Day 10/11 — Think Before You Trust Online Reviews!

Leaving Da Nang was the start of our long journey back to Australia. I always hate goodbyes, it just reinforces the normality to come. I would love to be an eternal traveller, but that's not going to happen, so as long as I can take a couple of holiday's a year, I am happy. With Taiwan on the agenda in seven months time, I am content to settle down and do some hard graft.

The short flight from Da Nang was once again pretty turbulent. All I can put it down to, is the smaller plane. Obviously, the smaller the aircraft, the more you feel the rocking motion. Thankfully, it only took an hour, and we were on the ground before we knew it.

I had arranged a 'complimentary' pick up at the terminal, in Ho Chi Minh City, after our flight from Da Nang, to take us to our last hotel of the trip. This was called, aptly enough, 'The Airport Hotel.' I had literally typed in 'Airport Hotel Saigon,' in my Expedia app, and this place came up first, as one would expect.

After twenty minutes waiting at the meeting point, I phoned the hotel, to find out where our transfer was — this should have been a warning of things to come. I already had a feeling this last stay wasn't going to end well. The gentleman on the end of the phone, said the car was on the way, and to just hold tight. Sure enough, after forty minutes, the car arrived, and we were off to the hotel.

It took about five minutes to get to our hotel, and when I got to the desk to check in, I was astonished to be charged 240,000 VND or $15.00 AUD for the so called 'complimentary' ride. Needless to say I wasn't happy, but I was at the end of my trip, and just wanted to leave on a high point, so once again just let it flow over me.

We were shown to room 605 and left to settle in. To be honest, the room looked dated and tired and smelt a bit musty. I walked over to the window and opened the curtains. To my horror there was a door wide open, that went directly onto one of those old rickety metal fire escapes, like the ones you find at the side of New York skyscrapers. Now I had a lot of important stuff in my case and wanted it closed.

Well we tried and tried, but the door wouldn't even shut, let alone lock, and after half an hour I was fuming. Angry, I stormed down to the desk and demanded something was done. A young lad came back up to our room with me, but could not do anything himself, and arranged for us to be moved to room 305. We grabbed our stuff and made our way down in the lift to the third floor.

This time I checked the fire escape door, and it was bolted tight. However, once the member of staff left, I realised there was no lock in the door, so in the event of a fire we would be either dead, or severely injured from jumping from a third floor window. At that point, I just thought, what the hell — I had given up caring.

The room was filthy, dusty, and poorly maintained. There was water leaking though a pipe in the bathroom, and the bathroom door had a rather large crack above it. It wasn't until I tried to close the door, that I realised why — obviously someone had tried to close the door in the past without success, and plaster was falling off from around the frame. Now, usually this wouldn't bother me, but I had discovered there was no bathroom light switch. The only way you could block the light out at night was to either close the door, which was impossible, or remove the room's key card from the slot. In the end, there was no choice, we both needed sleep, without the bathroom light illuminating the bedroom!

By removing the card, we had no electricity to the room, so I couldn't charge my mobile devices and most importantly, we had no aircon all night in 38 degree heat. This was the worst nights sleep I have had on holiday, yet the bed itself was perfectly acceptable. By 9pm, after a bite to eat out, we were both exhausted, so aircon or not we just had to sleep, even if it was only for a short time.

I was awake early, even earlier than usual, despite our flight not leaving until 4pm. There was so much commotion in the hall outside our room last night, that it was particularly difficult to sleep. I had already made the decision to have breakfast and leave for the airport straight away, even though it would mean waiting in the terminal all day; it was preferable to remaining in this terrible hotel.

At 6.30 we went downstairs to eat; the buffet was equally bad! As I started to put food on my plate, this tiny restaurant, with no more than four tables, was descended upon by twenty plus people. I managed to get a few cold McDonald's fries and overcooked sausage and left more or less straight away. The food on offer was the worst of the holiday so far, and I was, and still am, livid. Darrell followed me upstairs shortly afterwards and within the hour we had arrived at the airport, glad to be out of that awful place. This is a reminder for readers to take reviews of hotels and attractions with a pinch of salt. The comments on The Airport Hotel were not entirely accurate. If I had been able to make a more informed decision, I wouldn't have booked this place, but misleading reviews can change a person's decision.

Personally, I don't think I have ever stayed in a worse hotel! Maybe the first one Darrell and I stayed in, back in 1995, but that was thirty years ago. The memories I have of that stay — 1970s pastiche, with patterned axminster, avocado shower in the bedroom and candlewick bedspread are good, happy and positive ones. The Airport Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City is in a terrible state of disrepair and needs completely gutting. However, the staff, did their best, and were very accommodating throughout our short stay.

It felt like we had spent five days in terminal 1, at Ho Chi Minh Airport. From Burger King, Highland Coffee, and the massage chairs, we know the airport inside out, intimately and even fondly. The airport itself isn't great and has very few facilities on offer, but this was a home from home for a large part of the day. Considering Saigon is the biggest city in Vietnam, one would have thought better to be honest; even Da Nang International Airport was bigger.

With thousands of people going through Ho Chi Minh daily, there were huge queues at security. The prices were astronomical and food and drink pretty poor, but this is an airport, so what else do you expect.

I don't think I was happier to get on a plane in all my life, even though there was an hour delay before take off, as there has been on every other flight we have taken in Vietnam. The flight itself was fine, as much as economy class ones can be. I did have to sit though the entire six-hour flight without any entertainment, however, with no sound coming from the TV screen. As someone who just can not sit through a film anyway, it really doesn't bother me that much, and I even fell asleep briefly, which is very unlike me.

Arriving in Australia was the usual palaver of checks and more checks. As a permanent resident, I am always held up for at least an hour as I explain my status to the Border Force. After they do their customary checks, we usually have a chat, they pat me on the back and send me on my way. Just part of the course, when I return home now — and the reason for this — well, just a silly minor issue when I was a wee lad, that will remain on official documents until the day I die!

This was a holiday like no other for us, but I suppose I was glad to come home. The last hotel had left a bitter taste in my mouth, but it was more than that. Vietnam is a wonderful country, whose biggest asset is its people, but for me at least, Thailand offers me more of what I need in a holiday destination. As a tourist I want culture, history, and monuments. Vietnam's more recent history tends to take precedence and as much as I understand the terrible circumstances of the Vietnam War, I am not keen on reliving those experiences for the duration of my vacation.

Of course there are many other aspects to this amazing country and Hội An is a perfect example of that, but the sheer number of tourists in these amazing destinations, does detract from the history. I didn't feel a connection to Hội An's ancient culture, surrounded by hoards of mobile phones and social media influencers. This was however an incredible opportunity to explore a country where Communism and Capitalism sit happily side by side; that was an experience I will always treasure! Vietnam is a place everyone should visit in their lifetime; I'm just not sure if I want to go there again!