Transportation

The way traffic operates in Vietnam kept a constant grin on my face. Everyone rides scooters because they are an inexpensive form of transportation. There are probably 20 scooters to every car. The streets are flooded with them! The bummer is that nobody wears helmets. Our diplomat told us that there are 1000 traffic related deaths a month, which is around thirty a day. I can’t remember if he was talking about Vietnam as a whole or Saigon specifically, but that number could easily be brought down to five deaths a day if everyone wore helmets.

The streets are a free-for-all. There are some traffic lights, but they are not really adhered to. The only pattern to the madness is that most riders have a slight preference to the right side of the road. At intersections, groups of riders form up that are stopped and edge out into the road until they stop the cross traffic and then they take off. It’s really funny to watch, big groups will form and then just go right into oncoming traffic.

To cross the street, you need to have faith. If you use your head you will get hit. The traffic never stops, so you walk at a normal pace and in a straight line right into it. It is super scary, but everyone rides right around you. If you change your pace or try to avoid a scooter, you will get hit. Don’t run, don’t stop, don’t panic, just look at the ground, walk slowly and hold your line.

Scooters are the best form of transport in Saigon, and there are guys on every street waiting to pick you up. They call them “motos” and all you have to do is twist your wrist and hop on the back, and they’ll take you anywhere for a dollar. The metered taxis are BS, and this jerk tried to charge us 20 bucks for a 2 dollar cab ride. After a five minute screaming match, we settled on 7 and left. After that I only took the motos.

The first moto ride I took was after having a great time at a club appropriately named “Apocalypse Now”. It was at night and raining and I was still buzzing from having a good time. A few others and I hopped on the back of the scooters to get back to the ship. Flying through the streets of Saigon was so fun. Leaned over in the turns, crossing wet railroad tracks, I was just waiting for the familiar sound of crunching metal. Carl, the other cyclist on the ship, was right in front of me so I’m sure he was thinking the same thing. Those guys have been doing their jobs for many years, so they know what they are doing. We got back fast and safe, so after that I was sold.

The other option for transportation around Saigon is the more antiquated “cyclos”. A cyclo is a three wheeled rick-shaw that is peddled like a bicycle. Many of these drivers were stripped of their citizenship after the war for siding with America. Some used to be doctors, teachers, etc. but now are considered illegal in the city, so this is how they support themselves. Riding in these quiet and smooth machines is very strange on the busy streets. It feels like you are in fifty years in the past, very different from all the madness of the traffic around you.

Like the motos, the cyclos cost a dollar to go anywhere. Having not ridden a bike in a while, I paid my cyclo driver three bucks to let me drive while he rode along. It was great fun and all of the other drivers cracked up when they watched me in the main parking lot. The cyclo driver responded with “You very good, when you done student, you come Saigon, I give job.” I think it would be a hell of a lot of fun.