Scootin' in the rain.

The things you see being carried on motorbikes in Vietnam are worth a blog by themselves - at some point I will risk life and limb and camera to attempt to capture a few for you, my loyal readers ;-)

But today, I will just recount this evening's 'commute' back from uni. The trip takes about 30 minutes and is too much fun to be called a commute. Tonight it was pissing down as I walked out to my Xe Om man who lives next door to me and who picks me up at night. This was the first time I have hit the rain at commuting time but I wasn't fazed cos' I was armed with my trusty Vietnamese raincoat.

Vietnamese raincoats kick ass. Picture a wafer-thin opaque plastic sheet with a hood with a cardboard insert that gives you a dinky visor. There are popper buttons down the side which you can use to create arms and sides. The overall look, when in full regalia, is similar to the Abu-Ghirab-man-on-a-box electrocution look - but much more fun. The sides, however, are very rarely done up cos' the raincoat is hardly ever used by just one person. It mostly functions as a sort of wearable 2-3 person tent. We went past a school today on the way home and saw parents lined up on bikes at the school gate, waiting to usher their kids under the raincoat and head home. One dad had 3 little person-shaped lumps under his! Quite cool to see a elongated and lumpy person riding home and guess at how many people are under there.

Other tramspotting highlights today included the Mum and Dad who were heading home, with a 5-year-old-ish girl slumped asleep over the handlebars. I know some people can sleep anywhere but that's impressive.

The final example of Vietnamese ingenuity spotted tonight was the 2-person raincoat - the rainsheet with 2 head holes in which presumably is designed especially for bikes (or for 3-legged races in the rain). I assume they need to disengage before getting off the bike at their destination but you never know.

Can't even escape my geeky transport fetish on the other side of the world!