After renting bikes a few days ago and riding around Ho Tay (Westlake), Libby and I have now managed to acquire our own bikes and we can ride around town. This has really allowed us to go lots of different places and not be held hostage by the bus schedule if the bus shows up at all) or slowly draining our bank account with taxis (taxis are cheap but if you take them everywhere it starts to add up quickly).
So it is nice to have the freedom of mobility that a bike brings. And riding in the Hanoi traffic is such an adventure -- parts fun, frustrating, exhilarating, dangerous, liberating, and life-threatening. But ultimately an entertaining and unique bike ride.
Here's a brief video of us riding in traffic (and this was a milder part of our ride this morning):
According to the locals, the main mode of transportation twenty years ago was bikes and walking. That changed around 1995 when more and people could afford a motorbike; now I'm sure there are more motorbikes than people in Hanoi, and cars outnumber bikes as well.
And just for good measure, I also took my first ride on the back of a motorbike yesterday. Also an experience: running red lights, avoiding buses, and traveling with a massive horde of other motorbikes, but I got to my destination in one piece.
I know I've discussed the traffic many times, but now that we're actually traveling in the traffic on our bikes, you start to understand a few of the unwritten rules and how the traffic works. If you've grown up in this traffic and traveled in it your life, I imagine it is intuitive. We're not there yet. But we're learning.
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