Getting set up - home and transport

After many false starts as well as the invaluable assistance of David Vuong (travel agent back in Newtown) in finding some contacts, I have finally settled on somewhere more permanent to live. And it's a place that I looked at in the first week and initially decided against because ... well, because I didn't know any better I suppose. It is an apartment in a villa in Vo Thi Sau street close to Back Beach. It is actually a very nice - luxurious? - large studio, owned by one of the property tycoons of Vung Tau, and it seems that I will be the only other tenant in the place besides the owners. Don't have a pic to show you yet - I am signing the lease on Thursday and move next Monday.

Because I am moving to Vo Thi Sau street I have to do something more about transport than just my daily lift to and from work with Quang, walking and the hotel's dilapidated one-person bicycle (included in the tariff). So I asked Steve about Waltzing Matilda's - the hotel/bar/travel booking agent who he rents his motorcycle from - and went in on Monday to enquire. And to say "I can't actually drive a motorcycle - could someone teach me". After everyone fell about laughing at the prospect of this green round-eye wanting to learn, they have been very kind and given me 3 lessons - all the while I'm waiting for a motorcycle to actually become available. (I do wonder where there is a sub-text here!)

The thing is, the idea of riding the motorcycle is much easier than the act. In principle it's not that much different to driving a manual car, in fact there isn't even a clutch. But I have enormous trouble using the pedal to change gears down, and then there's the need to keep your balance, not veer into other traffic when you're trying to change gear and lane and get ready to make a left-hand turn (remember in Vietnam we are driving on the right hand side of the road, so it's the left-hand turns that take you across traffic), ... oh and slowing down for turns at traffic lights and intersections. The people at Waltzing Matilda's have been very patient and assure me that I'll get it ... but I think that I could make the roads of Vung Tau whole lot more dangerous.

Seriously considering buying a push bike instead and just getting a xe om driver when I need it!