The Best and the Worst of Monday

My first thought is: Gosh is it still Monday? It's been a long day.

If I exclude the best work thing that happened today (cause I know the analysts have found my secret identity and are monitoring anything I might say that could be considered insider information, crazy SEC) I would say that breakfast of Chicken Pho and warm croissant with fresh fruit and jam was a pretty big highlight.

There are so many people working in the restaurant, I'm not sure who does what, but it seems like there are a few guys who basically walk around and ask people if everything is OK, did they try this or that, what did they think of it, how do they like Viet Nam, I guess sort of making small talk and looking for opportunities to improve the breakfast experience. So, "my guy" sees me eating Pho and asks me, "have you had Pho before" and I swear to Ford he said "Pho" as it rhymes with "Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum"... and then he went on to tell me that Pho Ga is made of chicken stock, but his favorite is Pho Bo because the beef stock is very hearty, savory, and delicious. That Pho Ga was the best I have ever head, even though I got a little too much chili sauce in it and it was so hot I had sweat running down my forehead. The croissant was lovely and the pineapple was a tiny little thing, not nearly as juicy as I expected, but delicious. Tomorrow I might have to try the Pho Bo for breakfast.

The worst of today was witnessing a motorcycle accident. We ended up in rush hour traffic on the way back to the hotel this afternoon. The only word I can think of to describe the motorcycles (and I have learned they are all called "hondas" whether they came from Yamaha, Suzuki, Moto Guzzi, or Vespa) is SWARM.
There are lanes designated in the roads, but I can't tell who is paying any attention to those silly dotted lines. The hondas seem to move mostly together, but as they approach from behind, they squeeze into every little tiny space that is or isn't available, between cars and trucks, on the sidewalks, up on the median -- they are everywhere. There's been a helmet law in effect for two years, but children under 6 years old are exempt -- something about the helmet being too heavy for their head and bad for their necks. So, the van we are in ends up sort of stuck midway thru an intersection and a honda zipping across our path hits another honda that is trying to get around us on the right side. The honda on our right had a young woman driving, I presume the mother, with her daughter of maybe 8 or 9 years old on the back. I can still hear the crack as the bikes collided and see the look on the girls face as she scrambled up rubbing her scraped up arm and shoulder.
Our driver was excellent, but I was certainly spooked by that crash and jumpy the rest of the way back to the hotel. That picture and sound will last in my mind for a long time.

You see many motor bikes and trykes hauling things, this one is loaded up with "morning glory" which was an item on them menu last night, but doesn't look much like the morning glory growing at our house.
There are still some bikes on the road, but mostly motor bikes now. In my previous trip many of the young women wore the high gloves, dark glasses, and conical hats, but that seems rare now. Just about everyone on a bike and most people walking on the street have the masks over their nose and mouth.