This is something that happens fairly frequently and is something that you will get used to over any period of time. It is something that I now have experience of, having spent several weeks in Vietnam.
Previously, in countries such as Russia and China, this was not a problem. If it was, it was not obvious what was going on. Bus fares would be the same as what the locals paid and if they weren’t, they were only one or two Yuan more, which is 10 or 20 pence. When someone was trying to charge much more, it was clear what was going on. Also, I bought most of my tickets at bus and train stations, so the officials I bought them off were charging the right price.
Things are slightly different in Vietnam and there seem to be many ways that local, well-practiced individuals can extract your money from you. This is not to say that everyone is trying to rip you off. Usually there is a tourist price, which is more than what the locals pay, but this is normal. Usually this will range from between two and three-times the usual cost. This is not people trying to rip you off however, it is just them giving you a ‘special price’. The people I’m talking about in this post are the ones that are tricking you into handing over more of your money than you have to.
My experience so far is of 3 separate scams:
1. The open-tour scam. This is a type of bus that you can get a ticket for (I think) which allows you to hop-on and hop-off the bus services, as you travel up and down Vietnam. It only applies to private, open-tour bus services.
I had to get one of these services in Ninh Binh, where, I thought, there were no public busses available. What happened was that I packed my bags and checked-out, hoping to go to the bus station to get a ticket to Dong Hoi. My friendly hotel recpetionist man offered to give me a lift, which I agreed to, as he had helpfully transported me to other places in the city during my stay. At the bus station, he came inside, offering to help me. What I believe happened was that he told the woman behind the desk to tell me that there were no bus services available. This I found odd, as they were saying that there were no buses going south for the next three days and I quizzed them about this at the time. The woman who I had originally spoken to was quite irate and seemed to be unhappy that I was speaking to the other woman behind the desk. When I asked about buses going north, this seemed to perplex her slightly and she said that this was fine.
Outside, the recpetionist man seemed unhappy that I wanted to go to the train station, but this was normal, as he had given the same reaction to other things I had wanted to do. We went anyway, but the office was closed, which was something that he had said at the bus station. We went back to the hotel, where he offered to sell me an open-tour bus ticket.
The price would normally be 350 000 VND, but at it was the Tet lunar new year festival, it would be 450 000 VND. This was for the ‘old’ bus and the ‘new’ one would be 500 000 VND, which is very expensive. I didn’t think I had a choice at this point and went for the ‘old’ bus, which is something that I think I will only do once.
The lesson learnt from this was that I should double-check everything once. I knew this already, but forgot on this occasion and I am sure I could have got the ticket for cheaper elsewhere. The other thing that didn’t help was that the receptionist man came into the bus station with me. I was not expecting a scam, but this is something that I will be doing on my own in future.
2. The tourist attraction scam. This is something that happened in Hue and I am almost certain that I got ripped-off.
Whilst paying for the ticket to the Imperial City, I noticed something funny about the transaction. It was first thing in the morning, but I was sure that I had handed over a 100 000 VND note. I had been to the cash machine the day before and my wallet was full of them, plus the fact that I had got 10 000 VND and 100 000 VND notes mixed-up in the past and so was happy that I was handing over the right one. I am sure that I put this into the right hand of the ticket-selling lady, but something very fast happened and she closed the desk drawer next to her (also on her right side) as soon as I had handed this over. From her left hand, she presented a 10 000 VND note, which she said was “not enough”; quite good English (or quite a specific phrase) for someone who can’t really speak any English at all. I took the 10 000 VND note back, something that she didn’t seem to be expecting and gave her another 100 000 VND note, which she said that she didn’t have change for, so could I give her another 30 000 VND. This was fine, as I was aware that there were scams where people exchange so much money that you lose track of who owes whom what, but the maths added up so I handed over the extra money. She gave me 50 000, which was correct and I got my ticket.
I went back after getting into the citadel, asking if I had in fact given her 100 000 VND instead of 10 000 VND to begin with. She said no and did a very good job of making me think that she had no idea of what I was talking about. It was an amicable situation, but I wasn’t sure about what had just happened.
What I learnt from this was that you should be extra careful when in tourist areas, or in situations where you are buying tourist-related services. Also, be completely sure of what you are handing over.
3. The bus ticket scam. This I witnessed first-hand on a bus from Danang to Hoi An.
After getting on the bus, I realised that the ticket conductor was asking for 50 000 VND for a single ticket. This was a lot, as the journey was only an hour and I had spent 60 000 VND on a private bus a few days before. I had also asked two separate people how much they thought the ticket should be; the woman in the train station had said 30 000 VND and the man in the hotel had said 12 000 VND. What they were asking for seemed expensive but the Spanish couple next to me just handed over 100 000 VND for both of them. You could see a villager further down the bus gesturing to some Chinese girls who had got on at the same bus stop that the ticket fare was 50 000 VND. To anyone who has spent any time in Vietnam, the idea that someone like this has 50 000 VND to spend on a bus ticket is ridiculous. Then, to my amazement, the friendly woman next to me who had joked about falling asleep on my shoulder, handed over 50 000 VND. I was refusing to pay at this point, but what confirmed it was a scam was the minute look that the woman gave me, to check that I had seen how much she had handed over. This I could see out of the corner of my eye and so I continued to refuse to pay. Later, as I had moved seats to allow someone else to fit in on the back row, I saw the ‘friendly’ woman get off. As she was unloading her stuff from underneath the bus, the bus conductor got a load of notes out of his shirt pocket and handed them to her, the top one being 50 000 VND. This I wasn’t meant to see and so paid the 18 000 VND at the bus staion, when the bus driver was asking me why I hadn’t paid.
The lesson learnt from this is that there is a ticket scam on buses and you just need to be aware of roughly how much it should cost. On public buses, ticket prices should be printed on the outside of the bus (see below), but the bus will have a bus ticket that will confirm the price. Even during the Tet festival, it’s not 2.5 times the actual amount!
Bus prices in Vietnam.