Good Morning Vietnam!

Street near our hostel in Hanoi

Sorry for the clichéd title, it had to be done. Well, we did arrive in Vietnam in the morning so its justified. We flew out of Laos, from Vientaine airport to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. We chose to fly and pay £80 for the flight rather than take a 28 hour bus ride for £25. We justified the price difference to ourselves because again, we had read horror stories on the internet about the journey being hell and unsafe. Also, with us both not feeling well, a long bus journey would only have knocked us down more. So we were quite happy we chose to fly, and we saw lots of other travellers in the airport that we had seen in Laos doing the same thing. Vietnam is a country I have heard so many tales of warning about as we've been travelling. Almost every single traveller we've met round the world has hated Vietnam for some reason or another, mainly because they've been ripped off or found the people unfriendly towards Westerners. A few people told us they hold a grudge toward Westerners and feel they are owed something after the war, so try to rip them off at every moment. With this in mind, because I usually always hate the places people love and love the places people hate, I was really looking forward to Vietnam and was determined not to have the same experience as the other people we've met :D

So we arrived at the airport and had pre-arranged a pick up to take us to our hostel (thus avoiding being ripped off by the taxi driver at the first turn). We later found out we paid a little more for this privilege but I was happy to do so. We got to our hostel/ hotel  and it was really nothing like it had looked on the internet. The rooms on the website looked luxurious but the first room they put us in stank heavily of mould.

Our final room did look a bit like this

I told Jemma I wasn't prepared to sleep there and went downstairs to complain and they immediately changed us into a different room, which didn't stink, but still wasn't that nice. After 10 minutes in this room, they knocked on the door and told us they'd found another room, so we moved again, and this room was much nicer (still not as nice as the photos) but none the less, it cost us £5 each, had a plasma tv, fridge and ensuite with free soaps and shampoos :). The best thing about the hostel was that it was without a doubt the most outstanding service I have ever experienced in my life! Every time we entered the hostel, they rushed to us with a glass of cold water, and took our bags up the stairs. Every time we came downstairs they were extremely smiley and wanted to know how we were. They escorted us across the road to breakfast, held umbrellas for us when it rained and came with us in a taxi to the train station. We have yet to pay the bill however, for this amazing service: everything has gone on a tab, so I'll have to write another post once we've paid to clarify whether this outstanding service has been included in the price or if we've been charged extra for it all. None the less, it has been a fantastic welcome to Vietnam and for our first few days here, I have been left wondering what all the fuss is about - Vietnamese people seem to be the friendliest people in all of Asia! I hope I wont have to eat my words!