halfway through; lessons learned

we celebrated the halfway mark of the trip two days ago. four weeks down, four to go. fortunately, our 36-hour journey from cat ba island in vietnam to vang vieng, laos gave us lots of time to reflect on some things. the first lesson: no matter who wins or loses in fashion (i brought home a landslide victory in the "accuracy" poncho category, for the record), most important is that no one really gives a crap about voting on your travel blog. i respect that, people.

the second lesson: just because 12-year-old girls ride motorbikes in asia while talking on their cell phones, doesn't mean those little machines are easy to drive. we rented a scooter on cat ba island and i got pretty pumped to be driving it, so i hopped a curb to park on the sidewalk, and although i thought i had a good hold on the brakes, i managed to crash directly into a cafe. a total disaster at 1 mph! luckily no one was hurt, no damage done, and the cafe owner hardly batted an eye.

someone take that thing away from her.

the third lesson: bugs grow to terrifying proportions in warm climates. this isn't really news to anyone, but still. it doesn't cease to be freaky. this spider was in our room in cambodia. i put the soda can there for scale, took the picture and ran. i think i heard him crack it open on our way out. we also saw a praying mantis in vietnam that was as long as my entire hand and craned its neck to focus its creepy bug eyes on us and watch us walk by. and huge tarantulas for sale by street food vendors in cambodia. yikes.

the fourth lesson: nothing on this green earth is cuter than a baby duck. we turned our motorbike right around when we passed them to get a closer look. face it, you are powerless against this little yellow tractor beam.

fifth lesson: pictures take forever to upload. i'm losing my patience, so until we have a better internet connection, i leave you with the duckling. enjoy!