I’ve came to understand why everyone was telling me to be careful before I visit Hanoi. It was indeed a country where tourists are the main target for scams, one really needs to be alert in doing anything in Vietnam. Below I’ve compiled a list of things to do with caution if ever you intend to visit Hanoi or Vietnam.

Motorbike

Motorbikes are the main mode of transport for the locals. The streets are so crowded with motorbikes that don’t give ways to anything in the world. This means that you need to take extreme caution when crossing the streets, look both left and right as they simply don’t follow the traffic rules!

In addition, remember to hold on tight to your bags and valuables because a biker can drive by and snatch them away. Even if you scream about it, the biker is already long gone. I have witnessed a motorbike theft inside a taxi whereby a biker snatched a girl’s backpack, even though the girl was accompanied by a large group of ~10 friends. Nobody is safe, so be careful.

Taxi

Taxis are a dim a dozen in Hanoi, raise a hand and a taxi will come to you almost instantly. But that being said, you must not call for any taxi you see on the streets. Taxi CP, Taxi Hanoi, Mai Linh Taxi are the three reliable taxi brands that you should take in Hanoi (red, blue, green taxis). The brands are printed on the taxi doors, so please only take these three brands.

However, there are many fake taxies that will self-print these brands on their taxis to scam you into believing that they are legit. The meters of these fake taxis are rigged so they jump crazy fast. If ever you encounter anything suspicious, stop immediately and get out.

For my trip, I was taking taxis with the student guides so there were not much problem. Except when she called for Taxi Group to go back from Bat Trang to Hanoi. The taxi who accepted the job had another job accepted. That being said, he tried to take us back to Hanoi and go back to pick the other job, but he miscalculated the time and the second job had called for his return. He then stopped us in the middle of the road to another taxi, and demanded us to pay in full to him. Even though I was reluctant to pay him in full as I had to pay the other taxi the flat initial fare, I didn’t want to make a scene so I just paid him.

The lesson learnt?

I don’t believe in the taxis in Vietnam. This is the taxi scam capital in the world, anything could go wrong anytime. My advice is to walk around on foot, afterall Hanoi is so small everywhere is walkable. Take your chances if you must, with caution. I would recommend taking long distance trips with a tour/student guide, as the chances of getting scammed is much lower with a local.

Or take Uber, since the fare is pre-fix and you can pay by cards.

Price Haggling

It’s no secret that South East Asians love to mark up the price tags. Therefore, haggling is a must if you shop in countries like Thailand and Malaysia.

Vietnam has taken this to a whole new level.

Everything in every shops have marked up the prices more than two times, no exceptions! If you like price haggling all the time, this is the place. Prices can go down to as low as 80% if you know how. It is truly incredible how shameless they are to even dare to display those price tags!

Counterfeit Websites

There were a few Hanoi Kids’ websites showed up in my google search when I first searched for free tour guides in Hanoi. The correct website should be hanoikids.org and the others are counterfeits.

The same goes for Flamingo Cruise for Ha Long Bay. The correct website should be flamingocruises.vn. Yet there is a ‘Flamingo Cruise’ website with a TripAdvisor logo and a Gmail contact here which seemed very suspicious to me.

Food Poison

Noone can foresee if the food was ill-prepared. My advise is to always go for popular eateries and/or restaurants in this part of the world, the chances of getting food poison is much lower.

  • You should not eat street food without a proper guide.
  • Try not to eat food from the street vendors and in the mountainous area.
  • Only drink bottled water.
  • Check the expiry date on the bottled water / canned drinks.

I hate to be so cautious at all times but this is absolutely necessary in Hanoi. I have learnt all these from my painful experiences, so I’d really hope that you don’t repeat the same as I did. After all, Hanoi is still a beauty even in chaos.

Take the tips and enjoy your trip!