Tourism concern

Tourism concern

Unfortunately Vietnam doesn't have the most responsible tourism.  We have encountered a few instances where we have plain been lied to and meeting others we find it is all too common here.  For example, we had booked tickets to take a particular route and find ourselves on a different route, with a bunch of different people who have bought different tickets of varying prices.  Particularly frustrating is the inaccessibility of local public transport to foreigners.  Everything pushes you towards using a travel agent who then arranges tourist transport via a third party company.  I still haven't figured out quite how it works with so many middle men, but the most obvious problem with this set up is the breakdown in communication between the agents and the tour companies.  We had been promised a direct route from hanoi to cat ba island but ended up on a tour boat which made several stops delaying our arrival time by four hours... And when we tried to get an explanation we got short responses, incredibly rude, telling us, 'sit down, we know what we're doing'.   You can almost guarantee on every trip with a tour company there will be hidden charges along the way - tourist charges, foreigners fees etc - with no possibility of an explanation and the threat of being left in the middle of nowhere if you don't comply... And people really do get left in the middle of a town for not complying! That concept of customer service simply isn't there.  However prices are cheap and if you're willing to splash out on a pricier tour, you do get a much better service.  So be aware!!  But don't let that put you off visiting a beautiful country.

Its not just the tour companies that do our heads in, we have come across some really insensitive tourists on our travels.... there are a tribe of people in central and south Vietnam called Cham people. They are Muslim and so have particular Muslim sensibilities regarding modesty and shyness. Walking through a Cham village, we were really miffed at a particular woman who went as far as to poke her camera through a family home window to take pictures of the children playing inside... despite the parents being sat outside!!! No permission was asked.... Muslim or not, I don't think any of us would like a camera poked through our windows by tourist paparazzi! Another man tried to take a picture of a local Cham woman - again without permission - who simply ran behind a wall as soon as she saw the camera. It isn't a museum or a zoo where we go round looking at exhibits, these are real people getting about their daily lives!! Grr. Snarl.

P.s., there is a really cool charity called tourism concern - look them up!