VietNamNet Bridge – While tourists complain about the overcharging that occurs in many localities, they feel enjoyable traveling to some other cities.

Pham Manh Ha, Managing Director of Luxury Travel, related that when he left the office late in the afternoon of March 22, he saw a foreign traveler arguing with a cyclo driver.

The driver forced the traveler to pay more money, while the traveler tried to make a gesture with the hand to say “no.”

Ha realized that the foreign traveler, an Australian, came from the Dong Xuan Market to Chancery Hotel on Nguyen Truong To street on cyclo, for which the driver asked VND200,000.

As the foreign traveler refused to pay VND200,000, the driver spontaneously opened the traveler’s wallet and took a VND500,000 banknote.

Only when Ha threatened the driver that he would call the police, if the driver refused to pay the money back, did the driver pay VND450,000 back to the traveler.

“The foreign traveler received the money back and said thanks to me. But I just felt ashamed of the behavior the driver conducted,” Ha said.

Le Tuan, a VietNamNet’s reader, wrote to the editorial board, complaining that he was also overcharged, even though he was also a tour organizer.

“After I had bathed in the sea, I saw a board hung over a kiosk, saying that the fresh water service available there with the fee of VND20,000. However, I was charged VND50,000. The kiosk owner told me that I had to pay VND50,000 because I washed my hair as well, while the agreed VND20,000 service fee was just for washing body,” he wrote, concluding that service providers have 1,001 ways to play tricks on customers.

Tuan, who learnt many lessons about the overcharging, always asked the waiters about the prices of the dishes before he ordered food. However, he was still ripped off several times.

When Tuan asked how much a dish of rau muong (a kind of vegetable, very popular in Vietnam), he was told that it was VND50,000. Then Tuan ordered two dishes of the vegetables, believing that he would have to pay VND100,000 for these.

However, later, Tuan was charged VND400,000 for the two dishes. The waiter explained that VND50,000 was the price of a dish of vegetables for one person, while the two dishes for 4 persons was worth VND400,000 (!).

Overcharging cannot exist in Da Nang

It’s not by chance that domestic and foreign travelers choose Da Nang as the first destination point in the tourism season.

Da Nang has been well known not only as a green, clean city with the most beautiful beach in the planet, but as the city with the high security.

“It’s the Da Nang’s people, who have created the good image of Da Nang as a friendly, hospitable city,” said Tran Chi Cuong, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Cuong said that in Da Nang, those individuals and establishments, who violate the regulations on the tourism culture, would be heavily punished.

At the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival alone, the city’s management agencies imposed the fines totaling VND437 million on 146 hotels and restaurants for their violations of the regulations on posting hotel room rates, or the behaviors of ripping off travelers.

There in Da Nang, all the tourism establishments must register their service prices, while the information is made public on the official website of the city’s tourism department.

Ngoc Ha