Unwanted Night visitor in my room
janaline's world journey

Unwanted Night visitor in my room

Our House in Ho Chi Minh
This was my home for the year I lived in Vietnam

 I loved the narrow three story house tucked away at the end of the alley where we lived in Ho Chi Minh city,Vietnam. Three of my co-teachers and I shared this house, in one of the Northern Suburbs, far away from the touristy areas of the city. This was the perfect place to experience the culture as I did my shopping at the local fruit and veggie market, spent afternoons at the local coffee shops with my book and tried out all the local dishes sold in the area. Doing this forced me to learn Vietnamese as there weren’t a lot of people in the area who could speak or understand English.

Our Kitchen slash TV Room
Our Living Room
Me on my yellow “buttercup” motorbike in Vietnam

 The house where we lived was huge as each one of us had a massive on suite room and if you were lucky a small balcony. Downstairs we had a kitchen slash TV room and even a small living room which we used as a garage during the rainy season so that our bikes could stay dry. Going up the winding staircase my room was on the first floor with a small balcony, the ideal place to sit and chill on a hot summers night.

My Balcony
Our Spiral staircase

At the end of the alley there was a small Cau Dai pagoda so most evenings and even at 4am in the morning we would be greeted by gongs and the ohm-ming of the worshipers. The first night this happened I jumped up and thought someone was attacking us. It took a few weeks for me to got used to these gongs and ohms at 4am and before I could sleep through them.

The Pagoda at the end of the alley
My Neighbourhood

During the summer months Ho Chi Minh city is hot, humid and even sticky, making having an air-conditioning unit in ones bedroom a necessity. Unfortunately mine broke down and they could only come and fix it later that week, so I had to find other ways of cooling down for the next couple of nights. That first night I had a cold shower and lay down on my bed with balcony doors open to cool down in the breeze. I had every intention of getting dressed and closing the doors before going to sleep, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

My bedroom and to the left is the bathroom
My bedroom

 Something woke me up in the early morning hours and as I sat up there was a small Vietnamese guy crouched next to my bed. As soon as he realized that I was awake he stood up holding my handbag and camera in one hand and my mobile phone in the other.

“You Ba&!?*d” I shouted as I got up and jumped onto this little unwanted night visitor. This caught him totally of guard and he didn’t know what to do.

My neighbourhood
Look at all the wires!!
The corner shop

I started hitting the guy, screaming at him to get out of my room and leave my stuff alone. I was definitely not going to let him get away with my things without putting up a fight. This little guy must have been just as scared as I was as he looked like he was trying to run for his life from this crazy, half naked woman attacking him.

I got him to drop my handbag and camera but he was stronger than me so pushed me off of him. Not one to give up, I jumped back up and continued to hit and scratch at this little Vietnamese visitor as he fought to get to the balcony. Pushing me away one last time, he made his getaway by jumping down from the balcony onto the street.  He must have hurt himself in the landing and I was not one bit sorry about that.

He was hobbling down the alleyway as I stood on my balcony shouting some last departing remarks at him.

View down from my balcony
View down from my bedroom

I did then realize that this must look quite a sight having this half naked foreigner standing on her balcony shouting in a strange language. So I calmly turned around, closed the balcony doors and got dressed before going down to make myself a cup of tea.

What scary travel story do you have to share?

53 comments

  1. Well that was an unwelcome adventure and no mistake! Don’t worry – it could happen just as easily in London except the weather tends to make us close our windows 😉 We slept in open lodges on a nature reserve in Zimbabwe and the only visitors we had were bats (very welcome as they were chomping the biting insects) – although the guides did suggest staying upstairs as animals visiting the nearby waterhole sometimes wandered through!

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  2. He must have been so confused. On one hand, he’s being attacked by a really attractive woman who is hair dressed and he’d have probably thought it was one of his lucky days if it wasn’t for the fact you were whacking and swearing at him. I’m glad he didn’t get away with anything. How did he get in ?

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  3. Good short film material in this one. Pitty you didn’t have a surveillance camera or so while this happened. But who keeps ome in his/her bedroom, right? 🙂
    I clicked on this post cause it seemed intriguing, not knowing it is from Vietnam. But I happen to be in Ho Chi Minh as we speak, just taking notes form my first day here. Thanks for the funny story.
    Have a good life!
    (this is my sexind attempt at a comment. Hope it doesn’t double up).

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  4. Hahaha! Authentic. Pitty he snatched the phone as otherwise some shots of him hopping away would have been a bonus addition to this. Some of these experiences are worthy of a sketch :-).
    I happen to be in Ho Chi Minh as we speak. Straded in a shop till the rain stops, taling journal notes of the day. But I won’t post them now, some other time. Still have lod of notes fromCuba to sift through till then and publish.
    But thank you for the glimpse of Vietnam here.
    Have a good life!

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  11. Yikes Janaline – good for you for putting up a fight! I’m sure I’d have freaked out and the guy would have made off with my stuff in a nanosecond!! Bet you didn’t leave your door open at night again after that!

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  14. Oh my, I was shocked when reading this! You were indeed very brave..I am not sure what I would do if I were in your position. Glad that you took over the situation bravely and showing your strength! And happy that you were safe and sound after the incident!

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  20. That sounds insane! I can’t even begin to imagine how scary/strange it would be to wake up in the middle of the night to a strange man going through my things!

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  23. The things we take for granted. Am sure the locals know the dangers of leaving your doors open especially on the second floor. The third floor would be more a challenge for an intruder. You are lucky he’s a petty thief. I wouldn’t not know what to do myself if I am confronted with the same situation. You’re brave!

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  26. Holy smokes all the things you have experienced! I have to say you handles this intruder much better than I would have, making a cup of tea after chasing him out..hehe, I had to laugh! This place looks much better than the one you had in Russia by the way:)

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  27. Oh my goodness. I have travelled a lot and thankfully this has never happened to me. So scary! Were you able to settle down after and relax in the house or were you fearful from then on? Cheryl

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