Bitten by a Rat on Party Street — A Traveler’s Tale
The Mystery
T’was the night before Wednesday, and all through Bui Vien Street (HCMC, Vietnam). Many creatures were stirring, many of them backpackers.
If you’ve never been to Bui Vien in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, I can tell you it’s like Khao San road in Bangkok. If you’ve never been to Khao San road, then imagine your nearest city’s party street with a lot of street vendors and people begging you to come into their bar. It’s a fun experience, loud too. Overall, Bui Vien is a great place for people-watching and cheapish drinks.
So there I am sitting with a friend drinking my $2 mango smoothie, observing the young Vietnamese crowd, when all of a sudden I feel a pinch on my left big toe. Immediately lookingatown to my bare foot and flip-flop on the ground, I couldn’t see anything that could have caused the pinch. Maybe I had caught a sharp edge in the concrete. Perhaps a stick? Nope. Nothing. I didn’t see anything. Needless to say, I was perplexed alongside my friend because I started to think she thought I was crazy.
“Maybe it was a rat”, she joked.
“Huh… Maybe”, I replied unwillingly.
