Big News in Vietnam

I was away from the city for 3 days on my Halong Bay journey of epic proportions. I was on the bus coming back in to Hanoi after this journey and noticed something was.. different but I couldn't put my finger on it. I starred out the window trying to figure it out. The first thing I noticed was that there was a large amount of police officers around (by the way, Vietnamese police officers wear uniforms the color of rotten pea soup. Maybe it's supposed to be an intimidating shade of green?) I still couldn't figure out what was different. A fugitive on the loose? But the flow of motor bikes going down the highway looked more shiny for some reason. Finally, figured out what the difference was. Every single person was wearing a helmet! On December 15th, Vietnam passed a law that every person on a motor bike must be wearing a helmet. The police were about to enforce the new law, the penalty being something like $10. It is not uncommon to see 4 people on one motor bike, including small children. Usually, the driver (if anyone) will be the only person wearing a helmet. So it was quite a surprise, but also a good thing, to see that everyone was wearing one. I did notice that most of the Vietnamese guys under a certain age, defiantely didn't buckle their helmets. Rebels.