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April 10, 2007
Record-breaking room rate
My first day alone walking around Hue, I got lost within minutes and luckily met other lost backpackers quickly. They too were looking for the Perfume River and although it was only a few blocks away, none of us could figure out how to get there. Blame it on the sun, the heat and the humidity (it did go up to 39 degrees that day after all...) but bad orientation was a big part of the problem, I admit.
As we started walking together checking the map at every block, we asked each other the usual backpacker questions--where are you from, how long are you traveling and how long have you been in Vietnam, etc. One of the first questions the German backpacker asked me was "How much are you paying for your room?"
It may have seemed like a strange question at home, but on the backpacker circuit it's as common a question as how's your stomach doing?
I told him $12 and he proudly told me that he was only paying $8.
That's when I remembered the game of the room rate. There's sort of a contest among backpackers to see who can get the best and cheapest room. Well, we may not have had the cheapest room in Hue, but I'm pretty sure we got the cheapest one on Cat Ba island.
$5 USD for one night that included a view of the bay, a balcony and a TV (although it was all Vietnamese channels so we didn't use it at all). So we're back in the game... as long as the room includes clean sheets, hot water and Satellite TV of course!
What's the room rate tonight you ask? $12 ... sometimes a quiet room is worth much more than winning the room rate game :)
Posted by insideoutmag at April 10, 2007 04:56 AM
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