Good morning Vietnam!

Well this morning we were booked for the excellent Hanoi cooking school. Arranged a taxi as it was easier, and got the price from the hotel. Arrived at the cooking school and the taxi meter showed 86000 which was a bit more than we had expected but not awful. Tried to give the driver a 100000 note but he indicated it was not enough. So we pointed out the fare on the meter and he kept indicating more money and showed us a 500000 dong note. I hopped out and got someone from the cooking school to come interpret, which he did and explained that it was a bit more because the driver had come on the one way system. He went back in, -a nd we tried again. Long story short the cabbie fleeced us for 860000. So of course, having paid, we told the cooking school staff. They immediately said they would try to sort it out. We did our amazing cooking class -those who have heard of the cook books Koto and Vietnamese street food, well it is that authors school! Cooked up a storm and while we were prepping, they were shooting for the next cook book! T hen we got to eat our cooking, pretty damn fine if we say so ourselves! Time to leave, and one of the staff came to ask us to stay because they had managed to locate the cab driver, his manager, and the customer service manager and wanted to meet with us to sort out what happened. Result: refund of the full fare, abject apology from the company, , hugely embarrassed cabbie who may lose his job, and there you kind of get Vietnam in all its permutations. Can,t praise the staff of Hanoi cooking school enough -they were amazing on all counts, and if you are in Hanoi you MUST visit. There's a restaurant also where we plan to eat maybe tonight. So, finally back at the hotel. Quite a roller coaster of a morning.