Vietnam was my least favorite country during our trip. I’m not sure why, probably the endless rain, the guided tours, the rat infested zoo and the chained-up baby monkey dressed in a smock named Tony Blair. But there were a couple of fun experiences for Michelle, Jen and I. Sliding down the waterslides with thousands of Vietnamese school children staring, crawling through the Cuchi Tunnels drenched in sweat, throwing trash into the delta like the locals, and the fender-bender that Michelle writes about below.

Subject: Mekong Was Fun, Now We are Moving On…

Date: December 4, 2000

Hi everyone-
We just got back from our 3 day trip in the Mekong Delta, it was pretty fun, but will probably not go on another “guided tour” (more about that later…). Anyway, we are fine (despite my nasty cold) and we will be moving out of Saigon and on to the sand dunes of Mui Ne, which is up the coast a bit. Not sure how long we will be there, but will probably stay a while to recover from the pollution of Ho Chi Mihn City (or “the Ho” as we like to call it).

We got in a little fender-bender in a taxi today, but we are all just fine and dandy, but are so ready to get away from all the hubbub of Saigon. Of course, we had to pay someone off because the police are corrupt here, and the entire process was actually worth the $4 it cost to fix the door of the taxi. Basically, if someone gets in a car accident here, the two parties argue on the street until one party tires of arguing and decides to pay. Calling the police is completely out of the question. Luckily, the woman who runs our guesthouse is wonderful and we called her and she came to the accident right away and got our fine reduced from $8 to $4 (I know, I know, it’s nothing but when you are trying to live on 15 dollars a day, and have no income, it really adds up!), and she was able to translate for us. We bought her flowers as a thank you gift. The best part about it was that they could care less about “our side of the story”. It’s not like in the states, where all parties involved get to testify. Our friend Tan simply rode her scooter to the site, said hello to us and began talking to the taxi driver and trying to lower our fines. Ok, so I gotta go. We will probably not have access to email for a few weeks.

Hope all is well,
Michelle & Charlie