Vietnam Taxi Scam

I should know better. I have been warned and my sister's husband got caught on the same scam a year ago. So no one to blame but myself. The Giant Ibis bus from Phnom Penh stopped at Pham Ngu Lao in the tourist/backpacker heart of Ho Chi Minh City and I knew I was close to the hotel, possibly within walking distance, but I couldn't find the street on Google maps so when I got off the bus and collected my bag I was resigned to getting a taxi.  In all the other places I have been so far on this trip, tuk tuk and taxi drivers might have overcharged me by a dollar or so but never cheated me. This time the friendly  taxi driver came up to me, assured me he knew where the hotel was and agreed to be paid in US$, since I realised I had arrived in Vietnam without a Dong! When I asked him how much,  he told me he would go by the meter. So like a fool I got in. After driving quite a distance he told me he needed Vietnam Dong not US$ so he would take me to an ATM. I realised this was not going well but now I had no idea where I was. I got some Dong out of the ATM, not a lot so I could argue later that I didn't have any more, and he continued to drive all round town. I kept asking him if he knew where the hotel was but he kept telling me we were nearly there. When we arrived he pointed to his meter which had clocked up an amazing quarter million Dong, about US$35.  Feeling really angry at being ripped off, I got my bag out of the car and gave him $20 since I didn't want to get into a fight with him. Suddenly US$ was quite acceptable and he drove off happy at finding another stupid tourist.

Moral. Hire a taxi off the street, not one waiting for gullible tourists at tourist locations or bus drops. Get a fixed price before getting into the taxi.   When I checked into the hotel,  they gave me a map with exactly this advice printed on the back. Later I checked and it was a 5 minute walk from bus drop off to the hotel, providing you know the way.