They come in threes.

As the old adage goes – things come in threes. After the Vietnamese Massage Mafia Affair – as I now fondling...I mean fondly refer to it – Saturday evening saw more inner-city mayhem hit the streets of Saigon.

Christoff and I were on our way to meet some friends at a club called Bottomlime in Discrict 1 (basically the city centre with all the fancy hotels and skyscrapers), but we couldn’t find the damn place after about half an hour's walking and asking for directions. We hooked up with two Spanish guys, Luis and Eddy, spending their first day in HCMC and looking for a place to go out so we dragged them along. We decided a taxi might be the best idea so the four of us hopped in a cheap one.

We were happily cruising towards our destination when we spotted some bustling in the street ahead. Chris said he witnessed one guy running up to another dude and stabbing him in the back. The Spanish guys and I didn’t see it, but our taxi driver sure did, because he slammed on the brakes, popped the boot, jumped out and grabbed something like a monkey-wrench and ran towards the fight. Suddenly it was like a Smackdown free-for-all with guys jumping in and swinging at each other left, right and centre.

I was staring agape at this confusion when I noticed I was sitting alone in this taxi – Chris was half way down the road in the opposite direction and Luis and Eddy were hot on his heels. Sensibly, I followed and we got the hell out of there. We found out later that evening from another taxi driver that the guy who got stabbed was quickly taken to hospital and was alright.

These guys can give Kwazulu-Natal or the Cape Flats' taxi violence a run for their money. Well that’s two strikes, first the Massage Mafia Affair, then the Saigon Showdown – I wonder what the third one’s going to be...