While Asian cities offer modes of transportation familiar to westerners, they can also provide a whole new adventure in getting from point A to B. While in Dhaka last fall, I immediately noticed the number of people getting around the old fashioned way – on foot. And while there were plenty of taxi cabs available, our hotel concierge recommended taking advantage of one of the 400,000 trishaws available.
When I first visited China in 1988, I rented a bicycle and rode all over town – along with millions of locals – in wide lanes that ran parallel to empty roads. I returned to Beijing 15 years later with my husband and insisted we try to relive this novel experience. Two hours later, we returned our bicycles to the rental shop, happy to be alive. The roads – including bike lanes – were now clogged with cars and motorbikes spewing black clouds of smoke and paying no attention to cyclists.
Bangkok and Delhi are famous for their tuk tuks – three-wheeled, open vehicles – offering inexpensive transportation around town. Unlike traditional taxis, the driver agrees on a price beforehand negating the chance of a detour to jack up the fare. Of course, there are drawbacks. I can’t help feeling like the whole tuk tuk is going to tip over every time it rounds a corner, and conversations can be difficult amidst the exhaust, motor and other traffic noise.
And then there is Vietnam, our most recent vacation destination. Vietnam still has trishaws, but the dominant mode of transportation is the motorbike. Motorcycles fulfill the role of family car, garbage collector, delivery truck, taxi, and a number of other key functions. In one week, we saw the following being transported on the back of these two-wheeled vehicles: A family of four (including a baby), a double bed, a set of 6 foot shelves, a washing machine, four live pigs, chickens (I stopped counting at twenty), and several cases of beer. A local told us that in the North, he had seen a water buffalo strapped on the back of a motorcycle headed to the local market.
To improve safety, a recent law requires all adult riders to wear helmets; unfortunately, children are exempt. I think pedestrians too should be required to wear helmets. Motorcycles make crossing the road in cities such as Hanoi an extreme sport. There are no crosswalks – and in the old town no traffic lights – so we were told simply to start walking across the street, keeping pace, gaze, and direction steady, as motorbikes whizzed past honking their horns. Trishaws in Dhaka? Charming. Tuks Tuks in Bangkok? Fun. Motorbikes in Vietnam? I suppose at this stage in Vietnam’s development, a necessary evil.