Don't tell our mothers . . . Motorbiking video

Our mothers are going to be appalled, I know, but we ride motorbikes a lot here. It's more or less necessary if you're going to keep company with anyone local. They think we're crazy for spending money on taxis when there's always a motorbike to be squeezed on to the back of. And there's always a fuss with finding us spare helmets, since it's a law now, so if one isn't at hand our hosts sometimes suggest that the police won't stop a foreigner without a helmet, but I insist we find enough.

On this trip, each of us riding behind a friend, we're going out to dinner on a Saturday evening with relatively light traffic. This give a little sense of the lawlessness of the roads. But even that is changing rapidly. You'll see that we're stopped a couple times at traffic lights, and those were nonexistent or totally ignored on our previous trips. But in general, there is no such thing as yielding the right of way, and the most operative law is that might makes right.

-Robert