Meals on Wheels

Three students, two motorbikes, and four helmets showed up at my dorm the other evening at 6:30 pm.  They wanted to take me out for dinner.  It was a nice gesture, but I was hoping that we would take a taxi instead.  No such luck.  The extra helmet was for me.  I couldn't say no, so I said yes.  Uncertainty is the mother of nausea.  We went to a nice restaurant at West Lake, about 20 minutes away.  It was very crowded and extremely noisy inside.  Oh yeah, it was hot too.  We had to wait a long time just to get a table.  The food arrived and it tasted good.  I thought I could charge the meal, but plastic is not accepted at most places in VN.  So, I used cash, but had to borrow 100,000 Dong (about $5 US dollars) from one of the students to finish paying the bill.  I felt that lady luck had left me. 

After dinner, it was time to go.  However, there was a lot of traffic on the road because it was Independence Day in VN.  Little did I know how many fireworks would be seen that night!  When I say lot's of traffic, I mean lot's of traffic.  There were thousands, perhaps millions, of motorbikes on the road at the same time.  Not to mention all the people in cars, taxis, bicycles, and those poor fools who were just walking around.  I didn't think that I would make it home alive.  At times, we even drove on the sidewalk instead of the road to "avoid" some of the traffic. I asked it that was illegal. The student said yes.  So much for digestion.  I felt confident that somebody or something would crash into us or that my driver would be distracted for a second and both of us would perish on the spot.  It didn't help to shut my eyes - anxiety is omnipotent.  I decided to keep them open, since I thought it would be better to see the grim reaper face-to-face.

We arrived safely at the dorm around 10:30 pm.  I took a shower and went straight to bed.  Sweet dreams.