A new means of Transport

Well I have done it what mum probably never really wanted me to do even in Australia because its too dangerous, I have bought a motorbike. Well not a motorbike exactly more of a scooter or moped really, in fact its a Italian made 1982 Vespa 150cc. You may ask why this rather strange choice of bike. Well there are a few reasons the main one been the person who owns the other half of the bike only wanted to get a vespa and nothing else, and then there is the fact that they are very well built and reliable I mean there are lots of 1960s vespas on the streets here. The only other real choice unless u want to spend alot of money is to get a cheap Chinese made bike that are everywhere but are known for breaking down. We got the bike for US$600 so my half was $300 and I am quiet happy with it at the moment. I got the bike mainly to help with getting around town as there are not taxis everywhere like Liberia and I am unable to drive the ships vehicles due to been underage for the insurance.


On this Saturday just gone by I got to give the bike a good test out as I went on a bit of spontaneous bike cruise. I was sitting in the dinning room just eating some lunch and one of the other guys that owns a bike came up to me and asked me if I was interested in going for a ride to Porto Novo which is the capital of Benin. I said sure why not I didn't have any other plans. So at 1 o'clock we gathered together 4 bikes in all and set out on our road trip adventure. It was great fun riding up the highway to Porto Novo and really getting to test out the vespa fully and I must say I was impressed with her. I was able to keep up with the other 3 bikes without too much effort at all and it was great just feeling the wind in my face cruising along the highway (although next time some sun screen for my face would be good as I forgot this time and regretted it a little). Once we got to Porto Novo we took a short break and then proceeded to drive around the streets all over the city just looking around. It was a lot of fun and we got a lot of strange looks and shouts our group of Yovo's (white people) on bikes just riding around. We had a great day and ended up been out for about 5 hours which is the longest I have ever spent on a bike, but the vespa was surprisingly comfortable for such a long ride.