The critical Frenchman

I just had to write something against the fact that everybody is in a frenzy to go and stay at one of madame cuc’s hotel in saigon.

To see what the myth was all about, I have decided to check it out for my self and see if the hype was justified. unfortunately it was not the case.

After having made a reservation I finally arrive in the famous madame cuc 127. my first impression was that the reception area which is also the dining and breakfast area was much too cramped for the amount of people coming and going into that hotel. on top of that the furnitures like chairs and tables are way to big for the tiny space they have and that makes for a real awkward sitting area. I dunno where they had this idea of using massive wodden furniture but these huge chairs are not comfortable at all and also not well setup so in effect it is very hard to have many people sitting at the same time. What happen when its busy, is that everyone has to stand somehow between the furnitures that take all the space. As an example 4 people will just about squeeze near the reception desk. so anytime you ask your key, you check out or in, they are bags and people pilling up in the corners where there is some space while others stands waiting to be served. the girls working there are doing there best by offering you to sit down (if you can ) and have a juice or coffee. I have nothing against that but when you arrive from a stressfull bus journey of 12 hours you just want one thing. get yourself checked in and go to your room.

same thing for the free internet, which is just one computer tucked on the side of the reception desk and is in the way of everything. no need to say that you have to queue up also for that. when it comes to pricing, the rooms are starting at 18 dollars a single !!

Second step, the rooms:

After you finally check in, you get the keys of your room which are usually high up. so you go four storey high with your bags and you finally open the door.

what you discover is a badly furnished room with just a bed, a fridge, a tv, an old cupboard and an office desk from the 80’s. the only light which was working in my room was the main white and bright neon light that makes you feel you are in an office. the bathroom is standard with nothing in particular away from beeing practical (meaning the toilet and the shower are one). no need to say that untill now, there was nothing to justify these 18 dollars. but well since the receptionist said:” yes but you get free juice and coffee at all time and a meal at night.” I though ok, lets check it out. so i went downstair to check on the dinner. a couple was sitting at a table and i heard suddenly : uhmm that is the best food I ever had in vietnam”. I sat down and told myself that’s good news :O)

ten minutes later my food arrives. lets see: 4 spring rolls and a bowl of instant noddle! when I say instant noddles I am not joking . it was virtually instant noddle that you buy in any supermarket with an addition of white cabbage salt and peper and that’s it. I said: “is that the meal”. she said: yes sir. right, some people must be joking here! the best food he ever had in vietnam he said. where the hell did he eat then. for me it must be the worse meal I ever had. the spring rolls were awfull (definetely frozen stuff) and the soup was tasteless. I had to add tons of soja sauce in there to give it some kind of taste. I actually did not even finish the stuff and decided to go out and buy food myself. the next morning I check the breakfast and what I get > one coffe, one juice (very watery and without sugar) along with one piece of white bread with jam and margarine. sorry to say but i don’t call that a breakfast. oh yes, you can add a green banana that is kindly offered for free. but still, it does not make it for me, and it surely does not reflect the price I am paying. after breakfast I told the reception I was leaving the day after to another hotel.

conclusion: i think people need to explore other hotels and see that in the bui vien street for instance or nearby you can find very good deal and better hotels than madame cuc.

I appreciate the fact that the staff are doing everything to be friendly but sometimes it is a bit over the top and does not feel genuine. the typical reply if you start to be negative is oh you want a juice sir. well I think that offering coffee, juices and a free crap meal does not really cover the fact that the overall experience is more then average and too expensive. I better find a cheaper hotel and buy the food myself.

ps: when it comes to a decent hotel I will give you a tittle overview of the hotel I am staying at:

Phoenix 74 hotel . high standard at reasonable price.

The critical Frenchman

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 4:06 am and is filed under 1, Accomodation, In my opinion..., Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.