A Friendly Encounter

It was my third day in Vietnam, and Professor Biggs arranged a cyclo tour for the afternoon. It was interesting to see everyone gather in the lounge because there were so many different personalities interacting with each other. After Professor Biggs gave the word to walk outside, the students were greeted by over 20 cyclo drivers. One particular driver was looking at me with a big smile. He was a short man, wearing a beige hat, collared shirt, long pants, and sandals. He shouted “oi,“ and began to walk towards me. I gave a crooked smile, and in politeness I extended my hand to greet him. The individual aggressively grasped my hand and violently shook my arm up and down. After ten shakes, which is seven more than usual for me, I attempted to pull my arm away; however, he grasped my hand even tighter and escorted me across the street. I’m sure it was an interesting sight to see a tall American being dragged across the street by a tinier man. We walked up to his cyclo and he kindly asked me to sit down. Apparently, my driver forgot we were holding hands and we had a brief moment where we were just staring at each other. The whole time I was thinking to myself, “why is he smiling so much?” After I glanced at my hand, he laughed and finally released his grip. After a few moments of awkward silence, my driver asked me for my name. I said, “my name is Charles, what is your name?… Ian… Ti-yen… Tin?” It took me another three times to pronounce Tien correctly. Around that time everyone settled down and was prepared to go. The cyclo drivers pushed off the curb and the group began to tour a small portion of the city. Tien didn’t know much English, but he did his best to explain some historic structures. At one of the stops, Professor Biggs said it was one of the hottest days in Hue. I felt bad my driver had to push a relatively large individual around the city, so I asked Tien if he wanted a ride to the pagoda. He chuckled and said ok. I found out it was quite difficult to steer the cyclo. The passenger needs to stay completely neutral in order for the cyclo to go straight, but Tien constantly leaned to the left to talk to me. I couldn‘t understand a word he was saying because I was panicking, trying to keep the cyclo on the right side of the road. I was using all my strength to turn right to compensate for Tien’s weight on the left. We actually drifted off towards oncoming traffic (fortunately mopeds can dodge runaway cyclos). Tien didn’t know the seriousness of our predicament because he was not looking at the road, he was looking at me… he just kept smiling. Fortunately, one of the other drivers yelled at Tien to sit normally and I was able to regain control of the cyclo. At the end of the tour, I exchanged a few words with Tien and said goodbye to my smiling friend.
The next day it was around lunchtime and the students were getting ready to eat at a nearby restaurant. I walked outside, and I saw Tien waving at me from the front gate. I walked up to greet him and I found out he rented mopeds and bikes to guests at the hotel. In fact, some student were able to rent mopeds from his friends in the morning. Since Tien worked outside of the hotel, I had the pleasure of talking to him everyday. It became second nature for me to shake his hand before I left the hotel. Dennis, Angie, and Sonny (3 other students) also developed a friendly relationship with their cyclo drivers, and the four of us decided to sit outside and converse with the drivers. Angie was the only Vietnamese speaker, and she did a great job translating for the rest of us. I was able to show a few card tricks, and we played a game similar to thirteen. That day we made plans to go fishing, and eventually we were invited to his eat at Tien's house. So cheers to my first friend from Vietnam.