riding scooter in vietnam

[dtc 1]

how many of you here actually have the ball to ride your scooter while you are in vietnam . it took me a while to over come the fear of being kill on a scooter before i actually learn to ride . i seen a few people die from scooter accident when i was there , with brain and bones out on the road .. it fun to ride yet the dying part aint good at all lol gona have to get me a heavy leather jacket and riding boot for my next trip to vietnam.

[SupastarsaM 7]

There too? It's the same in Cambodia. The cars are the worst. They don't stop for anybody. Get a motorcycle jacket, DOT approved helmet and be careful. Oh and eat good fruits too next time you go.

[BinhJerome 14]

I ride all the time. As long as you pay attention, and dont stop too fast you are fine. Knock on wood, I have not been in any accident yet, I have avoided a few, and I have seen some pretty bad things while riding, I watched a woman riding side saddle, her driver bounced into a truck, and the woman lost a foot, and a leg about the knee, I was 3 bikes back, and had to avoid her leg. Luckily my wife was not with me on that one, but for some reason she wonders why I dont like her riding side saddle anymore

The key to driving in Vietnam is to pay attention, and use people as blockers (Thanks Mr. Saigon I still use your advice) and make sure you do not stop to fast, if you do you might get ran over. Also look ahead, if you see something on the road ahead, be prepared for people to avoid it and in the process cut you off.

And on another not, if you are a foreigner and you do get pulled over talk to the cop as fast as possible, tell him you like his coat, hat, what ever you can think of, Fred said they will pass you along everytime.

Jerome

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

And don't forget: you will need a Vietnamese driver license.

[piglett 16]

when i was in my wifes home province in the Philippines we went to a different aunt or uncle every day & borrowed a motor bike. they were all 125cc & all hondas. at 1ST i didn't like those dam things ( i was used to driving my truck at home) but in time i got a little better with them & lucky for me no one got killed

now granted where we were was a very remote island so there were very few other bikes on the mostly dirt roads.

I would NEVER ride one in Manila or any other Asian city

piglett

[dtc 1]

well my wife actually stuck her foot into the rear wheel of the bicycle while we was in hoi an, so much for me romantically driving me wife on that bicycle . end up putting a big bandage on her,and that kill our honeymoon . and my mother in law foot got impaled on an bamboo stick ,(her son drive his scooter too fast while carrying her ), took us a while to nurse her back to her health , she nearly lost that foot to infection. when i was young living in vietnam i dont remember the roads being that bad .

[BurningFinger 5]

Oh gosh I hate those darn motorbikes in VN. Every time I came back to the states from visiting my wife, I hugged and kissed my BMW for the safety features I always took for granted.....

Edited November 15, 2010 by BurningFinger

[BinhJerome 14]

And don't forget: you will need a Vietnamese driver license.

That was the second thing we did when I moved here, the first was the marriage license, and the third was my visa exemption. I did not want any reason for the VN government to tell me I had to leave, and last week I got all my degrees back from the states. Talk about a pain in the but, try being in Vietnam and getting your degrees authenticated, all I can say is $758 later and a service I will have my work permit in about 2 months!

[dtc 1]

hat off to jeromebinh for going all out on trying to build a life in vietnam,living in saigon and loving it. i alway hate saigon , more than any other places in the world , when i have nothing else to do i will go back to my house in saigon and kick my cousins out and see if i can build a life over there. at least there aint no mosquito in saigon lol

[joenlemy 2]

the day my wife and i were married,were in a suv heading for vung tau to our hotel and had a head on collision with a scooter. you could see the scooter in our lane for well over 500 yards . the driver of the suv never attempted to slow down or move over. needless to say the driver of the scooter. they scraped his bod off the road. not a pleasent site the day you get married . . . i think i'll stay with the suv's myself. good luck with riding the scooter in vietnam

[Neonred 3,579]

You know what an SUV is, right?

Scooter

Under

Vehicle

[joenlemy 2]

ha ha.

[just phobulous 2]

I had a blast riding behind my wife on her motobike !! We went back and forth between her parents house in Vinh Binh (Go Cong Tay) and HCM city many many times. We also did a lot of riding around in HCM city, shopping and site seeing. I grew up in Montana and have been ridding motorcycles ( dirt, street, atv's, snowmobiles ) my whole life. But, it definately takes a different kind of skill to ride in that crazy traffic !! I developed a whole new respect for my little honey after riding with her in the city for a day. On one of our site seeing days, I tapped her helmet and pointed to a shop that had musical instruments on display. To my complete disbelief, my wife brought the motobike to a dead stop, turned around against 6 or 7 lanes of traffic and played chicken with a tour bus just to make our way back to this shop. Two things I learned from this experience.. #1 Never point anything out to your "Evil Kinevil" wife while you are ridding. Unless it is far enough ahead of you to make a safe departure from the 25 lanes of motobike traffic around you. #2 Never under estimate how brave these little Asian women are. My wife has way more balls than I do when it comes to dealing with many things including the life or death traffic in that town. All that being said, it was one of the greatest experiences in my life !! I will never forget it. It will be a while before I will have enough courage to ride solo there though ! Ha Ha Ha !!! Have any of you guy's had the experience of boarding a ferry yet ? WOW !!!

[piglett 16]

Have any of you guy's had the experience of boarding a ferry yet ?

here is a pictures of the old tub my wife & i took to her home province

i sure didn't like the 20 hour boat ride but i survived.

they assign you a bunk to sleep on but i only ended up getting about 4 hours sleep due to the heat & the rough seas

next time i think i will take a small plane to a near by island & then take a 3 hour boat ride to my wifes island that has no airport

piglett

Edited November 16, 2010 by piglett

[just phobulous 2]

here is a pictures of the old tub my wife & i took to her home province

i sure didn't like the 20 hour boat ride but i survived.

they assign you a bunk to sleep on but i only ended up getting about 4 hours sleep due to the heat & the rough seas

next time i think i will take a small plane to a near by island & then take a 3 hour boat ride to my wifes island that has no airport

piglett

Ha Ha Ha !! Sorry I quess I was a little vague on the ferry thing. What I actually meant to ask was, if any of you had boarded a ferry with your motobike. It is one of the most insane things I have ever seen. In the states when the ferry docks, we would empty the ferry of all passengers and vehicles first and then start the boarding process. Not in Vietnam. The ferry pulls up to the shore, drops the ramp and then all hell breaks loose ! I swear if I ever move to Vietnam that is what I will do for work. I will sell band aids and first aid supplies on the side of the road at a ferry crossing. People boarding the ferry with their motobikes will literally run over the top of other people exiting the ferry with theirs. After seeing a couple people get their ankles crushed on our first ferry ride, I hopped off the back of my wife's motobike just before she went up the ramp. I did not want to get a hot exhaust pipe tattoo on my calf. The next time It would be really interesting to count how many bikes get packed on one of those ferrys. One question for you all... What is the largest number of people you have seen on one motobike ?