It’s that time of year when the women of Vietnam bundle up with hats,
scarves, face masks, opera-length gloves, heavy socks, slacks and denim
jackets. Colorful
Christmas lights festoon
the thatched-roofed bars and medleys of traditional Christmas songs
waft along behind the pedal-powered vending carts. Is Christmas
approaching? Sorry, no. If it were, the fifty-foot tall Christmas tree
constructed entirely of dark green
Heineken beer bottles would still be standing in front of the supermarket on Le Duan Street in Da Nang and Santa would still be flying in a
reindeer-drawn Heineken bottle over the streets of Hanoi. If it were New Year’s, we would still have an
orange tree standing
in the middle of our living room, next to the motorbike. It isn’t
Halloween either, although the sight of gangs of Vietnamese women
dressed up like gunslingers from the American Wild West might give you
that impression.
Summer has arrived in Vietnam. And all prudent women who care about
preserving their pale good looks will stop at nothing to protect their
skin against the intensified rays of the tropical sun as they travel
about on their
motorbikes.
Ironically, many of these same women balk at wearing a motorbike helmet
to protect themselves against possible death and disability from head
injury because they think helmets look too strange!
