Getting a moto, and other luxuries

For the first time in a long time, I have a bit of disposable income. I've never been the type to go on crazy spending sprees, but there are certain things you can do when you don't have to think before spending three dollars on something.

Such as: when the power goes out, instead of knocking about the house and staring at the walls, or maybe spending as little as possible on a coffee, I went to a cafe and made breakfast out of the deal. It was air-conditioned, I got some work done, and it was much nicer than staring at the ceiling fan and begrudging it for not moving.

Or, when hanging out with a friend and they invite you to dinner, being able to agree without putting the responsibility on them to pay for you. (We went to a very lovely Japanese restaurant, and left with lunch enough for three people in leftovers).

But one of the stranger luxuries is taking a moto, or a tuk tuk.

I complain about them all the time. By now I've almost gotten used to it, the drivers leaping up with huge grins on their faces to shout "Tuk tuk Lady?" or "Lady, moto?", or clamoring in hoards outside the bars, trying to be the first one to be noticed. Or congregating on the street corners, or outside popular cafes, just chilling out until they spot a potential client, raising the one finger (index, thank you very much) call. If you just shake your head, they don't usually bug you anymore.

To go anywhere on a moto is around one dollar, in a tuk tuk, two. In either case, it adds up, and biking is almost always quicker, as bizarre as that is. Tuk tuks putter along impossibly slowly, and while the motos do go faster, they are probably much more dangerous.

And yet.

I don't know what it is, about sitting on the back of a moto, or leaning back in a tuk tuk and bouncing over the potholes. In the tuk tuk there's still something glamorous, to me at least, like riding in a carriage (hello inner Cinderella), and the moto, something so free about just being there and letting someone else drive, however badly they may do so.

Or maybe it's just not being on the bike, not having to push your own weight along, or pay attention at every second - literally, every single second, because the second you stop, there WILL be a moto turning into the wrong lane, there WILL be someone in front of you deciding to turn, there WILL be a moto zooming behind the car that stopped for you.

Either way, when my friend came to pick me up in a tuk tuk, it felt like such a luxury. After a long afternoon drinking homemade cappuccinos and eating cheese and crackers, I flagged a moto, and it was again this fabulous luxury. In fact, really any time I let myself take a moto, I love it.

I haven't quite figured out why, but it's enough to stash it under my list of treats, and I gotta say it's not an item I ever thought would be on there!