The My Son ruins were nice, but the really interesting parts of today's tour happened on the bus trips there and back.
On the way to My Son I had my first experience with official corruption. Thankfully the tour guide and bus driver were the ones that had to deal with it though. Our bus was stopped for an "inspection" by some police. Apparently it failed and the driver had to pay a "fine" before we could continue on our way. Altogether we were held up for about 10 minutes and there was much frowning and huddled conversation to be seen out the window. The most amusing part was watching the guys from the bus show their empty wallets - pretending not to have any money seemed to be their primary negotiating tactic.
The longer delay (see the second picture) happened on the way back. A truck got stuck in the mud right in the middle of the road and held up traffic for almost 2 hours before we could get past. After standing around doing exactly nothing for over an hour the locals finally decided to lay down some wooden beams from the adjacent construction site. A couple trucks and one bus made it through and so our bus driver got optimistic about his chances. Oops! He missed the boards and got stuck - that's our bus in the picture. It didn't help that there was a crowd lining the side of the mud puddle leaving him only inches of room in which to maneuver. Anyway, after another 15 minutes or so they got a truck to help pull our bus out and we were on our way.
Tonight (in fact less that 30 minutes from now) I catch a bus to Nha Trang. I'm bummed about having to leave Hoi An tonight. I could easily spend another 2 or 3 nights here.
On the way to My Son I had my first experience with official corruption. Thankfully the tour guide and bus driver were the ones that had to deal with it though. Our bus was stopped for an "inspection" by some police. Apparently it failed and the driver had to pay a "fine" before we could continue on our way. Altogether we were held up for about 10 minutes and there was much frowning and huddled conversation to be seen out the window. The most amusing part was watching the guys from the bus show their empty wallets - pretending not to have any money seemed to be their primary negotiating tactic.
The longer delay (see the second picture) happened on the way back. A truck got stuck in the mud right in the middle of the road and held up traffic for almost 2 hours before we could get past. After standing around doing exactly nothing for over an hour the locals finally decided to lay down some wooden beams from the adjacent construction site. A couple trucks and one bus made it through and so our bus driver got optimistic about his chances. Oops! He missed the boards and got stuck - that's our bus in the picture. It didn't help that there was a crowd lining the side of the mud puddle leaving him only inches of room in which to maneuver. Anyway, after another 15 minutes or so they got a truck to help pull our bus out and we were on our way.
Tonight (in fact less that 30 minutes from now) I catch a bus to Nha Trang. I'm bummed about having to leave Hoi An tonight. I could easily spend another 2 or 3 nights here.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home