In anticipation of the one year anniversary of our arrival I've been reading a lot of stuff I wrote before I created the blog. It's a lot of fun to read what I was thinking in those days. One of the pieces I wrote discusses my impression of traffic in the city. When you first arrive in HCM, the traffic is what immediately leaps out. It's chaotic and it's frightening. This is not helped by the fact that accidents occur with alarming regularity. If you've been in the city for more than a few weeks and haven't heard the tell-tale crunch of plastic under tires, or the sickening squeak of skin on glass windows then you need to get out more. So I thought I'd spend a little time talking about safety.
If you are considering moving to Vietnam here's the biggest piece of advice I can give you: You don't know what you don't know. There is very little you can do to mentally prepare yourself for what you're going to experience. This is mainly due to the fact that there is no place you can go that simulates living here, especially in the US. The adjustment will be huge and it will take time. People we met told us the same thing in our first weeks. We shrugged and laughed because there's really nothing else you can do. But the reality of your move will hit at around the three month mark. Everything stops being novel and starts being LIFE.
Personal Safety: There isn't a whole lot of violent crime here. Most of the crime westerners are exposed to is petty theft and scam jobs. It's important to remember that no matter how shoestring your move or visit is, you will be perceived as rich by local people. In the US we were barely scraping by. We weren't starving, but we were living paycheck to paycheck. I tried to save as much as I could, without a ton of success. Here we don't have that problem. We've had no problems saving money while we've lived here. If you find a job in Vietnam that pays $30,000 a year, you're doing very well compared to local standards. You won't be rich, but you'll be free to do whatever you want.
The best personal safety advice I can give is to use common sense. If you make an effort to blend in, then you really shouldn't have any trouble. I've never carried my wallet or passport underneath my clothes. For a while I stopped carrying my wallet and just carried money and a few essentials in my pocket. It makes sense because you'll never use your credit cards with any regularity and you don't need your diver's license. Besides if you're not carrying your credit card you won't be tempted to spend frivolously. The best wallet is a rubber band.
If you are a lady, I recommend saying goodbye to your big-ass purse. First of all, you don't need all that crap. Second of all, you might as well put a t-shirt on that says "ROB ME." Big purse = Big money. Just about all the horrible crime stories we hear are ladies getting dragged behind motorbikes by their purse strap. You think you're being safe. Carrying it over your shoulder and on the non-street side. But the fact is, if someone wants to rob you, it's better to just let them snatch and go. Inconvenient, yes, but better than 900 stitches to the face after a 120ft skin sleigh ride through streets riddled with pot holes. Someone tried to snatch Reyna's purse. She managed to get away because she was holding her tiny bag under her arm; basically in her arm pit, so the would-be thief couldn't get a good grip on it. She was able to clamp down and hold it. It happens quickly. You won't have time to react. Best to not even give them a target.
As for the scams around town. Trip Advisor, Four Square and similar websites and apps are your friend. Trip Advisor is mostly a bunch of bullshit in the US, but here it's invaluable. People who live here are generally pretty vigilant about reviewing things. That will help you avoid shady people and places. It's okay to ask a stranger you meet on the sidewalk if they have experience with various things.
And that's the big picture thing here. In the US everyone is obsessed with name brands and looking like they have money. It was shocking when I went back. That doesn't happen here. People still wear "name brand" stuff, but I'm pretty certain Prada doesn't manufacture a line of crappy motorcycle helmets or seat covers. So leave your Coach, Gucci, Fendi, Prada, Manolo status symbol at home. If you need that status symbol on you when you go outside, then maybe you should reconsider your destination. There are plenty of exotic places in the world where rich people can go to show off how rich they are.
Crossing the Street: It sounds crazy, but it's important to learn how to cross the street properly here. Many times you will find yourself needing to cross, but unable to wait for a long enough break in the tangle of motorbikes to get started. This is covered in Lonely Planet as well, but it doesn't hurt to reinforce it here. When crossing the street, you just have to go and let the motorbikes dodge you. The trick is to be predictable in your movements and watch what the bikes coming at you are doing. Drivers will be obvious as to which way they are going to go around you; either in front or in back. Maintain a pace that is as steady as possible. It's generally a bad idea to break into a run or stop. Just try to walk steadily and deliberately across the street. Don't step in front of any vehicle that has more than two wheels. It's likely they will not stop. If a car flashes its lights at you, that means it does not intend to stop for you, so if you step in front of them be prepared to see what the undercarriage of a Toyota minivan looks like.
Motorbikes: Once you get used to the traffic, and you will, you may consider getting a motorbike of your own. There are plenty of places. I recommend talking to your friends who've been here longer and seeing where they went. Most people buy second hand bikes; at least most of the people I know bought second hand bikes. A second hand bike is good to begin on because if it's a piece of shit you don't have to worry about a.) crashing it and beating it up -it's already beat up; b.) it getting stolen -there are plenty of nicer more stealable bikes around town. Your bike is going to get beaten up. It's a fact. In parking lots, they park bikes so close to each other that scratches and minor damage is inevitable. After we'd lived here for six months or so, I bought a fancy new bike. Now I rarely ride it because it's "too nice." I know if I take it and park it someplace I'm running the risk of it getting stolen or scratched up. If I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't have bothered.
Now that you have your bike, you have to learn how to ride without killing yourself or others. Despite how it may look, you can still employ your standard defensive driving skills. In the beginning it's best to just concern yourself with what is in front of you. Don't even bother with your rear view mirror(s) and focus on not running into anyone. There is something of an unspoken rule that everyone is watching what's happening in front of them. So the person behind you should be watching what you're doing just as you're watching the people in front of you. As you grow more confident on the bike, you'll find that can look around to make sure you're not merging in front of a speeding taxi or delivery guy.
Just like everything in life, the key is to stay relaxed and to not panic. Other bikes and cars will come extremely close to you. You will get used to it. The worst thing you can do is jerk away. If someone's too close to you, either slow down or ease away from them if you can. If you can't, then try to focus on riding in a straight line. Just like anyplace else, there are the odd asshole drivers who drive way too fast and recklessly. Just like anyplace else, there's nothing you can do about it beyond staying vigilant. My favorite metaphor for driving in Vietnam, and the one I use with people who are learning to drive here is to pretend it's a school of fish. Where the school goes, you go. When you stop going with the flow, that's when things get dangerous. Driving in Vietnam is as much about feel as it is about being alert. Just like driving on the Interstate in the US, you need to be aware of the big picture in addition to what's going on directly in front of you. In time you'll find that you're paying more attention to what's going on 20-30 feet in front of you more than the guy right in front of you.
One of the hardest things for me to get used to is trusting the machine I'm sitting on. At the end of the day your bike was made in Asia and is being maintained in Vietnam. Unless you work on the bike yourself, you will never know what kind of condition it's in, how secure the wheels are, how secure the pegs are, how grippy your tires are. This is probably paranoia from too many bicycle crashes, but it keeps me from driving recklessly. Because let's face it, riding a motorbike here is outrageously fun and it's about ten times faster than riding in a car.
The other decision you'll have to make is what kind of helmet you're going to buy. This has been a topic of regular discussion for Reyna and me. I am a helmet guy. I don't ride anything with wheels without a helmet. I've had three serious bicycle crashes in my life. Helmets are the things that kept me from potentially serious brain injury. Here's the problem in Vietnam: you can buy a helmet here for less than $5. If you want a proper DOT US style motorbike helmet, they cost about the same as they do in the states. If you've lived in Vietnam long enough to consider riding a motorbike, then you will have definite opinions about dropping $200+ on a "proper" helmet. In addition, a "proper" helmet is HOT and really does a number on your hair. You have to determine the level of risk you're willing to live with and make your decision accordingly.
If you're visiting and are considering renting a motorbike, here's my advice: You might as well buy one. There are plenty of places where you can buy a motorbike for a few hundred dollars and then sell it when you leave. The overall cost will be equal or less than renting a car in the US or Europe and will insulate you from motorbike rental scams. You also don't have to worry about breaking the bike. If you own the papers and you crash it, you're out a few hundred dollars. If you rented a Honda Wave and you crash it you're on the hook for the cost of a new bike; potentially thousands of dollars. The bread and butter of motorbike rental places are naive westerners who crash their bikes. If you're worried that your $200 POS bike is going to break down, you're in luck because there's a mechanic on almost every street corner. They'll patch up your bike for a few dollars.
Here's a quick story about this very thing. A friend of mine came to Vietnam for five months. He bought a Daelim 125 motorbike for $400. He rode it for about four months, spent a hundred bucks or so fixing it when it broke. Then when he left, he sold the bike for, you guessed it, $400. So he had transportation for five months for $100 plus gas (around $5-$7 a week). A rental would have cost ten times that.
So there's a brief and, I hope, helpful primer on safely transitioning to life in Vietnam. Good luck!
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