[travel] Guns and motorcycles
Feb. 12th, 2009 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mattbellAs of a week ago I had never shot a gun or been on a motorcycle. Now I can check bot of those off.
I shot a few rounds out of an AK-47 at a range in Vietnam. I will say that modern videogames replicate the sound and feel very well, but the sensory assault you get from it in real life is fantastic. the target (a giant sign far away) was kind of boring though... I would have preferred some tin cans on a fence, or better yet, a propane canister.
On to the motorcycles. I met up with someone who taught me how to ride the small Honda motorbikes that make up 90% of the traffic in Vietnam. For the shockingly low price of $4.30, we each had a motorbike and a full tank of gas for the day. After practicing in a hotel parking lot, we headed out toward the Marble Mountains, a group of stunning Buddhist temples carved into limestone mesas. We also discovered an incredible seafood place off the tourist trail. The knack for getting really good food is to look for places on side streets where there are large amounts of well-dressed locals eating. We also went into the Son Tre mountains, a set of forested mountains that form a long peninsula near Danang. The combination of forest, beach, ocean, and city was stunning, and zipping through it on a motorbike thrilled me at a primal level.
By the end of the day I had experienced beach highways, windy mountain roads, potholed roads, third world city traffic and even dirtbiking. I briefly got the bike up to 50mph on a wide open road with no one around. I liked watching my subconscious pick up skills and adjust quickly to a new mode of moving through the word. My very strong self-preservation instinct kept me on a good path toward mastery without risking my life. The constant tinge of fear it brought on ensured that I paid very close attention to everything that was going on. A full day of doing that is exhausting, and I was barely conscious at dinner
In any case, I would like to try more motorbiking when I get home. I should get some proper instruction too.
I shot a few rounds out of an AK-47 at a range in Vietnam. I will say that modern videogames replicate the sound and feel very well, but the sensory assault you get from it in real life is fantastic. the target (a giant sign far away) was kind of boring though... I would have preferred some tin cans on a fence, or better yet, a propane canister.
On to the motorcycles. I met up with someone who taught me how to ride the small Honda motorbikes that make up 90% of the traffic in Vietnam. For the shockingly low price of $4.30, we each had a motorbike and a full tank of gas for the day. After practicing in a hotel parking lot, we headed out toward the Marble Mountains, a group of stunning Buddhist temples carved into limestone mesas. We also discovered an incredible seafood place off the tourist trail. The knack for getting really good food is to look for places on side streets where there are large amounts of well-dressed locals eating. We also went into the Son Tre mountains, a set of forested mountains that form a long peninsula near Danang. The combination of forest, beach, ocean, and city was stunning, and zipping through it on a motorbike thrilled me at a primal level.
By the end of the day I had experienced beach highways, windy mountain roads, potholed roads, third world city traffic and even dirtbiking. I briefly got the bike up to 50mph on a wide open road with no one around. I liked watching my subconscious pick up skills and adjust quickly to a new mode of moving through the word. My very strong self-preservation instinct kept me on a good path toward mastery without risking my life. The constant tinge of fear it brought on ensured that I paid very close attention to everything that was going on. A full day of doing that is exhausting, and I was barely conscious at dinner
In any case, I would like to try more motorbiking when I get home. I should get some proper instruction too.
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Date: 2009-02-12 10:25 pm (UTC)