Collecting, as I think of them, the little moments from the trip which probably didn’t stand out as a big deal at the time, but which stuck with me.
A German guy at the hostel in Hanoi mentioned the huge number of scooter accident injuries he’d seen during a two week stay in Southern Thailand. His guess was that maybe 30% of the tourists were sporting some kind of “came off a scooter” bandage or brace or scarring, and it convinced him that he would not be driving one while there. That said, he still got some scooter accident injuries of his own, because someone drove into him.
I didn’t collect any scooter injuries, despite the Hanoi Scooter Experience, though I came close on a couple of occasions.
Once in Hoi An, crossing the road, when I forgot that people could white-line on scooters even if the rest of the traffic was stopped dead, and nearly stepped out in front of someone.
The other time was in Chiang Mai, when I was crossing the road, a van stopped, and the scooter in the next lane for some reason didn’t associate that with “someone crossing the road” & had to jam on the brakes.
I only figured out after the fact that there was a miscommunication with a popular multi day loop tour in Northern Vietnam, the Ha Giang loop, which people do by motorbike.
I’d seen plenty of advertising for tours mentioning “easy rider” bikes, which I’d incorrectly assumed meant that they were automatic transmission bikes, or something kind of like a scooter in operation. Subsequent conversations with folks, including those in the tour booking area, didn’t correct my wrong impression, because they spent a bunch of time being reassuring about how easy said bikes are to ride, and how safe they are, without ever mentioning that “easy rider” means that you’re not the one driving the bike.
The travel insurance situation on riding pillion is a bit unclear, but the one for actually driving the bike without an NZ motorbike licence is extremely clear indeed; Don’t.
Not, I suspect, that I’d have done the Loop anyway, but it was sort of amusing to discover after the fact that it might have been possible when I thought it wasn’t.
The Grab ride share app was all over Southeast Asia, and I used it a few times to go places without having to deal with taxis & scammers. Different countries/cities had a few different transport options, which I found interesting.
There were always a few different car options, mostly on size of car.
There was often a bike option, where someone turns up on a motorbike or scooter & away you go.
And a few times there was a TukTuk option, mostly in Siem Reap, I think.
Comments
2 responses to “Scooters”
There’s a peculiar chaos to the whole thing. It shouldn’t work, and I’m sure there are a LOT of accidents, but not as many as you’d expect.
Of course, there are also scooters or motorbikes with entire food stalls attached as sidecars.
Scooters in a very crowded city with limited space sounds like a recipe for a quick trip to the hospital. At least at my age anyway.