All about the Benjamins (Cat Ba part 2)

True story: After a wave of sickness passed, I was feeling up to exploring Cat Ba city. Plus, we needed to get some dinner. We walked past a food cart and paused to try and figure out what exactly they were trying to sell. It appeared to be sticky rice with shredded coconut, mystery meat, and some other unidentified food to go on top. While we were standing there, a family had ordered a serving and paid 5000 dong for it. After some tasty yet unfilling pho, we cruised back to the food cart and decided to try the rice mixture (sans mystery meat). While my partner was getting out the 5000 dong to pay, they told us it was 10,000. We laughed and explained that we just watched someone else pay 5000 and it was not fair to charge us double the price. The man and woman promptly stopped speaking english, looked at each other, realized they were busted and took our 5000 dong.

Imagine if this happened every time we bought something. More often than not, this is the case in Northern Vietnam. Sometimes I feel cold hearted when I complain to other travelers about the dual pricing scheme. Sometimes I think I should stop obsessing. I have to eat 3 meals per day (roughly) and because I have no cooking facilities, I have to buy those meals from vendors or street stalls or restaurants. Am I just supposed to double my daily food budget and pretend like I don't notice when I am charged twice the price? I used to think it possible that the 'these people need the money more than I do' argument carried some weight. Now, I don't. I have observed the loafing all day and the prices that locals pay. I don't buy it anymore.

Yes, the exchange rate is favorable to us. But, I don't have unlimited money like so many people seem to think. When I go home to my country and support myself, it will involve working at least 8 hours/ day 5 days a week. Days full of work. Not just sitting on my motorbike calling out to all tourists within a 100 meter radius and trying to offer rides. I fully support people involved in legitimate ways to make money but I can no longer support the dual pricing scheme. It really gets to me. I don't know how other travelers do it.

Enough ranting... We have know developed a system for the remainder of our time in Vietnam: watch transactions very closely and then refuse to pay anything other than what the locals pay. It is really obvious and in the US, it would be considered super nosy, a violation of personal space, etc. But here, it seems to work.