“It’s nothing but lonely if ‘a street hero’ revving up his motorbike engine with no girl behind. A young and ‘long-legged’ girl sitting behind in night street races is really a high value-added item,” said Bom--a teen in Tan Binh District.
Bom is a teen boy with great street credibility in his “night storm” world, a slang phrase refering to night street racing in Ho Chi Minh City.
Get wild
It has become a fad among night street racers to have a girl sitting behind. Most of them are in the age group of 14-17, all in revealing clothes and Korean-style make-up, with hair done up high on head and dark-painted lips.
Some girls wear just a mini skirt to show off long legs, with a small strip of cloth rounding up to their chest, with a bare back.
“With such a stylish girl behind, the rider is surely highly rated and it works like a kind of doping, pumping adrenaline through his body, thrilling him to win the race,” Bom said confidently after admitting himself “a professional night street racer”.
Each young couple, sporting an expensive motorbike, priced from VND25 million (US$1,300) to VND100 million ($5,100), roar off into the night at breakneck speed towards their rendez-vous in district Binh Thanh or the East–West Highway to spend off their night time.
When racing at high speed is not thrilling enough for them, these “heroes” and accompanied “heroines” then try to catch the attention of other riders and people scared off to one side of the streets by pushing down the metal stand against the asphalt-surfaced streets to spark off lights and give off soine-chilling sounds.
Sometimes, the girls sitting behind raise their hands and brandish them wildly in the air to encourage their riders to go “faster and faster” to win the races. Those gestures usually get responded with cheers and shoutings and wolf-whistling from other teens along the racing route, waiting for their turns.
These “candy for the eye” girls play a key role in attracting cheers from the crowd and some of them even become the center of attention when they rise up from behind the rider, take off their shirts and wave them in the air amid shoutings as a kind of encouragement.
Nguyen Dinh Vinh, vice chief of Binh Thanh District traffic police, admitted “it’s regretful that a large number of teens use night street racing--a form of rebellion against social order--to assert themselves and satisfy their ego.”
“Proving one’s ego and asserting one’s identity is a legitimate need of any person, but those teens approach it in an entirely wrong way,” he added.
Family
An attractive-looking girl named Yen Trang, 17, residing on Duong Ba Trac Street in District 8 said she felt such a thrill sitting behind her boyfriend and speeding over 100kph on the street.
Asked about being caught by the police, Trang pouted and replied in a challenging way, “Arrested? It’s a good way to alert my mom who has neglected me all this time.”
“But maybe she does not even care if her darling daughter is still alive or not.”
Trang confessed that her participation in night street racing is her way of retaliation against the abandonment of her parents.
And the excitement and thrilling sensation help her get the balance in her life, Trang pleaded.
Diem is another example of such “misguided” entertainment. She also started off just for enjoyment but later turned “more pro” to earn her living by joining such races for money.
“With me behind, the boys become fearless and ride faster,” she said.
“I can earn several dozen million dong [US$1,000 equals VND20 million] a night by taking part in street races for money,” Diem admitted.
Doctor Dinh Phuong Duy, a psychologist, told Tuoi Tre teens now race when they want to celebrate something. And when they are sad with a failure, they also race to “get rid of the bad karma”.
“This is not only an issue in families but also a social concern,” Duy explained.
Print
