Day 180 Jan 31 2015 On train to Hue Vietnam

looking at Halong Bay from the tour boat

watching an oyster getting implanted so it grows a pearl

Isabel drooling over a pearl just removed from an oyster

Day 180  Jan 31 2015  On train to Hue Vietnam

We had breakfast at 7:45 and were then taken to a pearl farm where we saw how the peals are grown, implanted and harvested then surprisingly we were taken to a shop where we had the opportunity to purchase pearl jewelry.  We were then taken back to the pier and waited for the bus to transfer us back to Hanoi.  We ended up waiting almost 2 hours as the bus that was supposed to take us broke down and the tour company had to arrange different transportation.  We arrived at the hotel around 6 pm collected our luggage then went to the train station at 7  pm to catch our overnight train to Hue.  We started the train trip with no problems, a train employee checked our tickets and gave them back to us.  A little  while later another train employee comes to our cabin and hands me a piece of paper with a message written on it.  The message said “your child is too tall for the child fare so you have to pay 50% more and please pay 50% more for me”.  I argued a bit so he went a way for a little while.  When he was gone Evy pulled the tickets out of her purse only to discover that we only had 3 of the 4 tickets and that the first train employee had kept David’s ticket.  When the second employee came back Evy and I argued with him and refused to pay unless he showed us an official document.  I also told him we had bought the tickets at the station and the woman there had seen the kids.  He did not come back with an official document so we kept our money.  The note that he handed me looked like it had been used many times before.  It would have been harder to argue if we had purchased the tickets from a travel agent.  Vietnam is living up to its reputation for scamming tourist.