My Taxi Guy is Great

There is a regular xe om guy who sits outside of our apartment building all day, who was for a week and a half, "my guy," who would talk me to the Elementary school each day, while "Steven's guy" would take him to his school. Since I haven't been going in the morning, occasionally "my guy," who I raved about the Steven for his patience, happy countenance, laid back demeanor and cautious driving style, takes Steven, and he is similarly pleased with his service.

Since I discovered the buses, I haven't been taking the xe om's in the morning when I go off to run my errands, but my guy still smiles and waves. This this afternoon, I was supposed to meet Steven after school to walk over to the gym and was running late, so I asked my guy to take me to "Le Hong Phong," the street where Steven's school is and he happily obliged. It was so nice to get on and know that I would get exactly where I wanted to go, for exactly what I wanted to pay because Steven pays 15,000d every morning.

When we got to the school, I got off, handed him his helmet and fished out a 20,000d bill. He looked at me and shook his hand in a gesture we've come to learn means, "no," or "I don't have any," or "I don't understand," or "I don't need to get off the bus here;" basically negating whatever is going on at the moment. In this case it meant, "I have no change for that." We sat that for an instant and I began to dig in my purse to see if I have exact change, before thinking, 'I should just give him the twenty.' When I looked up to communicate that, he looked at me and pointed up in the air indicating somewhere else. I immediately understood that he would give me the change when I saw him next at our apartment. I smiled and handed him the 20,000d bill.

When Steven and I came walking up the sidewalk after our workout and a brief stop at Saigon Supermarket for some coconut milk and snacks, my driver came running up to us holding out a 5,000d bill and said thank you to me in Vietnamese. My taxi guy is great.