Our guides came early to fetch us from the Blue Sea Hotel. This was our last day in Vietnam and they have come to bring us to the airport. But before we left for the airport, we managed to grab some breakfast. Fortunately, there was a roadside stall just across the Blue Sea Hotel. They have the huge bread that I’ve been eyeing ever since we got to Vietnam.
Of course I took the chance to order it. It has a some meat and of course vegetables true to the Vietnamese way of eating it. This is probably something they got from the French. It was really cheap for something that big. I also ordered some Vietnamese tea to go along with the bread. I thought it was a fitting way to end our fascinating trip to Vietnam.
When we got back to the hotel our guides Le Tien and Cuong were already waiting for us. Well, actually they have to, since this is also the time we pay them the rest of the fee for the entire trip. Unfortunately, we only had foreign money with us and no Vietnamese money. We tried changing at the hotel counter but they didn’t have enough, which was funny for a hotel. So our guides took us on their motorcycles and drove off to the city to a jewelry shop in town.
The jewelry store seemed to be owned by Vietnamese of Chinese descent, since it had all sorts of Chinese signs everywhere. This also seems to be a good place to exchange money, since they specifically brought us to this place. I thought we got pretty good rates there. We finally paid them the fee and they mentioned that if they were satisfied with their service, we could add some more to the fee. Any amount would do. Well, who could say no to that request, right? Oh well, ridiculous as it may seem, after the fee we gave them for the service they already rendered, we gave them a token amount as gratitude. They did take good care of us. I don’t really know what constituted a good amount here in Vietnam but they gave us puzzled looked when we handed our “tip”.
Anyway, they drove us past the city of Danang one last time before entering the airport area. Actually, they didn’t even got to enter the airport compound itself but rather the perimeter along a busy road. We got off near a traffic guy and he was scolding us for getting off at the wrong place while we were saying goodbye to our guides. I didn’t really pay attention to the traffic guy, we just proceeded to the airport terminal.
The departure terminal was quite drab. I tried looking around for snacks to bring back home but there weren’t any that were worth bringing back. I ended up buying some coconut based snack and some Vietnamese beef jerky. Apparently, the folks in the office didn’t like them either since they didn’t look really appetizing. Anyway, after a hour of waiting, we finally boarded our plane and flew back to Kuala Lumpur.
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