Goodbye Vietnam

Today is our last day in Vietnam. Tonight we'll be in the sky on our way to Helsinki!

The best parts of Vietnam:
* The people - everyone is so friendly, especially in the south of Vietnam (although sometimes this is because they're trying to sell you something!)
* The prices - beers for under $1, taxis anywhere in the city for $1.50, a huge bowl of noodles for 50 cents, and a tailored suit for $80!
* The beaches - the water is hot, and so is the sun
* The food - the most amazing fresh fruit and seafood we've had anywhere, and that's a big call when we have the Sydney Fish Markets!
* The craziness - traffic goes where it wants, rubbish goes where it wants (usually just in the gutter), it's noisy, people beep at every chance, and you are hassled on every corner. This part of Vietnam took a while for Em to get used to... but you learn to love it!

One of the many groups of people who hassle you are fruit sellers. They carry huge baskets of fruit balanced at each end of a bamboo pole, and the cries of "You buuuuyyyyyyy? Very cheeeeeeeap!" are heard everywhere.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, one of their tactics is to spark conversation by asking where you are from. They are all really familiar with Australia, and always have something to chat to you about, which usually leads to a sale. So we are now officially from Uruguay! They don't know anything about that country, so we are left alone - it really works!

One sales tactic is to offer you a photo opportunity... like this fruit seller did to us with her baskets of bananas!






It worked... and we bought some bananas from her, as well as a bag of pineapple, at an over-inflated price (which was still only $2, but we were later told that a bag of bananas should only cost you 15 cents).