I Rule the Road

After 3 weeks of on and off motorbike training, I hit the asphalt as a distinctive urban rider four weeks ago without a coach on my back. The roads aren’t frightful anymore and it's becoming more of a virtual video game.
The toughest part about driving a motorbike occur during the half slow speeds when dragging your feet on the ground would ricochet the bike in possibly painful directions but your inexperienced feet want to drag to prevent gravity from slamming you sideways towards the concrete. Requiring a good sense of balance, instead, you put your left foot slightly floating off the ground enough to prevent from possible falls. While the right foot sits firmly on the brake and your right hand instinctively ready to release the throttle.

Subsequently the most difficult driving situations are stop and go traffic jams, circling the chaotic roundabouts, making left hand turns into moving traffic, or simply crossing the streets. These situations require neuronal synaptic transmissions bypassing all conscious thought processes. You see and hear and you react in split seconds.

Outfitted with ice cool sunglasses to fight the occasional glare and imposing plaid mask to defend against the blowing dust, I ride to Pasteur Institute in 20-40 minutes depending on the weather and traffic. If it pours, you slow down. If it’s jammed, you slow down. If you drive like me, you slow down.

Clipping at an average of 20 km per hour (~12 mph) I go:

• East on 3 Thang 2 Road
• Soft Right onto Ly Thai To Road
• Around I go around the roundabout to find the one way Dien Bien Phu Road
• Blocks later, I turn left onto the one way Pasteur Road
• Then on my left at the end of Pasteur Road sits Pasteur Institute

I park my vehicle, shake the dust off my face, and congratulate myself for surviving another day on the road.