one for you nineteen for me
today has been an interesting one. i worked roughly 15 hours, spent about three on the phone with various means of support, and had a great post-work time with kyle from our vietnamese branch.
i left work some time around 9:45pm and set off to have a late dinner with kyle via motorbike. we went to a nice little place, had some great food and a few beers, and recovered from the absurdly long feeling day.
it took what seemed like ninety minutes on the motorbike to get to downtown, and we took a completely different route than usual, so i had no gauge of where we were, where we'd been, or where we were headed. i just relaxed and enjoyed the perfect breeze and constantly changing scenery.
we had clearly gotten to downtown when i was very focused on using subtle clues to figure out where we were. i recognize this, we came from there, and the moon is that way, and that coffee shop is here in relation to that one, and so forth.
we can across a yellow light, and stopped while it turned red. we were on a one way street and turned left, on red, onto a one way street. no problem. (cam sau.) but right as we turned, three cops in green uniforms with big ol' white helmets and lots of shit on their belts waved us to the side of the road. i had no idea what was going on, and didn't want to ask.
kyle seemed pretty nervous, and started walking with one of the cops away from me. i assumed it was the red light thing, and that he was a bit embarrassed or something. but then i saw him reach into his pocket, fish through for some big (or small?) bills, then hand them to the cop. immediately, he returned to the bike, and with a sense of urgency, we rode off.
"what just happened?" i asked. "they wanted some money." "why? did you do something wrong?" "no, no problem. they just asked for money."
whaaaa?
a wise man once said he thought the speed limit on chicago highways was absurdly low because it allowed cops to give tickets for just about anything-- chances are, you were going over the speed limit, which is illegal. boom. done. apparently, everyone in saigon rides a motorbike without a license on their persons (licenses are US$5, and take a few minutes to get, and thus pointless not to get, but no one carries it around), nor do they have registration. he said they threatened to ticket him for not having it present.
it was pretty weird to witness that firsthand.
comments:
If you pay me $5 dollars, I won't arrest you for being too cool.
Benji! | February 26 @ 10:43pm
(when you get back that is)
Benji! | February 26 @ 10:43pm
if you pay me $50, i won't arrest you for being lame...isn't "$5 dollars" redundant?
Saulemander | February 26 @ 11:06pm
Nope!
Benji! | February 28 @ 8:06am