Above: Typical bar/cafe.
We flew Jetstar Pacific’s Boeing 737-400 at 1040 today, reaching Danang at 1155. We wanted to get to Hue but its airport was closed while the runway was being resurfaced.
We travelled from Danang to Hue by public bus. The driver collected the money before we departed … soon after, I saw the price posted in Vietnamese on the front of the bus. He appeared to have charged us double … this was confirmed when we observed the amounts paid by others.
We thought we may have paid more because we had big luggage but we weren’t the only ones.
The journey was about an hour shorter than expected as we used the Hai Van tunnel … a 6.3 km tunnel through a high mountain. It was certainly the longest tunnel I’ve ever travelled through.
Upon arrival in Hue, we spoke to the driver … he intimated that the placarded price was for locals and we were foreigners; and also we had luggage. We expressed our disagreement … not that we could speak a word of each other’s language.
We didn’t pursue this any further as it was only NZD3 difference per person for us … or 7 beers for him.
We felt better when we arrived at our hotel, called Sports 2 Hotel, with a tariff of only USD17. We had two double beds in a clean air-conditioned room with a good shower! It could have comfortably slept four people but I don’t think they would have allowed that at the price we paid.