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Page 3 of 3
After visiting the man in the clinic and paying him the money, I started to relax because my problems were over. But I found out that I still had one more issue to deal with in Hoi An. The police were holding my scooter at the local impound yard, and would not return it until Monday, which was three days from then. The owner wanted it sooner than this, so he told me that I needed to come with him to the police station the next day.
“Police station!” I thought. I was not looking forward to visiting this place. “What if I get arrested, because of some local traffic law that I didn’t follow?” I asked my friend. He told me not to worry and assured me that he would join me on my official police visit the next morning.
I arrived at the police station at nine o’clock sharp, just as I had been instructed. The owner of the scooter was there to meet me, and we sat down and waited for the officer to arrive. Just as my friend and I sat down, the owner looked at us with a wry look and began to whisper. “Shhh,” he said. “I have money for police in this envelope,” he whispered as pulled out the money. “I want scooter back today, so I give money to police to get it before Monday,” he explained. “Ok, that’s your thing, man, but I don’t want anything to do with it,” I replied. “No worry, everything Ok,” he reassured me.
The policeman walked into the office, and proceeded to explain the situation, in Vietnamese of course. The scooter’s owner translated for us, and told me what I needed to do. I had to pay a $15 dollar fine because I didn’t have an international driver’s license.
So I gave the officer the money, and he also received the “eh-hem” envelope from our Vietnamese friend, and we were on our way.
The next day I was excited to leave Hoi An and travel to another place down the coast of Vietnam. I was kind of disappointed because I didn’t get to experience some things that I wanted to do there, like swim in the ocean at China Beach, or practice some more of my driving skills. I was thankful for my young translator friend from Hoi An, and for the owner of the scooter, who helped me immensely out of a sticky situation. But I was most thankful that I didn’t have to drive a scooter for a long time, at least until I wanted to have another story to tell my friends down the road.
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