Hanoi

Well, I made it through Vietnam by motorcycle without any major injuries so consider that my biggest accomplishment while traveling here.

After a bit of a rough start, it didn’t take long to discover the reasons why Vietnam is such a favorite for travelers.  This country has plenty to offer and my 30-day e-Visa only allowed me enough time to scratch the surface of its potential.

Entry into Vietnam was suspiciously quick and easy but, then again, there were strangely only four others on my large charter bus from Nanning, China.  Immediately after stepping off the bus into Hanoi, I was bombarded by taxi drivers. Not too surprising but since the majority of them were motorcycle taxis, there were so many of them in a small area. I didn’t get a chance to exchange currency yet so I walked the 10km through the city to my hostel in the old quarter.  It’s a long distance to go carrying all my gear in a hot, humid, and polluted city but it was my first opportunity to see what life in Hanoi is like.

I didn’t see any foreign faces until I reached the old quarter and then suddenly there were white people everywhere!

In this city of 7.8 million people, motorcycles are the dominant mode of transportation and traveling through Hanoi or any other Vietnamese city is chaos.  By next year, there will be 6.1 million motorcycles in this city alone. The beeps and honks from cars and motorcycles trying to weave through the narrow streets was really getting annoying and I could hear these sounds throughout the night.  I guess it is just something you have to get used to if living here.

I had heard from other travelers that they really enjoyed making their way through Vietnam by motorcycle and that seemed like an opportunity too good to pass up.  However, I didn’t pull the usual backpacker tactic of buying a $300 bike that would break down constantly and I’d have to get an oil change every few hundred KMs.  Instead, I rented a genuine Honda motorcycle and I easily spent more on the 1-month rental than buying one of those fake Honda bikes or any scooter.  The bike I ended up renting was a Honda XR150 dirt bike. The rental shop guys were trying to talk me out of it thinking that 150cc is way too much power for me until I told them my bike back home has 1050cc more than that.

The shop put on some new knobby tires and I picked up my new ride the next morning.  It was only about 5 minutes back to my hostel to grab my bags but a downpour rolled in and I walked into the hostel dripping like a waterfall.  I also quickly realized the front tire slips easy and I dropped the bike by lightly tapping the front brake on the slick and soaked streets of Hanoi when a bus decided to cut in front of me.  After strapping up my bags, the rain had mostly stopped and I was finally beginning my journey.  I just had to escape the madness of Hanoi first!

Joining the motorcycle mobs is an anxiety-inducing experience.  All those bikes zipping around at varying speeds on all sides of you and with oncoming traffic often entering your lane forces you to be on-guard at all times.

Human behaviour and expectations in traffic is very different here.  Only about half the motorcycles and scooters have mirrors so people generally just honk their horn to let you know they are approaching from behind.  People on motorcycles, scooters, cars, buses, large trucks, etc will often just drive right onto the road without so much as looking towards traffic that may hit them.  The expectation is that you are always aware of your surroundings so if you hit a dumbass that pulls into the street and cuts you off, it’s your own damn fault for letting that happen.

Traffic laws are clearly just a suggestion in this country.  Any sort of green light means go just as does yellow and red. You can drive or ride on the road, sides of the road, sidewalks, and even in oncoming lanes.  The only law that seems to be enforced is motorcycles cannot enter expressways.  This is obviously to ensure they stay expressways because most motorcycles in Vietnam can barely push 70 km/h.  Unfortunately, most navigation apps aren’t fully aware which roads are expressways so I often had to detour away from them.  In one case I did end up on one because the sign was posted too late and there was no exit by that point.  Fortunately, I found a way off eventually before the police noticed me.

In my few days in Hanoi, I had scrambled to do some research of places to go in Vietnam.  I was so busy getting things ready to make sure my exit from China and entry to Vietnam went smoothly, that I entered Vietnam without any sort of plans of where to go from Hanoi.  Once I drafted a list of places to go, I bought a map, scribbled down some routes, found my starting point, and off I went to Cat Ba Island in Ha Long Bay.