I don't mind cycling in the rain. The pretty blue poncho kept me quite dry.
Hearing the sound of the bike's big wheels upon the wet streets reminded me of taking a bicycle rickshaw home in the rain after clubbing in Hanoi, Vietnam, at 3 in the morning, many years ago. As one does.
The streets were empty. There were hardly any lights.
Big trees with thick trunks lined the wide empty boulevards.
The sound of the large rickshaw wheels upon the silent wet streets was really nice. I never, ever forgot that sound.
Yep, I will never forget that solitary rickshaw ride, having successfully fended off a 7ft Russian, who had lifted me off the dance floor and wanted to take me back to his room for a fck.
Uh, no thanks. He was 'hot', a professional, rich, but uh, na, I don't have my belly button pierced or like fast cars.
Anyway, that's what I thought about, as I rode to school in the hebi, boa constrictor-like rain this morning.
Hurray it's Friday.
Hearing the sound of the bike's big wheels upon the wet streets reminded me of taking a bicycle rickshaw home in the rain after clubbing in Hanoi, Vietnam, at 3 in the morning, many years ago. As one does.
The streets were empty. There were hardly any lights.
Big trees with thick trunks lined the wide empty boulevards.
The sound of the large rickshaw wheels upon the silent wet streets was really nice. I never, ever forgot that sound.
Yep, I will never forget that solitary rickshaw ride, having successfully fended off a 7ft Russian, who had lifted me off the dance floor and wanted to take me back to his room for a fck.
Uh, no thanks. He was 'hot', a professional, rich, but uh, na, I don't have my belly button pierced or like fast cars.
Anyway, that's what I thought about, as I rode to school in the hebi, boa constrictor-like rain this morning.
Hurray it's Friday.
7 comments:
He invited me to lunch the following day, asked me to meet him at his post hotel at 4pm. I didn't want to go on the date because I knew what he wanted, and it wasn't conversation, so I went to the hotel earlier in the day, and left a message for him at the front desk, and then wound up paying $200 for a beautiful photo on silk print thingy, framed and all, by a French dude who was holding an exhibition in the hotel foyer...what was I thinking...beautiful print, it's in South Africa, probably mouldy in the cupboard, but on that trip to Vietnam, I met a British chick journalist when I offered her a seat at my prime spot table in a busy Hanoi lake-side cafe, and we wound out hanging out together for a few days, and she was really into art, we trawled the back rooms of galleries, and I wound up buying a big yellow painting by an up and coming artist, and blah, ha ha, i don't usually buy art.
posh hotel, not post..uh
Hello, please write more about your Hanoi trip! I have lived in Hanoi for a long time and miss taking cycle at night after a party. They are banned from most streets now. Liza
Sorry, cyclo. I love your comments on j bloggers and their lives, esp kari. Liza
Hi Liza
I just found your comment..it went into spam for some reason.
I was only in Hanoi for a week but I loved the city, and wanted to quit Japan and move there.
I was there about 12 years ago.
I came back to Japan and bitched to people about how warm Vietnam was compared to Japan, who the people were so warm and tactile and lovely.
If I had saved enough money at that point, I would have moved, but my salary here was better at the time and so on.
You were/are lucky to live there.
It's a shame the cyclos are on the way out. Criminal really, something so environmentally-friendly and the essence of Asia.
He he re: Kari..I feel bad she stopped blogging...I think it was because of me.
Bicycles banned in Vietnam? More evidence of the innate stupidity of unaccountable governance. If you want to grow a "modern" country (not that this is desirable to give every peasant a crappy little car), you don't encourage the process by banning the means of transport they *can* afford.
Compare to Denmark, where many people who can afford German luxury vehicles are moving into bike-only precincts of cities like Copenhagen.
Or me, for that matter. No car, no worries, because of other, fairly painless decisions made to facilitate that initial goal of not being a dickhead in a plastic tank.
Hi Maria! yes, Vietnam is still good, but it may disappoint you, since you have seen the ‘old’ Hanoi. Many beautiful French buildings have been demolished and replaced by ugly banks and starbucks type of coffee shops.
The Vietnamese are tactile and warm as ever! It is possible to make friends, even for an outsider. They make lifelong bonds but at the same time welcome new friends.
Re Kari: you bullied her into quitting. I blame you for taking away my weekly laughs :)
Rhys: bicycles are not banned, but it is becoming too dangerous to ride one. The streets are full of motorbikes, busses, and cars. No bike lanes and usually drivers of heavier vehicles ignore the safety of cyclists.
Cyclos are still around in smaller cities like Hue or Hoi An. Hanoi government decided that cyclos are a nuisance and slow down the traffic (ah, and their BMW do not). Very sad….
When I was in high school I stole a cyclo and drove my friend around the block (and returned it to the guy who left the cyclo to pee). Wouldn’t have been fun to highjack a taxi….
Liza
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