“JOSEPH HAD KINDLY LENT US HIS 1962175CC VESPA SCOOTER OUTFIT”
We were back in Saigon with its crazy scary traffic. Broken footpaths covered with parked scooters, bags of litter and kindergarten-sized plastic chairs everywhere.
A city officially known as Ho Chi Minh City where people ebb and flow in traffic like a magician conjuring a trick. You see it happening but can’t always reason why as riders meld like a deck of shuffled cards, weaving a ballet dance all over the road.
Riding in Saigon isn’t for the faint hearted. I heard myself yelling in the tangle sometimes, insisting upon our space amid that peloton while the locals just go with the flow. Every road rule you know is broken here, even if they do ride on the other side. Beware.
In Vietnam everyone rides. Children start out cradled by pillion mothers as older siblings ride standing in front of dad. Or they’ll be sitting on a stool cut down for the purpose. Grandmothers, teenagers, all ages. It’s not so much a passion as a practicality that makes two wheels the people’s choice there.
Moving around the city, motor scooters carry multiples of people or huge loads of goods tied high and wide. One rider was seen balancing a 5m-long length of steel pipe on his left shoulder keeping a straight line through the traffic, no warning flag on either end.
Vendors can cook fish, corncobs and other choice foods to sell from the back of their bikes. Parked on the footpath, people would
