First Motorbike Experience

For those of you who don't know, Chaing Mai is full of motorbikes. At night you can see miles and miles of bikes parked along the street where I live. I'm not very fond of the driving here. Let's just say pedestrians have no rights at all...not even at a crosswalk or a traffic light. :0) However, I watched how incredibly comfortable these people are on the back of a motorbike. I can understand any driver can feel pretty comfortable on a motorbike because they're still in control, but I couldn't ride with just any driver. There were some who sat on the back who just put their hands on their legs and didn't seem tense a bit. There were girls who sat sideways like they would on a horse, and did their make up on the way to their destination; some motorbikes held three people, and I even saw a father driving, a mother on the back, and a little one not more than maybe 3 yrs. old STANDING in between them. I wasn't overly excited to ride one, but I did want to try. I was going to go with my roommate, but it was night time and she didn't want to risk a "first-timer" in the dark. :0) However, last night my team leader Opal had to pick up hotdogs and a few other things for our "4th of July" party night. She asked if I'd like to go with her....on motorbike....at night. I said, "yeah, I would!" :0) So at about 8:30 last night I was on a motorbike; I had nothing to worry about. The funny thing is we still had our shopping list, which meant we were going to bring it back with us :) We were both in that tired stage where you laugh at about everything....mixed with somewhat of a language difference (even though Opal speaks English real well). So please imagine about 10 packs of hotdogs, a bottle of mustard, 4 loafs of bread (because you won't find hotdog buns here), and some other little things....on a motorbike....Remember this is not some honkin' motorcycle...it's the equivelent to a dirt bike in the states. Ok, so if you can possible paint a small picture in your mind as to what that would look like, I wan't you to add one more thing.... Add 6--- l.5 LT bottles of coke....SIX! Needless to say, I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me. If it's even possible to redo all that...I'll take a picture. uhhh...I love motorbikes :0)