{"id":15612,"date":"2023-03-19T09:08:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T13:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sunflowerit.ca\/travel\/auto-draft\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T15:01:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T19:01:20","slug":"abm-woes-and-tourist-hot-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sunflowerit.ca\/travel\/trips-asia\/other-trips\/south-east-asia-2023\/abm-woes-and-tourist-hot-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"ABM woes and tourist hot spots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During this segment we felt trusted into some of Vietnam’s most tourist hot spots with our stays in Can Tho, Da Nang and Hoi An. Until our arrival in Can Tho, we used our (small) stack of Canadian bills to obtain local currency in exchange, hence we had not done any cash withdrawals at an ABMs since our first day entering into Malaysia – almost two months ago. As we found very few money exchange offices in Can Tho, we thought we would withdraw some funds at an ABM to get us to the next town. Unfortunately, it was not that easy. Well, we guessed that when we contacted the Tangerine call center last January before our trip, the agent must have been bored of recording the list of countries we were going to visit as they dropped off a few from their system.
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2023.03.13 – Can Tho – Can Tho (Vietnam)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as the streets were overflowing with folks last night, this morning they were deserted. We kept on wondering where everyone was. We decided to try our hands at cycling along some countryside roads. As we located a bicycle tour\/rental company on the outskirts of town, we took a Grab to a location outlined on the company’s website. As the Grab dropped us in a small alleyway, we knew we were in for some unexpected saga. After walking in the area for a bit and asking (via Google Translate) every local we could find, we concluded that we would not find the expected cycling rental business. We opted to walk 1.5kms to the Cai Rang Floating Market area where we hoped we could catch a boat ride back to the town pier. Unfortunately, we could not locate any boats either for our journey back. We took a Grab back to the town center. As we were strolling along the riverfront, we came across an old lady who was selling a 3 hour tour to the main tourist attraction in Can Tho: the Cai Rang Floating Market (including three other typical attractions). We liked the proposed duration and the fact that we would be riding on a small boat called sampan. We left a small deposit with the old lady with the understanding that we would be meeting up with her tomorrow morning at 5am. Upon returning to the hotel, we inquired at the reception about a lingering cigarette smoke smell in our room. We were stunned to learn that we had been assigned a smoking room. We promptly requested a change of room to a non-smoking floor. In the afternoon, we visited a few ABMs to replenish our local fund stash. Surprisingly, I tried 5+ ABMs from different banks with no success. Thankfully, our restaurant accepted our credit card for dinner. In the evening, I reached out to our bank’s client support and realized that they had failed to register the proper authorization for four countries where we were traveling to – Vietnam was one of them. I was told that the issue would take 1 to 2 business days to get resolved!<\/p>\n\n\n