I thought about it for a moment, hoping in vain that Chau might turn out to be the English speaker. "I beg your pardon?"

He licked his tooth. "Eurhafy? Eu hafy?" he repeated, getting louder. He flashed a stunning two inches of gum in an explanatory smile. I grinned back. I was indeed happy, deliriously so, to be riding among endless fields of emerald green in the Mekong Delta. It was a dream come true. By now I detested everything about my guides, from their city shoes to their droopy-lidded lies. They no longer made any effort to hide their disdain for me, nor their intention of acquiring maximum amounts of my money with minimum effort. There was nothing I wanted more than to quietly pack my bags and disappear, and spend the next few blissful days riding the Mekong while relishing the image of their panic when they awoke to find their meal ticket gone.