Settling down at a set of lights in Saigon rush hour traffic, I was preparing to tap fingers for two minutes when I spied a pair of cream-clad traffic cops and a couple of young guys they had pulled over. The cops motioned for the bike to be moved up onto the pavement, and they obliged. As one hauled the bike over the kerb, the other took a wander over behind a tree. His actions were highly secretive, only him and all the other bored commuters around me were watching. We knew what was coming, as he took out his wallet, leafed for a while and took out a hundred. He then folded it up into the palm of his hand and emerged from behind the tree. The coppers had their ticket book out and the sidebox from whence they had taken it was wide open. As subtly as he could manage, the hundred was tossed into the box, where we expected it would stay. But nay, followers of justice, the law immediately reached in and handed the offending note back, almost with a look of disgust. The lingering thought in my mind is that the 'honest bobby' was in fact more than aware of the number of prying eyes just behind him. However, I would really love to believe that he does that all the time.
Later that day, someone actually gave way and waved me through. First time ever.
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3 comments:
That's funny. A lot of people here are a bit clueless on how to 'properly' pay a bribe to the police these days. Before it was easier, the traffic police just asked for the amount or threatened you with a higher fine if you got the ticket.
Now, you are supposed to wait for them to hand you the book with the ticket in it. When you look at it, you then will decide on how much you are willing to 'pay' for avoiding the fine. Sometimes as much as 1/2 of the fine is enough to make the police forget about the infraction.
Please do not ask me how I know this... :-)
This is interesting. Never figure he would give it back. Maybe the bill was not the right one?
I still remember my first bribe in May of 2006. It was my second night in Saigon with my nephew and we were riding around so I could see the nightlife. We got pulled over because of a light. And the frist thing he said was 50,000 (about 3 dollar or what my nephew made in a day). My nephew and I looked at each other. I was like what the hell, 50,000 (I didn't know what the exhange was yet and that see like a lot)? My nephew had no money and I had the money but the problem I had no 50,000 only 100,000 bills. So I pulled out my cash with my passport which I had with me for some idiotic reason. When he saw the passport he said, "ok, you go." When got back on and dove away as fast as we could. Not sure what scared him, him knowing that I was from another country or money I had. I talked to my nephew about it later and we both laugh and we were LUCKY. If I didn't have my passport he would of took all of my money.
So here some advice. Carry money in 2 pocket, cop money and your money. And don't bring you passport with you.
Man I enjoy reading your post, man I miss Saigon.
@_@ So that's how it works...
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