ZOQY

A classic Russian scam that arrived in my inbox. Nice that is in French for a change
Bonjour! Comment etes-vous? Mon nom est Elena, j’ai 32 ans. Je suis heureux que j’ai une chance de vous ecrire
savoir. Je suis tres surpris par le message ur pour moi avec votre email
adresse. Je pense que vous ne saviez pas ou nous nous rencontrons. Nous avons un chat
le villagehub.com. Mais uniquement pour l’instant je me suis souvenu de votre email et je
vous ecrivez, et je souhaite mieux vous connaitre davantage.
Je tiens a dire un peu sur moi-meme et aussi j’espere que vous aussi vous etes pret a partager avec moi les histoires sur vous-meme.
Si vous avez un temps libre s’il vous plait ecrivez-moi a mon email gal79angel@yahoo.com …
Vous semble-t homme tres bon et fort, je tiens a vous en savez plus.
Je vais attendre votre reponse SUIVANT,
Merci, Elena

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Nguy?n Phúc Ánh began building the Imperial CIty in Hue in 1802 after consulting with geomancers. The Imperial City is within a 2 kilometre by 2 Kilometre boundary wall with a inner and outer moat.

Photos of the Imperial CIty (Citadel), Hue, VIetnam

Video of the Imperial CIty (Citadel), Hue, VIetnam

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Day One in Hoi An

We arrived in Hoi An from Nha Trang a few hours late, but still early in the morning. We were both exhausted from the terrible overnight bus trip, so we checked in to our hotel, off loaded our bags, and then just went across the road to the Voulez Vous Restaurant for breakfast. Breakfast was not that brilliant. I had omlette and sausage, Laura had stir fried rice with vegetables.
The irony of the bad breakfast was that the restaurant also offers cooking classes, there was even one in progress while we were there. One of the young girls in the group taking the cooking class fainted, I don’t think it was the bad food though – just too much sun and heat.
If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
After breakfast it was straight back to our hotel and to bed.
In the evening we took a pleasant stroll round the old town. It was very charming, with narrow streets of wooded house, all festooned with Chinese lanterns for the Lunar New Year (Tet).
We found a place to eat called Lamé Cafe, but regrettably the meal was very bad, and it also took ages to arrive. I had a duck dish, which was all fat no meat. Laura had a vegetable noodle dish, which was swimming in oil. Maybe they thought we needed fattening up? Better than taking a long time to arrive, we’d have preferred our food never turned up.
Our fellow diners were not satisfied either, several had been overcharged for food they hadn’t ordered, and others left their meals almost untouched.
Lame Cafe would be a more apt name for the restaurant.

Day Two in Hoi An

Up bright and early after a great nights sleep, we headed to breakfast. Our hotel did not have space to serve it, so guests had to go to its sister hotel a couple of doors away. A decent spread, but I stuck with black coffee and a couple of slices of toast. Laura enjoyed the lovely selection of fresh bread.
Then we hit the town in full tourist mode. I was in charge of the stills camera and Laura was chief filmmaker. We wandered round the historic part of town for an hour or so soaking up the atmosphere and snapping away.

Video of Hoi An, Vietnam

Then we headed to the Central Market (blog post HERE) for a spot of observing the daily life in Hoi An.
Seeing all of the fantastic food on offer put us in the mood for lunch, so the next stop was La Chuoi Banana Leaf Cafe. I had streamed pork dumplings (White rose) and Laura had Aubergine Pasta. For a tourist place, the food was decent.
In the evening we popped out for a short while, and I shot a bit more of video of nighttime Hoi An.

Video of Hoi An at night

Day Three in Hoi An

Hookers for breakfast

Breakfast was most amusing. Sitting at the next table to us was an old obese Australian bloke and his hooker. The prostitute was milking him for £€$. In the space of ten minutes she had got him the buy her a $600 iPhone, a $1000 for a flight to Australia, and a donation to a school. The idiot was falling for all of her lines. Serves the fool right.
After breakfast we went for a wander round town, ditto the evening which was broken up by dinner at Tam Tam Restaurant. It was a strange meal. I ordered beef in a coconut sauce, but when it arrived it looked more like an Irish stew. It contained large lumps of beef, potatoes, and carrots all floating in a beef stock which had only a faint hint of coconut and spice. A very strange combo, that did not really work together. Laura didn’t do much better. She ordered a chicken pasta dish, that also tasted slightly odd. Later in the evening she was a little unwell.
Having an early bus to catch the next morning we called it a night at 10pm, but as it was Chinese New Year, fireworks disturbed us at midnight, but they only lasted for about 15 minutes.

Other bloggers talking about Hoi An

• http://royaltylites.blogspot.com
• http://welcome2ourjungle.blogspot.com
• http://www.realfoodtraveler.com
• http://leggypeggy.com

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Our hotel in Hoi An was the Thanh Binh II (Serene Hotel). We stayed for three nights, paying about $25 per night.
Breakfast was included in the rate, but not served at the hotel, it was served at a sister hotel, the Thanh Binh III (Serene Hotel) just around the corner.

Our room was a deluxe room with air-conditioning, an outside seating area, small terrace, which looked onto the street.
The room was very large, and lit and airy because it was all painted white, with a high ceiling and a big double bed.
Also in the room was a wardrobe, desk and stool, small fridge, two bedside tables, a flatscreen TV mounted on the wall, but there were only a couple of channels that were tuned in correctly, the rest were unwatchable due to either no sound, white noise, or terrible picture. As the room was large there was lots of space. unfortunately there was also quite a lot of dampness and mildew on the walls which meant the room smelt very musty.
The bathroom was a good size, with a bath, over which was a shower. The water was hot and the pressure was pretty good. There were a few complimentary toiletries including soap and shower gel. We were given two fresh bath towels every day of our stay and there was a bath matt.
The room was clean, and cleaned daily, except on one day when we were in the room when housekeeping knocked, so we told them not to bother. It was quite late, so the room should have been cleaned before we returned from our day out.
There were ants everywhere in our room.

There were a couple of computers for guests to use in the reception, free of charge, and free WiFi throughout the hotel.

Every morning we collected a breakfast voucher from the reception at the Thanh Binh II (Serene Hotel) to take along to their sister hotel.
The buffet breakfast was surprisingly good. There was a good selection of food available. During our three day stay there were eggs; boiled or fried, noodles, fruit; fresh pineapple, bananas, watermelon and dragon fruit. There were dishes of fresh tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, ham and bacon. There were also chips, which seemed slightly odd to us, but they were very popular with the other guests. A couple of fruit juices and tea and coffee were also available.
My favourite thing was the unlimited coffee. Laura enjoyed the selection of breads. There was the usual bland processed sliced white bread for toast, but apart from that there were several really good breads, including baguettes, lovely soft homemade brown bread with nuts, and various cakes and pastries too; croissants, raisin pastries, and doughnuts.

Being on the ground floor at the end of a corridor next to where the staff sat and ate meant our room was quite noisy. The traffic noise outside was also quite loud.
Having said that I slept well there, and Laura doesn’t sleep particularly well anywhere so it was not a problem.
The Thanh Binh II (Serene Hotel), in Hoi An, Vietnam, is in a good location.

Thanh Binh II (Serene Hotel),
712 Hai Ba Trung St,
Hoi An,
Vietnam
Tel: (84) 510 3863 715

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We took a wander round the Central Market and the markets streets in Hoi An. It made a nice change from wandering the streets of the historic part of Hoi An.

Photos of the Central Market, Hoi An, Vietnam

Video of the Central Market, Hoi An, Vietnam

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Day One in Nha Trang

Bus….

We we got off of the bus in Nha Trang, there was a complimentary mini bus service to shuttle us to our hotel. The driver dropped us off on the main road and said our hotel was down one of the side streets. We spent five minutes looking for it before heading back on to the main road, only to find the mini bus had returned. The driver had dropped us off instead of the German couple seated behind us.
Back on the bus for a couple of hundred metres and we were at our hotel.
We checked-in, unpacked, grabbed a much needed shower, and then took a stroll along the Promenade. Being back in hot weather was a bit of a shock to our system after the few days we’d spent in cold Da Lat.
We stopped for a drink at one of the restaurants on the beach before heading back towards our hotel and grabbing a late lunch at Rainbow Divers Cafe.
Laura had been talking about fancying a chicken pie with mashed potatoes, vegetables and gravy, and lo and behold Rainbow Divers Cafe had exactly that on the menu. I stuck with a burger because it is a hard thing to get really really bad, and I was not in the mood for being let done by ordering a tantalising dish. The burger was great, so in retrospect I should have ordered something more interesting.
In the evening we had a little wander round the local area. Stopped for a quick drink before heading back to our hotel and an early night.

Day Two in Nha Trang

Walk the Walk

Needing to replace the sandals that I purchased in Malaysia, that are now falling apart, we walked to the Nha Trang Center shopping Mall, stopping along the way at Le Dragon Rouge Restaurant on Nguyen Thien Thuat for breakfast and a cup of excellent Vietnamese coffee. The Nha Trang Center was full of lots over overpriced western brands, and very few customers. Needless to say I left empty handed.
A drink stop at the cafe below the Yasaka Hotel was a much needed relief from walking in the baking sun.
Next stop was the town market (Cho Dam) for a look round. The fresh produce section was interesting, but the centre part is given over to clothes and tourist tat, so we did not linger long.
After the market we decided to head back towards our hotel, along the way we found a very large shoe shop, with more sandals and flip flops than you could ‘shake a stick at’. I looked at a few pairs and decided on a nice lightweight pair. Decent value at 150,000 VND (£5).
Back near our hotel, we popped into a mini mart for drinks, where I also found a replacment for my hat that I’d purchased in Malaysia which has seen better days.
In the evening we went for dinner at Truc Linh 2 on Biet Thu. No photos were taken, because, being famished, we tucked right in.

Day Three in Nha Trang

A Crazy Day

After a late light breakfast at the Rainbow Divers Cafe, which is conveniently located across the road from our hotel, we took a wander down to the beach.
Once at the beach we headed to the Sailing Club, a rather swanky (for Vietnam) beachside bar and restaurant where we enjoyed a cold beer while people watching. Then the hunger pangs reared their head, so it was off to the Crazy Kim Bar for lunch. There was a town wide power outage, but Vietnam is “cooking with gas” so lunch was not interrupted.
The Crazy Kim Bar is more than just a bar/restaurant, the owner also helps street children and fights against child sex tourists in Nha Trang, so eating and drinking there is also helping a good cause.
Being ones to always support a good cause we headed back to the Crazy Kim Bar in the evening. I sunk a good few beers, anything to help a good cause.

Day Four in Nha Trang

Killing Time

We had a 6.30pm bus pick up (later delayed to 7.30pm), so we spent our last day in Nha Trang killing time. Being experts at this, it was not that difficult. A hearty breakfast at the Rainbow Divers Cafe at midday, followed by a wander round town, and a couple of beers is a Spanish restaurant, saw the time just melt away.

Unfortunately the bus delay got even worse. A mini bus was booked to collect us from our hotel, but instead a moped arrived to ferry us one at a time to were the bus departed from. I was happy with this, but Laura did not enjoy the five minute ride. Arriving at the departure point things went down hill fast fast. Departure was put back further still to 9.30pm. When the bus finally arrived we all boarded and took our seats. Ten minutes later we all had to get off while they repaired something to do with the wiring system. The repair involved using parcel tape to secure some wires in the engine bay and on the dashboard.
Then it was all back on the bus. The journey would have then been o.k. if Laura’s and many other passengers seats had not been broken, and the fact that the bus was filthy dirty, the seats were thick with dirt and dust, and the once white headrest covers were almost black, disgusting.
I managed to sleep a little during the 12 hour journey, Laura was not so lucky. Despite her seat being broken, the back was barely hanging on to the fixings, and the guy sitting behind her knowing that her seat was broken, he seemed to like resting his head and arms on the back of it. He also enjoyed coughing all over Laura and me, we thought that it was generous of him to share his germs, but completely unnecessary as we were already feeling pretty rough. When he wasn’t coughing all over us, he was kneeing and kicking the back of Lauras chair, and once he knocked me in the head with his arm. He finally settled down after I’d had a word.
Needless to say, when he moved seats Laura was pleased. Her pleasure didn’t last long though. Another guy came and sat behind her. He was also keen to spread his germs. He was a restless man. For the remainder of the bus journey, he was either, smoking, opening and closing the window so that his smoking wasn’t noticed by the driver, shouting on his mobile phone, coughing all over Lauras hair, or spitting phlegm out of the window.
This bus journey may have been 12 hours, but it felt more like 12 days. When we finally arrived in Hoi An we were very pleased to get off, and couldn’t wait to get to our hotel to shower and soak our clothes, which were spotlessly clean when we boarded, but were filthy dirty by the time we got off.
One last comment about the bus was the air-conditioning. I say air-conditioning, but it wasn’t turned on for very long at a time, and when it was on all it seemed to do was blow hot air, which stunk of engine oil, into the bus. Nasty.
When we arrived in Hoi An the bus operator said to make sure to book our onward travel tickets with the company. Harhar! What a great sense of humour he has.
My advise into avoid Hanh Cafe transport at all costs. They should not be left to run a tap, let lone a transport company.

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Sea, sun, and…

We booked a 3 night stay at the Hoang Hai (Golden Sea) Hotel in Nha Trang, Vietnam, we paid $25 per night. Breakfast was not included in the room rate. I don’t think the hotel served breakfast. Free WiFi was available throughout the hotel.
We arrived at about midday. Checked-in. We were shown to our room on the eighth floor. We had chosen a Deluxe room. The room was a good size with two very large single (or two small double, depending on your opinion) beds.
The receptionist placed the plastic key fob in the slot for the electricity. Nothing happened. It didn’t work, so we were shown in to the room next door, which was ‘exactly the same’ – except it had a shower not a bath like the first room.

The room was very light and airy, with a large bay window and a small balcony overlooking the street below.
Also in the room was a desk/vanity table and stool, a coffee table and two chairs, a TV which was on top of a small shelf unit, and another low unit for luggage etc.
There was a fridge and air-conditioning.
The fridge was full of drink. It was also full of ants. They soon vacated once the power kicked in and cooled the fridge down. They moved home. Initially the ants chose the beds. The they moved again. They were pretty much everywhere, all over the furniture in the bedroom and on the loo in the bathroom.

The bathroom was also a good size, with a generous sized shower over a raised bath-like shower tray. I always had lovely hot water whenever I showered, Laura was not to lucky. Sometimes the water was hot, sometimes tepid.
There were two large bath towels, two hand towels, and a bath matt. They were all changed for fresh clean ones every day.
The shower did leak, but only along one side of the bathroom floor, so it didn’t cause us any trouble. I’m not sure about the room below though.
There was one tiny bottle of shampoo/shower gel when we arrived. It was never refilled or replaced for a new one despite it being obvious we were using it. We travel
light and often don’t have shampoo with us, so we appreciate it when we don’t have to buy any.
Considering we’d booked a deluxe room, we don’t think expecting a tiny bottle of complimentary shampoo is expecting too much.

The first night at the Hoang Hai (Golden Sea) Hotel in Nha Trang, Vietnam, we slept very well. There were no guests in the room next door, it was nice and quiet. In fact it was the first time since we arrived in Vietnam that Laura didn’t have to wear earplugs.
The second night was not so good. We had neighbours in the room next door, the room that we were originally shown in to. It wasn’t that they were particularly noisy, they weren’t, it was the design of the wardrobe that caused the problems.
It’s not easy to describe, but here goes. Basically the wardrobes in both rooms share the same space in the wall. One large hole has been filled with a wardrobe, and space for the fridge, for each room.
One room shares one side of the wardrobe unit, the other room has the other side. This unit is constructed using very thin plywood. So, all that separates the inside of the wardrobe from the neighbouring rooms wardrobe is about 2mm of wood. Needless to say this offers little or no insulation from the noise of the adjacent room. Worse still was that one of the low wall panels of plywood in our room had a small gap along the top, we could, if we were so inclined, which we were not, see straight through into the room next door. Obviously it’s only a small sliver of a gap, but it was still enough for us to be able to see our neighbours going in and out of their bathroom.

Apart from the crazy construction of the wardrobe, we were very pleased with our room. We enjoyed our short stay at the Hoang Hai (Golden Sea) Hotel in Nha Trang, Vietnam. The staff were helpful, everywhere was clean, and considering the hotel is on a main road it was quiet.

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Update

The Hoang Hai (Golden Sea) Hotel in Nha Trang, Vietnam, had booked bus tickets to Hoi An for us.
The receptionist who booked thickets assured us that we would be travelling with a ‘very good company’.
The bus company was Hanh Cafe.
Hanh Cafe bus company was anything other than good.
Our bus was delayed several times, finally leaving 3 hours late.
The bus was filthy dirty. The seats were broken. The air-conditioning was rarely turned on, and when it was it filled the bus with engine fumes. It was generally in a very poor state.
The Hoang Hai (Golden Sea) Hotel should not be using the Hanh Cafe bus company, they definitely do not deserve the custom.

Khách s?n Hoàng H?i (Golden Sea Hotel)
27A Hùng V??ng – Nha Trang – Khánh Hoà
Tel: +84 58 3527966
Hotline: Mr Giang 0975248877
http://goldenseahotel.vn/

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Goodbye Saigon, Hello Da Lat

Day One

We checked out of our digs and wandered across the road to Kim Travel to wait for our bus. We had been told to be there at 6.45am but when we arrived the travel agent was all closed up.
We were feeling very concerned, but at about 10 to 7 a staff member arrived, greeted us with a warm smile, said good morning, apologised for keeping us waiting, and then she walked us up the road to the bus.
Ha! That’s not really what happened, but it would have been nice.
What really happened was that at about 10 to 7 a staff member arrived, on a moped. She drove her moped up on to the pavement where we were standing. She got off and removed her lid. I said we were waiting for the bus to Da Lat. She sneered at us. By this time another staff member had arrived, he was also on a moped. The lady briefly chatted to him, then told us to follow him. He shot off up the road. We dutifully followed him to where the bus was waiting. We got on and settled in for the journey.
Oh what a lovely friendly start to our day.

The bus was very comfy and I manage to sleep for a while, Laura only dozed because they had a T.V. blaring out for most of the journey. Apart from the noise it was an ok 8 hour trip, we arrived in Da Lat none to worse for wears.
The bus station is on the edge of town, so it was a 10 minute (60,000 VND) ride to our hotel. We checked in, off loaded our bags, and went for a wander into town. We had a very late breakfast at 5pm in a nice little place called Chocolate Cafe. The food was pretty decent, but the portion sizes were a tad small.
Afterwards we popped into a little bar next to our hotel. It seemed to be a student type of bar, basic seating and pumping music, we only stayed for one drink, but will return.

Day Two

Fruity

We took a walk to the Cho Da Lat market (blog post HERE) and had a look round before heading towards the lake. The weather was rather inclement, with spitting rain and wind ruffling the surface of the lake. A few brave souls were out on the lake in Swan Boats. Despite her recent near-drowning trauma, I think Laura was rather keen on the idea, but I was 100% certain after five minutes she would have not been a happy bunny, and an unhappy bunny in a floating Swan would not have been a pretty sight.
We strolled a bit more round town before heading for lunch a the Chocolate 2 cafe. Laura had spaghetti Neapolitan and I had the the Pho soup. My food was very tasty and fresh, but Laura reported hers tasted far too sweet. The evil MSG strikes again.
In the evening we popped down the road to a little restaurant. I had Porcupine with stir fried veg and Laura had a chicken dish. The porcupine was rather tasty with a very mild gamey flavour.

Day Three.

A Crazy Tour

We had booked a tour of the city of Da Lat the previous day via our hotel. The minibus collected us at 8.30am and the first place we visited was Bai Dai’s Summer Palace. A bit of a depressing 1930′s structure, worn around the edges and very drab. It looked, and felt, more like a municipal building that had gone to seed.

Photos of the Bai Dai’s Summer Palace

Next stop was Truc Lam Buddhist centre. Very pleasant gardens and nice views of the surrounding countryside.

We also stopped at Datanla waterfalls, but having seen more than our fair share of waterfalls, we gave it a miss choosing to sit in the restaurant with a beer until our tour group was ready to leave.

Photos of Truc Lam

Next stop was the old Da Lat railway station. It was a whistle stop visit.

Photos of Da Lat Railway Station

Then it was a stop for lunch. Laura and I decided not go to the tourist place the tour guide wanted us the eat at, and instead we went across the road to a little cafe frequented by local people, where we enjoyed a nice quiet drink.

Next stop on our Da Lat city tour was the Vallee d’amour (blog post HERE).Then it was onto the Dragon Pagoda for a 10 minutes stop.

Photos of the Dragon Pagoda, Da Lat

That was it for the main part of the tour, but we had also booked a visit to the ‘Crazy House’ (blog post HERE), and that was when it all started to go wrong.
We had booked a door to door tour but the tour guide went into full bitch mode and starting shouting that they would not wait for us and we would have to walk back to our hotel in town. The ‘lovely’ tour guide said it was only a 10 minute walk back to our hotel.
It was a 30 minute walk back to our hotel – in the rain, which put a dampener on the day.
I would not recommend for anyone to book a tour with T.M. Brothers Travel (Hoan Hao Tourist Company) in Da Lat. Not only did they dump us at our last sightseeing stop, but the entire day was rushed, with only 40 minutes for lunch. The tour ended up finishing two hours earlier than it stated in the brochure.

After a long walk back towards our hotel, we had built up quite an appetite, so we stopped for an excellent late lunch at the Art Cafe, before retiring to our hotel for a much deserved rest.

Video of Da Lat and its sights

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We arrived in Da Lat at the bus station, a swift taxi ride and we were at the hotel.
We checked in and were shown to our room, up several flights of stairs.
We’d booked a double room for 3 nights, price $23 per night.

The room was small, but because of the high ceiling, and light painted walls it didn’t feel too claustrophobic which was surprising considering there was no proper window. There was a very small hole high up in one wall which had glass covered in coloured sticky paper. It let in a lot more noise than light.
There was a large double bed in one corner of the room, complete with a quilt – much needed as the weather was quite cool, and there was no heating.
Also in the room was a tall fitted wardrobe, a desk/drawer unit, a chair, one bedside cabinet, and two small cushion topped stalls.
The bathroom was a wet room with a shower, no bath. I think some of the rooms do have baths.
We’re not fans of wet rooms unless they only contain the shower. As this bathroom also housed the sink and loo, it meant everything got wet when we showered, and as the room was cold the water did not dry up. It’s not pleasant having to walk on the permanently wet floor.
When we arrived there was one small hand towel and two large towels, all soft and clean. On the second day of our stay, the towels were not changed for fresh ones, and because of the cold our used towels remained wet. Not impressed. We were given clean towels for the last day of our stay.

There was an old TV hanging up high on one wall. The actual screen was quite small and the picture quality was very fuzzy.
There wasn’t a fridge or safe in the room. Despite the cool weather, a fridge would have been much appreciated.

Breakfast was included in our room rate. It was a buffet served in the reception/lounge area of the hotel. The armchairs were very comfortable, and the food was pretty decent. There was a couple of choices of cereal, one of which was a very nice muesli, orange juice, fresh fruit salad, bananas, toasted baguette, butter, jam, honey, scrambled eggs, potatoes, and some days there was bacon or rice and noodles. There were jugs of hot tea and coffee.

We didn’t sleep particularly well during our three night stay at the Green City Hotel in Da Lat because of the noise. Our room was situated on the side of the building next to an alley. There was almost constant noise all day and night from people talking, shouting, and generally making a loud racket in the alley. The traffic noise, tooting of horns etc. could also be heard all the time.

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Do NOT book a tour via Green City Hotel if they are using the company they were using when we stayed there.
We chose our tour from a leaflet on the reception desk.
The company they used are called ~
DALAT – T.M BROTHER TRAVEL
HOAN HAO TOURIST COMPANY

Our tour schedule specified pick-up at 8:30am and drop-off back at the hotel at 4:30pm.
Pick-up was fine. We didn’t particularly mind the tour ending a couple of hours early. We did mind being left stranded. When the tour ended, we were dumped a long way from the hotel.
The tour guide refused to drive us back to the hotel, obviously once she had received her kickbacks, from the restaurant and shops we were taken too, she was eager to call it a day.
We had a 30 minute walk in the rain back to the Green City Hotel in Da Lat, Vietnam.
So, do NOT book a tour with this terrible company, you may regret it, and it could spoil your stay in Da Lat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update

When we checked-out of the Green City Hotel in Da Lat we thought the problems we had experienced with them were over, and that would be the last contact we would had with them.
Unfortunately that was not the case. There were yet more problems to come.
We left Green City Hotel in a complimentary minibus which drove us to the bus station in Da Lat where we were catching the bus to Nha Trang.
We had asked for our bus tickets, which we had already booked and paid for, before we left the hotel. We were told we didn’t need a ticket, that the bus operators had our names, seat number etc. This seemed odd, but we were assured it was all fine.
Once we were at the bus station we soon realised all was not fine. All of the other passengers had tickets. We had no tickets. We were told there were seats reserved in our names, but we had to go and purchase tickets for the journey.
I rang the Green City Hotel. Initially they said we had booked the bus tickets, but we had not paid for them. I insisted that we had paid.
The lady I spoke to said I should try and remember that I had not given them any money for the tickets. I continued to tell her that our tickets had been paid for.
At this time the lady began raising her voice and speaking over me. Unfortunately I was beginning to feel frustrated and I too raised my voice.
Then the lady shouted at me, saying that the tickets were not expensive, that they were not very much money for us, and that they were not very much money for them, and if it made us happy the hotel would pay for our tickets. This offer was only made after I told her that I would be posting my complaint on TripAdvisor and reporting them to the police. Unbelievable!
I was told to pass the phone to someone who worked on the bus. I did. He chatted briefly with the lady from the hotel and then handed the phone back to me.
Apparently everything was sorted. We were shown to our seats.

It really is completely asinine of the Green City Hotel in Da Lat, Vietnam to treat their guests so badly.
In this day and age of up-to-the-minute Internet reviews etc. it makes no sense for hotels to rip-off their customers, because it’s their business that will suffer once word gets out online about their shady behaviour.

Green City Hotel
174 Phan Dinh Phung Street
Da Lat,
Vietnam
Tel: +84 (063) 3827 999

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A visit to the Crazy House, Da Lat, Vietnam, is like visiting with Antoni Gaudi love child who lacks talent but not enthusiasm. The Crazy House is a mad hotel in Da Lat and also well on the tourist route.

Photos of the Crazy House, Da Lat, Vietnam

Video of the Crazy House, Da Lat, Vietnam

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