My wife and I stayed two nights at the hotel. The hotel looked very much like it was when I stayed there as a kid with my parents in early 1970’s. I must admit that the decor of this old and grand hotel is still suitable for Kings and Queens nowadays as my wife was in awe. Our lake view room presents us a picturesque scenery right in front of our windows. The view gave us an illusion that we were in Alpine Europe. The breakfast, high tea and dinner were all excellent in food and services. Nevertheless, there were a few silly incidents that reminded us we were still in a developing socialist country. First, when we find out that our room ‘s central window could not be closed securely, we called the handy man to fix it for us. He brought along a dinner fork instead of a proper screw driver. Hence, it took him a little while to fix the window. Second, we wanted to exchange a USD100 note for Vietnam Dong in the afternoon of a Saturday, the front desk staff initially told us that they ran out of VND. Then, I told him that I would have to go to another 5 Star hotel nearby to exchange it. Then, they told me to wait since they can arrange to bring some VND from a hotel nearby. Lastly there was this 1940’s Citron of France parking in front of the hotel’s doorsteps. The car was probably restored as an antique car years ago but now, it has been slowly rusting away to be junked. No wonder as I have been confirmed that this grand hotel is now managed by the government instead of Sofitel.