MY MOTORBIKE RIDE
We have, here in Bangkok, a fleet of orange-vested motor bikers who make their living taking people from place to place. I have never seen anything like it in my travels. It is a service I have never used until today, even though they maintain a station at the entrance of my soi (lane).
Today there were an unusual couple of events that caused me to use one. First the usually endless flow of empty taxis on the street into which my soi empties dried up. Then I noticed that the only bike-taxi-operator at the station was also the only female biker at that station. (Female bikers in that trade are extremely rare.) So I decided to “use her,” if you will pardon the expression.
If it had been a man I wouldn’t have done it. I couldn’t sit on the back of a motorbike with a guy driving. It would make me look like a chick. And what do you grab hold of? But with the chick driving it was different. She didn’t mind at all that I gripped the sides of her buns. (I had to hold on somewhere.) It seemed to please her.
I expected all kinds of stares as we drove through crowded streets. A ‘farang’ on the back of a bike-taxi. But we didn’t draw a glance.
The bike-taxis are cheaper and faster than the regular taxis but there is a definite safety problem. Some drivers of cars don’t pay a lot of attention to them.
My lady operator got me safely to a subway entrance down which I immediately disappeared. I use the word “disappeared” advisedly. Almost every subway station has four entrances from the street level, usually at very busy intersections. They are very convenient for crossing the streets. So when you go down one, no one can know where you are going.
I knew the story of my “ride” would get back to my household. That’s the way things work here.
How nice to leave a mystery.
Today there were an unusual couple of events that caused me to use one. First the usually endless flow of empty taxis on the street into which my soi empties dried up. Then I noticed that the only bike-taxi-operator at the station was also the only female biker at that station. (Female bikers in that trade are extremely rare.) So I decided to “use her,” if you will pardon the expression.
If it had been a man I wouldn’t have done it. I couldn’t sit on the back of a motorbike with a guy driving. It would make me look like a chick. And what do you grab hold of? But with the chick driving it was different. She didn’t mind at all that I gripped the sides of her buns. (I had to hold on somewhere.) It seemed to please her.
I expected all kinds of stares as we drove through crowded streets. A ‘farang’ on the back of a bike-taxi. But we didn’t draw a glance.
The bike-taxis are cheaper and faster than the regular taxis but there is a definite safety problem. Some drivers of cars don’t pay a lot of attention to them.
My lady operator got me safely to a subway entrance down which I immediately disappeared. I use the word “disappeared” advisedly. Almost every subway station has four entrances from the street level, usually at very busy intersections. They are very convenient for crossing the streets. So when you go down one, no one can know where you are going.
I knew the story of my “ride” would get back to my household. That’s the way things work here.
How nice to leave a mystery.
posted by Walter Guest at 3:41 PM
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