Arriving at Ho Chi Minh City Airport was great after flying from London via Oslo and Doha. However, I wasn’t quite prepared for the taxis in Vietnam. The Vietnamese Dong (VND) currently stands at 29.000 to Pound Sterling – yes I know lots of zeros. A taxi from the airport to the hotel I was staying at (about 20 minutes away) should cost about VND 150k which is very reasonable. Long story short but I ended up with a taxi driver who tried to scam me for 886k showing me an app that had this amount on it as well as claiming that the hotel was on a street closed to cars – load of rubbish of course. I refused to pay and and said that I would call the hotel to get their view. I ended up paying 250k which was still too much but he wouldn’t stop the car so I had no choice. This was not a great start. I did confirm the price again with the hotel as for all I know prices may have gone up but they said no, 150k was the correct price.
After a bit of research, I downloaded an app call Grab which is used locally to book taxis of all kinds including bikes. I added my prepaid card for payment as it’s easier than walking around with lots of cash. The first time I used it I booked a taxi which at first confirmed the price as 55k but then lowered it to 1k – probably a gift from Grab as a first time user! I thought it must have been a mistake as this is like charging 3p for a 15-minute trip. When I checked the payment, it really was just 1k! The next couple of trips using Grab cost what I would expect for driving around Saigon. I used the app again to get to the airport to fly to Hanoi. Once again, the cost quoted was 98k which was very reasonable but then immediately lowered to 9k! I asked the people at the hotel about this and they were very surprised but said that as that was the quoted price that’s all I had to pay. I’m still quite mystified by this.
Anna's Travels 