I quote from my Form 6 Chemistry teacher, "If my heart is any weaker, I'll have heart attack." Oh well, he said that upon reading our unbelievable answers in the school exam. In my case, it's the scare more than half the times when we booked the tickets in Vietnam.


Scare #1:
Sapa - Requested for the guesthouse to arrange a van to pick us from the Lao Cai station to Sapa. The van did not turn up and the rest of the vans only willing to pick up guests who made booking with their hotel. The rest charge 50k dong more than the usual price. We were almost left stranded in Lao Cai.

Scare #2:Lao Cai - train tickets back from Lao Cai to Hanoi. The destination was Long Bien instead of Hanoi and there was only a separate sheet of paper attached over an expired ticket. If it was a wrong ticket, we would not have make it in time for the Halong Bay trip.

Scare #3:
Halong Bay - Reached Hanoi safely from Lao Cai with help from a few good Samaritans. Took a cab to the tour agency where we book our local tour to Halong Bay with. Ahem... the shop was not opened yet when we were informed to wait there around 8.15 - 8.30 am. I could imagine the 100 USD flying away as we saw vans after vans already started their journey. Anyway, after a while we note that the PIC to open up the shop is sitting next door enjoying her breakkie = ="

Scare #4:
Hue - We informed the reception to help us get 2 motorcycles to transport us to the railway station. As the time ticking closer to the train departure time, the bikes were yet to arrive. We had to ask a couple of times and lucky they decide not to wait for the bikes anymore and got a van to send us there. *Phew

Scare #5:
Hoi An - Were told bus will leave the town at 8.30 am. We were still waiting in front of the guesthouse at 9.00 am and the receptionist didnt want to help us call the agent as we did not book from them. I tried to sms, only to receive reply to wait for the bus after awhile. In the end, bus came at 9.30 am.

The only other booking we made that did not scare us was in Saigon. We booked a local tour to Mekong Delta and crossed over to Phnom Penh with Sinh Cafe. That was the only booking that didnt left us worry. But oh well... things went ok thereafter cos there are kind locals to assist :)


Side note: One dell laptop is more expensive than my whole 2 weeks of Vietnam trip...

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