On July 26th night, a tourist from Taiwan posted on her Facebook 3 videos showing a group of other foreign tourists in Nha Trang were being yelled at by the driver’s assistant, their belongings were thrown out of the bus and eventually they were forced to get out of the bus.
She also shared that she bought a bus ticket from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). This incident happened in Nha Trang where she transited. According to the Taiwanese tourist, the seats weren’t numbered so two female passengers on the bus wanted to seat near the window instead of the last row which was said to be uncomfortable. They tried to convince the assistant but he responded by threatening them and anyone who didn’t follow his arrangement.
He twice threw the belongings of the said two passengers out to the road and verbally requested them to leave the bus. The two passengers refused, making a huge commotion on the street of Nha Trang. The video showed that after a while, a male traveller tried to interfere but only made the assistant more out of control. This same assistant even found a metal bar to threaten the male traveller yet the local people stopped him. Another staffer on the bus seemed to be drunk, she added.
Clip: The assistant yelled and threw away passengers’ belongings
In conclusion, she accused the driver’s assistant of his ill and unprofessional attitude toward the passengers. The bus company, as this tourist made clear, was Queen Café Open.
The videos as well as the remarks quickly attracted great attention from both locals and foreign tourists and raised outrage among tourism communities. Majority of the opinions agreed with the poster, that this driver’s assistant’s behaviours were inexcusably wrong and he very much damaged the image of Vietnam tourism in general. Many local people felt sorry for the two passengers and wished them to have other great experiences in Vietnam.
A few days later, there was more information on this incident from the other side of the story, first from the bus company. So what is the whole truth?
Queen Café Open denied responsibility
On 27th July many local reporters had contacted to Queen Café Open in Hanoi for clarification. According to management staffer of this bus company, as seen on the videos, the colour of the bus wasn’t identical with Queen Café Open’s buses which are painted white. They also said that their company sells open tour tickets on routes, from Hanoi they have tickets to Hoian only. These tourists might have bought tickets from Queen Café Open from Hanoi to Hoian then from Hoian they used service from another bus company to continue their journey.
Explanation from Viet Nhat Travel
The red bus in the videos was actually from Viet Nhat Travel. After clarifying, Viet Nhat Travel took responsibility on the case but also claimed that the videos from the Taiwanese tourist didn’t show the whole story.
They said: “This is a group of tourists who travelled from Hanoi to HCMC, stopped at Nha Trang to buy tickets. Their tickets were upper berths at the back of the bus but they insisted to have to lower ones which at the time they got on had been empty. The driver’s assistant explained they couldn’t do that several times but the two passengers weren’t listening and even had aggressive behaviours like spitting at the assistant. This drove the assistant to lose his temper and caused the incident as what we saw in the videos.
When arrived in HCMC, this group have sent their apologies to the driver and the assistant for seating at wrong seats and spitting/insulting at the staff. However, the way our staffer behaved in this incident wasn’t acceptable which now done severe damage to the company’s reputation. On 27th July follow our due process, this assistant’s contract was terminated and we sincerely send our deepest apologies to our passengers and everyone affected by this unfortunate experience.”
We hope this article can clear a lot of misunderstandings among foreign travellers. Also our advice for independent travellers by open bus:
- Follow the arrangement of the driver’s assistant
- Do not seat at wrong seats/berths
- When you have some dispute with the staffers or feeling unsafe, get off the bus as soon as possible then come to the bus company’s nearest office or police office to report.
- In any case, do not intensify the argument to avoid physical harms
Fiona
Sorry but we have only their word that the women spit on them which I find hard to believe but we do see his violent behavior. They should be ashamed by it.
Hi Joe! This is an official information that was published on some Vietnamese news. If it’s incorrect then it’s not allowed to be published. We should look at both sides and they are all wrong in this case.
Viet Nhats drivers are always very aggressive and rude. This comes as no surprise to me at all. Avoid this company and fly if you are traveling in VN!!!!!
“do not intensify the argument to avoid physical harms” This is a threat of violence from Viet Nhat Travel company, disgusting.
Is this how Viernamese bus drivers/assistants behave?
I will not travel to Vietnam then! Very very rude.
To ALL the travellers, respect the rules of the country and policy of organizations. Otherwise, don’t travel.
The white tourists should fuck off to their own country.
Without those tourist vietnam will cry blood to raise their economy..lol
I can’t accept the bad behaviors from everyone.. I don’t know pretty sure the issue but as my experience ( just story of my side ) plenty of tourist are having bad attitude also.. I experienced it by myself … particularly Asian local people almost have a kindness attitude to the foreigners and we are nice basically unless the foreigners never under-estimate, arrogant and rude to the local people… the way they act to the local people probably un-acceptable from local side… so I think it’s not fair enough if you guys ( especially tourist just blame to the local people without seeing from the other side ) it’s just Becaused you westerners are right doesn’t mean local Asian people are wrong.. you westerners just haven’t seen it from local Asian’s side.. I don’t have any purposes to utter this statement , just telling you what’s going on between tourists and local sometimes ( in my experience at least !! ) cheers
I see many story like these about aggressive mode of asian man with foreiner tourist….in cambodia same in thailand or laos…. nothing news!!
The more bad is whem people try to save reputation of country only for save the turism market with absurd giustification and story.
Please do respect on each other. As tourist,please act like TOURIST.NOT ACT LIKE HIS OWN HOMETOWN.
if she spit on me i would gladly slap her face. there is no feminism in viet, so mind you behavior. lucky she didnt get hit. and she also made the bus driver to lose his job. poor guy. fck amarica
Sir, the tourist are from Taiwan, the white guy speaks with an English accent, what does that have to do with America. Vietnam has an amazing history, and deserves respect. If the Taiwanese woman acted as described I’d be angry too. Shame the busdriver was fired.
I am Danish, one of my kids friends is an adopted Vietnamese girl, I like your people.
Visiting Vietnam is on my list, as is China and Japan… But I will only go where I am welcome. Is this the common sentiment of Vietnam?
All foreigner tourist dont go to veitnamcome altogether boikot tour to vietnam
As we all know…working with tourism industry need us to be polite humble and loving…the driver must have been aware of the daily working situation… And if the tourist didnt do something really bad…it just impossible for the driver to erupt! Yet..the driver gotten blame and terminated… Traveller shud just follow rule and report to aithority for any miss behaviour..
Fuck the europeans, you want to visit asia but make the locals feel appreciated because respect comes both ways, you treat locals like maids and slaves and the way you talk downgrading with sneer and slight comments amond your buddies during travelling, you think all drivers uneducated? Have a spoon of the medicine.. Just be happy that you aren’t murdered and dump in the bushes
i hate westerners tourists…
u dont follow our rules, u get “fuck you”…
Nope, asians visit these countries too. So even without the presence of uncouth ang mohs,they can survive. They have been surviving even before the ang mohs discovered the country anyways. ?
Well drivers and driver’s assistants should atleast know how to speak simple English if they’re on a tourists busses. These should be compulsary requirements for a better communication!
Stupid Vietnamese driver, don’t ever come to this country for vacation. We already seen the video that Vietnamese is aggressive and very bad. I won’t make my trip to Vietnam.