<edit: 2 Mar 2006 - see Pham Ngu Lao low life - Part II>

I was horrified to hear a few weeks ago about an attack on a man who I'm acquainted with at a restaurant I hang out at fairly regularly. To cut to the chase this man, name Bill Irwin, was attacked while sitting at the restaurant by six thugs armed with metal rods and suffered a smashed shoulder.

What I was more surprised about though, was that this story has just been covered by a fairly well respected Vietnamese newspaper. For one used to the abysmally low standards of the Vietnamese press the report shows a quite exemplary style of journalism* - they obviously made an effort to get out there themselves and collect a few facts.

For those that know my sarcasm and/or are familiar with Vietnam I must state that I'm being serious here. Straight up!

I've only heard this story second-hand but here's my take on the background:

The people at the Dai Hoang Long Hotel, which is situated at the head of the alley way leading to the Au Lac pagoda on Pham Ngu Lao, had been having a few mild run-ins with patrons of the other restaurants further down the alley who were parking their motorbikes on the free part of the alley by the side of the hotel. Nothing really serious, patrons continued to park bikes there and the hotel itself seemed to be okay with this.

Then one evening it seems like a few youths (and a few not so young) at the hotel were prepared for trouble. Any trouble. They'd obtained pretty hefty iron rods and were looking for an excuse to use them. One person who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time was Bill Irwin. He was walking past the hotel on his way to a restaurant just down the alley popular with long-term residents. He said something sarcastic to one the youths on his way past and proceeded to walk to the restaurant and sit down. Moments later he was confronted by six youths with iron rods and attacked.

The newspaper, the Thanh Nien, provide a fairly detailed account. They then explore certain issues. They point out that this area is smack bang in the middle of the tourist district and a fair number of travellers will have received a bad image of Vietnam. They ask why six youths just happened to have six iron rods of fairly sturdy dimensions lying around. And I think they also ask, in as oblique a fashion as permitted, why the authorities don't seem that interested.

We must note that this hotel was one of the first large private investments in this area (New World Hotel excepted). It's a large, tall building with rooms that are well equipped. The air-conditioners which were all new certainly didn't come cheap back at the time of its construction. And the hotel's height was well above that permitted by the planning laws. Not to run around the bush, you don't spend so much money - or take such a risk - if you haven't got certain eventualities accounted for...

Here's a link to the Thanh Nien report <edit: the English version has since appeared> - if it should disappear then here's a Scan.

13 May 2005