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5 reviews or comments posted; no questions asked; 1 answers given.
Reviews / Comments (5)
Went here last night to meet a Vietnamese friend. Got there a bit early so chatted with the bartender (Chinese) and a Swiss guy who's in the shoe business (?). Pretty friendly crowd, decently priced drinks and good service to start.
I'm not sure if this is a typical problem at this place, but I did find the waitresses to be a bit too friendly. I tend to have some warning flags go up when the first thing the waitress says to me is how handsome I am. My self-esteem's pretty high, but not that high. And the service dropped off to nothing once my Vietnamese (lady)friend arrived. I ended up just ordering more drinks at the bar.
The good news is, and I promise I would have said something if I'd thought of it at the time, there's no way I paid for all the drinks I ordered. Apparently you pay after every drink (or I just look like a crook). I tend to drink a lot, and don't like reaching for money all the time, so I asked the waitress to just add them up and tell me the total at the end. A few hours after I left I realized it was less than half what it should have been. I'm sure I'll be back there again and make up for it.
Oh, and they did have the fake close when the cops showed up, just pulling the garage door in the front down.
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A potential private student of mine asked me to meet her here to get to know each other. After driving past it (the entrance is not directly on Nguyen Hong but on a side street) I was met by 3 very friendly hostesses who were expecting me (not many white faces in this place I guess) and brought me to meet my student. I haven't actually got a clue what I drank, some sort of iced tea that my student recommended; I thought it was pretty good, but I'm not a big tea drinker.
As much as I appreciate the tradition involved in sitting on the floor, these places are really not designed for comfort if you have any height (I'm just over 6 feet, 1.8 something meters), and my legs were a little sore when I stood up.
I did have my helmet go missing off my bike, which was parked outside with the standard guys there watching it. I didn't have to really say anything, other than "Where's my hat", and to say that, yes, I definitely came with a hat, before there was a big to-do among the staff wondering where it could have gone. One of the bike guys gave me his; bummer for him, but I guess he should have paid more attention to mine.
Other than that it was a nice place, and helmet theft could really happen anywhere. I'm surprised it hasn't happened to me before actually. The hostesses were very friendly, and one of them even went in the rain to buy me a poncho for the ride home, and refused to let me pay her for it. I'd go back, except for not wanting to see the poor kid who probably lost a couple of days of pay in giving me his helmet.
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I had the good fortune to find this place one day about 30 seconds before a massive thunderstorm. I think I ended up trying about 6 different flavors during my 2 hour rain delay and liked them all. It's a great location to hang out and people-watch, and personally I had no problems with the service. Anytime I needed something (another scoop usually) I just turned my head towards the back and they came in a jiffy.
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I stayed here for about 4 nights when I first got to Hanoi. Quiet location, easy walking to Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem if you are so inclined. Can't believe they get away with charging $120 a month for a motorbike, but you can always find suckers I guess. Staff was friendly, in fact about 2 weeks after I stayed here I went back to pick up a friend and they remembered my name and my room number, and I'm not one to chat up the hotel staff. Although I did wake them up twice in the middle of the night trying to get back in after I'd gone out, so I guess I made an impression.
Just about every review of a Vietnamese hotel I've read here or on other sites has a story about someone arriving late and the staff having given the room away. I've never had this problem, anywhere in the world, while travelling. Maybe try calling and letting them know you'll be late? These rooms aren't guaranteed with a credit card or anything, so I can't really blame them for selling available space if it looks like the reservation isn't showing up. And what's with the call saying you need to leave early because they sold the room to someone else? If you're in the room you've got priority, don't let them push you over. Sometimes it's ok to tell people no.
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I read the reviews of Solace on here mostly to try to remember exactly where I'd been Saturday night. Most of them seem to ring relatively true, but I think some of the reviewers need to lower their standards a bit.
Many people have mentioned the bathrooms in their reviews, and granted that I'm a man so I don't need to spend very much time in them, and granted that they are a little bit rank, but they don't differ hugely from the bathrooms in clubs I've been to in the States or in Europe. When you have large numbers of drunken people using a small bathroom, it's always going to end up badly. (I did have a guy not even bother to hide the fact that he was looking at me while I was at the trough, in fact craning his neck around to get a better view, but I just took that as a compliment.)
I did notice a lot of working girls, but I was with a Vietnamese friend so they didn't bother me too much. (For those who might be new, having Vietnamese friends seems to solve a lot of problems, especially when your own Vietnamese is as poor as mine.) I had more trouble with the drunken English girls whenever I went to the bar to get a fresh drink.
Music wasn't the greatest, but once you have a couple more cocktails you don't even notice. I did not hear House of the Rising Sun while I was there, but I kind of wish that I had, it's a great song. With my lousy dancing skills I wouldn't have even noticed the difference.
Location is top-notch, as said before. Cooling off after a dance by the railing watching the Red River flow by, and watching the employees toss the empties off the side into the river, is perfect for cooling down. Do they pick up those bottles downstream? Could be a good money-maker for someone if they don't.
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Posted Thursday June 12th, 2008.
Too late to respond to this, but the gear thing is the easiest part of riding a motorbike here. There's no clutch, you just kick the lever, and I've noticed a lot of people seem to just leave it in 3rd the entire time anyway. The hard part is having the ability to become a crazy, speeding, weaving, red light running, almost killing pedestrians, Vietnamese-style motorbike rider. I'm starting to think people either have that ability or they don't. I managed to pick it up right away, but I'm crazy so it works.
In response to the question: Am about to rent a bike but not into the gear thing. So, have been told there is an (automatic) Mio for rent soon, but cant find any on the road and d...
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