The small motorbikes in common use in Việt Nam have a very small engine. The motor is shielded on the sides by a panel that also protects the rider from puddle splashes. The white panel in the front of this motorbike is an example. (This picture shows one of our best friends here in Hué with her daughter on the back.) In the side of the panel is a small hole used to get at some of the controls for the engine.
This picture shows the engine as you look through the hole in the panel. You see engine parts - - and
something else that looks long and tubular and rather soft. You might also see something that might look like the head of a snake.
No – its not a snake. It’s a snake skin. In this photo, taken from the other side of the bike, you can see a bit more of the body. As you know, snakes must shed their skin as they grow. Our Guest 
House is surrounded by rice paddies, and I have no doubt there are a fair number of snakes in those paddies where they hunt and help control the rat population that eats large amounts of rice. (I read somewhere that about 20% of all rice in Việt Nam is eaten by rodents.) So the recent owner of this skin is not some nasty poisonous thing, but rather a beneficial guy who just needed to come in out of the water in the paddies so he could find something rough to help him shed his skin.
One part of the skin fell off the bike as soon as the owner touched it, and it landed on the ground
underneath the bike.
The bike was parked inside the Guest House. There is an area designated for us to park our bicycles and motorbikes inside. That allows them to be under lock at night. The Gentle Reader might ask “How did the snake get in the building if the place is locked up?”
Silly Gentle Reader.
The locked door keeps out people, but the two inch gap under the closed door doesn’t keep out growing snakes.