If you are looking for reasons to love Vietnam, Albany Owens, an English expat in Hanoi, can give you a convincing one.
Owens was the author of a heartwarming story that went viral on Facebook on Tuesday, recalling how she found “reasons to love Vietnamese people” after receiving help from two local drivers of the app-based motorbike taxi GrabBike in the capital. Reporting by TuoiTre News
Upon getting off her GrabBike after a morning ride, the British woman dropped her purse and all her money and bank cards came out, with her Vietnamese bank card “[going] down the very deep and dirty drain,” she said on her Facebook.
Even though she was upset by the incident, Owens told her driver and another GrabBike employee standing nearby “not to bother getting it for their own safety [because] it was only a card.”
Much to her surprise, two minutes later, Owens heard someone shouting “Hello,” and turned back, only to see the two GrabBike drivers had already retrieved her card.
“My driver and his mate had opened the grid and my driver decided to fully get in the grim hole and fish out my card,” she recounted in the Facebook post, which received thousands of likes and shares.
“He even tried to give me my taxi fare back. I gave him what was left in my purse and a big hug,” the lucky GrabBike passenger said in ending her post, attached with two photos capturing the scene.
Owens confirmed the story to Tuoi Tre News via Facebook Messenger later on Tuesday.
“I gave him some money to say thank you,” she said.
“And he tried to give me my money back but I told him to keep it and my [payment for the GrabBike ride].”
By Son Luong