundtrack to the throngs of motorbikes weaving around me.
Back to the cyclo ride.... Well, I was too busy taking photos and gawking at the traffic to notice that we were being taken somewhat out of our way. Suddenly, the streets were quiet and the traffic disappeared, which is really eerie for a bustling place like Saigon. We could still see the hotel, so we knew we weren't too far away, but we were definitely not where we expected to be. The drivers abruptly deposited us on a lonely corner, gesturing to the hotel and indicating that we could walk the rest of the way. Then they demanded payment -- of VND 150,000 per person.
A chaotic little scene ensued as we tried to argue a bit about the fare, but we quickly realized we had no choice but to pay up. We were helpless tourists on a deserted street. I was also getting nervous because the drivers were hovering much to closely over my handbag, almost reaching in to pick the bills out of my wallet. Once we handed over enough money, the drivers left and we trudged back to the hotel.
Conducting a post-mortem over coffee, we realized that the Vietnamese practice of dropping zeros from prices makes it very easy to fleece tourists. The exchange rate is about VND 17,800 to one US dollar, so the price of most items is easily six figures. The problem, however, is that it's never clear exactly how many zeros get dropped off the price. So when the drivers were saying "1-5" to us, they were allegedly asking for 150,000, where we thought they were asking 15,000.
At any rate, it's not like we lost hundreds of dollars. We ended up paying about USD 8 per person, which is nothing when it comes to tourist scams. It was a pretty cheap lesson on how to bargain with cyclo drivers. Part of me can't blame the guys for trying to scam as much money out of their fares as possible, because the Vietnamese government is working to get rid of cyclos entirely to improve road safety. So I expect that on my next trip there, I won't get a chance to show that I know how to correctly hire a cyclo.
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