Chrass Landing

On our first morning in Hải Phòng, we asked the receptionist where to grab the ferry to Cat Ba island and headed off to the appropriate place.

Bia Hoi in Hải Phòng

As soon as we got there someone in a booth next to the road flagged us down and tried to sell us tickets to the ferry that was leaving in about half an hour.  We listened to her pitch.

This was our first mistake: We didn’t have enough time to shop around (it looked like there were several operations selling tickets to the same ferry).

She quoted us a price: 200,000 Dong for each of us one-way plus 200,000 Dong each for the motorcycles.  This had to be multiplied by two so we could return in two days.  She told us that we’d only be able to get our motorcycles aboard for our return trip if we reserved space in advance.

The price seemed really high, but the ferry was about to leave and we decided to just bite the bullet and paid her the 2.4 million Dong ($120).

She wrote out some receipts and we headed off to the ferry.

At the ferry, we were the only people with motorcycles.  It seemed clear that this was a passenger ferry and they were going through some extra effort in order to accommodate our bikes.  Stevedores lifted the bikes onto the roof of the ferry with much effort.

Stevedorable!

During the trip members of the crew came by to collect fares from everyone on board –we saw that Vietnamese people were paying 70,000 Dong.  We had obviously been way overcharged and paying 200,000 Dong each for a one-way fare (plus another 200,000 one-way for our bikes) was an exorbitant amount.

Oh well, caveat emptor.

Arriving in Cat Ba City

When we arrived on Cat Ba, the captain of the boat attempted to charge us an additional 100,000 Dong for the bikes.  He didn’t speak any English.  We refused to pay and wound up unloading the bikes ourselves which we somehow managed to accomplish without dropping any of them into the sea by using a rickety plank and three days’ worth of luck.

Cat Ba City itself is pretty touristy.  Still, the scenery was beautiful and it was nice to relax.

Ha Long Bay

On the second day we took a boat tour which featured a stop at the aptly named Monkey Island (no relation to the LucasArts video game series); some caves; and sea kayaking.  All in the very scenic Hạ Long Bay.

Can you spot the monkey in this photo?

When we got back from kayaking Grady realized someone had gone through his bag (he had set it in a particular way so he’d be able to tell if someone opened it).  When he pointed this out to me I counted my money: 200,000 Dong was missing.  Grady and Gordon weren’t sure if any of their money was missing.

The fucking crew robbed me/us!

When we got back to the hotel we told the hotel manager, who had sold us the tickets for the tour, about our experience.  (His English was far better than the people running the boat tour).  He seemed genuinely concerned and I noticed him having what looked like a very serious conversation with the tour boat captain later a little while later.

Tourist-friendly caves!

The following day, it was time to head back.

Because the woman that had sold us our tickets seemed so shady we had the hotel manager call the ferry people to confirm that both we and our bikes had a reservation.

Nope.  Of course not.

At this point we were getting pissed off.  It was bad enough we got charged more than double, but getting screwed completely on our return fare was just too much.

To make things worse, we were running out of time: we had to get to Hà Nội, sell our bikes, and catch our flight in two days.

Thoughts of vengeance and reimbursement coursed through our minds. We decided that it would be worth confronting the people that had sold us our ferry tickets and attempt to get a refund for our unused fare when (if) we got back to Hải Phòng.

After talking to the hotelier for a while we realized that there was actually a way to get to Hải Phòng by road involving traveling across the island on our bikes, and taking two short ferries.

“There’s a road ferry!?”

This had been, of course, what we wanted all along.  Grady’s paper map and my GPS map did not show the ferry.  It turns out, in hindsight, that Google Maps knew all about it, and would have told us so if we had asked:

If only we had known this in advance...

We rode across Cat Ba island and arrived at the first ferry about 5 minutes before it departed.  The fees were posted (I think it was about 30,000 Dong or $1.50).  We got on the ferry and proceeded to the next island.

One of fairies I mean "ferries" we took back (hey I didn't name the boat!)

When we arrived at the second ferry we again were just in time to get on.  The fare was similarly cheap.

Due to the serendipity of the ferry schedules, we actually arrived in Hải Phòng before we would have made it had we taken the passenger ferry.

We immediately sought out the people that sold us our useless ticket.

“We want our 1.2 million Dong back for the return fare!”

“The captain says you never got on the boat,” the woman countered.

“The boat wasn’t there, and we called in advance and were told they wouldn’t take our motorcycles!”

“No, I made arrangements,” she said.

“Look, you made a small fortune on our trip to Cat Ba… that’s yours to keep.  We want a refund for the return fare.”

“No, you didn’t show up.”

We had an ace to play: “I guess we should call the police.”

We learned through our travels that Vietnamese police can generally be depended upon to take the side of the Westerner.

“Yes, let’s talk to the police,” she ventured, “I’ll take you there.”

Grady stayed with our bikes and stuff while she led us down a street for about 300m and pointed at a closed business and said “The police station is closed, come back later.”

Although our Vietnamese is terrible it was obvious that this was not a police station.  We knew the initials for police from seeing them on various police vehicles in our travels and the name on the building did not match.

“This is not the police station! We’ll call them.”

We began walking back to the bikes and the stand.

During this time, Grady watched the other woman at the booth looking warily at Westerners walking by.  She realized that as long as we were standing there they would not make a sale.  By the time we returned she had begun to haggle: “How much do you want?”

At this point we knew we were going to get our money back.

“All of it, 1.2 million Dong.”

“I can only give you 600,000.”

“1.2 million Dong.”

“How about 800,000?”

“1.2 million Dong.”

This went on for a while.  Eventually they offered us one million and we took it (getting your asking price will never happen –the negotiators have to retain a little bit to save face).  The 200,000 Dong they were keeping was about $10 –split three way it was about $3.30 each.  Not worth spending too much more time to recover.

Small victory!  Woot!

We rode off to Hà Nội to find a touristy spot to stay and sell our bikes.

A touristy spot to sell our bikes

Hà Nội seems like a nice town but by this point I was travel weary and really wasn’t up for exploring much.  The hostel area (where we’d be most likely to sell our bikes to another tourist) was in an alley and it had several bars and restaurants catering to Westerners.

Unfortunately there was a glut of bikes for sale.  There were several other Minsks and several other Win knock offs available.  We only had one full day to make a sale.

Competition!

Our hopes of nearly breaking even were disappearing, but we weren’t too concerned: even if we had to give our bikes away the price we paid for them would have been cheaper than renting.

Gordon managed to find someone who gave him $110.  Grady and I both wound up giving our bikes away on the morning our flight left.

Mission accomplished.