You two (Alan & Neil) break me up!!!After four weeks in Vietnam do you really think we didn't pick up some necessary lingo like pls, thanks, two cointreaus and ice etc etc. Just tell me how you say to housekeeping on the phone"the toilet doesn't flush" or the cable tv doesn't work". When your room is far away from reception up 5 flights of stairs or down in the garden at Hoi An Riverside and someone on the other end of the phone just cannot find anyone who can help you then it is time for some tourism training. No excuses!

Always happy to bring a little ray of sunshine into someone's life, Lyndie. While cable TV in Vietnam going kaput sounds like a blessing to me, I have to admit that a blocked toilet is more of a challenge. However, think of the opportunity it could have presented for an entertaining mime show. (No, on second thoughts....)
Now, I'm out of here before we're both kicked off the board, charged with aggravated irrelevance. Poor old storman_469 probably stopped reading long ago, and who'd blame him?

Hey, Neil! When you were there, did you overhear the two Vietnamese hoteliers saying to each other "How do we say in English:'This isn't the toilet, it's the laundry chute'?"

Sorry, Lyndie, I didn't mean to be rude to you, and I agree those moments when you feel so helpless can be very frustrating -- the phrase books seldom seem to cover the particular crisis you're going through... I guess you got me off-side when you said something to the effect that the Vietnamese were rude and intolerant to strangers; I found exactly the opposite -- in fact, their politeness and welcoming attitude was amazing -- and I admit to wondering if rudeness and intolerance, like beauty... well, you get my drift. Luckily, on this forum, you will find that we are all polite and ultra-tolerant (except, of course, for myself -- but at least I said sorry!)

Hi guys-Alan I never feel helpless and an apology was not necessary, thanks anyway. Just could not understand why you both don't get the fact that someone else's experience was different to yours and just as valid. A package tour through Vietnam is not anywhere near the same experience as our trip. If you want to travel having a guide and everything done for you then of course your trip would be reasonably worry free-someone else is fixing the problems you would ordinarily encounter. I'm off to Myanmar, Moscow, Turkey so keep cool and try to remember that others have a story to tell that is just as important to them as yours is to you.

Lyndie, will you expect working cable TV in Myanmar?

By the way, I fully endorse your last posting.... everybody has different expectations of their chosen destination. You expect Vietnam to be a place where you can communicate confidently in your own language and watch cable TV in your hotel room. Me, I paid $12 a night for the hotels I stayed in in Vietnam, and it never occurred to me to look to see whether they even had a TV, cable or otherwise. I do remember that one of them had a green lizard on the wall of our room, and we found that more watchable than anything I've seen on TV this year.

All the best to you in Myanmar, Turkey and Russia!

Alan-there is no reason why anywhere with electricity cannot show CNN!!!(Said with tongue in cheek)
Thanks for your good wishes and all the best to you.

Next time I won't be travelling in such sybaritic style, so I look forward to making the acquaintance of Alan's gecko, if not Lyndie's loo. Lyndie, enjoy your next trip - look forward to hearing about what you find in Myanmar in particular.