observations from a new country

sitting in a hotel lobby in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh city... we arrived in on the bus and picked up some hopefully not too tragic bikes and now am waiting for the room to be sorted!
Hilary my bike is predominantly orange. not through choice... there was no choice... but the range was better than PP... my bike is not designed for midgits...

i thought i would quickly write down some small observations from the 3 or so hours i have been here!

• PP is a village... this place is huge in comparison
• Everything is much cleaner, and better kept
• There are many motos... same as PP, but they seem to be in better condition on the whole.
• People in Vietnam dont wear motorbike helmets... in PP some people do wear them... but here i have seen i think only 1 person wearing one... silly
• People obey the traffic rules... i think i would feel guilty cycling down a one way street or jumping a red light!
• There are taxis... wow...
• There are tall glass type buildings...
• The roads dont have pot holes
• There is a KFC... i dont think there are any international fast food chains in PP...

I was thinking life in PP was pretty cushty, but perhaps coming here makes me realise that it might well be in comparison to UB... but Saigon is a whole new level of niceness... hmmm but i still dont think you can drink the water from the taps... oh i dream of a day when i can stick my head under a tap and drinkdrinkdrink

I think tomorrow we will head off on our new bikes back to the boarder... we might split the trip into 3 days rather than 2... it is hot and neither of us have cycled much this year... and our bikes are untested! This means tomorrow night looks like it might be spent at a casino on the boarder... i'm thinking there is potential for entertainment there...

love from me and uncle Ho x x x