Vietnamese High School Girls.

The High School Students go to school in white Ao Dais (one of the few times it’s acceptable to wear trousers under a skirt – Trousers under a skirt are like socks with sandals for men). They look immaculate as they ride their bikes. Sometimes there’s three or four on a bike: one driving, one texting, another looking bored and one at the back changing the gasket for the oil pump on a Honda 50 CC moped engine. And they never, never ever--even on rough, dusty country roads, have a speck of dirt on them; even the one fixing the engine. I don’t get it.

In my hotel room, if I walk to the bathroom it’s so hot I come back red-faced, sweating like a chased pig, clothes transparent with sweat and salt stains like an embarrassing white tide-mark around my waistband. How do they stay so immaculate-looking?

I guess I’m getting old if I can see four teenage girls on a bike and all I think about is how clean they are.