Day 15: Renata vs Corruption...and honesty wins!

It's finally time to reunite with Thao and Dan, and many of their family members and relatives! Meeting Thao and attending Van's wedding was the priority of my journey through Vietnam....and the time has come to finally meet Thao's entire family !

So exciting!

I arrived a few minutes before Thao....and had to walk from the domestic to the international terminal, as Dan organised our meeting :)

Once at the international terminal....I had the chance to hug Dan, and some of Thao's family....who were waiting eagerly to both of our arrival..... the suspense was building.....and Thao was still no where to be seen!

Finally, Thao appears from the crowd ...head down....walking passed me straight to her family....Dan and I look at each other surprised....and wait to see what is going on.  Thao is talking fast ....and everyone looks very concerned while they are listening to her....

Dan, goes over to the group to see what is going on.....and comes back to me with this story:
"The customs guy is asking Thao for cash payment for the gifts she's bringing into the country.  He's demanding $100 in cash...and well Thao was not prepared for this surprise."

While her family is calling around friends for help....the Romanian instinct ignites within me..... the experience of growing up in an ex-communist country is seemingly useful to have when faced with such situation.....and it just might save Thao some trouble.

I approach Thao, and explain to her that if she wants....I can go in and demand to pay using Mastercard.  No blackmail will be done over paper copy ....plus I'm a foreigner and they rather not mess with me :)

At first, everyone is silent......Thao thinks about my plan .....then with her family's support ....Renata's plan is about to unfold ....

I walk past security....and immediately they wanted to stop me....but Thao quickly explained what I told her, which is to tell them that I'm picking up 'my' luggage.....but I was walking too fast for Thao to actually translate my sentence.....and we were both through the double doors ...without much resistance....security could not keep up to me.....

Then, arriving to customs.....the gentleman who refused to let Thao through with her luggage.....with a complete stunned face....greets both Thao and I.....but without hesitation, I immediately sign "Mastercard" and funnily enough.....I realize that either mastercard is a universal sign....or I am extremely good at sign language :)

The guy was so scared of my request to pay using mastercard that he immediately pointed to Thao's luggage.....and told us to move on.

Corruption, nil.....Renata and Thao, 1 ....!

I do love it when 'creative' honestly trumps corruption .......

However, after having a great laugh with Thao's family in the car.....I started to think about the reality of this experience occurring to me in Romania.  If this was the case on my end...within my familiar country....I think I would have been just as scared as Thao.

You see, it is much more difficult to speak up against your own 'kind' (sort of speak) ....as people of authority could in fact make up a story, and find a reason to put you away in jail.

As we were driving home to Thao's place....I was contemplating that maybe this is not something I should repeat next time.

But it sure makes for an awesome dinner story for the next little while  :)

Cheers
R :)


After Thao received her luggage