Here’s what I had to work with in the guesthouse last night. Bucket of water shower: pour water over yourself with the ladle. Weak plumbing toilet: deposit your toilet paper in the accompanying waste basket. And most importantly: remember to have fun!
The bicycles I’ve seen in Vietnam are cheap Chinese single-speeds. But people here have been able to do a lot with them. I’ve seen some great utility bikes. But I bet they’d love to have gears – I see people walking their bikes up hills and bridges.
This bike is loaded with recycling. She wasn’t happy with me as I asked to take her photo; I think she was frustrated in having to re-adjust her load.
Put a fire in a pot and attach it to your bike. It’s fun to do! A traveling kitchen.
I saw this when I took a back-road through the countryside. No saddle, and an enormous, natural kickstand. I figure this is used as a push-cart.
This is a close-up of the rear end. I wonder who makes that rack? Tubus?
It’s awesome having an iPhone on this tour because I’ve been able to pick up a lot of wifi connections in cities. I got an Eye-Fi memory card for my digital camera which transmits a wifi signal to your phone so you can transfer photos wirelessly. It was working at home but since I’ve been here it’s sucked. So I need a computer.
Good thing Internet Cafes are pretty common in Vietnam and really inexpensive, at least outside tourist cities. They’re popular for young Vietnamese nerd boys who want to play CounterStrike, WoW, or some other online game.
It was easy for me because I just pointed to a computer and then there’s a program that keeps track of how long you’ve been using it and tells you how much you owe – good because it sucks having to ask how much when you don’t know the language and you wonder if you’ve been ripped off (i.e. paying tourist prices … which are still cheap). After about 30 minutes, I owed 3000 Dong which is $0.15 USD.