It was our mistake. Patrick and I rejected it because we thought the trung gian (middleman) price - 50 percent of one month's rent - was too high. We thought other Vietnamese people bargained them down to 10 and 15 percent and they were just treating us like foreigners (and we all know the only thing rich foreigners want to is be treated like locals, except when it comes to being paid like a local). Then we realized the trung gian price was standard and tried to get the house back the next day, but this time the owner rejected us for being unreliable. You'd think, developing country, they'll take it, but rich people here aren't desperate.
That's one preconception I had wrong about Vietnam. Another was wireless. For some reason I thought, "It's Vietnam. Will there be any wireless places? Do people even have laptops?" There are about 30 wireless cafes all over Hanoi. It's a hit! Really, I don't know what I was thinking.
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