Bridge Collapse in the Mekong Delta - or: how to cool off in the ride fields

Several weeks after the devastating bridge collapse in Minn./St. Paul, a bridge collapsed in the Mekong Delta, causing one person and his bike to take a bath in the mud-filled waters.

As Mark Bardeleben was crossing a make-shift wooden bridge, clearly constructed to carry the weight of a typical Vietnamese farm worker, one of the logs cracked and caused the bike and its rider to take a bath in the murky, muddy waters. Fortunately, Mark and the camera he had in his pocket (hence no pictures of the incident) remained unharmed! A woman who had witnessed the whole thing invited Mark to wash off at her house. So our tour guide lowered a bucket into a well behind the house, and poured it over Mark, with several by-standers watching - with huge smiles on their faces. The news of the "foreigner" taking a bath travelled fast through the village...and off we went, knowing this would be a story we will still be telling in the old-people's home....