Alley market

Alley market
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

My first hotel was in this alley, a dodgey establishment named "Camellia Star Hotel". "Camellia Hotel" is a well-established guesthouse chain in Hanoi, but this isn't one of their branches. Hanoi is full of copycat-named establishments. Once a place develops a good reputation and gets named in the Lonely Planet guidebook, other places open up with similar names so that taxi and cyclos can reroute tourists from their intended destinations to these copycat places. It is impressive how many "Sinh Cafe" travel shops there are around here. One place even took the names of three different travel agencies and told me that all three places joined together (yeah, right, just check the actual street address in the LP guidebook and you'll know). The prices at these dodgey places are really suspect. I have been trying to get a China visa and most reputable places (after checking seven different places) were charging about $55 - $60, but others were charging $35. All day yesterday, I went around checking prices. My guesthouse kept hounding me to get the visa through them, saying that they would price-match any other place. The problem is getting accurate up-to-date information on visas, and I was finally told that the Chinese embassy in Hanoi was only giving 30-day visas to Americans for the regular price PLUS $20 more. I decided to go with Kim's Cafe, and when I told my hotel that I wanted my passport (Vietnam hotels keep your passport at their front desks), they refused to give it to me. At first they said it was in the safe which was locked, and they wouldn't be able to open it until tomorrow morning (too late for me to get my visa by then), but then I said I wanted them to open the safe now. The clerk refused because I wasn't getting my visa through him. He said he would match whatever price I wanted (doesn't that sound dodgey?). I said I wasn't interested because he didn't have accurate information. Finally he said he was kicking me out of the hotel for not buying a tour through him (at 7pm), and I would have to pay for the night too. No way! I had to pull a "Crazy Ivan" on him. I went to a hotel around the corner (a place listed in the Lonely Planet guidebook and where I initially tried to get a room) and asked for help. Besides, I held them partially responsible for referring me to this crap hotel, and I wanted them to know what was going on. They were pleasantly helpful and came over to help me get my passport. By that time, the clerk's older brother/boss showed up and started bitching him out for pulling the scam. He was further embarrassed by having the other hotelier bear witness to the whole mess. He agreed to let me have my passport, but asked for me to consider applying for my visa through him so he could earn a commission.
Later on, I agreed to get my visa through him, but I think he was too embarrassed or ashamed and said I didn't have to. Today I checked out of that place with no further problems (besides the addition of a 10% VAT). Awesome! I love dodging scams!