For lunch today I had a delicious bowl of pho ba (beef noodle soup) accompanied by a bowl of quay (fried light, fluffy breadsticks, to dip into the broth).
All was going well except I made a couple of school boy/naive tourist errors. First of all I should have paid when I ordered and before I sat down - I only realised this when I was sat down and watched the steady stream of people coming in. Never mind.
My second error happened when I went to pay on my way out. I was sure I gave a 100,000 Dong note, and this was reinforced when I got 45,000 Dong change. I hung around to try and take some pictures of the kitchen area (a fascinating production line of broth, noodles, beef and vegetables). I was then asked to pay again. I was a bit dumb and handed over 100,000 Dong despite protesting that I'd already paid.
100,000 Dong is £3, so not a massive scam (if at all). I huffed and puffed a bit and loitered outside, mainly to try and take some pictures. However, the owners of the restaurant realised I still wasn't happy and they enlisted someone who spoke a bit of English to try and explain what was going on. I still couldn't get my point understood and didn't understand what they were trying to say. I walked away.
Only as I was thinking the 'incident' over in my head as I walked down the street (trying not to get run over by mopeds) did I think maybe I'd handed over a 10,000 Dong note instead of a 100,000 Dong one. Too many zeros and a very similar colour. Silly tourist!
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