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Traffic in Vietnam
June 18, 2005
One of the first things that hits you when arriving in Vietnam is the chaos of the traffic on the roads. There is a sea of motorcycles as well as buses, trucks and some cars which come and go in all directions. The notion of driving in a lane is a strange concept here as vehicles often take whatever room there is on the road, even if this means facing incoming traffic. There aren’t any stop signs and few traffic lights to help so everything merges into a wave in motion. Drivers always look straight ahead, never sideways or behind to see if they’re about to hit anyone. God no. The key is to constantly press the horn to warn others that you are coming and just plow ahead, turn, do anything you like. It is the responsibility of the driver who is about to be hit by incoming traffic to move out of the way. The sound of incessant horns make you immune to it so you don’t hear it anymore, or want to for that matter. Survival instinct. Oh, and don’t bother wearing a helmet either, or if you do, no need to tie it. Crossing the road/street as a pedestrian is quite an adventure at first. No lights, so you just need to walk into the traffic and weave your way to the other side. A heart racing experience, but then the scary thing is that you get used to it. Everything moves, and that is the key to fitting in and making it.
For work, we have scooters and motorcycles but they are in such bad states that it is risky taking them out on the road. Often the breaks, clutch or gears don’t work or even better, some won’t even start at all. The reason for this is that they are 3 years old, a long life for riding on bad roads. With the permission of the project, I decided to take one scooter and put it back into shape, and I took it to a mechanic. In fact, he changed most pieces and the cost was high at 100$ (a fortune in Vietnam). Still, I needed the scooter for field visits and there was no way around it. I tried with the motorcycles but I found it so hard to ride them and use the clutch properly. They are so big for me… And since I have often had scooters before, this is easy for me. I use it to go to work and even a few times to go to the other district where we have 5 coops. The trip takes about 3 hours, if all goes well…
I must be careful on the road since they are often not very wide so when we cross large trucks, motorcycles usually need to get off the pavement to the side. And roads are often very windy so one must always be ready to act and get out of the way. You can’t go too fast either as I did once and skidded on the side. The last time I went to the other district, my scooter broke down twice, plus I got 3 flat tires on the way. I was lucky that there are many repair shops along the road, but that was too much as this had made the trip long and difficult. I don’t even know why I got so many flat tires since the roads are good and my tires are new.
When I need to go to Hanoi to do some grocery shopping, the best way is to go with the project vehicle which usually goes on Friday and comes back Sunday. It is a huge and luxurious 4 x 4, comfortable and this model is often used by embassies. The project wanted at first to get a cheaper one, but the district insisted on this model since they will get it when the project finishes. For volunteers here doing development work, it feels like a bit much, especially when we use it to go to small remote villages. I couldn’t help but feel like the rich guys coming to visit the poor country folks. We also have a crazy driver whom I called Techno Boy as he likes to blare techno music and go through villages as fast as possible, sometimes coming close to hitting people, kids or livestock I tell him to slow down all the time, but he usually just grins at me with satisfaction.
When the project vehicle is not available, we have to go to Hanoi by bus, and that is no party. We need to take a cramped bus to the provincial capital city, then transfer to a usually better quality bus to Hanoi. All in all, a good 7-8 hours before we reach destination. But later on in August, a private company started a direct route from Ba Thuoc to Hanoi, with buses leaving twice a day. Then it became easy and fast to get there by bus.
The impression that I have of Vietnam as a foreigner is that everything moves and is dynamic. Everyone takes their place in pure chaos, without any apparent frustration. Anyone from home dropped here without warning would be yelling insults left and center in no time, to the dismay of locals. The key here is flow, in all directions but always forward, trusting that obstacles will get out of your way. Most of the times, this seems to work just fine….