The Vietnamese like to smoke tobacco from huge wooden water pipes. I don’t enjoy cigarettes, but like a hookah, tobacco smoked this way tastes pretty good, and it packs quite a buzz. I usually stopped in a small town for a couple of hours each afternoon to take a break on my ride and escape the hottest part of the day. There was usually nothing to do, but local shop owners liked to offer me beer and tobacco and sit and look at my maps.