Of white gold and spider tales

Yesterday I was a man on a mission. Registering a moto (motor bike) is not for the faint hearted. After a couple of days visiting the local governing office, jumping some hoops and then being told 'we can't do this here', I prevailed on the land-lord's son to come help me jump more hoops at the right place.

Son of land-lord is a fun guy. His favourite expression is 'sir, don't you worry about a thing'. So, with 'No-worries' we headed off to battle, secure in the knowledge that all was well.

It was a 20-minute drive across town to the rego centre. There is a big building lined with windows. Each window has a function of keeping you waiting in a queue. Fortunately, 'No-worries' is a professional queue-jumper. His abilities had me charge through the process in 3 hours 4 minutes.

My 'white gold'.

The rego boys have a well oiled money machine. You can get your plates in 'about a month' or in a day. The local constabluary had pulled me over for the fourth time the other day - and despite the 'fact' that you have a month to get the rego plates, you still pay (smile, explain, listen to '$20 fine', smile, talk. 'OK $10' and settle for $1). So, I opted for the fast-track in the earnest desire to get street-legal now. It's not too expensive - but you get to pay for parking your bike - passport photocopy - letter to say you really live here - plates at fast-track price - two holes in plates - afix said plates to moto.

Mission finally accomplished - and 'No-worries' nicely suggested that he double me back home on my bike as he was now in a hurry. In twice the traffic density he achieved that in under half my time. Red light? - it means 'go faster'!

My flying machine is a Spider. From a local perspective, think 'Daewoo' or 'Skoda'. As I understand it, it is a clone Honda, made in Thailand and assembled in Cambodia. Buying a Spider is following in the footsteps of Patrick Kelly, who took local counsel to go Skoda as these bikes are unattractive to thieves. Thieves target the brand names - like Suzuki Smash (no, I'm not joking - Smash they are!)

Our Spider machine - faster than a Suzuki Smash??