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Comment 1
A very common scam has developed with the taxi drivers at Ha Noi Airport. The
official Noi Bai Airport taxis seem to be the worst.
They will take you to the hotel you request
but someone will be waiting outside, often with a business card from the hotel, who will insist the hotel is full (even
if you have a reservation they will tell you it's full) but they have another hotel around the corner that is just as
good and take you there.
They may take you to a hotel with a similar name, or the name in Vietnamese, or even
the correct hotel but intercept you outside. When you get to the new hotel they will try to make you pay in advance for
several days so you can't move out when you discover the scam.
This happened to us a week ago, when we were
trying to get back to a hotel we'd already stayed in four times and knew the staff well. The tout jumped in and the
taxi drove off despite our protests, and when they realised we wouldn't play along, tried to force us to jump out miles
from our hotel.
We refused and made them take us back, which got them very scared and quite aggressive, in case we
got the real hotel to call the cops.
They stopped about 50 metres short in the end.
We told our
hotel staff about this over breakfast the next day, and everyone in the dining room (a dozen other travellers) had had
a similar experience
Cabrone
2004MAY24
Comment 2
Sorry to hear about your
experience, but here is a positive one to balance it out a bit.
We were also at Ha Noi airport just over a
week ago. It was late at night, raining, and there was a queue for taxis. There were also coaches touting for custom
and insisting we pay USD$20 for 2 passengers with heavy suitcases. (us).
We said we'd pay USD$10 and no more. The
usual price for a taxi I believe.
One coach with locals onboard was about to leave and accepted our offer. We
took the coach for the convenience of leaving straight away. We were dropped outside of our hotel, no problems at all.
Custard
Comment 3
We had the same experience as Cabrone, but it was also
balanced out by another trip with an unlicensed cab who gave great advice on Ha Noi (excellent English) food and
shopping, and later picked us up for the return trip to the airport for USD$7.50 (which is actually the going rate if
you ring and book).
RHutcheson
Comment 4
Thank you for the warning. I
am getting a bit paranoid now since it doesn't sound like a pleasant experience.
I have organised with the
hotel to pick me up at Ha Noi airport tomorrow.
This will be OK won't it or can I have a similar/other kind
of bad experience with them? Please advise anyone who would know. Thanks.
Helenb65
Comment 5
Take a licensed Taxi.
That on its own is not a guarantee that the driver won't
try to scam you, but I found, the couple of times I did have problems, writing down the drivers license number (he must
display his license) makes them behave.
Well, I have rarely had hassles with Taxis. The taxi companies are
not happy with this sort of behaviour, and if the driver were to be reported, he'd get the boot in a hurry.
Hanno
Comment 6
I think Hanno's advice is good - our driver was definitely very
afraid of being found out, so making a point of writing down their number is good.
Don't be too paranoid
about this - Ha Noi is a great place - just don't let the taxi drivers brow beat you, they're not dangerous.
RHutcheson
Comment 7
Don't tell the idiot Mookie (aka Connolly), and his Groupie
MalariaGirl, who always insist that taxi's will not carry you back to Ha Noi for anything less than USD10.
Steve |
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