How To Cross The Street In Hanoi (It’s Not For The Fainthearted)

Filed under: Vietnam Written by:Chris Mitchell.

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There's a distinct art to crossing the road in Vietnam's cities without getting yourself killed. With over a million motorbikes on the streets of Hanoi alone, you need nerves of steel before you step off the kerbside...

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There's little point waiting at the side of the road for a gap in Vietnam city traffic so you can cross over because that gap will never come. Whether you're in Saigon or Hanoi, the omnipresent tangle of snarling traffic at every turn made crossing the road seem like a particularly effective way to commit suicide. It took a while for me to realise that while the traffic in Saigon and Hanoi never stops, it always swerves. Therefore the expat advice I'd received "to look once to your left and then walk straight into the road without changing your pace" proved to be well-founded, as it made the motorbikes part Red Sea-like around my fragile frame. Of course, there were times when I occasionally got The Fear mid-crossing, and this nearly caused me so to become so much Vietnamese roadkill.

An up close video clip of crossing the road in Hanoi

Going with the philosophy of “if you don’t want to get run over by them, join them” I soon opted for motorbike taxis (xe oms) as the best way to get around. Having already run the gauntlet on the back of bikes in Phnom Penh, the thought of hooking up with a xe om rider who drives like a doom-seeking lunatic (sans helmet for either you or him, natch) barely caused me to bat a smog-besmirched eyelid. The thing is…I love riding bareheaded on a bike. It’s not big and it’s certainly not clever, but there is a unique thrill to howling through the busy streets of a South East Asian capital city having literally placed your life in the hands of a man you met five seconds ago. It’s exhilarating, scary and a perfect way to see life at street level, even if it’s a bit of a blur.

The skill of every bike driver I’ve ever ridden with is something I’ve always taken for granted but have never had cause to doubt. (I probably wouldn’t be writing this if I had). The effortless dexterity with which they manoeuvre through traffic, knowing exactly when to gun the engine, anticipate traffic snarls, and spin a corner whilst avoiding knocking over wide-eyed pedestrian tourists frozen in the middle of the road is tinged with the miraculous. Even if it’s a bit grubby from dead flies and exhaust fumes. It’s when the driver dons a helmet but doesn’t offer you one that you have to start worrying… That said, a Vietnamese xe om driver was the cause of one of my most humiliating moments. Getting onto the back of his bike, he turned and said, with the lack of diplomacy common to those speaking a second language, “You very fat.” And then he expected a tip!

You can read more about why I think Hanoi, Vietnam is one of the most bewitching cities in South East Asia - despite the traffic.

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Posted on March 1st, 2007.