A quest to find cash in Hue, Vietnam, turns into an unexpected sightseeing adventureJessie StoelwinderThe West AustralianSun, 31 August 2025 1:36PMEmail Jessie Stoelwinder
I’m a big believer that the unexpected moments are always what make a holiday memorable.
I also like to think anything can be an adventure with the right attitude — even a quest to get cash out in a foreign city.
This is how my mission to hunt down an ATM became a surprising highlight of my visit to Hue, Vietnam.
Often one to fly by the seat of my pants, I’ve not prepared with any local currency and mistakenly assume it will be easy enough to track down some physical money upon arrival.
But our group goes through a whole day of sightseeing without stumbling across any cash machines in the central Vietnamese city.
I borrow some notes from a fellow traveller to get through the first 24 hours, then before breakfast on day two I set off on my expedition.
Thank goodness for the eSIM and the access it affords us.
I’m able to locate the nearest ATM on a map — it’s a 15-minute drive from the hotel — and download the popular ride-hailing app Grab.
You can choose between a car or a scooter (I opt for the latter: faster and more adventurous), it will give you the estimated fare that will be debited direct from your card (under 30,000 Vietnamese dong in this case, or about $1.75) and the wait time for a driver (only one minute today).
My ride pulls up, hands me a helmet in Grab’s signature green and we are off.
The tour bus my group was in the day before may have been more comfy, but there’s so much more to see from the back of a scooter. It’s an awesome way to become acquainted with the spirit of a new city.
My driver weaves us through a morning market where sellers are jostling for space on the sidewalk: bundles of morning glory in coloured baskets, bunches of yellow flowers wrapped in brown paper, tropical fruit precariously stacked in pyramids.
I can’t help but squirm when I spot freshly caught fish still flapping in an inch of water at one stall.
Then we are around another bend and it’s more urban, with seemingly every second store a coffee shop and a handful of billiards clubs dotted in between.
Locals sit out on milk crates eating com tam (broken rice) and banh mi under red bunting bearing the Vietnamese flag.
Buddhist monks in brown robes walk Hue’s clean streets alongside hawkers in traditional non la (conical hats) pushing spindly food carts.
On the backs of other scooters I spy everything from huge sacks of rice to heavy gas tanks and an entire family, including a miniature poodle.
It’s probably just a normal day, but as the only tourist around I feel pretty lucky to be part of the picture.
Before I know it, we pull up to the ATM and I say “cam on” (thank you) to the driver as he zips away.
I was having so much fun taking in the sights I almost forgot that getting the cash was the whole reason for this little adventure.
With a stack of dong safely tucked in my wallet, I extend my trip just a little longer for a walk beside the Perfume River.
The air is scented with jasmine bushes and I browse an open-air bookshop with Vietnamese translations of romance novels and Western self-help bibles.
Once I get to the famous Truong Tien Bridge, which is affectionately referred to as Hue’s “Eiffel Tower Bridge” because of its similar construction, I log into Grab to book my return ride.
Fifteen minutes later, I am back at the hotel in time for breakfast.
+ Jessie Stoelwinder was a guest of Vietnam Airlines. They have not influenced this story or read it before publication.
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