Finance and money forum

I can't speak about Vietnam, but as far as Thailand goes, a bike beats the bus any day of the week and twice on Sunday. First of all, you move at your pace, not the buses. Secondly, you see something you like, you can just stop. Thirdly, once you arrive at your destination, you have wheels. Buses suck! Bikes are cool. Try to get something in the 250--600 CC range though. The little bikes kind of blow.

Posted from within Vietnam.

I'd second the cautionary note from busylizzy (particularly given the situation my brother-in-law and family are in after his accident - coma, £80,000 costs etc.) but also want to point out that it is not easy to get a Vietnamese driving license. I hardly know anyone's who's got one because, with all the will in the world, it takes time, patience and a Vietnamese friend. As you'll have a UK bike license you will probably just have to get that converted but it requires a lot of documentation and might not be feasible to get done in the time you have. Also I'm not sure if a CBT counts as it's a certificate not a license. If you do decide to do it let me know how you get on - I'd be really interested to know as maybe it's got easier.

All that said, it's a great way to see the country and petrol here costs around 20,000VND (US$1/65p) per litre.

Cranky,
If you don't like noise, go with the Honda CBR! It has a great muffler, it's quieter than most scooters.

The smaller bikes are painfully slow on the highway, far less stable with lousy tires (they're almost bicycle tires), and the saddles are not very comfortable after an hour or so on the road. My first bike here was a Honda Wave, and I just can't ride it now. The gear system is crap - you have to play a little game with the shifter to get into neutral and each gear change is jerky because it has no clutch. The saddle is really uncomfortable. And it tops out at about 100 kmh, and even if it could go faster I wouldn't want to as it's pretty unstable over 80 kmh. The only upside is cost, so if you can afford to get a real bike, get one.

On top of all that, you look like a dork riding one.

Sarah
That is the most hideous little thing on two wheels I have ever seen. My wife would divorce me if I pulled up riding something like that.

Liz
I used to think that way too. I didn't start riding until I came to SEA. I remember when I first moved here I had a Honda Wave. I had been here about three months, hanging out at the local expat bar, and there was an English guy there with a Honda Phantom. I was admiring his bike and he said "They're OK, but they're too small". "Too small? The thing looks huge too me." Well, a month latter he was getting ready to go back to England and was selling it at a steal price of 65,000 baht. It had 3,000 km on the odometer and two years warranty left and looked new. I told him I was afraid of it, it looked too big and too difficult to ride. I had never ridden a bike with a clutch. He told me he'd give me lessons. I went to his house, and the clutch works the same as it does in a car, just with your hand instead of your foot. It was a two minute lesson. I drove up and down his street. That was easy. I took it out to the main road and around the block. That was easy. And what I discovered was that the Phantom handled MUCH better, was MUCH more stable than the Wave, and MUCH easier to ride and control. I thought it would be the other way around - that small would be easier for a beginner and safer. But that wasn't true. My son came here and learned to drive the Phantom in two minutes, and he'd never been on a bike before. He's been driving it for two plus years now. It's counter-intuitive, I know. But the only caveat is that you already can drive a car with a clutch. If you can, then a bike in the 200-250 range is easier to handle and safer to ride. The reason for that is because it's more stable on the road because it's heavier. And they almost always have a larger tires, giving you better traction. And with a clutch you can take the bike out of gear anytime you want or need to. Now they have more power, and give you more speed, so you obviously can't race around like a mad man - that would be less safe. But for any responsible person, a larger bike (within reason - I'm not talking 1,400 cc monsters here) is easier to ride.

And for men, let's not leave out the dork factor. Men look ridiculous sitting on a Honda wave and even worse on a ladies scooter, like a Fino. Image counts! So guys, pony up the extra cash. Worth it from both a fun and cool factor standpoint.

FYI.
for some reason Cambodia doesn't recognise your international driving licence although it is supposed to give you 3 months.If you want to stay in Cambodia awhile you can get a local licence through any of the motorbike hire shops, cost $33 and you'll need 4 photos your home licence and a copy of your passport.You'll be issued with a temporary licence after a few days.This might be of interest to those who want to hire a bike for awhile in Sihanoukville, as here in Phnom Penh not having a licence will probably set you back around $5 to bribe the cops as opposed to around $50 in sihanoukville.Since I bought a bike it's more or less paid for itself in 2 months since the two of us no longer have to use motodops and for destinations within 3 hours we use the bike.Gas is around $1.25 a litre here. The only drawback I can see is if you are doing long distances everyday you never really get a break in concentration because there are so many idiots on the road who obviously don't know their left hand from their right.