We arrived at the Hanoi railway station early last Friday morning on an overnight train from Lao Cai. After a skirmish with the buccaneers masquerading as taxi drivers at the front of the station we hired the least rapacious pirate we spoke with to take us to the Hanoi Elegance Hotel in the city’s old quarter. It was still dark when we got there and we met a young couple from Australia sitting outside the entrance waiting for the sun to rise and the hotel doors to open. They had already stayed there for a few days before going on a tour and were returning for another day. I gulped when they told me what they had paid for their room – it was triple what I was expecting so I headed off down the alley and within 200 metres found a small hotel already open and offering a far more palatable tariff after a little friendly arm twisting. We checked the room, liked what we saw, then checked in. Dawn arrived while we had a shower and we were back on the streets before 7am to join the early morning bustle.The old quarter of Hanoi is fantastic – an exotic, balmy maze of winding alleyways teeming with concentrated life and colour, smiles everywhere, and swarms of buzzing motor bikes. There was fresh produce all around and every few metres a street-side food seller turning some of it into hot, fresh food ready to eat. We had the lamb, mint and vegetable spring rolls – the best food we tasted during our time in Hanoi. They were great.
We spent a few days wandering through the alleyways and checking out the interesting buildings and things for sale. So were many other Australian, European and American tourists. In a book store I briefly thumbed through the Viet Cong Insurrection Manual for Undeveloped Countries.
We also visited the former Hao Lo Prison a short distance from the Hoan Kiem Lake just south of the old quarter. This was first used by the French Colonialists to jail Vietnamese revolutionaries advocating independence. The wall displays describe the harsh treatment meted out to the prisoners; certainly the grim cells and guillotine still on display suggest that this was no Hanoi Hilton. The prison had a new lease of life for a decade from the mid 1960s when it was used to jail the pilots of shot-down B-52s whose bombing raids had ended badly for them during the Vietnam War (or what is called here the American War). The American prisoners famously nicknamed this place of incarceration the Hanoi Hilton, which is exactly what it was if the wall displays are to be believed. Unlike the French, when the Vietnamese became the jailers and no longer the jailed, life for the prisoners was apparently much more spiffing. They feasted on roast chicken and fresh vegetables they raised in the prison garden and had a generally jolly time playing games and sports like volleyball and basketball. At Christmas time they decorated their trees and were let out briefly to attend Christmas church services. I don’t know that this account is entirely consistent with the memoirs of the prisoners eventually released from the Hanoi Hilton near the end of the war. The prison has a very interesting display of artifacts including the clothing and flying suit worn by John McCain (the recent USA Presidential contender) and a photograph of him being rescued by Vietnamese people from the lake into which he plummeted after his plane was shot down. It’s quite OK to mention the war here; despite all the Vietnamese people have been through over the past century, they are friendly and welcoming to everyone. Most of the tourists we saw were French, Australian and American. Today’s mantra is not political ideology but business and national development.
On Tuesday we went on an overnight boat tour on World Heritage listed Halong Bay, about 3 hours by bus east of Hanoi. This bay is a fantastic sight with about 2,000 limestone karsts rising out of the tropical ocean water. Travel guides and internet travel sites warn about shonky operators on the Bay, despite Government efforts to raise the standard of tourist services here. We booked our tour at the travel agency associated with our hotel, thinking we could trust them as we were very happy with our room and impressed with the friendliness of the staff. But despite all our checking and prior clarification of details with the agent, our tour was very sub-standard. It only covered about a quarter of the promised itinerary and not the best part of the Bay, and our “deluxe” boat (that strangely was the only one on the water not to have a name) lacked even the basic features promised such as sufficient seating on the deck for all passengers. There were 16 people overnighting on the boat from about as many countries and everyone was angry, particularly those who had paid a much higher price for their tour.
There were some real horror stories. Most of our sympathy went to an elderly, seemingly timid German woman who was travelling alone. She told us that although she had booked a single room on the boat, she had just been told that due to some problem with numbers she would have to spend the night in a hotel on a nearby island. She also told us she thought the crew “didn’t like her”. A more likely explanation was that she was identified, rightly or wrongly, as the easiest “single” booking to push around. The boat docked at the island soon after and she was taken ashore along with some others who had planned to go to the island. The following day we met a young French couple who came onto our boat after doing some trekking on the island. We described the elderly woman to them and asked if they had seen her. They said they had – screaming on the roadside after being left behind when there was insufficient room on a bus. It was only the intervention of other tourists that convinced the guide to arrange additional transport for her. The bus went on its way, and when the additional transport eventually arrived it was merely a motorbike. The woman, who in all probability had never been on a motorbike in her life, was loaded on with her luggage and the bike then sped off down the island road through forest for the 20km trip to the hotel. We can only wonder at her mental and physical state when she arrived, after all she had been subjected to over the previous 24 hours and how her planned trip on Halong Bay that should have been a highlight of her time in Vietnam had unraveled so badly and so completely. We never saw her again.
Our own issues were admittedly less serious but we weren’t happy chappies either. Still, we got to see part of the Bay and it was certainly stunning. Hopefully, in time, the Bay tour industry will become more worthy of the magnificent natural resource from which its members make their living.
On our return to Hanoi we had a day to spare so we decided to make consumer affairs the theme of the day. We knew that the other passengers, with much tighter itineraries, would not have the time to follow up their own complaints so we decided we should make the effort. This took us to various parts of Hanoi we would otherwise not have seen. Our travel agent was not helpful and less than truthful. Second stop was the office of the company that our agent claimed had actually provided the tour. The company officer we saw told us that her company had nothing to do with our agent and unfortunately some unscrupulous businesses copied the names, logos, signage etc of competitors.
Our next stop was on the other side of town at the National Department of Tourism Administration in the offices of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. On our arrival we were given a seat and glass of water each in the guardhouse at the entrance to the office complex and a helpful woman came out to interview us. We told her our story and she asked what we wanted as an outcome. I said an apology and our $59 back. She asked us to put our complaint in writing and to email it to her, with any relevant photos, and the Complaint Investigation Section would then look into it. We thanked her for her helpful advice and adjourned around the corner for lunch. This was a trendy part of town with many old buildings in a glorious state of arrested decay and apparently the place where the beautiful people lunched. We obviously weren’t the natural clientele of the café we entered but we provided some much-needed visual contrast I thought.
The food was excellent and it was late afternoon when we spilled back out into the sunshine, the beer having taken its drowsing effect. But time was short now as we had a bus to catch, so we hurried back to our hotel, packed and checked out. As we swept down the stairs and through the lobby I told all and sundry what a good hotel this was but how badly their tours stank. I reserved my final words for the manager, telling him amongst some other home truths that he would shortly be hearing from the Ministry.
Outside, we caught a minibus to the long distance bus station where we sank after an energetic day’s work into a comfortable bed on a south-bound overnight bus, shortly afterwards leaving wonderful, atmospheric Hanoi and the commercial wreckage of our Halong Bay tour behind us. The evening lights began to twinkle attractively through the windows as we reached the city outskirts and I mentally commenced work on the submission to the Ministry. “Dear Comrades, Clause 3.2.9 of the Viet Cong Insurrection Manual clearly states …….”
