Motorbikes

July 1st, 2009 by Elizabeth

I forgot one footnote: about the motorbikes. While DaNang doesn’t have quite the traffic of Saigon, the traffic laws and driving standards are just as absurd. Basically, there are NO rules. None. Zero. I don’t even know WHY they have lanes. I have yet to see a cop. Stop lights are a suggestion, not a requirement. There is no speed limit, nor is their a maximum number of passengers to fit on a motorbike. But yet, with all the crazy motorbike drivers on the road, there are less accidents and deaths on the road here, than in the US every year.

So, Danielle (a great girl from Boston) and I were trying to decide the craziest thing we’ve seen a local carry with them on their motorbike. (Think of a motorbike as a mix between a Vespa and a dirt bike.) Yesterday we saw a man with a huge blue plastic septic tank strapped to his back; a man balancing a glass case (like a large over-sized fish tank, about 4 feet tall) on his lap; another man piled with huge Costco-sized toilet paper sacks on him, behind him, in front of him, etc. You can’t help but laugh out loud when you see these brave people, balancing their deliveries on their knees while driving into oncoming traffic at 40mph – and they never even flinch!!!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 1:49 am and is filed under Vietnam Orphanage.

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