And here's a picture of the school in mid-downpour.
Oh, and I got stopped by the police yesterday morning for not having a helmet. Some roads and I think all of PMH require you to wear a helmet, and in the last few weeks it seems the police 'checkpoints' have become more frequent. Usually I get in amongst other bikes or behind a lorry and just cruise by. Yesterday it was just the open road, me and the cream colored uniforms. I was a sitting duck, but 100,000d later and I was on my way. You know when there are police on the road because you notice a lot of traffic turning around, or a group of motorbikes pulled over with their drivers peering at the cops in the distance like nervous meerkats. Notorious routes have stands where you can 'rent' a helmet to get you past the police - you return it later, or to another stall on the other side of the police! This morning they were in exactly the same place, and once again I had no container lorries to hide behind. I just stood my ground in the middle lane, unable to hold an expression of anything other than sheer determination, and I drove right past them without my eyes flinching from the tarmac in front of me. I think from a distance it was the same guys as yesterday, so they let me go this time. One thing I can assure you, yesterday morning, he certianly had a nice wad of notes stashed in his ticket book.
3 comments:
jon, please get a helmet! For 2 reasons 1) lessen your chance of getting annihilated by Saigon traffic (this is important because who is going to keep this blog going if you weren't around? and what will we cyberstalkers do to occupy our time w/o your blog, get a life?) and 2) so you don't have to grease those alrealdy slippery pockets of the Saigon PD.
That's quite amusing about the "rent-a-helmet-for-a-block" people. I can't help but smile at their...um...entrepreneurial spirit :-)
VG, your advice is absolutely spot on. I have been sucked in to living in Rome as the Romans do. However, most of the helmets avaliable here would crumple in a breeze, let alone heavy impact on tarmac. It's got to be better than nothing though. I did have one before but it fit so badly it was a liability, more likely to cause an accident with me constantly fiddling with it.
Jon having visited HCM recently and experienced total traffic chaos a suit of armour as well as acrash helmet wouldnt go amiss.As you have just got married you now have responsibilities. Hope those bloody clouds pass soon as i am visiting HCM again very soon. Great reading on your blog.
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