My First Motorbike Ride

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I had been in Vietnam several weeks before I got the courage to take a motorbike ride. The traffic was always horrible, and there seemed to me no rules of the road. And I have never ridden any two wheeled vehicle since I was in grade school. And I never ridden anything motorized. When I needed to get around I hired a cyclo or a taxi.

In Saigon there are motorbikes for rent everywhere. You can rent them to drive yourself or hire one with a driver to take you anywhere you want to go. The price was quite reasonable.

The drivers would sit with their motorbikes at certain locations. They would be there every day. I guess once they staked out their location, it was theirs forever.

My first driver was a girl named Lynh. Her location was at a cafe I sometimes sat in to people watch. She was married to a Pilipino and consequently spoke good English. She had a job at a wood products company during the week and supplemented her income giving rides on the weekends.

I got to know her fairly well and one day asked her to take me somewhere. I forgot where. She knew where I wanted to go, so I hopped on and we took off. Before we left the waitress at the cafe took our picture with me on the back of her motorbike. In the pics she was driving and was covered from head to foot in driving clothes so she wouldn’t get her regular clothes dirty. She wore a special scarf in her hair, a mask over her mouth and nose, sun glasses, arm and leg coverings, gloves and special shoes. She would have been a good getaway driver for a bank robbery. No one could recognize her. Unfortunately the pics I have of me on her bike have disappeared. This is the only one I can find.

Once she got dressed, I got on, the pics were shot, and we took off. I remember feeling a little bit uncertain, but not frightened at all. I also remember being physically uncomfortable. I wasn’t positioned correctly, so as we drove along I adjusted my position. I immediately realized that was a mistake. Lynh started wobbling and swerving. I could tell we were in danger of falling over and were were in the middle of about 16 lanes of motorbike traffic. After a few seconds she got the bike under control and we finished the trip.

After that experience she would never take me for a ride again. The next time I asked her, she recommended I use a guy who waited close to her place. She never said why, but I knew. We remained friendly and I talked with her many more times. Then one weekend she didn’t show up. Either she found a busier place to sit, or she gave up giving rides. I never saw her again.

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