Scooters (15/12/08)

MONDAY 15TH DECEMBER

Having stopped in a room full of damp, I woke up breathing like a 60 year old, 40-a-day fag smoking asthmatic. Because we had already arranged to leave for Nha Trang later that night we decided to hire a couple of scooters to pass the day. At $10 for two it was money well spent. Louise, although she's been driving for 10 years, has never ridden a scooter. This was going to be a laugh. We set off to the outskirts of town, me going at at a steady 30mph, Louise crawling around 20mph. We managed to turn onto a side track that took us to some old women selling some crap. After saying no to buying anything, I tried to turn round on the bike and the back wheel skidded and nearly pinned a woman of about 70 to a garden wall. Not the proudest moment of my life. We motored round for about 3 hours getting a puncture on the way. Went to get it fixed and made an 18 month old cry (losing a bit more pride), and seeing people, who by the looks on there faces, had never seen a westener. Pulled up outside a pool hall. Promptly beat a 17 year old, who was trying to hustle me, at 9-Ball gaining a little pride back. Went to drop the scooters off at tea-time, Vietnam rush-hour. Trying to turn the bike round in the road, the throttle stuck and I was within a foot of totaling a bike and a middle aged woman. Zero pride left.