Driving Through

Vietnam sure loves its motorbikes.  Everything is drive through.  Want food? Park your bike next to the curb and wait for a street vendor to come over. What to buy clothes? Well, there are ramps leading into most boutiques and shops so you can park your bike inside. I've seen couples make out on bikes, men sleeping on their bikes and of course, loading up the bikes with everything from produce to pigs to 40 inch TVs.

Motorbikes are parked on sidewalks, on the streets, in people's houses, blocking alleyways, tussling up lawns, and squeezed in every possible nook and cranny.  The city was not designed to accomodate motorbikes, and it is nowhere near to accomodating cars.  Getting in a taxi is like a slow death.  The car will usually take up the entire street, and it's a game of chicken as oncoming motorbikes and trucks and cars rush past. Hanoi's Old Quarter has been around since 1010, and its streets are not meant to handle the modern traffic jam.

I'm not quite sure how the government will revise the urban areas, but for now, the Vietnamese people are doing whatever they can to hang on to their precious motorbikes.