I am yet another dreamer who pictured Vientiane as a quaint French town on the banks of the Mekong. I imagined myself on a bicycle with flowers, leafy greens, and a baguette in tow. However, now that I have been here for over a week, the reality of motorbikes has hit me. It has hit me so hard that today when I attempted to drive one for the second time I ran right into a parked truck (unsuccessfully used the handbrake which is broken on the bike I am learning on). Fortunately I hit only the truck’s bumper and suffered no damage to anything other than my bike’s front basket (the dent looks pretty awesome I must say).

After the frightening first moments on the motorbike I successfully drove it to the house where I am staying. I decided, however, to ride a regular bicycle to Vientiane College for work tonight. Of course I didn’t realize that the bicycle was a fixed gear so that also made for an interesting experience, but it proved much more successful than my endeavors on the motorbike.

Maybe I will become even more hipster than I was in Portland, OR and get myself a fixed gear bicycle here. Who knows. 🙂