Amazing coincident in Vietnam!!!!

[hugomez]

Hi all,

What just happened to me is beyond incredible. I am right now in Vietnam on holidays. Yesterday I book a tour to visit "Cu Chi Tunnel" to learn some more about the Vietnam war. The way by bus from my Hostel to that location was 2 hours. In some point of the trip, the bus stop in a traffic jam and I look to the side, suddenly here it was, a silver Formichino!!!!. I could not believe it. So I took as fast as I could one photo (First photo below), and register the map location in my phone.

This morning I took a scooter taxi that took me there (by scooter it took around 40 minutes). When I arrived two people were working on it. I introduced myself, however non of them speak a word of English, and my Vietnamese is none, so I show him the Rumi t-shirt I was wearing and by signals I start trying to make him understand that I am an enthusiast of the brand.

Because I was expecting a difficult communication between us, I took my computer, so we start talking writing in Google translator. His name is "Dang Thanh Tri" and he own that shop and that Formichino many years ago. His passion is more focus on Motobecane / Mobylette, very specialised on it, with many of them in beautiful condition in the shop, but his Formichino is very special for him.

He told me that in Ho Chi Minh / Saigon, with almost 9 million people, there are only 4 Rumi Formichino in existent, it is extremely rare here. How high was the possibility that looking throughout the window of the bus I spotted one of them, well, pretty low I am sure. I am still amazed. Specially because in this city there are scooters EVERYWHERE, millions of them.

I show him photos of my several Rumi, photos of the French Rumi Club meeting and this forum. He gave to me in return as gratification for the visit, a t-shirt of his shop. Even if the communication was not easy, I felt very welcome not only with him, but all other people that was working in his shop.

Below you can see his shop business card, in case any of you pass by "Ho Chi Minh" (Saigon) and decide to pay a visit to him.

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[RF125]

Congratulations Hugo! Beautiful trip!!! I believe these other three Formi, are from Vietnam... Can you found it??

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viet-nam-2.jpg (101.43 KiB) Viewed 1711 times

Regards;

Claudio

[hugomez]

Hi Claudio,

Yes, I know there are some more Formichino scooters in Vietnam, some of the owners are members of the forum. I sent two emails trying to contact them, but not reply. I don't know if they are in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) or other cities of the country.

Pity I will not be able to meet any other Vietnamise Rumi owner while I am here, tomorrow I will fly to another city and then I will change country.

Nevertheless, meeting "Dang Thanh Tri" was totally unexpected, so very happy for that.

[RUMISTI]

Hugo, congratulations, your optician did a good job and sold you perfect glasses.
Good journey continues, lots of fun and luck.
Rudolf

[Lars]

Hugo, yes that is quite a coincidence! And in Vietnam, of all places.

Spectacular Formichino, too. One of the best polishing jobs I have seen.
Strange signal horns (I assume), though. They look like sirens.

Great story, great pictures! Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Lars

[hugomez]

Hugo, congratulations, your optician did a good job and sold you perfect glasses.
Good journey continues, lots of fun and luck.
Rudolf

Thank you Rudolf, the journey continue!!!

Hugo, yes that is quite a coincidence! And in Vietnam, of all places.
Spectacular Formichino, too. One of the best polishing jobs I have seen.
Strange signal horns (I assume), though. They look like sirens.
Great story, great pictures! Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Lars

I guess the tiny original horn of the Formichino doesn't do much in Vietnam, where they are all using it like crazy, the horn is definitely an important item of the bikes.
For your disappointment it was not polished, but using vinyl on it, but certainly it looks good.