After an emotional farewell to Isabelle's Grandparents we pull up at the traffic lights in Trang-Bang, a coffin is being made ready over the road, someone has recently died.
Turns out the deceased was the rider of the motor cycle that was on it's side in the middle of the highway last night on the way back from the goat place.
The combination of alcohol and the belief in youthful invulnerability was pulled up short by the concrete barrier that separates the carriageways. The 22 year old had run a red light and collided with a Honda 50 pulling a trailer. All in a failed attempt to get away from the local police, no crash helmet of course. A more or less weekly occurence, so they say.
HOW THE COOKIE CRUMBLES.
Isabelle's dad hands over a small denomination note to a Saigon lottery ticket seller who is missing both arms.
There are other similar men to be seen on the streets , all about the same age, all with various amputations. Outside the ice-cream shop a regular feature is a man who wears a shoe on each hand and part of a car tyre where his legs should be. Another, who still has part of one leg, gets around on a skateboard.
"Who are these guys?" I enquire of Isabelle's dad.
"All soldiers of South Vietnamese army" is the answer. Not only unlucky enough to have something horrendous as having both legs blown off, they also happened to be on the losing side of the war.
As a result they hadn't exactly endeared themselves to the government of the last thirty years. They don't get any other money or help at all.
THE CASE AGAINST HEINZ.
One has to take for granted that any soujourn at the grass-roots level of rural Vietnam is bound to result in a catalogue of minor illness, even without eating the lettuce. I'm certainly glad to have taken a fleece as it proved to be still possible to feel cold, given the right contagion, with an air temperature languishing, in the mid 30's celsius.
What has perplexed me, despite the huge variance in diet and a daily consumption of spices, salt and beer, is the complete absence of the twin evils of indigestion and heartburn.
And yet barely out of Asia and some aspect of Air France catering 'doesn't agree'. Suspicion falls on tinned food - the Tuna. It can't be the fish itself, I've eaten more fish in 3 weeks than the last 3 years. It's all been fresh food, the only thing out of a can was beer, and most of that was in bottles anyway.
The research program will continue. No more beans ?
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