davethegrinch.net

-OR- experiences in Hanoi on a scooter.
Dave Says:
Everything you may have read or heard about traffic insanity in Vietnam is true. In the city there are tens of thousands of scooters randomly moving around Hanoi in less than thousands of feet of road space. Even the normal vehicular sanctity of the freeway is a free-for-all of cars, bikes, mopeds, oxen and even pedestrians.
Imagine a system of complete highway lawlessness where road markings serve as mere suggestions of thoroughfare and road signs do nothing more than use their red and black geometry to break up the palate of soft yellowing green that blends buildings into countryside.
Our driver from the airport, Va, exhibits marginal driving skills but amazing horn skills. There’s some kind of secret code that drivers share here; horns serve not as retalitory clubs by which to impose egos but more as a friendly “Hey, I’m right here” or “Right behind you, don’t freak out but please move”. Throughout the hour ride from the airport Va demonstrated what we seemed to have forgotten in our home countries: the ability for the whole road to agree we’ll probably make it to where we’re going and that this whole driving malarky shouldn’t be taken too seriously. It takes a different view on personal space when every toot of the horn invokes a smile or a chuckle.
Now for the two wheels. Once one enters the Old Quarter of Hanoi the number of scotters to cars stands at about 250:1. This is where sitting in a sidewalk cafe for an hour watching ten thousand scooters stream by gives one an interesting perspective on the human condition. After ten minutes (and one glass of Tiger beer) I started to observe human harmony. Take a snapshot. Through the chaos, noise, smoke, fumes and haze I notice this busy corner of Hanoi has achived an enlightened state. Several thousand people living in the moment, completely aware of their place in the universe yet equally aware of the universal location of everyone around them regardless of imposed constraints such as driving the “wrong” way up a “one” way street. Now here’s the amazing thing, when time starts up again and the snapshot is over, it never breaks down and collapses, it just moves into another contiguious frame like a movie but one where drama and conflict don’t figure into the plot. Driving neither defensively nor aggressively even in the middle of potential chaos actualy appears to be very calming.
Now, never one to shy away from making bold theories such as these, my chance to prove this diatribe on the human condition soon came. I had to take a ride on the back of a scooter through the narrow streets of the Old Quarter and through the narrow thought processes that create this rubbish you’re now reading. In order to complete a financial transaction from our hotel to a tour company, me, the 19 year old “concierge” and my credit card hopped on a 125cc Honda thing and headed across town. Face masks to protect from polution are a higher priority than helmets to protect from brain damage but then a helmet would only get in the way of my total and complete first experience of near nirvana so I was glad I was never offered one. Well, I didn’t quite achieve the zen like state I thought I would but then I am new to eastern philosophy but I did have a big grin on my face and it wasn’t a thrill grin either but a grin of experiencing something that millions of people in Vietnam do everyday. For just a few fleeting moments I was no longer a tourist but part of their universe - connected with them in a shared and quite calming common experience however small and trivial it may appear to be.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 13th, 2007 at 4:40 am and is filed under Global Travels, Vietnam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.