Habits Happily Resumed

Back in Hanoi after a long summer away, I am amazed at how quickly I find my comfort zone on the cacophony of these streets. After the 12 hour time shift turns the world neatly on its head, and a few days of dealing with a sullen stomach surprised by the sudden onslaught of airline food and street food in quick succession, I am once again pedaling to work. This is a habit I missed over my long summer. Jumping on my bicycle again felt very good, in fact the thing feels so light and responsive to everything I put into it that I thought for a minute there was something wrong with it. But no, it's just a nice bike which hasn't been ridden for awhile. I am in the process of fixing that!

After work, sometimes, the road home goes around the lake. The rowers practise on the lake, a few runners and a lot of cyclists practise around the lake, and the fishermen practise in between us. 

On the journey back to Hanoi, I was thinking that the long summer back in the US hadn't really felt like the more than three months that it was. Packed with work, a little travel, and a lot of activities with family and friends, the time flew by quickly. However, arriving back in our neighbourhood in Hanoi, it suddenly felt as if we had been away for a long time. Good times race by!

Out by the lake, sometime over the summer they widened this little stretch of street and installed these gaudy Formula 1-looking stripes on the pavement. I'm hoping they won't inspire Formula 1-like driving, and in any case, I'm sure in a couple more months they will be faded and dusty enough to not stand out so much - hopefully they will still keep anyone from driving into the lake though.

Farther around the lake I stopped by this little contemplative spot. It seems like it should be, say, the entrance to a hidden temple or a forgotten tea-house or something. However, it is not. Rather, it is the side entrance to one of those giant hotels where I am a little nervous about stopping in front of for fear they will jump out and charge me 30$ for parking, or something ridiculous like that. But in fact, nobody noticed me or the red bike, and I kept on moving on.

Most of the way around the lake, after finding my favourite lakeside watering hole closed up for the day, I stopped down the road for this cup of coffee under a shade tree leaning up against the railing. Now this is a habit that takes no time at all to resume, only that I forgot to bring a book with me!

The Shopping Commute

One of the contrasts which I enjoy maintaining in my life in the US (such as it is - a few months every year or two), is the comedic lack of proportion between the 18 wheelers I drive for my job and my chosen commuter vehicle, a scooter.

The scooter has two wheels, one floor, a little bit of some kind of style but no rumble whatsoever, and a box big enough for a helmet or a bunch of flowers or two bags of groceries or, I suppose, a free kitten. My commute , it should be said, is twenty miles of about the most ideal scooter roads around. When I go to work in the middle of the night, the highlight is the stars. When I come home in the daytime, I watch the fields and the farms, and it seems at least half the farms have stands out selling something. The summer isn't long enough to stop at all of them, but I do my best! So here is a selection of what's beside the road tempting me on the way home from work.

As my summer commuter workhorse, the scooter is about perfect. Mostly, it is about enjoying the ride on the way to work and back. I don't know about the price of horse feed or coal these days, but its also pretty nice for me to put on 100 miles going to work and bringing home goodies, and then to fill up the tank for this: