xe oms

Even a short time in Vietnam will acquaint you with one of its unique aspects- the motorbike taxi, or as the Vietnamese call it, the "xe om". The 'xe' part means 'vehicle' and the 'om' means 'hug', affectionately putting it together to refer to these alternative forms of transport as a 'hugging vehicle'. Just get on the back of this motorbike, after haggling over the price to your destination, and hold on (most drivers would love you to hold on to them, staying true to the hug part, most riders prefer to hold on to the bar behind the seat).

Although some xe om drivers can really give you a hard time over price and your western face, I've been pleasantly surprised at the xe oms at the end of the street where I'm staying. I've only met two of them, both in their early sixties, and both have been extremely reasonable in their prices and very careful to make sure I get to my destinations in one piece.

The first day I took one of the xe oms I actually wasn't sure where the place I wanted to go was. I asked him if he knew where the 'Tous les Jours' bakery was and made sure to mention that it was a good French bakery somewhere near Ben Thanh Market (which can really be anywhere in District 1). After we arrived in the area, without actually spotting the bakery on the way, he was nice enough to drive around and ask other xe om drivers if they had heard of it. After a bit of a wild goose chase, he found a young security guard who knew of the place and told him what street it was on. We finally found it and I gave him and extra 10,000 VND (about $.70) for the trouble.

The next day I took a second gentleman into town, remembering the address of the bakery this time. As we were passing by Ben Thanh market, the wind picked up, sending the already too-big-for-my-head helmet flying up and the chin strap pulled taught and being the only thing actually keeping it on my head. Well, this also caused my large hoop earring to come undone from my right ear and sent it flying off the bike. It was like watching a coin bounce off the table and roll across a crowded dance floor- the golden hoop bounced along the asphalt and into a sea of traffic. I promptly pounded the driver on the back and said in Vietnamese, "Just a moment! I lost something!" and rushed off the bike and into traffic, where a young man had stopped his own motorbike in the middle of the sea and had bent over to pick it up. As he stood there admiring the earring, I plucked it out of his hands and as I was running back, yelled "Thank you!" over my shoulder in Vietnamese, remounted the xe om's bike, and we continued on our way.

Not too much to my surprise, as I flagged the same xe om down to take me in for my class, he looked at my ears to make sure I had taken my earrings off...then checked my necklace to make sure I tucked it into my shirt...and finally made sure that I readjust my bag so that it was in front of me for the ride. Only until we had gone through the whole take off procedure that he deemed it safe to take the foreign girl into town, which he did...with a smile.