So after swearing that I would not get on one of the motorbikes in the last two countries...I finally made the jump into being a biker chick! And why didn't I do it before...I was sooo much fun!

I had to spend two more days in Hanoi after Christmas as I waited to get my passport back with my Indian visa in it...I was pratically bored to tears, espeically that last Monday, which is the day of the week when everything in Hanoi is closed...so there was NOTHING to do! And I think a bit of the blues finally set in. Don't know if it was from the holidays, or because I finally hit the sixth month mark of being homeless and away from home (whether it be a home in Japan or my "real" home) or if I was just sick of visiting site after site on a traveling expedition. But anyways...I was down.

I took a night train that Monday night down to Hue. Arrived early in the morning and set right out to see the sites. A man in my hotel lobby suggessted a motor bike tour called, Thu Wheels, at a cafe down the little alley near our hotel. So I went to check it out. Thu told me to come back in the afternoon for the tour. So I relaxed a bit, went and saw the citadel and then made it back to the cafe for lunch.

After lunch I jumped on to the back to Thu's brothers motorbike and we sped through the city! This was just what the doctor called for to cure my blues away! We quickly sped out of the city...at first I was scared sh**less, but I was doing all that I could to try to stay calm. I refrained from doing the bear hug around the driver, and instead calmly just put one hand on his shoulder and held on to the back handle behind the seat with my other hand and squeezed my legs around the seat very tight! Once out of the city we were driving through rice fields after rice fields...the wind and sun on my face was very refreshing. I could tell that this driver had been trained to drive according to what westerners would appreciate...he only honked his horn about three times the whole day (that is nothing compared to what usually happens out here) even though sometimes I wanted to honk the horn for him! And he made sure to signal with his hands as to where we were going, and he drove pretty respecfully too.

We saw an old Japanese covered bridge, tons of duck farms, a few temples and pagodas, and some tombs too. But the highlight of the day was getting on to the back of the moped and just speeding away!

Since then I have graduated and I have ridden away on a motorbike even wearing a skirt so I had to sit side saddle and even while wearing my big backpack! Oh my! What is next!