Tag Archives: Roadtrip

The story about Hai Van Passage

Age: 42

Context:
My relative who really enjoys taking road trips on his motorbike in different cities in Vietnam told me about this legend about the Hai Van Passage. It was once the busiest passage that connected major cities in the central part of Vietnam. However, its poor infrastructure along with foggy weather due to high altitude led to many traffic accidents.

The Story:
A woodcutter lived at the foot of the Hai Van Passage. One cold, rainy day near Lunar New Year, he went into the mountains to gather wood but on his way back, he got completely lost despite knowing the mountain really well.

As the night fell, he found an abandoned shrine and fell asleep there. In the middle of the night, he woke up to loud voices. Peeking out, he saw a horrifying scene: dozens of oddly figured bodies with missing limbs or torn flesh. They were supposedly ghosts of people who had died in accidents on the pass.

The “leader” of the spirits said that the next morning at 9 a.m., a passenger bus with 38 people would pass by. Their goal was to push it off the cliff and kill everyone except one pregnant woman. The woodcutter was frightened but remained silent until dawn.

As soon as morning came, he rushed down the mountain and waited in the middle of the road. When the bus arrived, he stopped it and asked how many passengers were inside and whether or not there was a pregnant woman. Shockingly, every detail matched what the woodcutter heard.

Eventually, they canceled the trip and made offerings to the spirits. The driver of the bus retired after escaping death. That day, the woodcutter didn’t just survive the night, he saved 38 lives.

The Informant’s Thoughts: My relative found this a really intriguing story. Despite not entirely believing in superstitions or mythical creatures, he often told this story to his friends who share the same passion for cross-country road trips with him. Aside from that, he also thought that this was a marketing scheme for nearby temples and charm or amulet sellers.

Analysis: This story really creeped me out, especially when the interview was conducted at night for me, while my relative was enjoying his bright and sunny noon break. On reflection, this story truly adds cultural value to the area around Hai Van Passage, especially since Buddhism is dominant there. Not only that, the story also serves as a subtle warning for drivers to remain cautious, as the pass is well known for its challenging and potentially dangerous conditions.

Punch Buggy Game

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Saratoga, CA
Performance Date: April 11, 2019
Primary Language: English

Context: Going into this folklore project, I knew that I wanted to collect somebody’s personal account of the Punch Buggy game. This is a game that my sisters and I used to play whenever we rode in the car as children and it involves the pointing out of Volkswagen Beetle cars. Many of my friends who went to my elementary school also played the game whenever they were in the car, and I distinctly remember riding in with them and thinking, ‘that’s not how you play the game.” Looking back now, I realize that they were not playing the game wrong and were actually demonstrating the multiplicity and variation that is intrinsic to folklore. I was interviewing an informant, an art major at USC and avid skateboarder, when I was reminded about my interest in the game. I asked the 19-year-old informant from Saratoga, California, if he had ever played the punch buggy game and, if so, how he had played it.

Piece: “Yeah, so, me and my older sister used to always play the punch buggy game. It was a favorite of ours and we were pretty competitive about it, as siblings usually are. So, on long road trips, my family and I used to drive up to Bear Valley from San Jose, which is like a three-hour car ride. And I’d usually be stuffed in the back seat with my sister who would like to mess with me all the time. So, um, whenever you saw a Volkswagen bug driving down the road, in a parking lot, in someone’s driveway, or I guess anywhere, you would immediately punch the person who you are playing with and say, ‘no punch backs!’ No, you would say, ‘Punch buggy no punch backs!’ It wouldn’t be that hard of punch, just a hit in the arm. But we also had some variations on those rules, like I knew a lot of people who would just see a VW Bug, punch the other person, and that was it. But our version was more complicated. So, if you saw an out-of-state license plate, you would get two punches. And I forgot to mention that one punch equals one point. So if you saw a punch buggy with a Washington license plate, you’d be able to punch your sibling. And I think we had some other rule involving the colors of the cars too, but I can’t remember that exactly. I think maybe if you saw the same color twice then your points would multiply, or some shit. I don’t know, there were a bunch of different factors in it, but I can’t remember all of them.”

Analysis: I find it fascinating that without me ever mentioning it, the informant spoke about how the Punch Buggy game’s rules have multiple variations. I remember about ten years ago, in attempt to capitalize on the popular children’s game, the Volkswagen motor company released a series of commercials which proposed a new game that could be played with Volkswagen Beetles. In the commercial, a person would see one of the cars and say the color of the car followed by the word “one.” For example, if you saw a red car, you would say “red one.” I remember a few of my friends playing this game in the months following the commercials’ release; however, after a while, people lost interest and the game died out. I believe that this reflects the human desire to hold on to folkloric and organically developed traditions in an increasingly artificial world. The entire category of road trip games came out of the boredom of riding in a car for long periods of time. For children especially, games like these are necessary outlets for fun since sitting in the back seat of a car can often feel uncomfortable and constraining and it can be difficult to talk to the person who is driving or sitting in the passenger seat.

Annotation: For variations of the rules of Punch Buggy, see:

Polk, Janet. Rules for Playing Slug Bug and Punch Buggy. AuthorHouse, 2006.