The first days in our life in Vietnam we used taxis. We had a hard time being understood by the drivers but we managed to go where we wanted to. It was time to get back our independence and adopt the local popular way of transportation: motorbike.

First step, rent 2 motorbike for Marion and I. We find a great rental in district 2. The young woman who owns and manage this business provides a great customer service and bring us 2 motorbikes, monthly rental: $50. Now it’s time to get on the road! Marion needs some practice in a small street since she never rode a motorbike before. I start going around to get food and discover the area. Then it’s time to get on the big roads/highway, bridges and downtown traffic. By this time, Marion and I are able to ride around in district 2 so we go for our first downtown trip. The traffic is dense but surprisingly fluid. We follow our friends advice and just go along with the organic traffic: no specific rules, lookout and follow the flow. I call it harmonious chaos. The streets are usually packed so the traffic is slow but only interrupted by traffic lights. When the street is almost empty speed is much better. The state of many roads will hurt our backs, especially because we had not realized that the “suspension” of our bikes are dead: they don’t protect us of the bumps of the road. We promptly got motorbikes in better shape from our nice provider but only after many trips in Saigon and to Cangio (a nice week-end trip a few hours from Saigon).

When we need to buy a lot of food, the bike is not ideal so we take a taxi to go to the other side of the highway, at Metro, to buy in bulk (as in Costco). We learn to say “left”, “right”, “forward”, “stop” in vietnamese and use these words with various success to tell our taxi where to go.

Next we’ll talk a bit more of taxi drivers and weather!