Snippets from Abroad 014

Hiring a scooter to get around and then realizing that This Is Asia:

I have to admit that I do not have the correct license to drive the motorscooter I am currently manning, but the irregular rides on my fathers electroscooter (a nice import from China) have given me enough practice to fake it to the guy who rents these things out (not that he would care) and I drive out of the Soi my guesthouse is situated in. When I get out onto the main road, part of me starts to scream incomprehensibly, while the rest of me is busy spreading my spatial awareness to 360 degrees around me, hopefully far enough to notice anything on a collision course; on a scooter, you are the weakest thing on the road (if you discount bycicles, which are rare around here) and probably the third slowest to boot (TukTuks, the carrion-eaters of traffic, and motorcycles converted to mobile food-stalls can't keep up with you; Songthaeuws, pickup-trucks, SUVs, family cars and the ever-crazed motorcyclists of these parts out/overrun you). The speedometer is broken (which I see often around here. Not having ever seen a broken speedometer in Europe, I must assume it's on purpose, to cloud the true age of a vehicle upon reselling it) and I have no clue whether the fuel-gauge will rise if I fill the tank, which I most definitely must soon. But right now I just try to stay in the general flow of traffic, following stronger vehicles closely, using them for protection, always expecting something to hit me from the side, ending the healthier part of my existence. I somehow get onto what the locals call a highway, which by my standards doesn't fit the definition, what with the stores and parking-lane, the cross-lights and the fucking pedestrians and all, and start looking out for a gas-station. There is one, but it's on the other side and I am not insane enough to do a U-turn on a highway in a left-handed traffic system (which would be perfectly legal and normal here) so I drift on with the traffic. As I start to calm down and get used to the traffic and its unwritten rules, I see a gas-station up ahead. I knew that all it would take was getting used to and here I am, pulling up like it's the most normal thing in the world...