Travel Day Turns to Scooter Madness...

Hanoi, Vietnam

June 7, 2007
N 21°01.811
E 105°51.082

The rain started coming down in Sydney as soon as we arrived at the airport. Somehow we had perfect weather the entire time we were in Australia, in Sydney and Cairns, until we departed. Lightening shut-down the airport for 45 minutes before our flight, we thought something was trying to tell us to stay, but the storm moved through and our flight went off without a hitch.

As our plane was in the air, headed towards Bangkok, for our nine hour flight, we had plenty of time to reflect on our trip thus far. The trip has been pretty easy up until this point, but we are able to mix into our surroundings—blend in with the crowds in the larger cities.

In South America we blended in with the locals a little more, only standing out when Marc continued to repeat “No Gracias” when the real answer was far different. Also, we were able to read the language and communicate on a daily basis with the locals. Some of the tourist cities are just that, tourist cities, so of course people assumed we were tourists.

The tide will turn in Southeast Asia where we stand out physically, and at the same time we don’t speak any of the language except for “hello”, “chicken”, “beef”, “soup” and “sandwich”. At least we won’t go hungry.

We expect the next few months to be challenging, but that’s what makes it fun. It’s rewarding when you’re able to figure-out how different societies, cultures and cities function; everything from public-transit, banking, telecommunications, food, etiquette, and of course hygiene.

It was dark when we landed in Vietnam. After getting through customs we were happy to find a taxi driver holding a sign with our names on it. Perfect… a free ride to the city and hopefully to our hotel. The traffic during the evening commute into Hanoi was exciting to say the least.

Scooters, carrying 2-3 people, outnumbered cars by at least 5 to 1. There were swarms of scooters swerving in and out of traffic, attempting to keep left and stay out of the way of honking cars. It was controlled chaos. Cars were straddling two lanes to get by the motor bikes. As the road narrowed to two lanes, headlights coming straight at us had to dodge the bikes and the head-on traffic. Scooters were using the shoulder to go around, against and across the stream of traffic. All the while women walked along the street with surgical masks or bandanas and light blue uniforms, it looked like they just finished their shift at the local clothing factory, barely noticing the honking horns and near collisions.

As we got closer to the city the swarm of scooters became denser. Teenagers were cruising on their mopeds, only slowing to talk with each other, laughing, and of course using their cell phones. There were 2-3 teenagers on each bike, girls and boys—none wearing helmets. Talk about a parent’s worst nightmare. Taxis and cars relied on their horns, seemingly herding the scooters out of their way.

Pedestrians were an afterthought and appeared to be on the bottom of the traffic food-chain. Without stop signs or crosswalks people dashed across the streets as scooters and cars nipped at their ankles. It was like a river… flowing through the streets, everyone working together, no anger or road-rage, just simple acceptance of the seeming chaos.

We will see how controlled the madness really is as we head out exploring tomorrow. The experience is always different when you have the protection of metal all around you—it will be different as pedestrians!