Culture shock:
Back in the early 1990's I went to Cabo and Mazitlan with a buddy. Before we left he said to me, "You are probably going to experience some "culture shock". Once I got there I laughed because, growing up next to the Mexican border, there was nothing there that shocked me. Hanoi is a major culture shock.
We got off the plane and met our guide, Ngoc, and jumped into a sweet Isuzu truck that would be following us throughout our trip. Ngoc took us on a quick ride, first to see our motorcycles and then to our hotel. We immediately dropped off our bags and headed out into the city. This is were the shock started to kick in. This city is insane. There are people driving in every direction with no apparent structure. Stop lights, which there appear to be few of, are kind of a suggestion rather than the rule. Crossing the street takes some getting us to also. The trick is to keep walking as scooters, and there are thousands of them, whiz right by you. Don't stop, unless a bus decides that he is not going to stop. Keith is apparently very comfortable with the traffic and seems to have no problem just standing in the middle of the street deciding which direction we are going to have to go to find another beer while people circle around him on their scooters.
In the United States we have laws that kids under 18 must wear a helmet on their bicycle and that small children, sometime past the age of five, must be in a car seat and strapped in whenever the car is moving. In most states it is against the law to drive while using your cell phone. In Hanoi, a family of four, with an infant strapped in the middle, will be on a scooter dodging through traffic at thirty miles an hour, with no helmets, while the driver is on the cell phone texting away. If they do wear helmets, and only the parents wear them rarely do the kids, the helmets they wear are inferior in protection from what I would wear on my mountain bike. The girls have helmets with pony tail holes cut out of the back. Protection, No. Style, Yes.
Today we sat at a few bars above the street and gawked in amazement at the things people do while navigating through the streets on a scooter. Keith got a haircut while Scott and I drank more and more beer. After Keith's haircut we walked the streets of old town Hanoi. We walked down narrow streets and watched people cooking food on the sidewalks and hawking their goods to tourists. We tried the food and left the trinkets for the other tourists.
We are waking up early, having breakfast, and then jumping on our motorcycles and braving the traffic of Hanoi. Pray for me, please. I will need it.
Posted by Robert after a long day of travel.
Back in the early 1990's I went to Cabo and Mazitlan with a buddy. Before we left he said to me, "You are probably going to experience some "culture shock". Once I got there I laughed because, growing up next to the Mexican border, there was nothing there that shocked me. Hanoi is a major culture shock.
We got off the plane and met our guide, Ngoc, and jumped into a sweet Isuzu truck that would be following us throughout our trip. Ngoc took us on a quick ride, first to see our motorcycles and then to our hotel. We immediately dropped off our bags and headed out into the city. This is were the shock started to kick in. This city is insane. There are people driving in every direction with no apparent structure. Stop lights, which there appear to be few of, are kind of a suggestion rather than the rule. Crossing the street takes some getting us to also. The trick is to keep walking as scooters, and there are thousands of them, whiz right by you. Don't stop, unless a bus decides that he is not going to stop. Keith is apparently very comfortable with the traffic and seems to have no problem just standing in the middle of the street deciding which direction we are going to have to go to find another beer while people circle around him on their scooters.
In the United States we have laws that kids under 18 must wear a helmet on their bicycle and that small children, sometime past the age of five, must be in a car seat and strapped in whenever the car is moving. In most states it is against the law to drive while using your cell phone. In Hanoi, a family of four, with an infant strapped in the middle, will be on a scooter dodging through traffic at thirty miles an hour, with no helmets, while the driver is on the cell phone texting away. If they do wear helmets, and only the parents wear them rarely do the kids, the helmets they wear are inferior in protection from what I would wear on my mountain bike. The girls have helmets with pony tail holes cut out of the back. Protection, No. Style, Yes.
Today we sat at a few bars above the street and gawked in amazement at the things people do while navigating through the streets on a scooter. Keith got a haircut while Scott and I drank more and more beer. After Keith's haircut we walked the streets of old town Hanoi. We walked down narrow streets and watched people cooking food on the sidewalks and hawking their goods to tourists. We tried the food and left the trinkets for the other tourists.
We are waking up early, having breakfast, and then jumping on our motorcycles and braving the traffic of Hanoi. Pray for me, please. I will need it.
Posted by Robert after a long day of travel.
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