Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam

[munitalP]

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The following is a trip report in progress. I will update it between Excel spreadsheets today :shock:

I hope you enjoy it


munitalP

 

[munitalP]

Vietnam

With a work trip to Ha Noi dates finally set, planning of flights and hotels were typically left to the last minute which caused the normal levels of stress in getting things done quickly.

The Australian customer I was representing has an international J policy which they usually book in-house, but due to frequent changes in manufacturing schedules, they had just left bookings up to us to look after.

A heads of state or UN Summit or some other meeting was being held in Ha Noi the week before I left, and this made finding a hotel (of substance) in Ha Noi quite difficult. I was also lucky that the manufacturing plant I was visiting in Ha Noi is a multinational with the Hilton being one of their hotels of choice, so I received quite a large discount as well on the room price by having them make the booking for me.

So, a combination of flights and carriers – QF and VN as well as a combination of hotel chains left me wondering as I was walking out the door early Sunday morning if I had screwed anything up in my bookings and would I get through this unscathed!

 

[munitalP]

The build up

Vietnam requires a complicated visa application for on arrival issuing. After questioning in open forum as well as countless Google searches, I finally decided on using myveitnamvisa.com as my conduit to getting the necessary letter of approval from the powers that be within the Vietnam Politburo to gain access to the country. I also had a letter of introduction from the company in Vietnam to back up my claims, so filled out the necessary paperwork and applied online. The beauty of myvietnamvisa.com was I could use PayPal so didn’t feel anxious regarding providing credit card details to an unknown website.

A week or so after my application, an email arrived with a link to scans of the acceptance letter for me and about 20 others from wide spread countries. Although I guess it doesn’t really matter, I found it odd that peoples full names and passport numbers were available for all to see on the acceptance letter.
Printed in colour and safely tucked away in my passport wallet, that letter wouldn’t be needed for some time.

Next on the agenda were flights. This trip had moved on the calendar a number of times and at one stage, it looked as though I would leave LAX direct for Ha Noi. My searches started on One World airlines of course, and I found some CX routing that would serve my purpose. We were just about to book when the date got changed so that went out the window. The next date meant that I needed to leave Sydney a Wednesday evening to be in Hanoi as early as possible Thursday morning. This would be a hell trip.

Air Asia offers the earliest flight into Ha Noi in the mornings, so a 0600 flight ex BKK would get me to HAN with time to get to the factory and make the first scheduled meeting.

My next constraint was getting from SYD from 1800 onwards to BKK – our work conference in Sydney placed that constraint on me, and it was looking like Emirates or if I could trim 1 hour from my 8 hour training presentation, I could get the QF flight. My choice was made, QF1 left at about 1930 – I could finish my presentation and still Flounge for a while.

So my first booked Itinerary was Thur – LAS/LAX/AKL/MEL (this was on another booking), Sun MEL/SYD, Wed SYD/BKK, Thu BKK/HAN (Air Asia), Mon HAN/BKK (VN), BKK/MEL

Hotels were quite an issue, and it was looking like I would be spending time in a few different hotels over this period. I could accommodate part of my stay at the Sofitel, part at the Hilton, part at another Accor property called the Horison, or finally part at the Daewoo Hotel. I was not looking forward to that one little bit, but I had no choice except heading down stairs to 3 star hotels – something I wasn’t prepared to do.

A combination of 1 night at the Daewoo and 3 nights at the Sofitel were booked.
I got back from the US conference and basically straight to Sydney to another conference prepared to then head straight to Ha Noi from there, that wasn’t to be and the day before I was due to leave, the dates got pushed out by 2 weeks by the supplier. I was a little relieved in the extra 2 weeks at home, that was about to change as well, we had some suspicions regarding the delay, and now my customer wanted me in Ha Noi earlier to inspect the equipment – a full blown QA inspection that would take at least 3 days.

Scheißhaus!

So, with this in mind, flights were booked ex Melbourne, my new itinerary was now MEL/BKK/HAN/BKK/MEL. QF and VN. I also booked Daewoo for 2 nights then the Hilton for an additional 8 nights.

Set in concrete, I started packing.

 

[munitalP]

Sunday 7 Nov 2010

I left home, picked up by my driver at about lunch time for QF440 MEL/SYD. I had requested seat 1A and was not disappointed when I got issued my boarding passes MEL/SYD J 1A and SYD/BKK F 4K.

I trotted up to the J lounge and had a couple of Heinekens before my flight was called, and before long, I was settled into 1A looking forward to a F Lounge visit and my first ride in F with F service – I have been in the nose a few times before, but never with the F service so this was quite exciting. It wasn’t that long ago I was saying to flashware that I had never flown F and was looking forward to the day I could get an upgrade – today was that day.

The flight into Sydney was smooth and on time, I settled for a mineral water during the flight and played Monopoly on the iPad. On alighting the aircraft at gate 10, I wandered the length of the terminal to the international connection bus. The bus left just as I got to the bottom of the escalator, so I sat and waited 10-15 minutes for the next bus. Once we pulled out of the terminal, we were then held up by John Travolta’s 707 for a short time before continuing to the immigration area.

In a random act of kindness, I gave a total stranger who had been sitting next to me on the bus, an express out and in card, he was impressed, I had a bit more room in my passport wallet.

I walked through duty free and straight up to the F Lounge where I settled in at a restaurant table, polished off 5 glasses of Vervue and a Crab Salmon dish – yummo!

I didn’t wait for my flight to be called, and at precisely the time shown for boarding on my boarding pass, I wandered down to the gate and straight onto the aircraft into seat 4K.

I was immediately assaulted by a fight attendant who done the French Champagne Torture on me – a very enjoyable way to be tortured methinks! A couple of classes of bubbles – no idea what it was suffice to say it was nice, and we were pushing back. I like to be closer to the window, so if I have the opportunity again, row 4 would not be my choice due to the baby coffin next to the seat.

The flight was very smooth and I enjoyed at least a bottle of 2004 Tyrrell’s HVD Semillon on the flight, as well as a number of smaller culinary delights including crab, beef salad and duck. I was so impressed with the PJ’s that I didn’t open them, so my trackies from carry on were changed into, and I kicked the seat back into a nearly flat bed – I didn’t want to go flat and fall into a deep sleep, and dozed for a few hours listening to music from the iPad.

The worst thing then happened. The flight drew to an end. I could travel like this forever, I have now had a taste of the good life and I want more. I’m hungry for travel and to see the rest of the world, but in First Class please!

 

[munitalP]

A couple more shots of getting there...

Duck

Green Pea something - 7/10

Sydney

Stupid movie - it always has the same plot!

 

[munitalP]

We landed in Bangkok about 1030 local time and after bidding farewell to my flight attendant, went off in search of immigration and my luggage. I got to the first immigration area, and was quickly processed and through waiting for my luggage in minutes.

My bag arrived and I wandered out into the arrivals area, and after finding an information area, I got directed to door 4 where I could transfer to the Novotel, just across the way. I sat next to the same bloke who was adjacent to me in F and said hello. He was off to Laos for a week on his way home to the UK. We arrived at the Novotel and both him and I were checked in at the BIZ centre – executive floor with club access.

I got to my room by 12am and after showering fell into a deep sleep only to be awakened the next morning by my wakeup call at 0900. In hindsight, that was the one and only good night’s sleep I had on the entire trip.

 

[munitalP]

Monday 8th November 2010

I showered and wandered down to the BIZ lounge for breakfast. On arrival I got seated at a four seated table, so made the most of the extra room and spread the morning newspaper out as well as the iPad tuned into the news site and sipped away at a nice coffee for a while. The waitress asked if I wanted eggs and I ordered 2 poached, then carried on reading.

When she arrived with my eggs, she had also served me from the buffet – got to love this service, in Australia, the eggs would have arrived skidding around the plate like a fat man on a sheet of ice – yet here, she went out of her way for me.

I had been sitting there grazing for a while reading the paper, when my UK friend from last night came in and I offered him a seat at my table. We had a nice chat over a coffee or 2 more then bid farewells as I went back to my room for my luggage.

Checking out, I caught the shuttle back to the airport and was quickly checked onto my VN flight. Bangkok to Vietnam. I was really impressed with the VN service, I wrote a separate trip report found here...

http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/trip-reports-and-trip-photos/vietnam-airlines-bangkok-ha-noi-26425.html#post374235

 

[munitalP]

Daewoo Hotel – Ha Noi

What a delightful hotel. From the moment I walked through the door to the moment I left, I had a great time. The staff were so friendly and well mannered, the room (suite) I had was superb, food at the restaurants was fantastic, all round, this was a great hotel.

On arrival I was informed that I had been upgraded to a king suite and please enjoy private dining, access to the club lounge or anything else I wanted. I was treated to a huge fruit platter and a bowl of handmade chocolates, and the bar fridge had no items used check sheet (and I wasn’t charged) so I assumed the mini bar was complimentary, so I had a quick feast of mango and grapes washed down with an ice cold Heineken, then went exploring my hotel.

After a good walk around the place, and out in the pool and gardens area, I had worked up a thirst which lead me back to the main bar where the tigers broke free – well at least 2 or 3 of them did.

From there I progressed up to the club, but it was full of smokers, so I went to the top floor where there was a bar/restaurant/entertainment area, where I sat talking with the bar staff (I was the only guest) for an hour or so before going back down to a mezzanine floor Chinese restaurant.

I had the hottest Schezuan beef this side of Beijing which I swear was taking the glaze off the bowl, with some noodle and of course the obligatory tiger to cool my mouth down. Satisfied, burned and set back about USD50 for the whole meal with drinks, I set off in search of my room and hopefully some quality sleep.

 

[munitalP]

Tuesday 9th November 2010 0403AM Local Time

Hmmm, I’m awake, I better start a trip report…

 

[Grooba]

Ahh F with F service... how I also long for the experience!

Nice report, keep it coming.

 

[munitalP]

I mucked about trying to go back to sleep, and in the end just gave up on the whole idea. I opened my blinds in the room and in the lounge, and caught the sunrise through the haze. It looked nice – kind of…

I went down to the club room again for breakfast, and again turned and walked out – it was crowded and mainly Koreans talking very loud, just too much for me that time of morning. I went to the main restaurant where I had a nice breakfast of poached eggs and ham with fruit to close the deal.

Unsure of the weather conditions, I wore a cotton business shirt, jeans and black safety shoes as opposed to my suit, this ended up being a good move at the end of the day, especially being inside a manufacturing plant all day (although clean enough to sit on any surface).

My driver came up to the hotel entrance with a sign in his hand with my name on it, so he was easy to spot, and we were quickly out into the bedlam traffic in Ha Noi. Ha Noi is easily the most unbelievable traffic I have experienced, open and blatant flouting of the traffic rules (if there are any) and every driver considers the horn to be a natural extension of their arm, and rear view mirrors a funny looking decoration on their car or bike. In other words, when broken, they don’t replace them.

The drive to the factory took 45 minutes of nail biting, white knuckled, heart stopping continuous near death experiences then finally we were there, although we had the scariest turn across 4 (15!) lanes of oncoming traffic.

After a very productive day at the factory (on our part at least), I got back into the vehicle for my return trip to the hotel. On this trip I saw the first of 5 motor cycle accidents during my stay in Ha Noi – this particular one, a mother and 2 very young children had come off – all seemed ok, but we didn’t stop, my driver just swerved around the carnage and carried on.

Back at the hotel, I showered then headed downstairs for a walk, then for a tiger at the bar. On completion of both, it was 1800ish, so I went back upstairs to the bar on the top floor, where the barman and I built a number of Majitos, some good, some not so good, but all were drunk! I decided I couldn’t be bothered looking for another restaurant, so went back to the same one as the night before and this time had a duck dish and noodles, again, very good food.

Bed beckoned, so climbing into my Daewoo PJ’s, and the aircon on quite cool, my QF eyeshades on, I quickly fell into a deep sleep – another day over.

Wednesday 10th November 2010 0401 AM Local Time

Hmmm, I’m awake, I’ll carry on with that trip report…

 

[Princess Fiona]

Sounds fab,I too like Zone A but don't often get there.
Photos are great

 

[munitalP]

Sounds fab,I too like Zone A but don't often get there.
Photos are great

'Its a nice place to be' said the man with a glass of bubbles in his hand


munitalP

 

[Sprucegoose]

Good report mate.

How pricey is the hotel, looks good so far.

Hope the food is of equal quality

 

[munitalP]

I ordered a pot of coffee and watched the sun come up again.

This actually worked out OK as I had a couple of urgent email requests to follow up on and the timing couldn’t be better, but I am starting to feel tired.

I didn’t even look through the door to breakfast today at the club, and just went to the main restaurant and had an omelet and fruit. The oranges with the green skin are beautiful, and the banana’s taste like banana’s should – umm bananary , more banabary than at home is what I’m trying to say…

I checked out and caught a normal cab to the Hilton. I must say that the room was a disappointment after the luxury I have just had to endure, oh well, not to worry.

The Hanoi Opera House is adjacent to the Hilton, so the glamour oozes into the lobby of the Hilton, string quartet at night, marble, glass tube elevator – the usual stuff. There is also a very nice bakery with a superb selection of handmade chocolates in the lobby, as well as a nice bar and seating area. Up one level is JJ sports bar with a snooker table, large screen with sports streaming in via Singtel’s sports network as well as smaller TV’s.

Also on this level is a Euro/Vietnamese restaurant with an outdoor seating area that overlooks the opera house, and opposite is another restaurant where they serve breakfast and evening meals, although I never had an evening meal in here.
My driver picked me up not long after checking in, so another day at the factory – at least two thirds of a day.

Day over and more success. The factory was starting to hate me by this point, I must be doing something right! I got delivered back to the Hilton where I walked through the door and straight to the bar for a cold Carlsberg. Out with the lap top, 3 carlsbergs later, all my reports for the day finished, I was free to do what I wanted… JJ’s sports bar, a couple more beers, a quick bite to eat and I was off to shower then bed.

I know I am going to sleep through tonight, I have drunk plenty of beer, I am so tired… ahhh sleep.

 

[munitalP]

Thursday 11th November 2010 0355 AM Local Time

OK, this is starting to really piss me off.

I decided for an early morning (415Am LOL) swim, went down stairs – all doors locked – denied. OK, I’ll do 30 minutes on the treadmill in the gym – denied, doors locked.

Scheißhaus!

I waited till about 0615 then left the Hilton for a walk. I had been told there was a nice lake in the area and to go for a walk around it – ideal time, I was pining for exercise, so this would be it. On exiting the Hilton, I asked for directions and got told which way to go. I also got told the lake was 2km away – perfect.

Off I went, and went and went with no lake in sight. I walked through neighborhoods, saw dogs in cages (very upsetting) and generally got quite lost. I had a general sense of direction, so without backtracking I headed in that direction noting that if I didn’t get to the Hilton within an hour (it was 0730), I would hail a cab to take me home. My driver was due at 0830 and he could wait!

As it turned out, I had been walking somewhat in a circle, and I ended up back at the Hilton in about 30 minutes – quite impressed I didn’t hail a cab! I showered, raced down and scoffed down some breakfast, and was only 15 or so minutes late for my driver who didn’t care anyway – good, that made two of us with a very low care factor.

My driver

Another day at the factory, it was obvious they hated me now, voodoo dolls hanging around, people crossing themselves when they saw me – ah, the life of a quality auditor - I need to do this more often, it's great fun!

I got away a bit earlier today, I was on a mission, I wanted to stop at a market and buy my nephews some designer jeans – I didn’t care what brand, just two criteria – they had to fit a 5 and 6 year old, and they had to be knock offs. Somewhere in the language barrier there was a problem. My host who spoke very good English, told the driver where to go – he got it right on the mark first time – Prada. FAIL.

Bar across the road from Hilton

I got back to the hotel and decided to take another walk. This evening I needed to find a pharmac_. I needed amoxil for a sore throat that I had nearly kicked in Australia but left the remaining capsules at home, and I think I had also been overdoing it on the fruit – some pluggers were going to be had as a precautionary measure!

I had bumped into 4 street sellers yesterday morning while waiting for my driver – it’s not hard to do, throw a stone in any direction and you are likely to hit one, but these two men and two ladies were friendly and laughing and joking.

The younger of the men who I had met this morning, saw me strutting in the direction of what I now know as the lake – I was working on the principle I had been the other way this morning, time for a change and offered to take me on his scooter. I declined explaining I wanted to walk, so he decided he would join me. We walked to the lake, on the way finding a pharmac_ – its good buying the drugs you need over the counter (!) at a very good price as well, a tray of amoxil was about $2.

We carried on until reaching the lake. A brief walk around the lake had us in a bar drinking beer looking down over the street. I was enjoying his company, such a different world we both live in.

I had had enough of the bar and after a slow meander through some back streets, we ended up back at the Hilton, where at a locals bar across the street, we had a roadie and I bid farewell. I think my Vietnamese mate will be carefull going out drinking with Aussies in the future, he definitely had leg flexibility leaving that he didn’t have arriving!

I went back into the Hilton, went into JJ’s bar, ordered a fiery pizza and kicked back talking to the barman till late. I had a late start the next day so wasn’t worried about the time.

Eventually all good things must come to an end, so I stumbled to my room and crashed – knowing tonight I would sleep through till at least 9am.

 

[munitalP]

Good report mate.

How pricey is the hotel, looks good so far.

Hope the food is of equal quality

The room I had originally booked was USD365 per night including breakfast, and yes, the food was great

 

[munitalP]

Friday 12th November 2010 0420 AM Local Time

I wont complain anymore, this is normal. I can’t believe that I can’t kick this darn jet lag, its really starting to do my head in, and I know if I go to bed earlier, I will wake even earlier. I’m getting tired and this does not help my work situation. I have the weekend off, I am going to can going to Ha Long bay, I cannot afford to interrupt my sleep patterns as they stand now by changing hotel to a boat and getting no sleep…

This is annoying but I am here for work not a holiday and I must put my customers interests first.

I went downstairs and out for a walk across to the park close to the hotel. It was still dark but the air temperature was cooler, there were far fewer motorcycles about, and the number of horn blasts had lowered from a cyclic 2 per second to ~1 per minute, much nicer.

As the sun came up, I watched a man doing Tai Chi, well I suppose it was, then headed back to the Hilton and had breakfast of made for me scrambled egg, carved ham, cherry tomatoes, fresh baked bread and juice. Hilton breakfast rocks!

My driver was waiting outside at 0830 this morning, a late start, and we headed into the factory where I spent the next 5 hours. On return to the hotel, I decided I would head to the lake and take a few photographs. Loaded with my Cannon EOS, I walked out of the hotel and in the general direction of the lake which was about 15 minutes walk away. Over the next few hours, I wandered around the lake taking photos of all sorts including weddings, beggars, and bridges as well as wandering around a small part of the old quarter looking in a few shops and stalls here and there.

The Hilton circled

Word of caution for anyone going into the old quarter. Use a money belt and don’t carry your wallet in your pocket. I overheard an Australian couple trying to get a store keeper to get the police as they had had their wallet pick pocketed. I had my lap top backpack (you can see in previous photos) with my wallet padlocked inside along with the majority of my cash, the remaining cash in my pocket. I personally had no problems, but in saying that, didn’t offer any opportunity to become a victim. I bought some handmade wooden bracelets and a bamboo wind chime (Vietnamese type) while there then carried on around the lake.

I think I saw less than 5% of the old quarter, but I had seen enough, this area was there as a tourist trap aimed at tourists who wanted to buy as many made in China items as they could in Vietnam – sad.

My advice to savvy tourists – go find a “locals” market or shopping area, or better still, save the shopping for somewhere other than Vietnam or only shop in “made in Vietnam” shops – these guys need as much income as possible.

I carried on till quite late, taking photos and absorbing. There must have been 15-20 weddings taking place around the lake, all youngsters, I guess the culture dictates that they wed young and have babies young, but at the end of the day, I think that culture should move at the same pace as the rest of the world – Ha Noi from what I have seen till now is trapped in a general 1980’s era, it’s hard to explain but the people accept what they have, the poverty, the low standard of living because they know no better.

This is communism working at its best; repress the public, the rich get richer, the poor stay the same – poor.

I got back to the Hilton and wandered across the road to the local bar, where I sat upstairs watching the world go by over a couple of cold Heinekens, then headed into the Hilton again where I showered and dined at the Vietnamese restaurant. I had a fantastic meal of crab noodle soup and pineapple duck. I headed into JJ’s bar for a night cap, where an American gentleman and I struck up conversation and ended up “shooting some pool” for a while, before my fatigue had really got to me and I had to sleep. The time was about 10pm, so I forced myself to stay awake another hour or so, then finally hit the sack – exhausted and fell straight to sleep.

 

[munitalP]

Saturday 13th November 2010 0515 AM Local Time

Woo Hoo – I managed another hour of sleep today, mind you, being honest, I was awake at about 4am, but I refused to open my eyes in the hope I would doze back off, alas that was not to be.

By 6am I was on AFF asking for the secret cure for Jetlag.

I am a wreck, no kidding. Sleep deprivation is truly getting to me and my normal clear head in the morning is now foggy and I just feel worn out and tired. I will not try chemicals to sleep with, however tonight, I might sit up and watch the F1 GP qualifying with a bottle of wild turkey, get myself blind and force myself into sleep. The main problem there being is I don’t know if I will enter into the right sleep type being alcohol induced and I may wake up tired even if I do sleep for more than 5 hours.

I went for a long walk in a totally different direction, along streets I saw each morning while being driven to the factory, I even stopped and had coffee from a street seller, it was terrible, but what the heck, this poor guy was up and about at some stupid hour selling coffee to silly round eyes trying to be run down by one of the endless number of motorcycles on some back street of Ha Noi, he deserved a tip, so from a pure benevolent point of view, I just shoved all the money I had in my pocket into his hand, said thanks and carried on my way. I estimate I paid about 450,000VND for that coffee – a bit silly I know, but at the end of the day, I had just brightened his immediate future with a fist full of Dong, and it cost me all of between 20 and 25 dollars – care factor lower than being late for my driver!

I was feeling great even with a sore head from lack of sleep, and a rumbling tummy from some evil coffee I had just drunk!

I sat at breakfast with iPad in action, looking for something interesting to do and see now I had firmly accepted the fact I would not see Ha Long bay on this trip. I settled on the army/war museum and at a sloth pace, showered and dressed, loaded the EOS into my backpack along with my wallet and a tourist map I had purchased, then set off in a public taxi to my destination. The factory had a company picnic day today, so my driver was unavailable – that sucked, but oh well – adventures here we come!

Being dropped at the main entrance to the museum, before the car door was open, the street sellers were there, unreal. Accosting tourists while the security guards stood and watched these guys were horrid and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, they were bullies in the real sense of the word.

I went inside then found out the museum was closed till 1400. Darn, that was near 2 hours to wait. I got talking to a young South African dude whose primary form of transport was a skateboard and he said that even though the place was closed, I could still walk the grounds, just couldn’t enter the buildings. On that note, I wandered out and walked around a very somber reminder of the Imperialist American War (AKA Vietnam War). Piles of shot down aircraft, Sam missiles, captured aircraft, a MIG with a huge number of kills to its name, anti aircraft guns and more. I wandered for an hour or so and took a heap of photos, but by then, I had had enough of the killing, the death and war, and decided I didn’t need to see inside, so headed out through the increasing number of hawkers, and cheated death by crossing a very busy road into a park, where I sat for some time readjusting my thoughts and emotions – as I said, a very somber place.

If I get a taxi in a strange town, I normally hail a passing cab. That way there is less opportunity for premeditated crime. I looked for a cab, but couldn’t find one driving past empty. I walked around the park, there were no cabs to be had except one across the road parked outside the war museum – what should I do.

This was breaking my self imposed rules, and I didn’t fancy trying to explain by telephone to the Ha Noi taxi company where I was, so I walked over to the driver who by this stage had singled me out while I was cheating death again crossing the road, and told him I wanted to go to a temple I pointed out on the map.

I looked at where we were and estimated the journey would take about 10 – 15 minutes based on distance and timing from my daily trips to and from the factory.
I asked the driver who spoke very poor phrases of English, price or meter – he said meter while pointing to a very dodgy looking meter on his dashboard. Oh well I thought, let’s go. He wanted me to sit in the back, but this cab was so small I could take it onboard as carry on, there was no possible way I was sitting in the back, so with the front seat pushed as far back as it would go, I was still feeling a little claustrophobic inside this small vehicle! Once we were moving, the meter wasn’t and I pointed to it and kept saying start the meter. He kept replying to me “OK OK”, but the meter never started.

I thought to myself that the situation was slowly losing control, but at the end of the day, Ha Noi is listed as a safe city to be in with very low crime rates – how wrong that thought train was.

After a good 25 minutes, I had the map out trying to have him point to where we were – he did so and at that point I knew he was up to no good. He had pointed out the road that I travelled on daily to and from the factory, and the road we were on now, a small back road through what could easily be called ghettos was not that road. We came to an intersection where parked across the road was a Hanoi Taxi with “Hilton” painted on the door – this was a fine opportunity to escape the clutches of this rogue taxi driver, and get a good cab to where I wanted to be.

I told the driver to stop – a number of times, which he finally did after detecting a fair amount of anger in my voice. We had pulled up about 20-30 meters away from the Hanoi Taxi on the side of a busy road in a very poor area of town. Rubbing my thumb and finger together, I asked “how much?” 500,000VND was his answer, “piss off” was mine in reply. This was a 100K VND fare at the most but I decided to give him 150K and just get out and walk away.

He didn’t want that.

When I pulled out my cash from my pocket, about 80USD (in VND), he grabbed it and dropped it between him and his door then looked at me and smiled through his rotting teeth. My immediate thought was, he can keep it, I want out of this situation now. He then escalated the situation by reaching over grabbing my bag which contained my camera and wallet.

No way was he having that, so I had the door open already, with one foot out the door, one hand on my bag, I tried to back out of the cab. He went for my throat, missed and tore my shirt half off, at that stage, self preservation kicked in and I hit this guy so hard in the head he would have been seeing stars for a week, but he still didn’t let go, the second blow caught him on the jaw which, either his head hitting the window or my fist busting his jaw, I don’t know, but there was a horrid cracking noise and he let go of me and my bag.

The momentum threw me backwards and as I stumbled, he drove away. Half a second earlier, my leg would have been still firmly in the cab, and it would have been busted – guaranteed. As it was, I fell over and ended up with a bit of gravel rash, and a nasty bruise on my shoulder where this bugger had gone for me, and a swollen hand.

I looked up and the Hanoi taxi driver was there, I got up off the ground and said “HILTON!” to where he took me in quick smart time. By the time I got to the Hilton, the adrenalin had worn off and I was shaking like a leaf. I am not a naturally violent person, in fact I can’t remember the last time I hit another human – my boxing bag in the garage gets a work out regularly, but not for fight training, just exercise, so I was very surprised at my reaction, I guess in the back of my mind the thought of the inconvenience of no credit cards was there, but the forethought was “this is mine and you are not having it!”

I sat at the bar with a torn shirt and grazes relaying what had happened to first the bar manager, then the food and beverage manager – a European man who’s suggestion was to report the event to my host company rather than the police direct, and do it the day I was leaving so I wouldn’t be detained for questioning.

After a number of drinks, my shaking had stopped, and I went to my room, cleaned up and pondered on what had just happened.

I hung around my room for the rest of the day and ventured down to JJ’s early evening where I had a few beers, a bite to eat and watched the F1 qualifying with a couple of ex-pat Aussies, but couldn’t be bothered talking. I was in a funny mood with mixed up emotions where one second I felt like going to the airport and taking the next flight home, the next was anger where I wanted to find this cough and teach him a real lesson for trying to steal from me, to thinking that this guy was in poverty, would I have done the same if in his situation to what would have happened to me if he had of got me to where he was trying to take me – fear was my key emotion.

I finally went to bed, but couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned all night long playing the taxi ride over and over in my head

 

[moa999]

wow. what a cab story. Agree that I would not have expected this to occur in Vietnam.