Hanoi..where good scooters go when they die
Trip Start
Jul 11, 2008
1
6
14
Trip End
Aug 13, 2008
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Monday, July 14, 2008
Scooter/motorbikes
Yes....in every direction, on every street, in front of every shop, in every single available parking space, you find the ubiquitous scooter. They told me about this before I came.."oh Hanoi has a lot of scooters." The people who told me this should be prosecuted for criminal understatement! A lot? A-freaken-lot?!!!! Hanoi has millions...millions of scooters. And few visible road rules. You do the math. The economy of Vietnam must be driven by scooters. Let's talk about getting across the street here. If you want streets with crosswalks and flashing green person lights with little beeping sounds for the deaf...GO BACK TO AMERICA! This is a common conversation between two hapless tourist here:
Tourist one: Shall we go to that pho eatery we saw last night?
Tourist two: Sounds good...but how do we get there alive?
T1: Yeah, you have a point. Hold a second, let me pull out my Lonely Planet guide book. So, says here that we are on Chan Cam street and we need to go to Hang Do street. But to get there we have to cross at least Hang Cau street, Hang Doi street, and Duong Xuan street. Those look like major streets. No way I want to risk my life 3 times in 10 minutes just to get bowl of Pho.
T2: Yeah...well if we walk up this street for 10 blocks..it looks like there are no major intervening roads..we can then turn left for another 10 blocks, turn left again for 10 blocks.....and
T1: Yeah, but then see here, where it says Hang Ma? We'd have to cross the dreaded Hang Ma. We almost died 4 times in 15 feet walking across to the drug store to get baby powder. See the food stall where they are cooking pork that has been laying on the ground?
T2: Yeah, I see it..so?
T1: Let's eat there.
T2: Um...whatever the Vietnamese name for Montezuma revenge is...we're going to get that if we eat there.
T1: Don't know about you, but I'd rather risk that then brave the scooter traffic again.
T2: It's not a "risk" it's an absolute certainty...but I'm with you. Street seasoned pork it is.
Daniel and Josh's tips..um... rules for crossing the street in Vietnam:
1) Don't Run
2) Walk Slowly
3) Don't Change your speed
4) Swivel your head so that the scooter drivers know you care about living.
5) A one-way road is not a one-way road...it is a four-way road.
6) Find a religion...any religion...and learn about faith in in the ridiculous and unbelievable. It will help you do things like step into Hanoi traffic.
Scooters and Vietnamese Culture:
Josh and I, being the nerdy academic types that we are have been looking for clues into Viet culture by observing scooter use. We've established of course that scooters are used for everything. Here's a list of what I saw sitting at a corner cafe for one hour:
On a scooters: 4 beer kegs, 30 bricks of coal, 3 girls, A dad, a mom, and a 1 yearold baby, somehwat preganat women, VERY pregnant women, 5 boxes of beer, two police men wearing a shade of green I have never seen before...(gonna call it "Revolutionary Unity Green), some sort of ab-slider, an air -conditioning unit, an overflowing crate of coconuts, a boy driving a girl who was carrying two hugs plastic bags of ramen, a girl driving her friend who was sitting side saddle, a vietnamese man with a tourist on the back who looked as if she would be too heavy for a mid-size sedan, a blond girl who would not look out of place on Berkeley's frat row, many Vietnamese girls who look like they were on their way to a beauty pagent, and a man with two kids under the age of 4.
If you look like a tourist, lost, have a guide book, or just a map...expect to be offered a scooter ride..oh..about 100 times a day. Can there really be that many scooters for hire? Really? They are everywhere. Everywhere! I suspect that most of them are just random accountants, IT techs, school teachers, and others who happen to be outside for a smoke break, see you looking in need of a death-defying ride through traffic, and kindly offer. I'm not sure though. I have never been asked to scooter-taxi by a women, and I know they own scooters...so I'm not sure what forces are at work here.
Next Morning: Lost my internet in the midst of some brilliant writing. More to say about scooters and Hanoi but it will have to wait until Hue. Now we're off to junk around Halong bay for a couple of days. Cheers,
So much more to say about scooters and Hanoi but
Comments
Signed on because...
I had to tell you that I'm really LOL'ing!
LOL
Funny story, I think I will have to watch for your next log as you finish your trip.