On the Road!

Driving in Vietnam is a hair-raising experience, with at least one close call per hour of driving no matter how good a driver you are (or Marco is, I should say – most foreigners have chaffeurs and locals are surprised that he drives his own car). The major national highway is a two-lane road full of motorbikes mostly, but also minivans, buses, trucks and a few other private cars. People drive without paying any attention to other vehicles or to traffic regulations (which are not enforced), so you have to be on guard the whole time because motorbikes will just dart right in front of you without looking. They pass recklessly and insanely and that in itself probably causes most accidents. We managed to avoid driving at night most of the time, but the few times we had to were quite scary because there are no streetlights so you really can’t see people on bikes or motorbikes (without headlights), or the women and babies who like to hang out in the road until you are right up on them.


We only had one mishap with the car – one of the front tires blew out as we were driving along. Luckily it happened when there were few other vehicles around, and Marco pulled over and changed the tire without any difficulty. But in general the car was in good shape (except for iffy shock absorbers, which resulted in a bumpy ride and Maia getting carsick on the way home). Compared to some of the other vehicles, the KIA seems like a Rolls Royce. Most families go by motorbike, and use their bikes to transport anything imaginable, including ice, giant logs (see pictures), geese, pigs and trees…