Foreign tourist charged $7.6 for hair braiding in northern Vietnam

The current Tuyen Quang Province is a merger of the former Tuyen Quang Province and neighboring Ha Giang Province, effective from July 1, as part of a recent major administrative restructuring in which Vietnam’s total number of provinces and cities was reduced to 34 from 63.

Vi Mai Loc, a local tour guide in Tuyen Quang, shared the incident with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, describing the unpleasant experience of one of his female guests on Sunday at Tham Ma Slope in Pho Bang Commune.

According to Loc, the group had just stopped at the site around 11:30 am when several children immediately approached the tourists.

Before the guests could even remove their helmets, the children pulled them aside. 

The area was crowded, so Loc could not monitor all the guests at once, and each tourist was taken to a different spot by a group of children.

Around six to eight children and elderly women surrounded each tourist to braid their hair and adorn it with flowers. 

The entire activity lasted just two to three minutes.

“One of the female tourists asked me how much to pay. I reluctantly suggested giving them VND10,000–20,000 [$0.4-0.8]," Loc recalled.

“But as she opened her wallet, the children and women pointed to the larger bills—VND200,000 [$7.6] and VND500,000 [$19.1]. 

"Before she could choose, one of them snatched a VND200,000 note from her hand."

After the tourist raised her concern, Loc tracked down the person who had taken the money.

After questioning the children involved, he was able to retrieve the VND200,000 from an elderly woman. 

The woman expressed dissatisfaction, blaming the children for revealing what had happened.

Following this, another tourist from Canada also reported a similar experience and asked Loc for help, though he was unable to recover the money in that case.

“The Canadian guest stayed silent for about 15 minutes and didn’t say anything," Loc said.

"She was likely still processing what had just happened.

“As a tour guide, I felt ashamed and apologized to her."

Giang Xuan Thang, secretary of the Pho Bang Party Committee, told Tuoi Tre on Monday that he was aware of the incident reported by the tour guide.

He stated that local police had been assigned to verify the information and that a task force would be formed to ensure public order and security at the site.