(no subject)
My word. Things have taken an amusingly contrasting turn for the worse. As is my style I have given up being blissfully satisfied and suddenly feel that everything in my life is shitty. These epic mood swings often correspond to ridiculous shifts in luck - real or perceived. In this case, among millions of other perceived sleights fate has inflicted upon me, my mp3 player broke, my shower broke in the middle of my shower this morning, and my motorcycle got stolen yesterday.
In Vietnam when you stay in a guesthouse, the guesthouse is responsible for the bikes of its clients. They keep an eye on them during the day, they bring them inside and lock them up at night. Two nights ago, the girl whose job this is fell asleep leaving the bikes outside, and the next morning (surprise surprise) my bike had been stolen. Clearly this is a retarded slip up by the guest house, right? Well, technically, yes. Yet, we must remember that this is Vietnam, and things don't work like that. I went to file a police report, and, given the fact that my hotel has over a decade of history bribing the police to look the other way when they slightly infringe upon the legal code, the police essentially refused to do anything. Meaning, simply put, that I'm out almost a thousand dollars. A thousand dollars I didn't really have to lose. The implications of this are that rather than doing any travelling this summer, I have to find employment, like, next week.
The reason I haven't already done it is because today Ross and I are leaving to the north for a 10 day motorcycle trip through the poorest part of Vietnam (This is the part in the Northeast where the Chinese invaded in 1979, and you actually need to apply for a permit to go through part of it). This will honestly be the most epic, amazing and dangerous thing I've ever done, by a factor of about 100. Honestly, there's probably more than a 10% chance I'll bite it within the next two weeks, so I'll post whenever I can to let you know that my teeth are still quite far from having fully clamped down on it, whatever it may be.
Here are some pictures of our destination
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=358236950&size=o This is a road I will have to drive on
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=180545573&size=l
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=392301245&size=o
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=414214163&size=o
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=414214740&size=o Look! Desolation!!!
Talk to you soon!
In Vietnam when you stay in a guesthouse, the guesthouse is responsible for the bikes of its clients. They keep an eye on them during the day, they bring them inside and lock them up at night. Two nights ago, the girl whose job this is fell asleep leaving the bikes outside, and the next morning (surprise surprise) my bike had been stolen. Clearly this is a retarded slip up by the guest house, right? Well, technically, yes. Yet, we must remember that this is Vietnam, and things don't work like that. I went to file a police report, and, given the fact that my hotel has over a decade of history bribing the police to look the other way when they slightly infringe upon the legal code, the police essentially refused to do anything. Meaning, simply put, that I'm out almost a thousand dollars. A thousand dollars I didn't really have to lose. The implications of this are that rather than doing any travelling this summer, I have to find employment, like, next week.
The reason I haven't already done it is because today Ross and I are leaving to the north for a 10 day motorcycle trip through the poorest part of Vietnam (This is the part in the Northeast where the Chinese invaded in 1979, and you actually need to apply for a permit to go through part of it). This will honestly be the most epic, amazing and dangerous thing I've ever done, by a factor of about 100. Honestly, there's probably more than a 10% chance I'll bite it within the next two weeks, so I'll post whenever I can to let you know that my teeth are still quite far from having fully clamped down on it, whatever it may be.
Here are some pictures of our destination
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=358236950&size=o This is a road I will have to drive on
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=180545573&size=l
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=392301245&size=o
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=414214163&size=o
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=414214740&size=o Look! Desolation!!!
Talk to you soon!