Project Runaway

It was a rainy day in Hue. Dwayne and I head out with our umbrellas in the downpour. Inside the first set of walls we stop to check our guidebook and get our bearings. A man with a cyclo (rickshaw) approaches and asks where we are going. We tell him we want to see the Forbidden palace. He shakes his head and says that we are too late, it will be closed by the time we get there. I am not sure I believe him. He says that he can take us on a nice tour within the walls for one hour. He names his price and I think that he is trying to rip us off. I say no and start walking again (in the wrong direction) in the pouring rain. Dwayne calmly points out that I have misunderstood that the price is for both of us, that we each get our own cozy rickshaw and it is for an hour. And it converts to about $5 USD.

We go back to the cyclo fellow and his friend with the other cyclo. I am a bit ashamed of myself for jumping to the wrong conclusion. We head out in our respective cyclos. I get the original negotiator as my driver. He points out things and talks about the city and its history. I see that he must be very poor and pedaling in the rain in flip flops with a plastic bag for a jacket on a rickety cyclo is very hard work. We are taken to a temple with Buddhist nuns, the first I have ever seen. The driver than shares that he was a monk for many years. But his mentor and teacher released him because he was the only male left alive in his family to carry on the family line and care for his mother and ancestors.

We go to his former temple and he points out the orphanage nearby. The building  is 400 years old and looks like it is about to fall over. There are no children to be I heard and I wonder where they all are. He says that he was training to read palms and asks to see our hands. He says that he has a gift for being able to look into a persons face and seeing things. We have not shared our story with him, he does not know who we are or why we are traveling. He looks at Dwayne first and says that Dwayne always does his work with great detail, that he is diligent and that there are those who envy him. He says that I am a tiger when it comes to family that I am very loyal and that I would do anything for my family. He says I am worried about money. He tells me not to worry, that the money will come back. He says to tell my son that the road he has been on was very difficult but that it is going to get easier.

This unexpected day in the rain with the unexpected monk becomes an unexpected gift. When we finally return to where we met, I pay him double the fee he originally asked.