Upon Arrival to Vietnam

After a 13 hour flight (without movies because the entertainment system was down) and a 4 hour flight, I finally made it to Saigon.. or more politically correct, Ho Chi Minh City. I was very exhausted from sitting on my butt for so long and just wanted to sleep because of the jetlag. I had to get my Visa upon arrival at the airport, which took about an hour! As I walk out the doors of the airport, the very first sight I see is a very huge crowd of people holding signs to meet with people who have arrived. And I immediately feel the humidity! Dang, Vietnam is very hot and humid, which makes me sweat a lot... no amount of deodorant can help me here. I walk around scanning the crowd to see some kind of sign that says my name or "sealnet".. but I don't see anything at all.. by the time I walked around the crowd 5 times with my big ol' luggages, I start to freak out because I have no way of contacting them and never wrote down the phone number. So I end up going back into the airport, feeling very overwhelmed from all the people and just the idea of being lost. I try to speak vietnamese to look for an outlet to charge my ipod touch, and I don't think they understood me..yeah, the way I speak Vietnamese just screams "fresh from America!" I finally find an outlet at a cafe and the worker kind of hints me to order something. I felt guilty for using their electricity and internet so I ordered a can of 7-up which was 35,000 dong. I didn't know it at the time, but it was a rip-off...it normally should be only 10,000 dong. Dong is the vietnamese currency, the conversion rate is about 21,000 dong to 1 USD. Which makes everything really cheap! Then, I am finally able to get a phone number and I muster the courage to ask a lady if I could borrow her phone. The person who was supposed to pick me up had already gone back because he had to wait too long..so then he asks the lady to help me catch a taxi to the hotel. I got into a taxi and on the drive I actually had a conversation with the driver about coming to Vietnam for the first time and what I will be doing. When I get to the hotel, the person came out to pay for my cab fare, which was 350,000 dong. Again, at the time I didn't know...but it was a rip-off! But he wasn't an actual taxi, so that's why it cost more -.-

In Vietnam, some people would take the opportunity to rip off foreigners, especially near the touristy areas, such as in Ben Thanh market or at the airport. Which is why bargaining is a must!  But sometimes the store owner can get very intimidating >.<