Hum Cum we Live?

Wow. yesterday was a day of twelve days in one... Absolute insanity! Phuong, Molly, Sarah, and I rented motorbikes and after a 30 second lesson, were flying down the crowded avenues of Hanoi, narrowly escaping death at each turn! We proceeded to practice in a small parking lot where 2 little Vietnamese girls were also learning to ride bicycles. They were worse than we were and kept falling directly in front of our motorbikes and giving us coronaries. Once we were slightly comfortable, we took to the roads for the tour to end all tours!! Phuong took us in a circle around the entire city center, through winding roads and small paths near Sword Lake. We saw the rich and the poor, naked chickens fighting, babies peeing on the road, beautiful pagodas, and finally the highway of death. THe highway of death involves a two lane road, 3000 motorbikes, aggressive chicken trucks, and mean cars. Molly and I were almost wiped out by a dude in a car with murder on his mind! Luckily, we swerved out of the way and have our first "we almost died" story.... We met up with Phuong's two friends Kong and Chi who lead us to the countryside. Amazing! We stopped at a Pagoda on the red river on a street that was lined by fields and huge cows with nose rings that acted as living lawn mowers.. pictures to follow. We then drove to the middle of nowhere and stopped to have Bia Ha Hoi and some garlic french fries (along with pork that was wrapped in banana leaves for ten days and never cooked... disgusting). This was home to the most nasty bathroom (if you can call it that) It was a room with a trench all along the sides with no water to rinse the excrement anywhere.... unbelievable. Thouroghly grossed out, I walked out of the trenches to see a huge bird flu chicken coup under the sink as well.....

Then dinner at Phuong's family's house. Beautiful house, great food, such nice and welcoming people. Sarah was sick all day with wild butt, and had to go to bed after dinner. Molly and I went to this club called New Century with Phuong and his friends... I cannot stress how terrible the establishment was... Bone shakingly loud techno, epileptic seizure lights, and million dollar beers. Molly and I composed a list of terrible things we would prefer to be doing instead of being at new Century see below

Ready?

Bad things to do that are better than being at New Century: a list by Molly and Jeff-

1. Laying in bed with diarrhea cramps
2. Eating dog: preferably raw
3. Paying taxes
4. Cuttin your toenails or pubes
5. Getting a cavity filled
6. Puking our your nose
7. Waiting in traffic for 1000 hours
8. THe Spice Girls
9. The Backstreet Boys
10. Sharting in your underwear
11. Papercutting your eyeball

as you can see we had to make our own fun. On a lighter note, sarah is feeling better, and we are off for another day of unpredictable motorbike adventure!


Love getting the comments from everyone! keep it up

J