In Da Lat 2

May is the warmest month in Da Lot and it rains most afternoons, but today it has rained all day, making the weather cool. Da lot is the coolest town on our trip. Because of the rain everyone is riding around on their motorbikes and scooters wearing plastic rain coats. We are watching the women drive their scooters with spike heels or sit sidesaddle behind the driver. All over Asia there can be four or more people on one motorbike. The motorbikes are adapted for everything from carrying fish for your fish tank, to transporting a compressor.

Today in the rain we saw an advertisement for a scooter being photographed. It was raining and yet the camera crew wanted more rain for a good shot. For the advertisement a young woman is standing beside her broken down scooter in a skirt, blouse and of course spike heels, and a guy is supposed to rescue her with an umbrella. The cameraman had another man with a garden hose shooting an arc of water on to the woman. She instantly looked like a drowned rat in need of rescuing.

Jim got a haircut today in preparation for going home. The best thing about the haircut was as Jim got his haircut he looked directly at the bottom half of a 6Omm mortar shell that the man used to store items in on his counter.

We leave tomorrow on an eight hour bus trip to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. The name was changed but the use of the name Saigon goes on. I am even looking at Saigon Kleenex in our hotel room.