Scammed on the first day!

11 JULY 2011

I arrived at Bangkok about 8 p.m. and found the car to take me to my hotel by the airport very easily. As I was only in Bangkok for one night, I had decided to stay near the airport. I caught the one and a half hour flight to Hanoi, Vietnam the next day. A man with a taxi ID said he would take me to Hanoi for $20 – the airport wanted to charge $30. I had not yet worked out the Vietnamese exchange rate, so got £50 in Vietnamese Dong in order to work it out, and make sure I had money for the taxi. Another man drove the taxi. I was still trying to work out the money to have it ready for the taxi, but was told the currency I had got was no good in Hanoi, and would need to go to an ATM. 

I wanted to go to a bank as I had got UK pounds to change, but was told the banks were closed already as it was about 4.30 p.m. There were 3 Europeans at the ATM, but when I went to get out of the taxi, the man said to wait until they had gone as it is not safe to use an ATM with other people nearby. He came with me, and as I was checking the amount, he pressed the last button for 2 million dong. When I questioned this, he said the figures were different and pressed again for another 2 million dong. He pressed again for another 2,000,000 which I kept. Back in the car I was still trying to work out the exchange rate against my ATM receipts but he kept showing me another note saying each 500,000 note was worth 5,000, and he needed 400,000. 

The taxi then stopped at The Tulip Hotel and the man told me that this was a sister hotel to the one I had booked, but I was aware of this common scam and said I had already paid and insisted on going to the Sunrise Hotel. The taxi stopped at the corner of my hotel and the man said I still needed to pay for the toll, which was another 2,000,000. After handing it over I questioned the cost of the toll, if 2,000,000 was worth $10. I took the money back and said he would have to come to the hotel so I could check what I was paying. Naturally, the taxi drove off. Because I had been suspicious, I took the car’s number, and as soon as I got to the Hotel I asked the Receptionist how much 2,000,000 was worth and was told $100! He had scammed me for $200 for the taxi! The Receptionist, Zang (Mr. Red River) took me straight to the police station on his motorbike, where he translated for me. I wrote the statement in English, Zang translated it into Vietnamese. The policeman wrote the statement out again, and Zang translated back to English! They then asked for a description of the two men, not one of my strong points!

We got back to the hotel about 6.30 where I was shown my room, which was OK but had no window and was certainly not the deluxe room I had booked. When I questioned this, I was told there was no deluxe room available until the next day. I was staying in the atmospheric old quarter, north east of the lake, and explored the area a bit before going to a good Vietnamese restaurant Zang had recommended, which was very reasonable.