Anyone who has been to Saigon would be aware of the footpath vendors that sell various things like individual cigarettes. The taxi drivers and cycelo boys can only afford to buy one at a time so these guys are on most corners.

 

The rumour was about that the Viet Cong was loading up the little blue and yellow Renault taxi cabs with plastic explosives and when they managed to get some G.I.s aboard, they would abandon the car and set off the bomb.

The word about was to never stay in a cab without the driver.

 

I and two of the other guys in the band were off somewhere one day when the taxi pulled up at a set of lights, and the taxi driver jumped out. In mid sentence we all bolted from the cab as a natural reaction to self preservation. The taxi driver went to a vendor and bought a cigarette and jumped back in the driver's seat. We all sprung back into the cab...... the lights changed...... and we took off and continued our conversation, hardly missing a beat.

 

It was not till we had gone down the road a ways that we realised what had taken place and all broke up laughing.

Self preservation came natural after being " in country" for a while.