Well I have my number plate at last. It's been a long haul but I've got it at last. It has been a fascinating journey through the photocopying, rubber stamping, queue attending world that is the Vietnamese registration process.
It started with the incredibly simple process of acquiring a new motorbike. We just went along to the local Yamaha dealer and said - "that one". Within moments we had a motorbike, an ownership certificate and a hand scrawled note. The purpose of the handwritten note was to give to the people at the vehicle registration office. The girl told us "It's very easy for foreigner to register motorbike, just take this note they will tell you step-by-step what you do." Cool! I'm sure within days I will have my number plate!
Next day we took the motorbike and the note to the registration office and showed them the note. They take one look at the note and tell us to get someone who can talk Vietnamese for us because we are gonna need it! Hmmm, that's ok we had em Huong who can interpret for us. So I gave her a call and she came to the motor registration office. When she turned up at the registration office she was wearing an expression I had seen before. It was the same expression that Indy was wearing when he realised the Nazi's had opened the lost Ark.
"You don't realise what you have done mister Roo-sell" Apparently I had unleashed the hounds of hell and tied a piece of meat around her neck.
She wandered over to the police officer to explain things - he said she should read the registration legislation. A copy of which was on the wall. You know that dead-set ugly mural that they had at the old AFL-Park? That's about how big this legislation on the wall was. She wandered over and made it seem like she was reading it for a few minutes. She said "we will come back later", she forgot to add "and often".
Over the next couple of months we visited that great dang ky temple many, many times hoping for a gift from the number-plate gods. On each occasion were were informed that we needed a copy of another document or a stamp of authenticity on the copies of documents we already had. The folder I was carrying containing the required papers was getting larger with every visit. On the final occasion we had to each hold an end of the folder to carry it in. That day however our patience was rewarded. The priests of the dang ky temple did indeed bestow upon us a piece of paper which bound the dang ky god to deliver unto me an NN number-plate but 14 days hence.
14 Days later I visited the temple for the last time as you can see - NN Plate on the nouvo.
