Ray Bans in London and Saigon: A Prelude to Vietnam North to South

What is the Value of a (Genuine) Signature?

We arrived in Vietnam, more specifically in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon on Thursday morning and spent the day stumbling around in the mental and physical limbo that is jet lag before flying onto Hanoi on Friday. I will write about Saigon when we return in a couple of weeks - except for the following .....

Not Buying Sunglasses in Heathrow Airport

Before leaving home, I realised that although I owned several pairs of sunglasses, none of them were in a usable condition. I wandered into Sunglass Hut (an expansion of the pizza franchise?) in Heathrow airport and picked up the nearest pair. They were Ray-Bans priced at £230. My sunglasses have a life expectancy of two or three months before I sit on them or leave them in a pub, so this did not seem a sensible price [update at end]. Actually, it did not seem a sensible price under any conditions. We all know that there are a tribe of people - Hugo Boss, Donna Karin and old Raymondo Ban among them - whose signature on a perfectly ordinary pair of sunglasses is deemed to increase their value severalfold. We all know it, but I suspect I am not the only one fails to understand it. All I wanted was a pair of cheap, serviceable sunglasses and they had nothing even close to that description.

I later found a pair in the airport pharmacy for £17, still slightly on the expensive side, I thought, but worse, they made me look like a child molester.

Making a Purchase in Ho Chi Minh City

Twenty not entirely enjoyable hours later Lynne and I were sitting outside a street cafe in Ho Chi Minh City attempting to rehydrate ourselves with a bottle or two of light, fizzy Saigon Beer. We had seen off a stream of street sellers offering us dodgy DVDs, bracelets and books and declined a shoe shine from a lad who was insistent he could do something with my trainers, when a man hove into view bearing a board covered with sunglasses.

I selected a likely looking pair, they had a sticker saying 'genuine Ray Bans' on one lens. His asking price was 150,000 Dong (about £5) - the Vietnamese Dong is not one of the world's larger currency units, indeed we became multi-millionaires at our first trip to the ATM. I was tired and did not have my bargaining head on and anyway it is inappropriate for the mega-rich* to haggle too hard with the dirt poor, so I made a token effort and eventually let him charge me £4. Now that is a proper price to pay for a pair of 'genuine' Ray Bans.

Looking cool in 4 pounds-worth of 'genuine' Ray Bans

I was unaware that two weeks would pass before I would need to use them.

* Those who know me and were not aware that I was one of the mega-rich are probably unaware that they are mega-rich too.

[update: For the next incident in the life of these sunglasses, and another good reason for not paying £200+ see The Cowpat Walks 4: Biddulph, The Cloud & Rushton Spencer]

Vietnam North to South

Prelude: Raybans in Heathrow and Saigon

Part 1: Hanoi (1) Ethnic Minorities, The Old City and Water Puppets

Part 2: Hanoi (2) Bat Trang, Quan Ho Music and Fighting Cocks

Part 3: Ha Long Bay

Part 4: Lao Cai, Coc Ly Market and Sa Pa

Part 5:Trekking from Sa Pa (1), Sa Pa to Ta Van

Part 6: Trekking from Sa Pa (2) Ta Van to Ban Den

Part 7: Trekking from Sa Pa (3), Around Ban Den then back to Hanoi

Part 8: Hanoi (3), The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Temple of Literature

Part 9: Hue (1), The Citadel, The Battle of Hue 1968 and Some New Things to Eat

Part 10: Hue (2), A self-Immolating Monk, an Impotent Emperor and Imperial Dinner

Part 11: Da Nang

Part 12: Hoi An and My Son

Part 13:Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Part 14: The Mekong Delta (1), Can Bei and a Cornucopia of Fruit

Part 15: The Mekong Delta (2), To Vinh Long and Can Tho

Part 16: The Mekong Delta (3): Cai Rang and My Tho

Part 17: The Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Great Temple

THE END