Helmets

I wear a helmet every time I ride on my motorbike. I wear it to protect my brains but even more so to protect my lungs and eyes from the dust. 

When I went to Luang Prabang with Ty and Hong, I made a big mistake. We rented motorbikes and they give you crappy helmets to wear. Sometimes Lao people wear helmets, sometimes they don't. 

This is me not so happily wearing my (crappy) helmet after I learned my long and expensive lesson. :(

 We were going to visit a waterfall 25 kilometers away and ride motorbikes to get there. Before we left, Ty told me about 6 times to wear my helmet. I was not going to wear a crappy helmet because the visor kept falling down making it hard to see and then the wind would catch under the visor and blow it off of my head and then I would be choked by the chin strap. It was more dangerous to be fiddling with the helmet every 12 seconds than to just take it off. So I made the mistake of not wearing it.

Two minutes after leaving the guesthouse, we drive past a police box on the side of the road. I was a little nervous, because I knew I was breaking the rules not wearing a helmet, but I looked and saw 17 other people in the same intersection not wearing a helmet, so I figured I was safe. I hear a little police whistle and slow down a little and ask Hong who is riding with me if I should stop. She doesn't say anything, so we continue. I kinda slow down again to check if I should stop or not and continue again. The policeman hops on his bike and chases us down all of 40 feet. We go back to the little police box with him. This is at 9:00.

I know I was in the wrong in not wearing my helmet - I made a mistake - but how am I supposed to know I'm the one he wants to stop just by blowing a little referee whistle at me? There were 20 other people in the same intersection also not wearing a helmet, but I was the one they went after. 

 Before we even arrive at the box, Hong and Ty whip out their phones and call their friends and friends of friends and cousin's boyfriend's uncle's teacher all of whom are cops in LPB. Ty and Hong won't give any information to the cops until they call their friends. One cop tells them that it's 300,000 kip which is $36. It sounds really cheap, but 300,000 kip is a TON of money here!

Ty's friend comes and talks to the cop and says 100,000 - 12 dollars - is OK. I say super! Let's pay and go and continue on our way! This is at 10:30 or so. Ty's other friend says that since we already wasted our time we shouldn't have to pay any money. I tell her many times it's OK. Let's just pay and be done! But she listens to her friend so we wait.

Waiting around for the police and Ty and Hong to decide what to do. At 11:30 the police tell us we have to go to the big police office. We all drive to the BIG office.

This is kinda a long story so I'll stop here and continue next time. :)