Dean Anthony Vlassco

Footage of a ferocious and totally unprovoked assault on myself outside the only gay club in Darwin Australia, Throb Nightclub

I am the second victim.

This was aired on A Current Affair

The club owners publicly pleaded ignorance to the negligence of their security team.

I emailed them twice, and told them what had happened.

They organised a meeting with me after the footage was aired on national TV. So I took the footage off YouTube. They reneged on their meeting. Without actually contacting me. I’ve simply heard nothing from them, the meeting was supposed to be on Saturday. So I have made the video public again.

After leaving Xiang Cheng we endeavoured to keep Hitch-Hiking to Litang. A distance of about 200km. This proved to be difficult. We got a couple of rides for about 20 km each and were waiting in sub zero temperatures for quite some time without seeing a single vehicle. Eventually a mini van stopped and said he’d take us half way for 20RMB each. Determined to not pay we said no.

We ended up getting a lift for about 20km again and were in quite a remote area. We did not see a single vehicle for about 2 hrs. The guy in the mini van came back and this time we accepted his offer. None of us were too keen to spend the night on the mountain 4000m above sea level. The drive was quite nice there was a lot of interesting houses ad scenery.

He took us too a little Tibetan village where we had lunch and continued to wave down cars hopeful of a free ride. Eventually a monk driving a mini can stopped and gave us a lift a few km up the road to a temple. We had a quick look around but as it was getting late we wanted to get back to the highway.

Well we waited about 3.5 hrs in sub zero temperatures and only saw about 3 cars. So when a mini can stopped and said they’d take us for a cost. We paid it!

The deal was they’d take us halfway. Take us to a guesthouse. And pick us up at 10 am the next morning.

We spend the night in a family run guesthouse in the middle of nowhere. After we checked in all the kids and teenager came to our room to hang out with us foreigners. Through Waiye the Chinese guy who joined us at tiger leaping gorge they asked us all sorts of questions.

We also shared our space with a travelling shoe repairmen (pictured)

The 2 guys in the mini van came just after 10 to take us the rest of the way.

Well for the first time in my life I thought someone might pull a knife on me or kidnap me. The people of the area we were in have a reputation of being violet and untrustworthy.(last year a female hitch hiker was killed for her camera in this area) So when the van pulled up and one of the guys got out and into the back seat and told the strongest of us 3 to sit in the front alarm bells went off.

Klass who was in the front then pointed out there was a massive sword next to the driver. So I was getting a little worried. I got Waiye to ask why they put Klaas in the front but they ignored the question. The guy in the back asked to look at Waiyes phone and was asking the cost etc.

I was keeping note of where we were going. Getting ready to bail of we turned off the main highway. Luckily we made it alive. But the whole thing was suss.

We spent a few hours in Litang swapping photos and Klass stayed as Waiye and I keeps going.

Our next destination was Chengdu some 600 km away . We waited a little while for our next ride. Eventually 2 guys in a nice nissan patrol pulled up and took us for about 7 hrs along some of the worst roads I’ve ever been on. They were incredibly friendly and even bought us dinner.

We spent the night in a small town and started early for Chengdu.

After being rejected by a few people in nice cars, Waiye said he didn’t wanna stop any anymore. I then waved down a BMW it kept going but stopped about 300m up the road.

We walked up not sure if they’d stopped for us. Waiye chatted a bit and started getting really excited then they drive away. I asked what was going on and he said they were going to have lunch but we could meet them in an hr at a petrol station and they’d take us the final 300 or so km

So we waited. An hr came and went. I was beginning to have doubts. And then they arrived.

They were amazing people. Through Waiye we asked each other lots of questions. They were both divorced and now dating each other. He was a high ranking police official and she runs a tea house. Her son is going to Australia to study so they had a bit of curiosity.

They took us to lunch on the way and paid for us. Then when we got into Chengdu they took us to a fancy hot pot restaurant with valet parking. They invited her sister and son along. We had a fun dinner and after they insisted on paying for our hotel room.

We visited 2 Tibetan temples in Xiang Cheng. One was quite old and one was under construction (complete with a giant Buddha surrounded by scaffolding) the detail of the decoration was incredible!

We spent a day looking around Xiang Cheng. There’s not
Much in the town. The architecture is very different though and the people
Are mainly Zhang which is the Tibetan ethnic minority. So it was pretty interesting just to look around.

We spent NYE in a really colorful guest house on the back road to litang. Woke up early and met some of the other local travelers had breakfast and set up camp on the side of the main road hoping for an easy day.

We ended up waiting almost 7 hours for a ride. The road was unbelievably quiet. I honestly thought that in a country of over 1b people every road would have a little traffic. turns out this road we’d decided to take was really the road less travelled. Sometimes we wouldn’t see a car for 2 hrs.

Eventually after almost giving up a blue truck stopped. After some pleading the driver let us come along in the trailer. We drove for 7hrs in the trailer, the truck stopped every 30minutes to fill the radiator with water. The road was unsealed and DUSTY and bumpy. when the sun went down it was COLD possibly sub zero. I was wearing 3 t-shirts, a thermal top, 2 jackets, scarf, thermal underwear, my jeans and another pair of pants over top, 2 pairs of thick socks,gloves and 2 beanies and I was still sooo cold.

Eventually after crossing 2 mountains that were about 3500mtr high the truck driver dropped us off about 10km out of Xiang Cheng. It was 10:30 pm we were tired, cold and dusty.

We called a hotel and they sent a taxi to get us. We checked into a seedy hotel. But it had hot water at least. Ate food and SLEPT. It was definitely the most challenging day of hitch hiking so far! But the views on the road were amazing!