Rent of room included. Though banned in Vietnam, prostitution has never been completely eliminated β driven underground during police crackdown campaigns and thriving when police enforcement is lax. Picking up one of the girls on the streets to have a few brief moments of sexual pleasure, male customers sometimes get more than what they have bargained for.
As some men are getting ready in the toilet, the girls disappear from the hotel, together with their wallets, money and cell phones. Sometimes, the prostitutes, working in cahoots with mafia gangs, beat up their customers and rob them of all their money. Getting no response, she moved on to another man sitting on his bike nearby. They had some brief exchanges and, apparently after agreeing on the price, rode away together on their bikes.
On a stretch of street that is only meters long, running from Nguyen Chi Thanh Street to Hoa Binh Park, prostitution activities seem to go on around the clock. The girls just need to cross the street to enter another jurisdiction to escape in case of police raids or ID checks.
They used to cruise the street only at night but recently have started to hang around here all day long. As long as a guest has money, anytime is ok. Hotel staffs in the red-light districts have often become reluctant witnesses to tricks and traps set up by prostitutes to rob or steal money and other assets from their male clients. Usually, a client who appears loaded enough with money will fall victim to their traps, with the aid from other male gangsters who are also their pimps.
NVD fell into one of such traps on July 5. While he was trying to cut a bargain with her, she abruptly left the room. NVD rushed out after her only to run into three rough-looking men waiting outside who punched him in the face and asked him to pay VND, if he did not want to be beaten up. After taking VND, from him, they further demanded that he pay another VND, to cover for their fuel cost to get to the motel. Not wishing to risk his life, NVD bitterly complied with the request.
