Beyond city limits we reached the green of the open countryside with its variety of crops and landuse, rural buildings, family cemeteries, abandoned rail projects and bridges, villages -- all connected by the very modern highway we were following. 

We had been amazed at the lack of street and road accidents since our arrival in Indochina. Considering the multitudes of different vehicle types and the constant weaving of the countless motorbikes we conidered it remarkable that we saw hardly any dents or even scratches on the vehicles. All of this traffic moved along with the benefit of very few traffic lights or even police cars. This said, we saw our first motorbike accident today. A poor woman with some kind of "business" on the back of her bike had obviously been in a collision and she was lying on the roadway in a big pool of blood. Quite a distressing sight.