Walk A Mile In My Shoes

Not everything is cheap in Hanoi, some things have the potential for being very, very, expensive. For example...

NEW SCAM # 1

(new to Mundain only)

if you stop at a Hanoi intersection and you feel something tugging at your shoes...

RUN AWAY AND RUN QUICKLY!

In the hope of increasing public awareness, Mundain did not run...instead looking down he saw...

...a young, homeless, innocent, mute street boy
repairing passersby shoes (Mundain's), eking out an existence

Feeling compassion for the young lad, Mundain allowed the poor fellow, who had deftly removed my well traveled sandals while I still standing in them, to superglue and stitch repair the same.

Now, should this happen to you and if you are fortunate enough to be as astute as Mundain, you will quickly discover that the young, homeless, mute boy:

1) will not be a young boy but actually a small, wiry, young man
2) is not likely homeless but associated with a gang of like minded compatriots
3) is not so innocent but, rather, a seasoned street scammer
4) is definitely not mute when he vocally demands 800,000 Dong for his repairs while menacingly holding a 6" needle and a razor knife and having a squirt bottle of superglue at his disposal.

If I hadn't been performing a public service by increasing tourist awareness of this scam, I wouldn't have let him touch my sandals, much less ultimately pay him 100,000 Dong (for what amounted to a 10,000 Dong repair, I later discovered).

But since I was doing it pro bono, I didn't want to risk a squirt of superglue in the eye and thus add physical blindness, to the other forms of blindess already afflicting me (so I am told), namely emotional, intellectual,  discernibility ... and the list goes on.

NEW SCAM # 2

(again, new to Mundain only)

BEWARE WHEN APPROACHED BY WOMEN LIKE THESE...KEEP 5 METERS DISTANCE

Woman #1

Woman #2

IF YOU DO NOT STAY AWAY,  YOU WILL END UP LIKE THIS....

Mrs. Mundain was unsuspectingly and instantly transformed as a street scammer
deftly threw a coolie hat over her tourist head and transferred the fruit laden balancing pole.

    Now, Mr. Mundain, thinking this was a cute photo op, snapped a few as memoirs of our travels....

THE SCAMMER WILL DEMAND A LARGE SUM FOR TAKING A PHOTOGRAPH!

How does that saying go again?   "Fool me once ...."

Mundain Out (of it)