If you're gonna get wet, you might as well jump in

Arrived evening of Monday, September 20th after spending a day walking the streets of Seoul, Republic of Korea. First mistake: not bribing the customs official at the Viet visa office. Waited for him to process all of the women and non-white male applications before realizing I was well ahead of most of the people getting through. Got on his case and he finally did his job (hitting the print button on a machine from 1987... remember that connected paper that has those perforated edges with all the holes in them? Yea, that old). Third time that day I was hassled about my juvenile, spiky-hair and half-opened-eyes passport picture. He laughed, I pretended to. I readjusted my calipers for the constant gawking and hard-time givings i'm to receive from these people for being a giant, white abomination.

Hopped on the back of Vince's bike and had my first street meal on toddler-sized plastic furniture: Quail eggs and miniature pork sausages wrapped in banana leaves with chili salt. Tiger beers served on the side in mugs with giant bricks of cubed ice... cool.

Considering my limited amount of time in this country, I decided not to wait around until I got comfortable to rent a motorbike and get into the madness this city's traffic. A new black Honda Wave was delivered to my door the second day, $45 for one month. Dreams of a war-era BMW or Royal Enfield are set aside for more practical hardware. I'm a little too tall for it, but these streets require a lot of quick braking and maneuvering, so low-weight and plastic is a plus... for a change.

People make much better use of their horns out here. It's less about "I'm very upset at the fact that you just cut me off," and more about, "HEY, I am approaching up on your side at a higher speed than you, if you move left or right or you will die."

I used to think driving around in a car in NYC was nerve-wracking. Had to reset my standards again for a more globalized model that includes the fluid chaos of overpopulated 3rd-world city traffic. Rush hour is far from gridlocked here, though. I haven't quite figured out how things keep moving, but further inquiry and Bike-mounted video analysis to come soon...

The Crown and Two Chairmen

Here's a summary of what I put most of my energy into since the last time I posted.