Never Pay For Anything in Vietnam With a Credit Card

Because at first, the shop owner will look at you with confusion. Then, realization. They will beckon you onto the back of their motorbike while your companion guards your merchandise at the store. You will be whisked off into the nutty Hue traffic, holding onto your strange new Vietnamese friend with all your might, whispering prayers to God, the Virgin, baby Jesus and grown-up Jesus as your driver zooms to the nearest bank. There, you hand your credit card over to the people behind the counter, listen to the shop owner argue with them, then tell you you're beautiful and pronounce your name "Zzhaaameeee." Once you sign over your money and the bankers hand the shop owner stacks of VND, he is enormously happy and shakes your hand and gives you a big smile before once again scaring the living shit out of you on that damn motorbike.

That sums up what happened between 5:30 and 5:50 today.

The reason for the purchase was that we took a boat ride (on a boat marked "Tourist" in case it wasn't obvious enough) and my camera fell into the Perfume River. I was able to retrieve it before it sank, but it wouldn't respond, the lens wouldn't open, and the viewfinder was clouded with river sludge. So I have no pictures of all of the temples, palaces, and mausoleums we saw this afternoon. What I do have, now, is a new camera.