March 14, 2005 Pleiku to Qui Nhon - Who Is That Masked Rider?

This morning, prior to our departure, I had a brief opportunity to take one of my favorite walks of discovery down a couple blocks near the hotel. This town is not tourist oriented so we were right in the middle of a very informal, authentic, street market which was a sharp contrast to some of the tourist "hawking" we had seen in the larger, tourist cities. We had seen large baskets and bundles of fruits and vegetables in the street the night before. Now we could see that the merchants had slept right there in the streets with their goods.

The colors of the produce were vibrant. The faces and interaction of the people priceless. I love the zoom on my camera because it can take me up close to a grouping without spoiling the moment. I had one group of men (behaving just like the kids had) scrambling to get into my pictures and then giggling when I showed them the resulting images.

Of special fascination in Vietnam is the way the people, and women in particular, dress. To understand where I am going you need an insight into how Vietnamese value "light skin".

In America for years we have felt that tanned skin is a sign of affluence. It says, I have time to vacation and sit in the sun.

In Vietnam it is the opposite. Dark skin says you have a manual job and need to work out of doors. Light skin says you have an important inside job with air conditioning and must be affluent.

So, almost every woman and many of the men outside, and in particular riding on scooters and bicycles, cover every inch of their body possible.

Everyone wears hats...very few motorcycle helmets...certainly not DOT approved like in the US. Then they add a mask (you see everything from smaller medical style imprints and all colors to full flowing cowboy style handkerchief masks).

They most often have long sleeves and gloves or short sleeves with very long opera style gloves. It is quite a sight and actually very entertaining.

The rest of the picture to paint for you is the fact that a scooter is often the"family" vehicle. We have seen a family of 4 or 5 all together on one scooter, sandwiched together and, if there is a toddler, they are in the front standing on the front floorboards of the scooter. So much for child protective seats...they are non-existent. The scariest one is a woman on the back of a scooter holding an infant in her arms. She has no way to hold on so it would not take much to propel her and the baby off the vehicle or crush the child between mother and driver.

If it is just a couple on the scooter, often the passender is riding "side saddle". Young women on a date with spiked high heels riding side saddle behind their date. Business women (as in working in offices) dressed up in business skirt and jacket masked and riding to work...all shapes, sizes and cargos. We have some awesome pictures of scooters carrying all sorts of packages, tools, mattresses, produce, flowers, you name it, they carry it. I could seriously just sit and watch the show!!!

Bikes are nearly as bad, they just don't move as fast. The best one yesterday was a bike with rider, passenger on back, and third passenger sitting on shoulders of passenger.

Last discovery from today to share with you...during my walk this morning I discovered a Vietnamese Fabric Shop!! Wow, what a discovery and if it had not been for the imminent departure of our bus I would have been making some very interesting purchases.

So again I will say:All of Life is An Adventure
You just need to find it in local style,
Linda