Hello Moto!: A Motorbike Thrillride

I can now say I have experienced the infamous Vietnam traffic! From learning how to confidently cross a roundabout intersection in Hanoi rush hour to sitting on a huge bus feeling like an island in a sea of kamikaze motorbikes, to actually riding on the back of one with one hand gripping the seat and my camera in the other. It all began a couple weeks ago arriving in Hanoi...in the middle of rush hour. Some information for your imagination is that Hanoi's population is 6 million and of that, there are 3 million motorbikes. And at dinnertime I think they are all one the road. In fact I think the whole city is in the street! If not on the back of a bike (I've seen whole families, parents and kids!) then they are selling you dvds, clothes, fruit, anything!

The key to crossing the street is to NOT STOP. Its an art, to know how to keep calm as traffic just flows around you. Its kind of like crossing a river, the water doesn't stop it just keeps going. Its hard not to freak out when motorbikes dodge you as horns go off everywhere. I would never attempt to cross a street this crazy in the states. But its exhilarating! Often we would reach the other side so proud of ourselves we would laugh and cheer...yes we are tourists...

Thankfully our adventures actually riding a motorbike took place in a city not quite as crazy as Hanoi. In Hue, a night train distance south, we mounted on the backs of the two-wheeled honking motorbeasts that we'd been chased and dodging all week and set off follow-the-leader style out into the rice paddies. Our drivers were awesome. Mine helped me with my helmet and pointed out places of interest as we crossed bridges and transitioned from paved streets to village corridors to raised bumpy stone paths between rice fields. We visited many locations on our tour including a Japanese-style footbridge (See first picture) built in 1776 (I remembered thanks to Columbus) and the Buddhist pagoda famous for being the home of Thich Quang Duc the monk that burned himself alive in Saigon during 1963 to protest the Catholic regime(picture below). Over rice-covered hill and through another cemetery brought us to a French bunker just out of sight from Hamburger Hill. At this site, our guide noted the 4 young trees each planted at the prior location of 4 landmines (removed several years ago no worries!) Another fun place was the burial temple of some emperor...where by that time we were so overwhelmed with the heat we mostly just sat in the shade daring each other to drink "Bird's Nest." We did. Well not me...supposedly made from bird saliva...

Really, the places we visited were interesting! ...but the best part was flying through the city and countryside on the back of a bike! Especially when we got caught in Hue afternoon traffic, the hour when all students are travelling home and creates a melee of insanity I know my mom would never let me walk home in let alone ride a bike as most students did. Entering an intersection was an event of uncertain peril as bike were going left and right and straight all at the same time.

Overall I have to say, Vietnam is a motorbike mayhem. Honking is part of the soundtrack of daily life in Vietnam, it is a country on the move!

Now I am in Cambodia and Vietnam seems like such a long time ago...but I wrote this entry in my journal a while ago and finally had a chance to type it on the computer. More on Cambodia to come! Thanks for reading!