Thien Hai Hotel

I booked this mainly for the location, and the front desk man was really nice and accommodating. Still, I definitely wouldn't come back. The room felt old, the beds were just okay, and I found an ant or bug on the sleeping covers I put over the bed. It's Vietnam, after all. There was an ashtray in the room, so I wondered if it was a smoking room. The bathroom was passable, but dirty and smelly, with mold along the shower door and grime under the sink. We only had two bath towels. Two bottles of water were provided for free. Most outlets didn't work, apart from the ones under the nightstand beside the bed, and the foyer light wouldn't turn off. It was noisy downstairs at night, where the vendors stay open 24/7, and chickens started crowing at midnight.

After a nine-hour train ride from Hanoi, I just needed a shower and took a room for that. It did what I expected. In my experience there was neither hot nor cold water, but it felt refreshing, which was what I needed after the overnight trip.

We picked this place for its closeness to the station before our night train to Hanoi, and that location was its only redeeming point. Our group of eight had booked three rooms so we could rest and shower before dinner. None of the outlets worked, even after we tried our adapters and every socket, so charging devices wasn't possible. Two rooms only had cold shower water, and my room had no toilet paper. I had to call twice to get a roll. We'd reserved dinner ahead of time, but were seated in a huge, unwelcoming conference room with everything else covered in white sheets. Then the food arrived. Nothing seemed fresh, and every dish was bland at best. We left half of it. It was the worst meal of our whole trip, and this is my only negative review from a Vietnam trip that included 16 restaurant visits. A terrible experience.

I only ate lunch at the restaurant, but I also got to visit the bar on the top, 10th floor. The panorama over the railway and the town around it was fantastic.