Northern Vietnam - Day 6

When we awoke next morning, the storm had finally passed and the air was fresh and clean. Surprisingly, the day brought little excitement as our goal was simply to get back to Hanoi as quickly as possible using the local highways. The only funny thing was to ride behind the broken Minsk. The bike was still really loud, and people were still pointing and laughing; we HAD to take a one hour break to finally fix the damn thing. I can also tell you that our asses were hurting like hell, and on top of that the backseat passengers were ready to poke their eyes out from boredom! We all arrived safely (and exhausted)regardless of 6 hour hectic Hanoi highway traffic.

Once in Hanoi, we were all asked to sit down with the manager for a drink to talk about our trip. WOW, this is great was our intial reaction, and gladly sat down. That's when we find out that our guide, Mr. Hung had cheated us all along. He had spent way less than the budget on food, and most likely pocketed the excess money. He had also asked us to pay for stuff that according the the managers were supposed to be included in the trip. The managers were in fact really pissed at him. Supposedly they had had problems with him before and told us that he would most likely not be allowed to go for another trip. We felt really bad as we thought he had been a decent guide, but I guess they had been angry with him for a while. Because we hadn't received what we were supposed to, they even offered us a 50 dollar discount. Can you believe it?? A Vietnamese person saying sorry for something.... and offering a discount!!! We were absolutely dumbfounded. Really outstanding service.

We eventually left the office feeling kinda angry about Mr. Hung basically lying to us, but yet very happy with our trip. We had a great time and I would reccommend the trip to absolutely everyone that wants to get off the tourist trail and see some more of Vietnam...