Yesterday I went to the outskirts of HCMC to meet a Vietnamese-American man who operates an English school for corporate executives. Trying to blend into the local scene as much as possible I hired a motorbike taxi for the round trip from my hotel to the suburbs. Going out took just about 45 minutes and the driver was as daredevil as a New York taxi driver, only I was sitting on the back of a motorbike and not in the back seat of a relatively secure taxi. The danger factor is probably about 1000%, but we made it to my appointment on schedule.
By the time I was ready to return to the city the light drizzle of the early afternoon had turned into a full fledged downpour, so I donned the plastic poncho I had carried with me and climbed on the back of the bike. The streets were jammed with thousands of motorbikes all jockeying for the pole position at seldom observed traffic lights while trying to avoid the deeper puddles of accumulated rain. More than once we brushed against another bike but no harsh words were exchanged and after over an hour of sloshing through the streets of Saigon, I was back at my hotel thoroughly exhausted by the waterlogged trip home. I learned (aa new expression in Vietnamese today. The motor bike taxis are called "xe om", "xe" being the word for taxi and "om" being the word for hug. That is how you ride these conveyances, hugging the driver for dear life.
The result of the job interview, by the way, was that I got an offer to teach. After considerable thought about the matter I decided that this would not be a city where I care to spend too much more time, so I declined the offer for now. How different my situation is now from those days back in the 70's when I was desperate for any job I could get as a recent college graduate. I like this scenario much better.
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