A couple of years ago I was quietly obsessed by the dream of owning a motorcycle. I’m not exactly sure why I was so intent on this but for awhile I would go on to Craigslist almost daily and drool over what I perceived as my dream bikes. Nothing too fancy, just simple cruisers of certain era like this. Being here in Southeast Asia surrounds one with innumerable opportunities to get on a pair of motorized wheels. Rarely motorcycles exactly they inhabit some kind of ground between something like a Harley and something like a Vespa.
The point of saying all this however is not to revive my interest in motorcycles – which still exists but, to the delight of my mother no doubt, has remained unfulfilled. No, I bring it up because back in the day, at the height of my obsession, I was talking to a friend about it and he pointed out the very practical problem of what to do if you were riding and it started to rain. I hadn’t really considered that but being here in Thailand during the rainy season has afforded me the opportunity to see many possible answers to that question.
Most people here get around by bicycle or motorbike and as I mentioned in my last post, it’s raining a lot these days. So what to do? Here are the most common coping strategies on offer in town.
The most practical is a simple poncho. It covers clothes and a bag if you’ve got one. I pack a poncho in the basket of my bike for quick-draw protection if I’m caught out in a deluge.
There are some that are specially designed for motorbikes and have extra material that drapes over the front basket and includes a “window” of clear plastic for the headlight to shine through.
The most amusing set-up I’ve seen is the two-person, one-poncho routine, or as I like to call it “the beast with two backs” (extra points for whoever nails the reference).
Seems like it would be rather disorienting for the one on back, but I’m glad they do it anyway for the amusement of the rest of us.
If you don’t have a poncho, a simple umbrella will do.
This requires a fair amount of balance and skill and I think rather increases the risk of driving a motorbike in the rain when you’re only using one hand to drive and the other hand to hold up what could amount to a giant sail.
Much safer is the got-a-good-friend umbrella method. This is actually my personal favorite. I like the kind of symbiotic relationship between driver and passenger.
These guys are using the Shirt Method which seems sort of pointless to me but hey, who am I to judge?
And then there are some folks who just deal.
Stay dry out there, everyone.
Love these photos of ingenuity in action. Much to the horror of my mother (RIP) I have the yen for a motor scooter to get around San Francisco, although I think I’ll leave it home on rainy days. Keep dry or dry out ~ XOM