Edition: International Vietnamese. Economy Industries Companies DataSpeaks. Places Food. Trend Culture Style. Readers' Views. All rights reserved. Vietnam remains kingdom of motorbikes as sales rev up in An apt mindfulness exercise in a city of Buddhist temples.
But maybe my Buddhist lesson would be one about attachment, letting go of an unreal idea. So, as we set out for a month-long trip through the rest of the country, I decided I would concentrate on learning more about the culture of scooters and motorcycles in Vietnam and leave the riding to the locals.
On the front, rusted bicycles flowed through dusty streets. Behind me, in , the bicycles were few and far between. Scooters blocked the sidewalk on each side of the shop I was in; scooters and small motorcycles bounced around the tourists in the old city. Later that night, online, I found the facts: there are about million two-wheeled motorized vehicles in Vietnam and they make up more than 90 per cent of all the country's vehicles.
That dramatic growth is perhaps the most visible sign, at least to the Western eye, of the changes in Vietnam since the government opened the doors to economic reform with a policy introduced in called doi moi , or renovation. In Vietnam Rising , journalist Bill Hayton describes the bumpy road of economic growth in a country still clinging to central Communist rule while encouraging private enterprise and foreign investment. He says the motorcycle including the scooter or "automatic motorcycle" became not only a symbol of freedom for young people after growing up in a dreary, confining Communist environment but also a way to leave their villages behind to make money in the new businesses of the cities.
Throughout Vietnam, it's easy to see how scooters and motorcycles have moved with the times. On weekday mornings in HCMC, men and women in business suits, masked against the pollution, rule the streets, but at night and on weekends, families of three four, sometimes five, take over, smiling and riding freely into the late evening, through sun and rain.
In Dalat, a city in the interior mountains created by French mandarins in the long years of occupation, the sound of shifting gears fill the air as riders ferry the region's fruit, vegetable, coffee and livestock through hills that circle the city. In the historic city of Hue, home of the last emperors of Vietnam, I spotted a motorcycle hidden under its loads of boots, knowing it was headed to the Imperial City where Vietnamese tourists love to pose in costumes that the Emperors and their concubine wore in the pre-Communist time.
And in the fertile land of the Mekong, I saw women who now could easily ride the long distances from home to rice paddy where they could now work longer days and increase the family income. Hoi An, with saffron-colored buildings dating back to the fifteenth century filling its World Heritage center, is possibly the most picturesque city in Vietnam. It is also the easiest city to negotiate since cars are banned from the ancient core.
More importantly, for my purposes, it has a population of about 30, people compared to Hoi Chi Minh City's roughly eight million. I waited until our last full day. Get help. Password recovery. Philippines Malaysia Following Q3 Fall Indonesia ASEAN Feedback will be rejected if it does not add to a debate, or is a purely personal attack, or is offensive, repetitious, illegal or meaningless, or contains clear errors of fact.
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