A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
Now, you'd think that such an experience as the one described below would have led to my living a more cautious, circumspect life here in Saigon. Of course, if you think that, you don't know me very well. Because it's not that I go out of my way to get into weird situations; I back into them because I'm not paying close enough attention.

Yesterday, for example, I metamorphosed into SuperKaty, Crime Fighter of Saigon! Or to be more honest, it was more like it was SuperClover, Crime Fighter of Saigon. I played the Robin role in this scenario, though without any cheesy bodysuits involved.

I was up in Pham Ngu Lao with Clover, an American woman who is visiting the city for just a few days. Those who have read previous entries of this weblog know that I view this backpacker area of Saigon to be an unbearable den of thieves and potential victims, and I generally avoid it like the plague. But it was Clover's first day here, her map was very limited, and she was staying near there, so we arranged to have lunch in the heart of Pham Ngu Lao.

After a leisurely lunch we decided to wander up the street to get massages from the blind masseuses a couple blocks up. So there we are, chatting and walking and minding our own business, when a kid runs past us and grabs Clover's bag from around her neck, cutting the strap with a knife and zipping toward his motorbike parked conveniently a few dozen yards from where we were. This sort of crime is distressingly common these days in Saigon, and normal the result is that the victim is on the ground with some serious neck bruises. Clover was one of the "lucky" ones who were blessed with a knife-wielding purse-snatcher, however, and before I could really register what was going on she was after him at a dead run. She's from New York, and clearly wasn't going to stand for that kind of thing.

And she caught the guy too, making a valiant effort to stop his motorbike from moving. I, meanwhile, was a few seconds behind, and reached the scene in time to grab the bag and push the guy over while Clover hung onto the back of the bike and screamed "You Shithead!" over and over. We all went over -- I fell backwards onto the sidewalk (becoming a habit, isn't it?) and Clover and the robber fell kind of under the bike into the street. Really, the whole thing was bizarre and vaguely farcical, and the folks on the street clearly found it remarkable as well, as they all circled around us after it was all over. And by that I mean after it was well over. The locals definitely weren't interested in assisting during the actual fracas.

The most amazing thing was that after we got the bag back and dusted ourselves off, the driver remained there, yelling at us! Gee, so sorry to have interfered with you doing your job, buddy.

© 2003 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 4:59 AM