The Sleeper Bus to Hanoi and Vietnam Annoyances

The Phone rings in our room at 11:32am the receptionist tells me I should have checked out at 11:30, I told her that she told me 12 o'clock after a yes,no debate I told her I was packing my bag now and will be down before 12. This was only the tip of the iceberg. When we went to pay our bill (we booked our bus and city trip through the hotel) they tried to stiff us on the Dollar - Dong exchange rate, after much arguing we got them to give us the proper rate. So NGOC HUNG Hotel of 46 Chu Van An, Hue City, Vietnam...expect a review on Tripadvisor reflecting this

We left our bags at the hotel and went out for breakfast and a walk,while waiting for the bus we were approached and offered cheap accommodation in Hanoi, no pressure, someone will collect you,etc, brochure looked impressive. I cracked open the laptop and through the Hotels name into Tripadvisor, it had to be the worst reviewed hotel I'd ever read on TA.

Our sleeper bus arrived at 5pm and we got on it. The most uncomfortable 14 hours I've ever spent, we were wedged in the back with 3 other people (the rest of the seats were 2 tier singles) for a good bit of the journey. Camel Tours I could not recommend again, the ugly bastard that was in charge of the bus was giving out to people who put their shoes on before they got to the front of the bus, so much so he kicked Tina in the foot. I confronted the ugly beast and his friend intervened and said he was a stupid man and to let it go. So Camel Tours aren't on the Christmas Card list this year.

Arrived in Hanoi, absolutely wrecked, a guy with Tinas name outside the bus waiting for us, we looked the other way. The bus driver bunged us into Taxi and he took us into the city, now I'm well versed in the whole Taxi scam thing but was caught off guard this morning (Only use Mai Linh and Vinasun Taxi's anywhere in vietnam or agree a price before hand). The guy from the bus put our bags in the front seat conveniently blocking the view of the meter...the telltale signs were there. As our destination was only 5km or so I didn't think there would be too much of an issue, the fare for this jounrey would cost normally $3 - 4...His meter read $17!!!! I said nothing and grabbed our bags from the cab and then told him where to stick his $17 up his arse. I pulled a notebook out of my bag and went to the back off the cab and wrote his reg number down, at this point he hid his ID badge in the car, I then pointed to the distance price on the side of the car and told him we'd have to do 36kms for it to be that price, I threw him $5 which was probably too much anyway and told him that's all he's getting, he asked for another 5 and I told him if he wants the fare on that meter, he'll have to get the Police, he left surprisingly without haste after that. I read online that when the Vietnamese Police investigated Taxi's 90% of the meters were rigged in some way.

Anyway it's a good lesson to get and a first for us since we arrived in SE Asia. Don't just take what they say for granted.