2014/15 Biking Southeast Asia Daily Snippet

31 December, Thai Binh to Ninh Binh, 49km
Hoang Hai Hotel 252,000VND

Hooting is a way of communicating on Vietnam’s busy roads. The resultant noise pollution can be staggering. Learning to interpret the hooting is essential for your peace of mind and your safety. There is the quick beep-beep of a scooter approaching from behind, a gentle request that says “Hold your line”. There is the melodic bus hooter that calls “If you’re looking for transport, wave me down”. There’s the insistent toot-toot-TOOT that cries out “I see you foreigner; hello-hello-hello”. There’s the frantic baaaarp that demands “Look up, I am approaching from in front”. There’s the louder truck HONK that warns “I am bigger and faster and HERE, take care”. And then there is the danger signal, a long, insistent BLARE, a warning loud enough to pop and hurt your eardrums that declares “I am bigger and faster and in immediate need of more space – DO SOMETHING”. Dull scenery, as flat as our road, was made tolerable by churches and graveyards and temples, by woodworkers and stonemasons. Thanks to Tripadvisor we dined well at Chookie’s on delicious hamburgers accompanied by a bottle of local red wine and rounded off with chocolate brownies and ice cream. Then home to bed before 2015.