Transportation

I haven't yet discussed the transportation in Vietnam and I think it's time I do:

Almost everyone here owns a motorbike. Kids as young as twelve, old ladies buried within baskets, and families of four or five buzz around cities and on the highway. There aren't any lanes so pedestrians, bicyclists, motorbikes, taxis, semis and buses miraculously share the road. When trying to pass or avoid accidents the main technique is to honk once, twice, or continuously honk. We first experienced the roads as pedestrians where Carly and I locked arms and crossed busy streets repeating the mantra "walk slowly and with purpose". We got trapped in the middle of the road a few times but never once got hit!

Then we experienced the roads via a 24 hour long bus ride. We were on a sleeper bus which essentially has bunk beds that allowed us to stretch out and lay down. The only highway is one that I can equate with Highway 1, traveling through towns and usually only having one lane in each direction. The same rules apply in that pedestrians and cyclists are also on the road. This means that the bus can only go about 45 miles an hour (the reason for the long ride) and it also means that if the bus wants to pass they just start honking their horn like mad and cross into the lane with oncoming traffic. If a car is coming in the opposite direction then the bus continues to honk and the other car veers onto the shoulder. Sleeping with all the honking is pretty difficult but occasionally I was able to put on my headphones and start to fall into a deep sleep... THEN we would hit a huge pothole and I would fly a few inches out of my bed and start the whole process over again. Pretty entertaining.

Carly did make a point this morning that "there seems to be a plan to all this chaos" and with that in mind we decided it would be a good idea to rent a motorbike on our first day in Hoi An. Carly was the designated driver so that I would be able to hold on to her for dear life. She was pretty shaky at first but on the 6 kilometer ride to Crab Beach she started to get the hang of it. The beach was gorgeous and the water was perfectly warm... we'll probably head back tomorrow. With the success on the motorbike we decided to travel 20 kilometers more to the Marble Mountains. Carly even got the motorbike up to 60 kph!

The Marble Mountains were amazing, though we are now cameraless (Carly dropped hers in the water when we were visiting the floating markets in the Mekong Delta, and then she fell on mine while hiking up the marble steps of the mountain... I won't say much more on this except a word to the wise: don't let Carly touch your stuff because she will break it). After the mountain we decided to head to the center of town and check out the dressmakers in action. I am so excited to say that I ordered a dress! Carly was convinced into buying a dress and a suit! We were measured and will head back tomorrow to get a final fitting. We're working on getting the cameras fixed so we can take pictures tomorrow. This town in pretty incredible... lots of French influence and architecture so it almost feels like an Asian Shabby Chic (Sara, you'd love it). Will report more later!