Getting Around

Steven and I have been mostly walking to our destinations in the past few days. We've remastered the Vietnamese art of crossing the street, which basically entails stepping directly out into the endless stream of motorbikes, bikes, cars, buses and cyclos between you and your desired destination and continuning at an unbroken pace until you reach the other side. The bikes easily flow around you, while the cars and buses pose a greater obstical, so we've learned to be more aware of cars and buses which seem to have grown in number since we were here last. I've regained my confidence, but still grab Steven's hand at the sight of a rapidly approaching car or when the light turns as we are walking across just in front of the mass of motorbikes that inevitablely forms at the head of each intersection.

We took our first moto-taxi home from the school the other day and remembered how much we enjoyed them. We were approached on the street for a ride by a man we mutually agreed afterward must not have been a real taxi driver, but rather a man seizing an opportunity to make some money. When he asked where we were going, we handed him the card to our hotel and he nodded as if he were familiar with the address and proceeded to call over a friend to be the second driver (although Vietnamese family's can fit up to five people on one scooter, it is apparentely illegal for commercial drivers, or those posing as such, to take more than one passenger). As soon as we took off, and a numerious times throughout our ride, our drivers pulled up and/or rode along side each other discussing how to get to our destination. Steven and I shared knowing glances, wondering why it is we always seemed to get the guys who don't know where they are going, and sat back to enjoy the ride. I immediately remembered how much I enjoyed riding with these moto-taxi guys and almost as immediately settled into my passenger strategy to maintain this enjoyment, which involves never looking directly ahead, thereby avoiding views of rapidly approaching cars and buses, backs of parked cars, slow moving bicycles and cyclos, all of which my driver drove headlong into with last minute vears to the left and right and a rarely decreasing speed. Our amusement was increased by observing the conversations of our drivers, who were obviously still unsure of our destination, until Steven pulled out a map and showed them where to go. Soon after we pulled up outside our hotel, dismounted, returned our helmets and paid our drivers for the ride, thanking them for getting us to where we wanted to go and happy for the scenic tour we'd received.