Bank holidays...
Our mate Frank went to Ba Be lake - and sure didn't he have a wonderful time and didn't our other mucker Daniel Kirk go surfing - and if he says its safe to sure, well then it's safe to surf.

It is not however safe to drive - 108 killed and 180 injured in four days.

Which is why we Pittstop HQ staffers stayed in Hanoi taking advantage of the fact that everyone else left town. Ah the empty streets, the lack of people to meet, all the bars shutting early, liberating and stifling all at once, like Tet with warm weather - until it hammered rain that is.

On another note, how many people do you think you could fit on Cat Ba island?

Other titbits: a dragon girl has been mistaken for a mini-miracle maker

And if you have that screenplay you've been writing handy ...


Plus I mentioned scent free Durians were invented a few posts ago and well, sure didn't one kind Pittstop reader inform us that he came across Durian-scented rubbers in Xin Man, Ha Giang province.

Well, I never, ever, ever, ever heard the like.