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Published: August 21st 2008
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Unfortunately getting back to Hanoi we had a very horrible experience. The plan had been to go to Ha long bay, return to Hanoi and stay another 2 nights. Our bags had been left at the fake hotel we were staying at and we were going to stay there another night but having found out about being ripped off for the tour we didn't feel like we wanted to stay there any more. So we secured another hotel room and went to pick up our bags.
We could tell straight away that we had been ripped off when we arrived as we had no "how was your trip?" from the staff and even though we had said we were staying another night they asked us to pay up. When we brought up the matter of how much we had paid for our trip compared to everyone else they became very aggressive. We were dealing with the man at the desk who we believed to be the manager and Steve got put on the phone to someone who was meant to be the travel agent who confirmed the price. While Steve was on the phone I explained that the people on
the three day trip had paid the same amount as we did for a two day trip another man (who it turned out was the owner) came right up to me and shouted "don't say that, why are you lying" I calmly asked him to stop shouting at me but he got more intimidating and aggressive. I told him that he was scaring me and I just wanted to pay and leave but he kept shouting saying that we were trying to rip him off. Note that all of his aggression was aimed at me not at Steve, who at 6'3" stood twice as tall as him. It ended with him right in my face telling me to "**** off", and Steve having to get in the middle. I was so angry but didn't want to push it as I really felt like he would get violent and in an area where there weren't any other English speaking people it felt really intimidating. I didn't want this to be our last experience in Vietnam as we had had such an amazing time up till then and everyone we had met had been lovely.
My faith in humanity did get
restored when we found the REAL Hanoi Guest House on Bat Su. We had found another hotel which was fine but didn't feel it was very safe to keep our bags there on the last day as our flight wasn't till late on. We headed to the Hanoi Guest House but they were full. We explained what had happened at the fake hotel and the lady in charge explained that they have loads of problems with them. Apparently they will stand outside their hotel and tell people that its full and take them to the fake one. The real Hanoi Guest House has a great reputation and its being ruined by these horible people who just rip everyone off.
The staff at the real Hanoi Guest House could not have been more accommodating to us. Although they did not have any rooms they said we could leave our bags there and gave us a room to use during the day to have a shower and let us use the internet. The people there are so nice we have made it our mission to tell other travelers how awful the other hotel is. So if you find yourself at the
Hanoi Guest House/Darling backpacker guest House or whatever other name it fancies using on Thanh Ha lane DO NOT STAY THERE!
Fortunately our last day in Hanoi more than made up for it. We went to the Temple of Literature which is beautiful and a little oasis of calm. I dont know much about Feng Sui but this place just makes you feel calm as soon as you walk in, its lush. We then made the most of the street food and ate loads as we knew we were leaving. My favourite so far has been a dessert which tastes like cold rice pudding, yum, yum, yum.
As we had nothing else to do we decided to go to the water puppet show. If you are stuck in Hanoi with an hour to kill I definately recommend it. It only costs about a pound and is loads of fun.
Back to Bangkok
Helen x x
p.s. I was so wound up by these people that I have made it my mission to tell other travellers not to stay there. Since searching the internet it seems other people have had the same problems as us at Hanoi/Darling/whatever else they
call themselves Guest House. Take a look.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g293924-d613147-r19201749-Darling_Back_Packer_Guest_House-Hanoi.html
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