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Jul 21, 2018 / 12:02

The cyclo driver not culprit in joss paper's case

A Spanish tourist who reportedly was given the change in joss paper by a cyclo driver and went viral on social media Facebook had a meeting with representatives of the Hanoi Tourism Department and Hoan Kiem district police on July 19.

After returing from a tour to Sapa, Miguel Angel Fernandez Lamelas affirmed that the cyclo driver had not returned any joss paper as seen in the video, so cyclo driver wasn’t the culprit.
 
Miguel Angel Fernandez Lamelas has a meeting with the Inspector of the Hanoi Tourism Department and Hoan Kiem district Public Security on July 19.
Miguel Angel Fernandez Lamelas has a meeting with the Inspector of the Hanoi Tourism Department and Hoan Kiem district Public Security on July 19.
According to the Spanish tourist, the cyclo driver charged him a total of VND1.5 million (US$64.5), including three banknotes of VND500,000 (US$22) each, for a 10-minute drive and did not return any money. However, this cyclo driver took the price too high for the distance from the Hang Da market to Hoan Kiem lake for such a ride.
While moving from the Hang Da market to the Nghia Thuc Square, the tourist stopped to buy a hat at a shop on Hang Bong street for VND60,000. Miguel Angel Fernandez Lamelas gave the salesperson a VND500,000 (US$22) banknote and was returned VND440,000 (US$19.3). Later, Miguel Angel Fernandez Lamelas gave a tip of VND100,000 (US$4.4) to the salesperson.
After buying the hat, cyclo driver took the two guests to a fast food shop near the Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc square. The journey lasted only about 10 minutes. When the Spanish tourist paid, the cyclo driver took out three VND500,000 notes from Miguel and continued to reach into this traveler's wallet to get another note. However, Miguel Angel Fernandez Lamelas refused to pay more as. After that, the cyclo rider carried US$64.5 and went away without returning any money to these two travelers.   
After getting off the pedicab, Miguel and his friend spent about 20 minutes at the fast food shop, until about 7:00 pm they left the shop and took a taxi to their hotel at 462 Ngoc Thuy, Gia Lam district.
Upon arriving at the hotel, Miguel gave the taxi driver VND500,000 (US$22) and was given change, but he could not remember exactly either how many notes the driver gave or the total amount.
On July 17, the two Spanish guests took a taxi from the hotel to Hang Thung street for a tour to Sapa. That was when Miguel paid for the taxi ride that the driver said the money was “joss paper” that was worthless. So, based on the origin of these three funeral papers, Miguel and his friend asserted that they were not from the cyclo driver.
Accordingly, after identifying the cyclo driver, the Hoan Kiem district police met with the cyclo driver to take his declaration. Based on the information from the two Spanish tourists, the police are actively investigating the case. The police pledged to strictly handle the case to preserve the image of Hanoi as an attractive tourist destination.