Bye Bye beautiful!

We sold the bikes! It was a painful goodbye. It highlighted how big money brings out the worst in many people. Lying, ignoring, being rude and even stealing seems to be part of the deal. Well, humanity, you disappoint me! No, that is not completely true. When I shared my story on our Instagram the number of kind words, positive reactions and love I received were overwhelming! Thank you! Thanks to all of you who still believe in honesty and understood my disappointment in the people we were dealing with. For those who don’t know what happened, maybe a little background. Before arriving in Ho Chi Minh we were already contacted by quite some people who were really interested in buying the bikes. One guy even wanted to come all the way from Cambodia! The first day in Ho Chi Minh we met up with one of the potential buyers. He was really interested and wanted to buy both bikes on the spot, but we told him we gave our word to the guy coming from Cambodia that we would wait to sell the bikes till he arrived. Honesty above everything… What a stupid idea! The second day we met with some other people and the third day the guy from Cambodia arrived. Meanwhile, the first guy had dropped all contact and a guy from the second day kept stalking me with messages that our official documents were false so that we had to sell our bikes to him for peanuts. He even got rude and angry when we told him that was not going to happen. Happily, we sold the bikes to Max, the French guy coming from Cambodia. What a mistake! At noon we signed all the documents and he paid the money for one bike. He didn’t have all the money yet, but would give it to us in the evening. A deal is a deal, right? So we gave him one bike and all the spare parts, locks and luggage nets for both bikes. Yet another mistake! In the evening we got another message saying he didn’t have the money yet as his friend had to send it from Cambodia. We honestly told him we didn’t like this and didn’t really trust the situation. He gave us his word and yet again we trusted him. With nothing else to do, we went to bed a little agitated, but happy to know the hassle was nearly over. This was more than a mistake, stupid, stupid us! In the morning we realized the truth with a message saying his friend had bought another bike back in Cambodia. While he gave us his word he actually knew his friend was buying another bike, but he didn’t want to break the deal before he was sure of the other. All we asked Max in return was to bring us back the spare parts worth about 70usd for the bike he didn’t buy. Not too much to ask, right? Well, his response was…Euhm… Nothing! He completely ignored us! Making a mistake is one thing, not having the courage to face it is another. By contacting his girlfriend I found out they had already left and were on their way back to Cambodia. Business is business. So when doing business one should apparently not shy away from lying and stealing. That’s why these huge companies get away with destroying rainforests, land-grabbing, spreading cancer and ruining peoples lives. It’s all about the money. Now I understand!