The accident

My cô giaò took me on a day trip to Vũng Tàu. The last king of Vietnam, Bảo Đại, had a summer vacation retreat there. We took a hydrofoil from Saigon to Vũng Tàu. A little over an hour trip. Any boat I've ever been on before has always felt a bit rough, even large ferrys, from the hull slapping the water. That's true on even smooth water. The hydrofoil was glass smooth all the way from Saigon to Vũng Tàu . Vũng Tàu is nearly on the sea and the water was much choppier there than in Saigon but still the smooth ride. Really impressed by the difference a hydrofoil makes.

Anyway, the accident. We took a taxi from the dock to the kings palace. The streets of Vũng Tàu are more open than in Saigon and much less crowded. Even so our taxi driver managed to bang into a motorbike at an intersection. The motorbike didn't go down and both motorbike and cab were stopped for a moment in the intersection with both drivers looking at one another. Finally the motorbike rider continued on past our taxi and pulled over to the curb.

As the motorbike was pulling away the cabbie began shouting and gesticulating toward the rider. I have no idea what he was saying of course. From my perspective the bang up was the cabbie's fault. It seemed the motorbike was clearly in front of us, crossing our path, but the cabbie kept driving forward until he bumped the motorbike.

cabbie walking toward motorbike, picture from back seat of cab!

We hit the motorbike in the middle of the intersection. In what seems typical Vietnamese fashion traffic from all four directions kept moving with the cab stopped in the intersection. We hadn't moved when the motorbike pulled over to the curb. As soon as that happened the cabbie got out, leaving us and the cab in the middle of the intersection with traffic flowing all around us, to go have a word with the motorbike rider.

Once he finished with the motorbike rider our cabbie came back to the car and prepared to continue the journey. At that moment a police van with four police inside pulled in front of the cab blocking our path. Now a police vehicle and the cab were both stopped in the middle of the intersection and traffic from all four directions continued to flow by. The cabbie got out and spoke loudly with many gestures to the cop in the front passenger seat. He then returned to the cab, the police van pulled away and we proceeded on our way.

After cô giaò spoke with the cabbie I learned the motorbike rider apparently apologized to the cabbie for blocking his way. Didn't learn what the cabbie and cop spoke about. Apparently that's all there is to a no damage traffic accident in Vietnam.