Driving...

Wed, Jan 20, 2010
On driving in SE Asia

In Cambodia, The Law of Gross Tonnage is the rule of the road. The bicycle gives way to the scooter, which gives way to the motorcycle, which gives way to the car, which gives way to the bus, which only gives way to the lorry. As we drove across Cambodia, our bus driver pointed our bus straight down the center of the highway and drove like that the entire time. All other traffic had to bend around us. Only if we met someone bigger did we move out of the middle of the road.

In Vietnam, there are nearly as many scooters and motorbikes as there are people. There are thousands of them on the road at a time. If a road is two lanes wide, there may be a car or bus sitting somewhere between those lanes, and motorbikes crowded all around. As the traffic moves, bikes and scooters and cars weave in and out of each other in an elegant ballet, never stopping but continuously flowing. Horns are honking all the time, but soon you realize the honking is not an aggressive sort of thing, it’s more like echo-location. Here I am… honk honk, toot toot. In fact, the driving is very non-aggressive. You could never move this many people if everyone didn’t cooperate. And so traffic flow is fluid. If we are all in a north bound lane, but somebody comes around a corner and sees it’s easier to travel south in that lane for a while, they just do and everyone else just makes space for them. Going around corners is especially impressive. The turn is not made in a wide arc as we would do in the States. Rather, it is a straight line across the intersection, and everyone just weaves around the person turning. There is no way I would ever try to drive in this traffic. You need nerves of steel and the firm conviction that the other person will yield to you when necessary and the knowledge that you too must yield when it is in the interest of the traffic flow.

As you can imagine, crossing the street can be a challenge when you first arrive. You soon learn to just step out into it and begin gradually moving forward. As you do, the scooters will anticipate your pace and flow around, either in front of or behind you. The key is to keep moving. No sudden stops or movements. Taxis are a bit less forgiving than scooters, but even they will shift to avoid hitting you (sometimes, just barely). I’m surprised that we haven’t seen many accidents and we’ve seen no traffic jams. Literally, the traffic never stops. There are only a few lights where the intersections are so intricate that traffic does actually stop, but those are very few.

So even walking in Vietnam is something to be learned. As we’ve been staying in the Old City section of Hanoi, we’ve seen that the roads are very narrow and winding and changing names every block or two. There is really no place to park, so everyone parks on the sidewalk – mostly scooters, but the occasional car is up there as well. When there isn’t something parked on the sidewalk, there is a vendor set up selling fruit or vegetables or some other necessity, or there is a Pho (pronounced fa) or Ban Cha stop or one of the many different types of noodle soups that they serve around here. It’s incredible. They are every few feet. There will be a woman sitting on the sidewalk with a cauldron of broth and a little table filled with pork and shrimp and chicken and various vegetables. You just sit down at one of the very tiny tables (about a foot high) on one of the very tiny stools (about 6” high) and wait for someone to bring you a bowl (imagine the adults at Christmas all sitting at the little tables and chairs meant for the 5 year olds and you’ll have an image of what it looks like to see us Westerners sitting at these things). I guess Pho is actually for breakfast mainly, but in the evening, those places are still hopping and that’s their fast food. No need for McDonald’s around here – there is fast food everywhere you turn. I especially liked the Ban Cha, which has grilled meat in it, then you add your noodles and lettuce and bean sprouts and other assorted things as you eat. A good rule for eating Pho or Ban Cha is to not look too closely at what is bubbling in the cauldron. It’s steaming hot and very flavorful and probably best not to know the details.

Anyway, because the sidewalks are full of scooters and vendors and soup sellers and soup eaters, you have to walk in the street to get anywhere. It takes some real getting used to because the traffic is so thick and close and non-stop. As you walk you are constantly dodging mobile vendors who are carrying baskets laden with fruit or vegetables, usually with two baskets hanging, one from either end, of a long pole which is slung across their shoulders. These women are strong! I can’t imagine how heavy those baskets are, and they just hoist them up and trot around. They have a bouncy shuffling gate and it’s surprising how quickly they move.