Staying at the Hilton

We woke up early to get to the front of the line for the HCM Mausoleum. The queue was already long, but thankfully it kept moving. There are certain things you’re not allowed to do inside the Mausoleum. You can’t stop to take a closer look at Ho Chi Minh, you can’t say anything, and you can’t have your hands in your pockets. There are guards every meter, so they quickly noticed that Honny was making all the mistakes. We took a taxi back to the hotel, which turned out to be quite expensive at 35,000 dong. We had asked about the price to get from the Mausoleum to the old quarter, and they told us it should cost a maximum of 10-15,000 dong, so we definitely got ripped off. We wanted to take a trip to Sapa for a trek tomorrow, but we had trouble finding an agency that had a tour leaving then. Jysk Rejsebureau couldn’t help us, so we decided to head out and find another company. Fansipan had a tour leaving the next day. We were a group of four heading out together. The trip cost a total of 150 USD for two people, which included two nights with the local tribes, two soft sleeper train tickets round trip, and all meals except drinks. Finally, at 2 PM, it was time to head over to the Hilton. We got executive room number 625, where the entire 7th floor is reserved for executives. Here, they serve a complimentary breakfast buffet, afternoon snacks, tea, and fruit all day long. Executives also get free internet access. Plus, there’s free use of the pool, sauna, spa, and fitness center. We received a warm welcome, and they didn’t bat an eye at our backpacks, which aren’t as fancy as suitcases. First, we were offered tropical juice, and when we entered our suite, there was a welcome letter and a small gift that included coffee. We immediately went down to work out and swim. I didn’t have jogging shoes with me and wasn’t allowed to train barefoot, so I jumped straight into the pool while Honny worked out. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much sun that day, so we lounged in the spa instead. In the afternoon, the internet was finally free since a Dutch couple had monopolized it all day. We surfed the web while munching on free snacks. There were many nice guests in the lounge, but there were also a few who looked like they were traveling as backpackers and had the same idea as us about enjoying a bit of extra luxury for a few days. It was nice to have access to English news channels so we could keep up with what was happening in the world. We had dinner at the Hilton in their restaurant, where we ordered two dishes each. For starters, we had beef salad; Honny had chicken for the main course, and I had giant tiger prawns. It cost 170,000 dong per person, which isn’t too bad. The water, however, was quite expensive. It cost 28,000 dong for a 1.5-liter bottle, which is comparable to Danish prices. For dessert, we went up to the lounge for tea, hoping it would help our stomachs a bit. As we were getting ready for bed, a terrible storm started, but thankfully we couldn’t hear a thing, so we still had a peaceful night’s sleep in a wonderfully soft Hilton bed.