Hotel Name: Nha Tro Kim Anh
Address: 261p Tran Hung Dao, Hem 8, Long Xuyen, An Giang, Vietnam.
I stayed at Nha Tro Kim Anh in Long Xuyen, Vietnam. I booked online at the rate of 222,222 VND ($9.67 USD) per night, and I booked it mainly because it was one of the few budget options available in Long Xuyen at the time of booking.
Nha Tro in Vietnamese is a boarding house or hostel. When booking a hotel in Vietnam you will see khach san (hotel) and nha khach (guest house), and if you find a nha tro and it doesn’t have “hostel” in the title then you know it isn’t going to be a backpacker kind of hostel. To add to the confusion, the booking site listed this as an apartment room, so I wasn’t sure if this meant I was staying in a spare room in someone’s apartment – Airbnb style.
Nha Tro Kim Anh is in an alley off the main road that goes through the city. The alley happens to be a karaoke party street, so I was filled with trepidation for the night ahead. I also happened to be there when they were repaving the alley, though that is irrelevant to the review apart from explaining why the road is made of dirt.
The accommodation is in a small and nondescript building, so it was a good thing that the name was emblazoned on the front.
Long Xuyen doesn’t receive many foreign visitors at the best of times, and especially not during the great global pandemic. My name would have stood out on their booking list, so at least I was being expected. I had prepaid online, so they just looked at my passport and took me to my room.
Like many buildings in Vietnam, there is more to it than the frontage let on. This place felt more like a workers boarding house than a hotel.
Contrary to its name, my room wasn’t a dorm or shared space. My room was a typical guesthouse style, so I’m calling this a guesthouse. I got a double room with a private bathroom. The bed was firm but comfortable, and it had an awkward bed head that I had to be careful to not crack my head on. The room has the option of A/C or fan.
The room is your typical spartan Southeast Asia guesthouse. It’s an old room, so there was only one power outlet. There is free wifi here, as there is in even the most basic of accommodation in Vietnam (and putting my home nation of Australia to shame with its expensive hotel wifi).
I always make sure to book a room with a window, though that could mean anything. Yes, my room had a window, but it was a prison-style window where there was a grilled pane of glass letting light in near the ceiling. At least it lets light in, but it wasn’t useful for an emergency escape.
The bathroom was also Southeast Asia-style, with a bucket of water and ladle for flushing and ablutions. The bathroom also had an instant hot water system, so perhaps the bucket is for those who are used to the bucket wash.
My karaoke nightmares came true after dusk, as the street was awash with loud out-of-tune singing. It could hear it loud-and-clear in my room, though somehow I got to sleep. It could have been worse, as there are cheap massage karaoke hotels on this street where karaoke and “massage” is conducted in the hotel.
There is no breakfast service here, and I just left with the keys in the room as no one was around when I checked out.
So that was my budget boarding house experience in Long Xuyen. Not somewhere I would choose to stay if I had a choice, but at the end of the day, it was a roof over my head for the night. If you are planning to visit Long Xuyen, then book well in advance as there aren’t a lot of hotel options here.
Book Nha Tro Kim Anh online or search for more hotels in Long Xuyen.
