Get your motorbike on

motorbike salesman

                                                 

highway patrol Vietnamese style

take a nap

Saigon is crowded, a little grimy around the edges, air is chocked full of exhaust fumes and the noise of motorbikes, truck and bus horns along with the ambient sound of 11 million or so people going about their lives.  At any one given time you'll see Rolls Royce’s, Bentley's, big, high end 
Mercedes and BMW's along with push carts, bicycles and so many motorbikes that they overflow onto the sidewalks.  Most piloted by steely eyed,expressionless drivers moving at such a sedate speed that it’s not uncommon to see motorbike drivers chatting with each other between bikes. Adding to the crazy, surreal traffic scene - pillion riders (passengers) holding large panes of glass, plumbing pipe, animals, fish tanks including water and fish, plants and trees, televisions and assorted computer components. Often you will see solo motorbike guys balances all sorts of cargo on the bike, propane gas tanks, bottled water, cases of beer, gallon containers of cooking oil, bunches of bananas, of course refrigerators, fans and air-conditioning units, mega bunches of empty plastic bottles for recycling, pigs

get  your motor running

boutique motorbike shop

and chickens and just pretty much anything that has to be transported.

An example of this was at one of the places I stayed, they had a new refrigerator delivered and it arrived riding pillion, the driver steadying it with one hand and operating the bike with the other.  As I've mentioned this is a common way of delivery but what I hope isn't common is that when the driver got the frig inside he lost his grip, recovered but ended up setting it down on his toe and I'm sure those standard issue flip flops weren't much help against the impact. However, those Vietnamese are a tough folk, saw him wince but no sound was uttered, just lifted it off his toe, pulled out the old frig, slid the new one in, carried out the old one out and positioned it on the back of the seat on 

modern motorbike food vendor

old style food vendor

his bike, slid in front of it, all the time steadying it with one hand and his free hand to drive off.

No matter how many times I see some of these events I'm never failed to be amazed.  The number one example is the bike carrying a large sheet of glass or mirror steadied by the pillion rider and I'm talking large, like three foot wide by four foot or so high. The sheet sitting on the passenger's lap with his outstretched, bare hands holding the edges of the pane.  

Then you have the one where a pillion passenger sitting in the seat backwards holding the handle of a two wheeler, like used in warehouses to move freight, and strapped on it is tank filled with welding gas as they move through traffic. Then there is the friend helping his buddy with a non running motor bike by driving his bike and pushing the other with his outstretched, flip flop sheathed foot and keeping up with traffic.

motorbike pickup

Yes,  its mind boggling the kind of stuff motorbikes transport but even crazier is the way they have been modified to do special things, adding a trailer hitch to carry additional cargo in cargo trailer, the addition of two wheels in the back for handicapped drivers, racks built over the back part of the seat to hold bottled water or propane gas and only the imagination limits the modifications and uses of the commonly motorbike that is the USA are called scooters.    

Thanks for stopping by 
Doug

                                              

  

Doug's back in California - reedited

Here I stand, once again, in my apartment in California.   Five busy weeks have passed since my return, jury duty on an arson case (they didn't get a conviction) and there was that monstrous pile of mail to paw through.  Last but not least the most enjoyable part of my return is re acquainting me with my friends and family.

Being away for months and months allows for a lot of things to happen.   In the gross category was the death of my refrigerator. While most of its contents in the lower part were cleaned out before I left, but the freezer, which had as you know has frozen stuff - fish, meat and an assortment of frozen dinners that are fine if they stay frozen but don't do so well when  exposed to room temperatures for days or maybe weeks on end.  Lucky enough for me, my son stopped by to the replenish basics foodstuffs to ease my transition into life here and found the mess (more to the point smelled the mess) and in keeping with his wonderful guy persona, cleaned up the rotten mess and aired the place out before my arrival. New frig. up and running and re stocked now and life goes on as normal.

The leg I injured while exercising at 9-23 park in Saigon has complicated getting all the things that need to be taking care off cleared away.  After the injured I visited a couple doctors with most giving me the poor old guy look while blaming the cause of my problem not on my over zealous exercising but on arthritis.  Thought one, Dr Pedro at the Family Medical clinic was very kind and ordered up an ultrasound of my upper leg which came up negative so he referred me on to an ortho guy. Who looked at me and said arthritis  After that I had a go at traditional Chinese medicine using acupuncture, herbal oils and cupping but still no real success in getting me walking without pain.

Back in California now and I'm giving a sports medicine doc. at Mercy General Hospitals clinic a try.  On examination he gave me a diagnosis of a hip flexor strain, four session of physical therapy offering little relief to the pain of walking. So he revised his original diagnosis and scheduled me and my hip for an MRI.  This is all confusing to me as the originally injury and pain was my thigh but every doctor I see except for the Chinese medicine one poo pooed my thoughts of it being my upper leg and says arthritis of the hip.  So at my wits end I gave in and later this month I'll get the MRI of my hip..  Meanwhile, two months will have passed by here in California  and  in total close to four months of me hobbling around in pain.

Some facts comparing medical treatment in Saigon compared to here in California.   Appointments wait time in Saigon - a few hours to a few days and in California a week to a month or so. Appointment cost with no insurance at a primo expat clinic in Saigon $35.00 - $40.00, my insurance deductible cost in California $20.00 - $30.00 per appointment.   Also my experience shows that a big difference in dealing with doctors in Vietnam as well as Thailand is that over there they take the time to talk to you and are respectful and treat you in a kindly manner.   

I'm on my way back to regularly posting about issues effecting us who hang out in Saigon and beyond and will be headed back in September, so lets stay in touch.

  

As always, I'm here for you.
Doug