Animal Farm

I went for an early morning bike ride (it was 6:30 when I left my guest house - early morning for me, grasse matinée for the Vietnamese) today, and started to think about all the animals I've seen in Vietnam. Farm Girl might be used to animals (she did grow up on a farm), but for me it's still a novelty to see cows on the side of the road, roosters in my backyard, and chickens on the university campus.

I often see people driving by on their motobikes, either with 20 chickens tied up by the legs all around the side of their motorbike, or pulling a wagon with one or two pigs in the back. It always strikes me as funny...but I'm also amazed at the resourcefulness of people here (I should really take more pictures of people carrying all kinds of stuff on their motorbikes).

Plus you see all kinds of interesting things at the bus rest-stops here. The other day, coming back from Saigon, we stopped for a 10-minute break and I got a banh bao to go (looks like a cha sue bao for those who like to eat dim sum with me). At the checkout counter, where you would normally have little chocolates and gum in North America, I saw this thing:

Yup, that's definitely snake wine! A powerful aphrodisiac for men, apparently.

I almost want to bring some home...except that I think immigration control wouldn't let it through. You just gotta love Vietnam!