We arrived at the Elegant Hotel Saigon and started the check in process. We were asked to hand over our passports and they would be returned to us when we checked out as it was too unsafe to take them with us outside of the hotel. We didnt like this idea and said we would wait until they were finished with them and take them with us. There was issues with the communication as the staff didnt speak english but they finally understood where we were coming from.

We were given our key and told we had been upgraded but when we got to our room which was on level 8, we were in the same room I had booked us in online. We immediately felt like we were in a matchbox. The room had a double bed and one single and a small tiny window with bars. The airconditioning didnt work unless you had the key in and took about 20 minutes to start cooling the room down. The bathroom was small and had a sit down shower inside and a small window that the hotel next door could see into. Maybe we were just tired but already we werent too keen but decided to get some sleep and see how we felt in the morning. When we got into bed we could hear yelling in the hallway and as the room didnt have a proper lock we decided to push the small chair up against the door, just in case.

We woke in the morning and went downstairs to have some breakfast. There was a small selection of asian and western food to eat and the staff stood around speaking loudly in vietnamese and watching us eat our breakfast.

We decided we would go for a walk outside the hotel after breakfast in order to get our bearings, we immediately felt out of place. We were the only tourists in sight and the area was dirty and busy and full of rats. Not the kind of place we wanted to come back to after a hot and long day! We got a map from the hotel and decided to walk to the Ben Thanh Markets which we were told would take 10 minutes, 30 minutes later we finally arrived and found where all the action was. We immediately felt safe and were surrounded by beautiful buildings like the Peoples Committee, the Reunification Palace and The Rex Hotel...this is where we wanted to be, safe yet still able to experience the chaos of HCMC!

We returned to our hotel and checked out. No questions were asked and we made our way back and checked in at the Rex Hotel for 3 nights. We had the most enjoyable time in HCMC and were able to come back to our hotel each afternoon to a cool room and to the swimming pool which was a nice thing after heat of 38c and 100% hummidity!

Maybe it seems we were fussy or a little too harsh but we had to do what was best for us and we would not have enjoyed our holiday had we stayed at the Elegant Hotel Saigon, it was not safe for us to be outside at night time in that location!

Moving hotels was the best thing we did and we loved our time in the bustling and chaotic city of Ho Chi Minh. Will be returning for sure!