Life Is Good No More (Damn Vespa!)

l don't know how to drive a motorbike. I don't even know how to drive a bicycle. And I never had the interest to learn.

Since I'm now living in Vietnam, I 1.ride a xeom (often), 2. ride a taxi (sometimes), 3. use C-my brother in law as a xeom driver (seldom but not never). So you see, I was fine.

There are a lot of xeom in every street corner. And the xeom drivers near the house, they know me. Whenever I go out, they look at me closely. They stare. In their minds, they're thinking, there she is, the woman who looks Vietnamese but something's just not right about her. 1. Is that all she's going to wear when she rides a bike, a simple blouse, jeans and shoes? No long-sleeved jacket, hat, arm glove, socks, mask, (please take a deep breath before you continue) plus the blouse, jeans and shoes? It's so sunny, god's sakes! 2. She smokes. (This was when I just arrived. I've quit smoking.) Tsk, tsk, odd, odd woman. Must be a foreigner. Charge her more.

So I when I go somewhere 1. near (around Tan Binh District where I live)= VND 10,000 2. far (District 1 or 3)= VND 20,000 or VND 25,000. I know it's more than what the Vietnamese pay but it's less expensive than riding a taxi 1.near = VND 20,000 to 30,000 2. far.= VND 60,000 to 70,000. And C is a charming, good-looking man; you see, he was once asked to be a model of Tiep Thi va Gia Dinh for a mien phi makeover (badly-needed!). He's also got the X factor; X = mien phi xeom driver. I'm still alive. Life is good.

But since Sunday, when C's newly-pimped vintage mini Vespa arrived, signs of dissatisfaction have been emerging. I've been thinking/ rethinking about my plight as a woman in Vietnam. Coz you see, I'm not as free and independent as I would like to think. I depend on men as drivers.

Which may be the reason these images have been recurring in my mind lately. Me ala Angelina Jolie (freudian since she was here a few weeks ago) minimalist look (simple cut black or white blouse and jeans) with wisps of wind-blown hair escaping out of a colorful helmet speeding along Duong Nam Khy Khoi Nghia in a vintage mini Vespa, all black with white leather seat.

And C's Vespa, it's been taunting me. It's grinning at me from its honored place altar-like in the garage cum living room cum TV room as I write this post. Good thing that Vespa's seat's not white.
(Note that I try not to sexualize rides, as men are wont to do.)

C's Vespa Mini 50cc 1950