I did a Kangaroo Cafe tour and there were no hidden costs and it was great (Halong Bay).
On their web site they have a page about the fake "kangaroo cafe" shops that have used their same name and set up around Hanoi and stolen people's money or run crappy tours. Maybe you went to one of those ones. It's common in Hanoi to have fake copies of successful business names and laws about this either don't exist, are un-policed, or law suits aren't common.
The original one is
www.kangaroocafe.com ... Go to the right Kangaroo Cafe ... the one with the vegemite. The website has their map. Their business has been in Hanoi for many years and I think they have probably supported the local community and made jobs for Vietmanese right back to times when Vietnam first opened up for tourism and the Vietmanese maybe didn't know what foreign tourists liked for their tours. Even today Australians like to travel differently to many other kinds of tourists, so I think there is a role for them.
The Vietmanese run Halong Bay tours had 50 people on each trip being herded like cattle around the bay to boring shrines. While the Kangaroo cafe trip took us to a secluded beach where we could lay on the sand and snorkle for 2 hours. So I got to see a few fish, and lots of plastic bags under the sea!
When I went on a Vietnamese run tour down the Perfume River in Hue it was only there I was ripped off the WHOLE time, at every stop and turn. There were so many hidden costs - and no-one running the trip spoke English except the people that sold the tickets and ran off with out money - I doubt the boat owner/operator saw any more than 5% of what we paid. We didn't even know what we were supposed to be stopping and looking at. Most stops had nothing of significance or interest, yet they still charged an entrance fee at every stop along the river - probably they were the homes of their aunty Ho or cousin Yuen! Then at a palace we had to negotiate hire of motorcycle taxis by ourselves with rebel youths who had no interest in tourism, just your money and as much of it as possible. The guides would never get off the boat - they just pointed into the jungle and indicated to keep going deeper in - regardless of the fact there were 12 possible paths to follow. They not only over-charged us but left us at the palace in the middle of the jungle and we nearly missed out boat. It was a stressful situation to be in. It was such a pity because there are so many honest and nice Vietmanese people. Some of these locally run tours, and desperate dishonest people out to make a dishonest living - taking without giving anything back - these are the ones that make people not want to come back.
