We found this gem of a place whilst wandering around a small back street just off the main road close to the beach. And we splashed out on the bigger room as we had the feeling we'd be staying a few days. Although we only checked in for one night (as we always do to make sure we don't have the neighbours from hell or dogs barking all night) we negotiated a discount if we decided to stay longer - US$18 instead of US2$20

The hotel was only opened 3 weeks before we checked in - always a good start. The smells in the bathrooms and mattresses and pillows haven't had chance to ingrain themselves, and everything is spotlessly clean in new hotels.

The room we were in was actually double the size of the smaller ones - there were 2 double beds, an air conditioner we didn't have to use because we had huge opening double windows on opposite sides of the room which kept a lovely breeze blowing through, a fridge and a nice big bath for Peter. Asia News Channel was the only English channel on the TV, but we had free Wi-Fi and plenty of books to read and exploring to do.

There was a huge balcony running the length of the hotel and it wasn't a great chore to pull a chair out of the room and read in the lovely breeze.

The location is good - just far enough from the main street to avoid the noise - the Vietnamese like to use their horns. A lot. It also seems to be in a more middle aged or couple type area, so all night raves were nowhere to be seen in the immediate vicinity.

There were plenty of small stalls selling fruit, snacks, cigarettes, grog and water, you could poke a dozen sticks at the number of cafe's, restaurants and bars (some have happy hour from 9am to 6pm) lining the streets. There are a couple of small supermarkets in town and heaps of beauty salons, book exchange shops, massage parlours, dive shops, travel agents and tailors. Pharmacies are in short supply though - there are very few, very spread out and are very hard to find.

The staff at Truong Giang are wonderful and couldn't do enough to help. I even got a rose in a vase on Valentines Day, which was a lovely touch.

Wouldn't hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone who doesn't want to be in party central and doesn't want to be on the (expensive) beachfront - it's a 3 minute walk tops to the beach and it's very very noisy day and night down there.