adventures in moto-hug:
i decided against renting a bike in sai gon, which has generally proven to be a wise plan. i walk to school everyday and cab to dinners with friends, so i'm not really missing it here. thanks to VINAdventure volume 1, however, i've been back and forth between my hotel and the backpacker district several times now and have opted each time for a xe om, or "motorbike taxi" (literal translation: "moto hug"). you may or may not already know, but i've got a few control issues. basically, i kinda prefer to be in charge. and basically, kinda all the time. taking a xe om across town is a form of therapy for me. aside from the occasional oi troi oi, nhanh qua! ("good god, you drive fast!") or the anh oi, lai cham hon di! ("hey older brother, slow it down a bit") - which they never seem to process - i have absolutely no control over the ride.
case in point: just zipped over to the travel agency to pick up my re-entry permit (which, by the way, is just a piece of paper (already creased, i might add) stamped in red that the agent pulled out of her purse... i'm going to have to zen out on this lest it ruin my trip to cambodia...). and i took a xe om there and back.
first moment of letting go: wearing the helmet provided by the xe om driver. if i think about it too long, my scalp starts to itch.
second moment: pretty much everything else. i don't know if they're mad at me for bargaining (i won't pay more than half of what they initially quote me, and i'm quite certain i'm still overpaying at that!) or if they are simply fearless individuals, but these guys are notoriously crazy drivers. now i remember why i was so quick to get my own bike when i was here before. we were driving almost twice as fast as the rest of traffic, and i'm relatively certain we never once followed a straight path. it reminds me of playing frogger. big tourist bus in front of you? never mind, pass it on the left in the foot of space between it and the curb. oh, it's turning left now? no problem, speed up and zip around in front of it. lady driving a toyota forerunner the opposite way on a one way street? no worries, take the sidewalk. guy carrying a 6-foot tall plate of glass? let's drive next to him. red light? that's just a suggestion.
really, what's a little turbulence at 35,000 feet compared to this?
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