If you follow my blog on steemit you already know that I rode a cheap Honda motobike from Hanoi to Saigon last year. If you didn't - now you know.
Anyway, while doing that, I experienced one very special moment somewhere in the midst of literally nowhere that I want to share with you. It began with losing the chain of my motobike in front of a little shop in a mountain village in central Vietnam. The chain flipped before, but losing it was a new situation to me. So I stopped, parked the bike, went 50 metres back and found it lying on the street.
The owner of the little shop spoke no English, so we had to communicate by gestures and my very very poor Vietnamese only. He took the chain, went away with it and returned five minutes later with some additional chain links to replace the broken one. Unfortunately they all were very rusty. We tried to integrate the pieces for half an hour and stopped after great unsuccess.
After some Vietnamese swearings my helper went to his scooter, removed a chain link and gave it to me. I asked him if he was sure (hopefully he was able to understand the meaning) and he just smiled and gave me a thumbs up.
When I put out my wallet to pay for the chain and the good service, he just continued smiling and repeadtedly refused to take any money. This reaction was very new and very touching to me, because I'm sure that you'd rarely experience something like this in the western world.
Looking back, this is the most beautiful memory that I collected during my journey through Vietnam.