The Sound of Horns

Good evening, Vietnam! Our arrival in Hanoi, Vietnam was met with... honking horns. Not for us - I'm sure the people here could care less that we'd descended on their city - but simply to... indicate they are a vehicle driving on the road? We thought India was bad, but here, the honking is incessant, often with no apparent reason for it! Hanoi is FULL of mopeds, especially in the Old Quarter, where we're staying - narrow streets with nothing short of 100 mopeds flying past in both directions. How to cross the street??!

I realized on our flight over that I'd neglected to share the tale of our lively day yesterday. But first, how cool is it that the middle seat on the plane was wider than the window and aisle seat? Cooler still, we were served KitKat bars!

Back to yesterday: We decided to rent mopeds (110cc bikes) to visit the Buddha Park 25 km outside Vientiane. The park is full of Buddhist and Hindu sculptures - competing for top spot on the list of strangest places I've ever been... It goes to show how accustomed you can become with what is around you - I had to remind myself we needed helmets! And it's a good thing I did... there's nothing like loosely fitted plastic wrap to protect you from a harsh connection with asphalt! The helmets were like the type my niece would put on her doll; I could probably break it with my own hands. With no other option, we donned these ineffective helmets and hoped for the best. Even better than the quality of the helmets was the fact they kept slipping back on our heads - oh, to have a head larger than a peanut.

Clearly, since I'm writing this, we survived unscathed! The roads in Vientiane are excellent, smooth, lined (thanks to millions kicked in by the Japanese government)... that is, until you hit the Friendship Bridge leading over to Thailand. From that point on, the roads were a combination of destroyed asphalt, dirt and gravel. Safe! By the end of the day, I actually had visible dirt and dust all over my face, and a layer of dust on my sunglasses. Shower, anyone? Fun and convenient, but I was happy to hit the pavement with my own two feet once again. Unfortunately, both the conditions and my inexperienced driver were freaking me out!

Marc certainly had a blast though and later went out 'racing' with Alex. By that point he'd definitely gotten the hang of driving the moped around and arrived back at our hotel with the biggest grin on his face. I'm definitely enchanted by the cool models though and hope, in future, to live somewhere so we can have our own mopeds - with our own top-safety rated helmets!!

We also checked out Patuxai yesterday - Vientiane's own Arc de Triomphe. Much smaller than the real thing, but still attractive and a great view of the city from the top!

The children in Laos are gorgeous, especially the little girls. I can't count the number of times our heads swivelled to gawk at the children - so adorable! The guys commented, half joking, that it must be a disappointment to the men as the women don't seem to age well, but I think there are a few reasons for this, namely, they aren't wearing makeup and using heaps of age-defying facial products, as we Westerners do; it may be a reflection of their difficult lives and the pollution in the cities; and finally, these women whose appearance we're judging - we have no idea of their actual age. Perhaps these are women in their 60s... who knows?

I've little energy left to write any more so Thailand will have to wait for another day. I've been emailing with my mom and sister while writing this and it's been great catching up, but I'm now tired so my blog shall suffer!

Good night all,
Trish