Aug 28
Taxi from Airport Scam in Ho Chi Minh City
OK, here is another scam which actually happened to me! When arriving by air into Ho Chi Minh most people will want to take a taxi to their hotel in the city. Its not far its like 7km. If you arrive late at night like I did you may be disorientated and just take the first option available. This is not advisable.
When you step out of the airport there will be many taxis waiting at the curb. Do not take any of these taxis, almost assuredly all of them will try to rip you off, well they won’t just try they will rip you off.
A taxi to the center of district 1, where almost all tourist stay should run about 6-7 dollars in late 2011. That is about 120,000 to 140,000 dong. So I let some guy talk me into going for 200k. Then when we are leaving he says I need to pay the airport tax fee which is another 50,000. I say ok, another 2.5 dollars is whatever. I later found out that this is only really about 5k. Then when we get to the destination, he asks me to pay before getting out. I do so, I pay the agreed amount. He then points to the meter and tells me I have to pay that too, which is like another 250,000. I say no, that is not what we agreed, he is clearly cheating me here. Basically he wants to get 500k for something which cost 140k.
I say no and am pissed now. I try to open the doors and there are locked from the outside, I keep trying not really believing what is happening. I then say screw it and slam my shoulder into the door to try to force it open. At this point the driver tells me to stop and opens the door, I guess he didn’t want me to destroy his car.
In some ways I got lucky here, I have heard some taxi drivers will keep an crowbar under their seat, or sometimes they drive you in the middle of nowhere and then threaten to leave you there if you don’t pay hundreds of dollars.
HOW TO AVOID THE SCAM.
Take the bus, outside the international terminal on the arrivals floor there are buses outside, the 152. You have to go up a flight, and it drops you in the center of district 1, from there you can take a taxi. It costs like 25 cents. But what taxi?
There are 2 reliable taxi services in HCMC, mai linh and vinasum. But watch out for fakes, you can find pictures of the real thing and fakes on the internet, fakes will spell their name just slightly wrong, like mia linh, or mai lin. You can also try to get one of these taxis that are dropping off passengers at the airport, again you have to go up a floor, for some reason they are never at the departure floor.
I have heard that there is also a government run taxi service that is reliable call sasco. It is to the left at the end when you walk out of the building, i have never used it, if you ever have please write a comment below and let us know.

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