The Uselessness of Rain Ponchos

This was taken on a night where each member of our house straggled in through the door, each progressively wetter and wetter. What you see is the flooded alleyway, one of many on the way to my house.


My xe om driver had kindly offered me the back flap of his rain poncho, but that was proven useless as I simply got splashed from below, since Hanoi's streets have terrible drains and several areas were submerged by at least a foot and a half. When I got home, I was expecting to be the one with the best story, seeing as I'm usually the one who gets home last. Unfortunately, Nathan had driven across a fallen power line hidden underneath the water. The wire snaked up to wrap around the head of his motorbike and whipped him backwards into the flooded street. He made it out with just a scratch and a stiffened wrist. As you can see, the water can make it impossible to see any potholes or other dangerous things lurking underneath. The alleyway looks nothing so much as a small canal. Someone could make a killing selling inflatable dinghys on nights like these.