Reviews by jestert79
It's difficult to give a rating for a place where I just finished a year contract, but here goes...
I transferred to Apollo from a Polish school that's also in the "International House" chain. Initially, it was a bit difficult to get information about which documents I needed, but I got through it.
Most teachers do the bulk of their work at the weekends, teaching kids and teens. During the week I worked evenings/nights teaching adults. It was good teaching a variety - I had never taught young children and dreaded it, but discovered it isn't so bad.
Help was always available, and advancement as well - I moved up to senior teacher and enjoyed the new challenge. There are training sessions every week - some useful, others not so useful. I made enough money to end up saving about $9000 in a year, and this was without watching my spending at all and going on holidays.
Of course, it wasn't all perfect, but many of the problems I had have either improved or vanished. For example, my induction was very short and I wasn't given much help with finding housing, but now there's a teacher in place whose job is to help newbies with this info.
Another problem is class sizes - the sales staff are constantly sneaking people into your classes over the maximum.
(This is only about the Thai Ha location; the other ones may have a different situation.)
And this marks my final review for newhanoian - it's been fun!
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Amusingly, I think I'm staying here at the same time as the previous reviewer, but for the opposite reason: I needed a place to stay for a day or two after moving out of my flat.
Anyway, this is a really nice hotel, with a professional staff and a proper free breakfast - eggs, bacon, and bread or pho (some hotels say "Free breakfast!" and it means a baguette with some jam.)
So, it's a bit pricey but you get a nice room, aircon, comfy bed, and TV. Worth it if you're tired of doing the guesthouse thing...
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While I used an agent to find my apartment, this is the company that was the actual "landlord." My apartment was nice and modern - a gas stove and oven, fridge, a nice washer, air-con units in most rooms, DSL internet and cable TV. There was a security guard downstairs to let us in or out.
Mai, our actual landlady, was very nice. If we had any problems in the flat I could just text her and someone would usually come within a day or two and fix it.
The negatives: I think I was paying too much for electricity (see the question I posted.) Also, the rent was a bit much for the area away from the center, and on top of that all the little extra bills made the rent increase significantly. But if you actually had some negotiation skill (which I completely lacked when I first arrived) maybe you could haggle it down.
And I successfully received my deposit back without a hassle. Surprisingly, I paid it in dong and it was paid back in crisp $100 bills.
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I just closed my year-long account with this bank, since I'm leaving the country in a few days. My school set it up for me and overall I never had any big problems - its ATMs were plentiful throughout Vietnam, and I was successfully able to transfer my money home. Then again, I seldom had any reason to deal with the staff and I've heard from friends about all sorts of problems with their supposedly "international" visa card.
One problem I had was during that "dollar crisis" when everyone suddenly went crazy trying to cash in their dong for anything. I tried transferring money and they said I could only do $500.
Another problem was when I withdrew a significant sum of money, they gave me a 500,000 note that had been ripped in half and repaired so the damage wasn't readily apparent. But no one would take it. I finally had to use it to pay a bill in a dimly-lit restaurant and that was successful.
The staff doesn't seem too well-informed at times. Once I asked a guy about transferring money home and he said you could only do that if there was a family emergency! They're also neurotic about red tape - if your signature doesn't perfectly match your original they make you re-sign until it does. Also, when closing my account I had to fill in and sign about 3 million documents.
All in all, a tolerable bank if you're just going to be withdrawing from ATMs in Vietnam, but you might want to jump on the HSBC train that everyone's been raving about otherwise...
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This was my first market in Saigon. In Hanoi, I'm accustomed to wandering markets and being treated with indifference, mild curiosity, perhaps a half-assed motioning towards their wares.
We walked into this market and were immediately seized by girls saying "Hello! What are you looking for!?" and trying to pull us to their stall.
"Ah, must just be the crazy area of the market," we thought, shook them off, and moved on, only to be grabbed my more shop assistants.
So with a final lunge we escaped, never to return.
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This is one of those bars on the Bao Khanh/Hang Hanh "strip" where waiters are constantly beckoning you to come in.
The liquor drinks were surprisingly cheap - like 25-30000. The menu says "Happy Hours 9 am - 11:30 pm" so you could conceivably have a long day here.
Inside it's a bit grubby. I explored upstairs - and upstairs - and upstairs and saw room after identical room before I got tired of ascending and fled back to my beer.
Nothing special, maybe a nice place to visit for variety.
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I've been here a good amount of times in my year here. There's not much new to say, really; I went for the salsa night once but didn't even try because I have two left feet, but it seemed like everyone was having a good time.
The drinks are reasonably priced, and lately (or maybe I just never noticed) they've been offering "buckets" of a liquor drink starting at 100k. If you want to seem like a total alcoholic that's the way to go!
Only a few minor problems - when it's busy sometimes they forget your drink order, and sometimes you're trapped in to wait for the cops to go away but that's fairly standard.
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While this place impressed me on the night of the New Hanoian meetup, it's since fallen a bit out of my favor.
I've had two dinners involving large groups here, and the service just didn't match up with the prices. For example, I arrived and sat down and had to wait 20-30 minutes to be asked if I wanted a drink.
Then there's the waiting bit - between ordering and food arrival we started eyeing our napkins and wondering if they have any nutritional value. We asked for the bill and had to wait another significant time for it to appear.
Also, both times there were issues with the bill, when everyone paid and it was still a good 300-400k under. Granted this could have been our error, but twice in a row?
That said, the interior is quite nice, and the food when it arrived was great.
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The Hanoi train station is always a fun experience. I've been through here a few times on the way to various spots in Vietnam.
The ticket buying process, which involves taking a number and waiting for it to be called, seems designed specifically as a prank - if you actually obey the system you'll be waiting a long time, since they rarely if ever call the numbers and just help the masses of people who walk in and go straight to the ticket windows.
You usually have to fight people off who have no problem with interrupting you and trying to subtly (or not-so-subtly) shove you away from the ticket window or convince the cashier in Vietnamese to help them before you. Don't expect much in the way of friendliness or smiles in the ticket sellers either.
However, the handful of train journeys I've been on have been nice, with the staff on the trains checking your ticket and making sure you get off at the right stop. The beds in both "soft sleeper" and "hard sleeper" berths are comfortable. The hard seats are ridiculously cheap and okay for short journeys.
The bathrooms (in the station) are a nightmare. I really had to go - I mean, doubled over in need, and paid the WC fee, and after walking in suddenly realized I didn't have to go so badly and waited until I got home.
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I'll just add my pleased review to the many already on here. When I went it was empty, but I wonder why - the pasta was top-notch, in just the right portion where you feel full but you don't have to waddle out with a noticeable paunch.
Nothing else to say that hasn't already been said, really.
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