Loitering and sight-seeing in the streets of Hanoi
We were in Hanoi for six days. It was the first time we travelled to this city of approximately 2.6 million inhabitants. What amazed us was its crowds and traffic. Walking along its streets is a nightmare. You are caught suddenly in the midst of people and vehicles of all kinds. You will together with women peddling goods in baskets, ranging from fruits to titbits, hung from the two ends of a pole and carried on the shoulder, make up the already unsightly scene.
Hanoi streets are really a mess. There seems to be no proper order for mobility, human or traffic. When you feel it safe to cross a road, there, out of the blue, a motorcycle zoomed out from nowhere in front of you scaring you to death. This has also explains why the annual traffic fatalities in Vietnam is increasing.
Motorcycles are definitely overpopulated. You will only see a few dots of other four-wheelers hemmed in by a sea of motorcycles when traffic lights turn red. Two motorcycles from perpendicular roads at a junction nearly knocked into each other in the middle of the cross surrounded by other vehicles from all directions. How could this happen? Traffic lights were not obeyed, that was how it happened. But beating or jumping traffic lights in such crammed situation is disastrous. (more…)