>>Confessions of a Vietnamese tour guide
My Vietnamese friends and I were on Day 5 of a 1500-km motorcycle trip from HCM City up into Vietnam’s Central Highlands (Trung Nguyen). We saw few foreigners. So, I was surprised to see the western couple at breakfast in our modest 1-star hotel in Pleiku.
“Where you from?” I asked. “Australia!” “Me, too. How’s everything?” “Well, we’re trying to get breakfast,” the elderly woman replied. “I have my Lipton but my husband wants a coffee and eggs.”
Done! In Vietnamese, I told the waitress and joined them for breakfast. They were with a driver and guide travelling from Nha Trang up to Hoi An. But where was the elderly couple’s tour guide? Why should a complete stranger like me help them order? Sure, the guide gave them meal coupons. But why was he not there to talk with the non-English speaking staff? He only needed to help and leave. The guide was nowhere to be seen.
The story how they booked their tour was interesting – but also somewhat disturbing. Regular travellers to Europe and other countries, they did not know anything about Vietnam, only as a popular and inexpensive holiday destination for Australians. But they wanted to travel inland where most tourist companies do not go. On the Internet, they found a Ha Noi travel agent who asked for US$4000 transfer into a private bank account. When the first deposit failed, they were told to re-send to another name. The agent then went quiet. The woman finally made several urgent and expensive telephone calls. “Only three days before we left Sydney did we receive our final confirmation,” the woman explained. Damn lucky too, I thought.
After more than 10 years in southern Vietnam before 1975, mostly as a civilian war correspondent and photographer, I first came back in 1995 and return regularly. I often bring Australians on tours we design and operate with a local operator. Many people have forgot that until early 1995 tourists needed permission to travel anywhere in Vietnam. Without question, Vietnam has totally opened up and I have truly enjoyed travelling to even the most remote parts of this amazingly diverse country.
Without question, Vietnam’s tourism industry has come a long way in the past 16 years. The industry has matured. Every time I return, I see not only new hotels and resorts but another tour innovation. Quad bikes at the Mui Ne Sand Dunes. A Da Lat company taking tourists on motorbikes (xe om) up into the Highlands to Hoi An. And on Route 1A from Nha Trang after Tet, we were overtaken by a dozen foreign tourists on high-powered motorcycles. (Knowing Vietnam’s road conditions, however, I am also very concerned if these motorcycles are not too fast and powerful.) But Vietnam still has a long way to go.
Vietnam now receives over five million tourists a year – nearly 14,000 per day - which is quite impressive by any standards. But official research also shows that Vietnam, unlike Thailand and Indonesia, receives few repeat visitors. Tourists come once -- and never return. Certainly, the Australian couple in Pleiku will not come back again. So did many other tourists I have met.
From my own experience and talking to others, I would say the amount, quality and even friendliness of service is the biggest problem facing Vietnam’s tourism industry. Okay, Vietnamese are like Australians and perhaps find serving people demeaning or beneath them. But the character of the Vietnamese is also to make visitors feel welcome. A smile and politeness does not cost anything. Why so many glum faces? How many times have I walked into an empty restaurant and staff are on mobile phones or watching television at full volume? I want to say, “Oh, I am so sorry to disturb you. We are customers.”
A couple years ago, we visited a resort along little-visited northern Ha Long Bay. The wood cabins looked comfortable and we decided to stay. But at lunch, the staff said they had no vegetables. “Well that’s easy,” said my long-time Vietnamese wife, “get on a motorbike and buy something down in the village!” They refused to move. We left for somewhere else.
At a 4-star hotel in Hue, our laundry came back smelling badly – like it had dried indoors. We were checking out early and complained to the front desk suggesting the charge be waived from our bill. But the receptionist did not have the “authority” to do what hotels in other countries would do right way. (But she did offer to do the laundry again for free!) At the Bao Dai Villa at Ho Lak south of BMT, the staff refused us a “room inspection,” normal in the tourism industry. Even a 5-star hotel in HCM City did not offer a “welcome basket” of fruit and its complimentary drinks were beer instead of wine or champagne for my wife and me. Every tourist has examples of poor and even rude service.
Another problem is – pardon me – greed. Do you really like tourists – or just our money? Everyone gets “ripped off” at least once during their visit to Vietnam, sometimes large but mostly small so visitors say, “Oh, well, it’s only a few dollars.” I know people need to make a living and bargaining is part of the game. I have even heard peddlers say, “Well, you are a foreigner and you can afford it.” But if they did not set their prices so high, I am sure they would sell twice as much. Still, I believe such experiences leave a bad impression with visitors.
Tour guides, of course, play a crucial role introducing and explaining Vietnam. They vary as widely as their experience, age and personality. But the job requires a real passion – and knowledge – which I rarely see. Guides need to know more history and even news so they can answer a tourist’s many, and even boring, questions. (For example, how much rice or coffee does Vietnam export?) They should also help clients meet ordinary Vietnamese. Be more spontaneous! Find out what they like to do. One couple loved visiting Catholic churches. A group of Australian farmers wanted to meet every Vietnamese farmer they could!
At Ha Lan north of Buon Ma Thuot, I met a German woman on a “xe om” tour who pointed to the large monument and asked, “What’s that?” I explained this region saw some of the most intense fighting of the American War and the hilltop memorial is dedicated to the Liberation troops who died. Her young driver-guide was already resting in the hammock not saying anything, not even helping order a “café da.” I also explained how the Trung Nguyen has changed with new settlers from the north, jungle cleared and coffee, pepper and other crops everywhere. Why had not the guide provided such information to make this region more interesting? From Hung Vuong to the present-day, Vietnam has a fascinating story to tell – and show to visitors.
Tourists also need more imaginative itineraries. Every company offers the same 5H+S tour – HCM City, Hoi An, Hue, Ha Noi and Ha Long Day – with S for Sapa. They all go to My Tho and the Cu Chi. Everywhere are even more tourists. Ha Long Bay is so crowded you breathe diesel fumes, not fresh air. You wake up surrounded by a dozen boats full of other foreigners! And speaking about “rip-offs,” why do those fishing villages on Ha Long Bay charge tourists so much for seafood? Do they want our business? (We ate bread and cheese instead!)
Vietnam may be small on the world map, but too many tourists want to see the entire country in one trip. They see a little of everything and are constantly tired. A better formula are trips where tourists spend more time in one region travelling slowly, making many stops and meeting ordinary people, even a meal with a family. Vietnam’s real attraction is its people. Give these visitors a wonderful personal experience and, don’t worry, they will come back again – but to another region next time.
But I must also say a few words about Vietnam’s “tourism product” and how places are presented. Why coloured lights, even water fountains, inside the caves of Ha Long Bay and Phong Nha? Why sit on such uncomfortable chairs on Hue’s Perfume River? (Indeed, why fluorescent lights for night cruises where the traditional musicians do not smile and are first off the boat?) Why big white letters VINPEARL on Nha Trang’s Hon Tre Island? Cape Ca Mau is an important ecological site but is covered in concrete and ugly restaurants. Walking down to Dak Nong’s Dray Sap Waterfall is a big ugly white-washed wall with the letters “WC”. Sadly, many tourist places in Vietnam are not very attractive or comfortable. At the same time, from an unpleasant experience at Dambri Waterfall in Bao Loc, I do not believe privately-run natural sites is the answer either. With some imagination and a bit of hard work, many can be improved.
Finally, Vietnam, if you want more foreign tourists, you really have to clean up your act. I am truly shocked by how much rubbish I see. Plastic bottles in the moat outside Hue’s Forbidden City. Styrofoam litter on Ha Long Bay. Plastic bags along the river to Phong Nha Caves. All World Heritage sites too. Dray Sap has rubbish bins but no one uses them! Roadsides are covered in litter, even that still-new road up to Da Lat from Nha Trang. Vietnam needs to look much better and do not forget that tourism really helps everybody.
Carl Robinson (American, now lives in Brisbane, Australia)
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