Highways in Vietnam are packed with zillions of motorbikes, many carrying entire families. It’s not uncommon to see a couple astride a motor scooter, with a small child or two on its mother’s lap, sandwiched between mom and dad. There are also large vans, buses, and trucks, and everyone is vying for position on impossibly narrow two-lane roads. It was terrifying to witness from the passenger seat of our bus, yet we only saw two accidents in some 200 km of frantic driving. We often seemed to be blazing along at reckless speed, but it was impossible to know how fast exactly, as almost none of our buses had working speedometers. Instead, most were “protected” by various amulets, and dried flower and ribbon charms “for luck,” dangling from the rear view mirrors. But more than luck was involved. We had countless near-misses, and give kudos to our drivers for their breathtaking skill.
At one point we saw a man on a motorbike weaving obliviously all over the highway, and almost tipping other scooters into the ditch or into the homes and small businesses set up where the road’s shoulders should have been. As we finally passed the bare-chested, middle-aged fellow, it was all too obvious that he was fall-down drunk, barely able to keep his machine on the road, and a threat to the already tenuous safety of everyone else around him. It may have been the first time ever that I saw so clearly the danger of driving while intoxicated.
At one point we saw a man on a motorbike weaving obliviously all over the highway, and almost tipping other scooters into the ditch or into the homes and small businesses set up where the road’s shoulders should have been. As we finally passed the bare-chested, middle-aged fellow, it was all too obvious that he was fall-down drunk, barely able to keep his machine on the road, and a threat to the already tenuous safety of everyone else around him. It may have been the first time ever that I saw so clearly the danger of driving while intoxicated.
