Thursday, June 10, 2010

Mugging on wheels

Our last day in Laos we decided to hire some bikes and go do some exploring and generally get some exercise, it's hard to do any decent exercise in this heat and humidity though. Outside the rental shop I tried to adjust my saddle, however when I asked for a tool to do so I was told that was the maz it would go. Even by Asian height standards this was low , but having just filled out a pile of forms and paid a deposit we decided to live with low saddles rather than get everything back and start looking for another rental company with higher saddles. So, looking like giant adults on kids' bikes we awkwardly rolled on down the main street. Within moments I knew my planned cycle of around 30 k would not be happening with the saddle this low, my knees were nearly touching my chin every time I took an upward pedal. We decided to take the river route and see where that took us. Turning down the hill off the mmain street I quickly realised I had no brakes. At least my feet were low enough to the ground to be able to use my runners along the road as some form of breaking mechanism and as I flew towards the T junction at the bottom of the hill I hoped nothing was coming along the road as I couldn't really stop at any high speed! Luckily it was clear and we tried to avoid steep hills for the rest of the day!

The route along by the river was really nice and biking was a good way to admire the narrow bricked back lanes with cascading pink bouganvilla and old world architecture, full of cafes, galleries and other quaint shops. There was a never ending row of restaurants along the river to take a pitt stops in and the French Indochine influence gives the town a really nice atmosphere.Even today here French is the official second language of the Government and there are even a few bilingual schools.Fortunately the crepes and croissants also stuck around! We followed the road out of town, not making huge progress due to the awkwardness of the saddle height and the heat. Soon we came to a turn off that said 1km to waterfall. The road was quite stony off the main road but we decided to give it a go anyway. At least a km up we were met wth a steep upward hill and still no sign or sound of the waterfall. I went to investigate what was over the top of a slightly less steep hill only to find a few random houses. I also discovered the bike couldn't deal with much pressure as my chain came off twice going up the hill. We gave up on the idea of finding the waterfall and made a plan to go our separate ways for a few hours and meet back at the hire shop later on. I had planned to continue out on the main road for another half hour , but 5 minutes into it and two small hills later I was fed up with having to fix my chain and feeling quite manky by now with sweat and chain oil all over me. I turned around and headed back into town.

About a km out of town my Buddha good luck ran out. A motorbike came right up beside me and before I knew what was happening the guy on the back had his hand in my basket and was grabbing my bag. I couldn't believe waht was happening, I grabbed the strap but they obviously had an advantage to me being on a motorbike and more of a hold on the bag. As the tug of war continued and I was pulled out of the saddle and almost over the handlebars I realsied this was not a fight I was going to win. Screaming at them and swearing obscenities as they rode off into the distance I shouted at some passers by to help. They looked at me with a 'stupid tourist look'. I thought about hailing a tuk tuk and getting it to chase the bike but they were almost out of sight and I risked losing the hire bike if I abandoned it on the side of the road to chase them. Instead I decided to chase by pedal power - a very unrealistic idea! Within seconds my chain was off again. As I crouched on the side of road trying to fix the chain while at the same time shaking and crying I thought about everything they'd got. At first I thought it's just cash and only about 20 dollars and my favourite wallet from Peru. Then reality hit,I remembered I'd put my Iphone in as I'd been checking my email at breakfast and even worse I'd packed my credit card this morning, something I never ususally have in my wallet but had wanted to buy a present in the jewellery shop later. Enraged I eventually got the chain back on and made my way back to town. Along the way I swore some more at the thieves as I relaised my expensive special face suncream was in there and it was my bag form NZ. As I rolled into the hire shop I don't blame them for looking at me strangely, I must have been quite the sight, covered in oil and tears streaming down my face blabbering about soemone stelaing my bag!

I was anxious to cancel my credit card and my phone but without a phone I couldn't do either. I thought about getting my laptop and using some wifi to Skype but Jo had the key to the room and I wasn't meeting her for another 3 hours.Furthermore, I had no money to buy something in a cafe in order to use their wifi. I hoped that by wandering around town I might bump into her, but in the meantime I wobbled towards the police station in order to get a statement which I knew I'd need for insurance. Typically it was closed and wouldn't be open for another hour. I stood on the street corner hoping Jo might just appear and my wish came true about half an hour later as I saw a vision in a green dress wave chirpily as she pedalled towards me. On seeing my face her happy expression changed and on seeing her familiar face the tears started again. As she has done many a time on this trip she held it together, calmed me down and made a plan, a true legend in times of Jane crisis!

Our first stop was back to the hostel to get her phone to cancel the cards and the phone. Enroute we bumped into some other backpackers we'd met a few days ago and on hearing the story offered their assistance, a shoulder to cry on and a hug. Such a nice gesture from people who were basically strangers to us. Having successfully cancelled the card, we biked back up to town and carried out the next part of the plan, visit the police. The sign on the door still said closed but it wasn't locked so I gave a little tap and we gingerly wandered into a dark hovel where there were two men lying on a table each having a nap - obviously crime levels weren't too high today!! They were soon awake and had the statement book out. After endless questions many of which were impossible to answer i.e what was the number plate on the bike, what colour was the bike, how old were they, what did they look like??? I tried to explain that they approached me from behind so I didn't get a good look at them and that it was hard to tell how tall someone was when they were sitting on a bike and as for a full description the most I got in the commotion was black hair, dark skin and a red t-shirt. I made a mental note to be more observant and take notes if I was ever mugged again while moving!

I explained to them that really I didn't expect them to be able to retrieve my things , but that all I really needed was a statement for insurance reasons. However, they insisted that I go with them on their bike and show them where it happened so that they could question some people to see if anyone saw anything. I told them it was on a stretch of road with nothing else in the immediate vicinity and that anyone that was around ignored my shouts and kept going.They ignored this and so onto the back of the policeman's motorbike I get and off we head to the crime scene. I knew the general area it happened in but I was hoping my bottle of banana boat suncream which had bounced out of the basket at the time would still be sitting on the road marking the spot. It wasn't, but I showed them the spot to the nearest 5 metres and wondered who they thought they were going to ask about it as there was nobody around except for a lone man selling baskets about 50 metres up the road. They instruucted me to stay with the bikes as they went off to do their CSI stuff, but not before having a cigarette!

Five minutes later they were back and asking me if I was sure I called out when it happened because the man who was having a siesta 50 metres up the road in amongst his weaved baskets hadn't heard anything!Seriously if this was their only hope of solving this case I wouldn't hold my breath! I assured them I had called out , but that I didn't expect that man up the road to have heard or if he did to have cared. They lit another cigarette each, leaned up against their bikes, huffed and puffed a bit and then told me that they really didn't think they could catch the person if nobody had heard me calling out. I was so exasperated with the situation by this stage, I told them once again that I didn't really expect them to be able to retrieve my stuff at this stage and that all I really needed was a statement. Back to the 'station' / dark hovel we went and after going through it all again and writing a written statement we got the copy and were released from questioning with a warning to tie our bags to the basket in future. However, in hindsight I think if it had have been tied I may have ended up worse off if they'd persisted in keeping a hold of the bag while it was attached to the bike and I was still on it. Well, maybe not, but I have to take something positive from it!The next step was to go to an internet cafe, download the insurance claim forms and fax them off at the extortionate price of 5 dollars, daylight robbery. Anyway to make up for it and try and leave Laos with a better taste in our mouths we went home, scrubbed the oil off me, put on some nice dresses and went and had a crepe followed by fresh apple cake on the street for dinner - yum! Thak you Mum for all the help that day with phone stuff and numbers too, love you xo

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