I was uptown checking on scooter regulations. No surprises, but although scooters of less than 49 cc displacement do not require a special operator’s license or insurance, they still must be registered. That is what is in this bank of file cabinets. Scooter registrations. If you’ve got a scooter, they’ve got to know about it. It is neither free nor voluntary. And you wonder why I dislike the motor vehicle branch. Dave-O drove me around to look at scooter stores. Several are repair shops that are the best bet. He knows a guy that has a small gas motor fitted to his bicycle, but these units are frightfully expensive. Lee’s has them for $700, it is insane that the engine cost more than the cycle. Trivia for today. Dave-O says the original Harley Indian motorcycle had the throttle on the left hand-grip. Why? Seems it was a military design and the driver needed his right hand to shoot with.
Later in the day I talked with a guy who got a small gas motor off the Internet for $125. He could not remember the brand name. That’s more like my price range. He says he can hit 35 mph which I consider that more than dangerous. He reports he’s got 1,557 miles on the odometer and used just ten gallons of unleaded gas. Everybody makes a big deal out of the afternoon rainstorms.
Rain does not bother me in warm climates. I rented scooters in Hawaii back in the 80s. If it rains, just keep on driving. You’ll be dry in a few minutes. Florida weather is similar to Thailand with little rain squalls in the afternoon. You just pull into a roadside hut and wait. The owner will always have a Coca-Cola and the storms rarely last more than twenty minutes.
Let me tell you a tale about Thailand. I have many, this is just one. I always rent a motorcycle, not a scooter. Same price over there. Anyone can become a Buddhist monk and most Thai males do so at some point in their lives. They wear characteristic orange robes, shave their heads, and forego all material possessions.
Well, darned if I didn’t meet two guys who had been hiking in the Himalayas. They had bought all manner of useless regulation gear and were now chucking it. They gave me a raincoat, one of the kind you can never get back in the package after using it one time. I had to make a trip into Phuket for radio batteries, so no problem, I put on the raincoat and went blasting through the storm into town.
The raincoat was a dull orange color that turned bright orange as it got wet. It also turned a lot of heads because it looked at first glance like a Buddhist on a motorcycle. I shocked the hell out of a few thousand people until I got close enough for them to see I wasn’t bald. Ah, beautiful Thailand, back when it was still Thailand.
A lot of people tell me I should write my memoirs. My answer is that they are already written. Hand-written at the time, so they are not even memoirs. I’ve explained that computers were not always the wonderful and hassle-free units we have today. That’s a joke, son. Funny you should come along at the right time, for I have slated to begin key-entering my journals in late October this year. This is a monumental undertaking. I have thousands of photos, all slides, to be converted to digital. But what slides they are, wait till you see some of the places I’ve been. I spent $186,000 traveling when I was younger (in "then" dollars). Oh, and most places I walked, so don’t get any idea I wasted my cash on tourist taxis and cruise ships.
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