A while back I was working for a flat rental company in Saigon. I picked two guys up from the airport, took them for a tour of the city. I showed them the Grand Opera House, took them up the Bitexco tower for drinks in the skybar on the 50th floor, strolled along the historic Nguyen Hue boulevard, shopped in the Saigon Central Market, noticing how utterly unimpressed they were by all these amazing things.

The next morning they told me they'd been to Bui Vien (along similar lines to Khao San, the way you describe it), declared it boring and then, having seen about 0.1% of Saigon, they actually PAID hundreds of dollars for plane tickets out the next day.

So yeah totally - the kind of thing you're talking about happens all the time and it can have real consequences. We wasted a lot of time and effort on them, and they gave up the opportunity to explore this amazing city.

When you go on an adventure, commit to it! You don't know what's round the corner.