hotbike
05-14-08, 02:25 PM
This article appeared on the web today, I have given a link and a short excerpt:
Feather-boa bicycle bandits invade Vietnam's city streets
12 hours ago
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jLfvqdESTekUEkDqlepaTpLDoTGg
"HANOI (AFP) — An exotic and colourful new urban species has invaded Vietnam's crowded city streets, turning heads, slowing traffic and making a lot of noise -- the feather-boa bicycle bandit.
No one is quite sure where, how or why the fashion craze started, but for the past few months, youths in the capital Hanoi have turned their bicycles into mobile works of art, the more extravagant the better.
Teens have beautified small two-wheelers with glitter and plastic flowers, giant silk butterflies and teddy bears, Christmas tinsel and paper parasols and, yes, feather boas, in an anything-goes creative arms race.
Youngsters have rigged blinking lights, MP3 players and batteries to the frames to blast techno and hip-hop down previously tranquil tree-lined streets, earning them both amused smiles and reproachful looks from their elders.
Motor-scooters and luxury cars may increasingly choke up the streets of Vietnam's newly affluent cities, but the children of the boom have rediscovered the bicycle and are happily weaving and dodging through the traffic jams.
They travel in packs, a pillion passenger usually standing on the back of each bike, zooming past baffled adults who are left to ponder tail signs with messages like "Cool boy," "Baby cute," "Thanks, mom" and "Don't ask"..."
Feather-boa bicycle bandits invade Vietnam's city streets
12 hours ago
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jLfvqdESTekUEkDqlepaTpLDoTGg
"HANOI (AFP) — An exotic and colourful new urban species has invaded Vietnam's crowded city streets, turning heads, slowing traffic and making a lot of noise -- the feather-boa bicycle bandit.
No one is quite sure where, how or why the fashion craze started, but for the past few months, youths in the capital Hanoi have turned their bicycles into mobile works of art, the more extravagant the better.
Teens have beautified small two-wheelers with glitter and plastic flowers, giant silk butterflies and teddy bears, Christmas tinsel and paper parasols and, yes, feather boas, in an anything-goes creative arms race.
Youngsters have rigged blinking lights, MP3 players and batteries to the frames to blast techno and hip-hop down previously tranquil tree-lined streets, earning them both amused smiles and reproachful looks from their elders.
Motor-scooters and luxury cars may increasingly choke up the streets of Vietnam's newly affluent cities, but the children of the boom have rediscovered the bicycle and are happily weaving and dodging through the traffic jams.
They travel in packs, a pillion passenger usually standing on the back of each bike, zooming past baffled adults who are left to ponder tail signs with messages like "Cool boy," "Baby cute," "Thanks, mom" and "Don't ask"..."