The village of Kim Boi is about 100 kilometers from Hanoi, high in mountains that are covered by a thick tropical foliage. It is best known as the source of healing mineral waters, and long famous in the north as a brand of bottled water.

With more spare time and money -- along with access one of the more modern roadways in northern Vietnam that connects the base of Kim Boi's mountain with Hanoi -- in the mid-1990s Hanoians began visiting Kim Boi on weekends by the hundreds, vaulting this remote village into the spotlight as one of northern Vietnam's very first Vietnamese tourist destinations.

"The number of visitors coming to bathe became so high that the water started to get polluted," said Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, of Kim Boi Mineral Water Company.

Tourism remains a nascent concept for a generation of people who were brought up without any of the ingredients of tourism: roads, vehicles, spare time or money, along with the freedom to travel. But each of these requirements is being met, for a fortunate one percent or so of the population. So Kim Boi's villagers have responded to this phenomenon in a number of ways, some of them conflicting.

The centerpiece of the local government's strategy was to accommodate visitors in an organized way. The local People's Committee constructed a covered, Olympic sized swimming pool that can handle hundreds of bathers at once.

On a designated patch of dirt, under some trees, picnickers cluster in groups. Some unfortunate monkeys, snared from the surrounding forests, squawk from metal cages set about the area. And of course locals are present to gawk at the city slickers, and sell them the local nuts and berries -- and cages of shocked looking forest creatures -- that they've assembled.

There is a stream of visitors wandering over to a fifteen foot cement and brick wall that separates the swimming pool area from the rest of the rustic village. Just over the wall is an idyllic picture that includes a wide, flowing river and beyond that dense tropical forest.

It is this wall perhaps best symbolizes all that can drive a tourist in Vietnam -- even a Vietnamese one -- absolutely nuts. For this is the scheme wall.

Fortunately, there was a doorway built into the wall.

Unfortunately, the door was cemented over.

Fortunately, there is a ladder.

Unfortunately, several villagers enjoy a concession of renting it for up to VND 5,000 per person. To pay, the visitor must balance precariously on top of the wall. The ticket taker is squatting and unflappable. Once over, a youngster offers (insists on) his tour guide services, which cancel any plan of a traipse trough the natural world.

Oh, and once you've had your adventure, reach into your wallet for another 5,000 dong. That's to pay for the final service you'll need. The official dropping of ladder back over the wall.