The beginning of the end

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I awoke this morning with a start. There was what appeared to be a Vietcong soldier standing on the other side of my mosquito net, holding a giant machete in his hand. He shouted, the way only Vietnamese can with their tonal language and it sounded like he was very angry. This was not the case, most vietnamese sound angry when they are excited. I opened my bleary eyes and took stock of the situation - I hadn't really done anything wrong, I camped here in the dark, It's not like I'm a spy or anything. Then I saw some more soldiers running over to my tent. It was then that I realised, they weren't soldiers, they were just local farmer peasants, dressed in army surplus clothes as its the most durable and cheapest way to dress. After I pulled my heart out of my ass and realised it was only 5.30 in the morning, I bid them good morning, zipped up the outer part of my door to give me some privacy and went back to sleep for another two hours.

Around 7.30 it was WAY too hot to be in a tent, so I got out of my tent and began to pack up my tent to set of for Halong bay and some beachlife. It took me about another 2 hours to reach Halong, and the sun had made me feel a little woozy. So I shopped around for a hotel and found one in the cheap part of town. The girl working there couldn't speak English, so we negotiated a price of 100000 dong for one night, around $7, using hand signals and eventually paper and pen. I then retired to my room and flunked on to the bed for a snooze before heading out for some seafood and a swim. My dream was interupted after an hour or so when the young girl from before came banging on my door. I got up and answered, still half asleep and she asked to see my passport. I showed it to her then she started the process of negotiating the price of the room all over again. She was telling me it would be 250000 dong, and we started to argue about this as we had already agreed the price. It was now around 2pm in the afternoon, and I just grabbed my passport from her and told her if she was going to try to cheat me, I didn't want the room. But of course, she had me over a barrel because I had used the room for a while. So she left and I gathered up my belongings and went downstairs to load up Ark. As I started to put my things on the bike, the girl went over to the main door and locked it, and started saying the only word she knew how in English, "Money."

At this point I was fuming and told her no way I was going to pay anything for the room, I had only used it for an hour, but if I could have the room for the night at the agreed rate of 100000 dong, I would happily pay and stay. She started to tell me I had to pay 250000dong, just for the hour that I had used the place. This infuriated me, so I sat down and told her to call the police, using my Vietnamese phrase book. She kept saying "No." "Money." I sat there for about twenty minutes while she called who I thought was the police, but they never came, and eventually we found ourselves in a stalemate. I told her I would give her 50000 just to get the matter done with, and she kept stonewalling me with a "No." "Money." I sat down and had a cigarette, feigning non-chalance and putting on my best, 'well I'm not going to change my mind, so do what you have to look.' She finally relented and took my 50000 and opened the door. The nightmare was over, or so I thought...

Feeling refreshed from what little sleep I had had in the hotel, and having some anger and adrenaline that I had to work off, I decided to go cycling around the bay, which didn't really seem up to much. To get to the good part you had to take a tour on a diesel boat dressed up to look like an old Chinese junk. The ocean and beach were pretty nice, but there is no way I was going swimming in the filthy water, as I did not feel like being attacked by a big brown jobbie or choking to death on a used sanitary napkin. I reached the end of a road and realised that there was a huge bridge to take over to the other side of the bay, not the car ferries like I had been told about. So, I started riding up the long windy road to get to the bridge, which was killing me in the afternoon sun. A couple of guys sped past me on a moped, giving me the usual "Hello!" chants, which you get every 20 seconds in Vietnam. I stopped for a rest on my bike on the hill and started to drink some water whilst puffing and panting profusely, and the guys on the moped turned around and came back to speak to me. One of them was a quite heavy set guy with a singlet and was smoking a cigarette, and for the purpose of this story we will call him Tiger. The other guy, who was riding on the back of the bike was quite small and had a shaved head, we shall call him 'Ghandi' as he did resemble him a little. They parked up beside me and started to have some fun, asking the usual questions about where I had come from, looking at my bike etc. It was at this point that Tiger started to walk around me, looking at my bicycle and Ghandi started to ask me how much it cost. At this point, I felt an arm around my neck and was pulled off of my bicycle. Ghandi hopped on and started to ride it away, but the lock which was attached to the rear pannier had stuck in the back wheel and the bike stopped dead and he fell off. I was still being held by Tiger, but managed to push him using my weight and the slope of the hill so that I fell on top of him just as a car was coming up the hill. The sight of the car was enough for the two of them to flee, jumping on the moped and speeding off. The car had stopped to see if I was ok, and the driver wanted to call the police but I realised there would be no point in this line of action. I felt a pain in my left arm and looked down to realise that it was bleeding quite a lot and I had been cut with a knife. It seems that Tiger had not just been holding me, he was threatening me with a knife. I used the first aid kit from my bag to put a bandage on it to stop the bleeding as it wasn't a big cut, and it definately didn't need stitches. It was at this point that I realised my 'Neck Safe', which I hate, but it was the safest way of carrying my passport and my dollar bills was gone, with around $400, the lions share of what I had left to complete the trip. Luckily, I had taken my passport out of there when the girl in the hotel had asked me for it and had put it in my pocket when I snatched it back from her. I feel certain that the guys had no intention of stealing my bike and the girl from the hotel had set me up, telling them I had the safe around my neck, which she guessed had money in it. I jumped on my bike and headed North, back towards China, vowing never to come back to Vietnam. I looked at my map and figured I could get to the border and cross it by the 14th May, then have some fun cycling back to Yangshuo, in China. Since coming to Vietnam I would say I have had a hugely negative experience in terms of the people I have met and the interactions I have had. It is so completely different to the rest of Asia. I will return to Yangshuo, work for a while and come back to conquer this road, although I will come in from the other side, through Laos and Thailand, giving Vietnam a very wide berth. I will continue to update this blog as I will still be cycling for the next 10-14 days, and will keep it live for my next attempt at China- Cambodia later this year. This cyclist is down, but not out, by a long shot.

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Comments

[Debs]

Giving up?
What about those poor Cambodine Kids. You can't give up. I hope the cut is ok? Love Debs x

[monkey on a bike]

Thanks Debs, not giving up as such, I will be back!

[Brandon]

Giving up is to restart
I know the big dog can't make it without the other big dog's accompany. Haha... Maybe we can do that together sometime later this year.

[Owee]

Cycle horrors indeed
The North is tough.... even for Vietnamese people from the South. Try cycle in the south........ Much frendlier

[michaela lola]

Oy vey!
Yikes! Sounds like quite the adventure. Though I wasn't biking through, I had a similar experience with a hotel in Thailand. The woman just kept overcharging us and had her big goon knock on the door in the middle of the night.