We wanted to offer some closing thoughts on Vietnam, especially as our initial impressions of Japan provide a terrific contrast. The countries are truly like night and day.
As noted in our prior posts, Vietnam is challenging yet well worth the effort. The ubiquitous scooter will forever be the defining feature of Vietnam for us. Cars are expensive and even if you could afford one, where would you park it? The scooter is the solution. As a tourist, you can rent one and take your chances finding your way, or you can get a ride on one to wherever you want to go for almost nothing. We played it safe and walked or took taxis as necessary.
If you are Vietnamese, nearly everything can be and is done on a scooter. You can transport anything and everything – from fish, to birds, to your entire family of 4:
Vietnam mandated helmet use in 2008 which cut down on road deaths enormously. But not everyone wears one, and even if the adults do, the children do not. We imagine that there are no serious regulations of children on scooters because prohibiting children would make life impossible for most families.
The things we saw scooters doing never ceased to amaze. There is no such thing as a one-way street in Vietnam – there will always be scooters going against traffic. This made crossing the street even more challenging. You must continuously watch for scooter traffic coming from both directions. It made your head spin. Still, we did not see a single collision, only lots of close calls.
It was impossible to get the quintessential “army of scooters” photo because everything happens so quickly. We did however see a t-shirt that captured the “rules of the road” for scooters.
Green light: I can go / Yellow light: I can go / Red light: I can still go.
This is not an exaggeration; red lights mean nothing to scooters.
With the coming Tet holiday, we say scooters toting all manner of new year decorations, including kumquat trees and flowering tree branches:
And let’s not forget the bikes, which also conduct all manner of business and share the road with the scooters and cars:
While the rest of the Asian world is celebrating the year of the rabbit (based on the Chinese zodiac), Vietnam is celebrating the year of the cat:
In addition to the cat, the Vietnamese substitute a water buffalo (for the ox). These symbols are apparently more reflective of local life.
If Vietnam is chaos and noise, Japan is organization and quiet. The Japanese are nearly silent on trains – there’s no need for a quiet car. We heard loud music and people belting out karaoke (mostly badly) everywhere in Vietnam. Honestly, we think everyone is hard of hearing or going deaf due to the high volume. Any background music in Japan is at a low level. The Vietnamese are warm, welcoming, and outgoing; the Japanese are aloof, polite, and shy. Vietnam is dirty; Japan is spotless. Vietnam is cheap, Japan is not. Surprisingly, the Vietnamese we met spoke better English than what we’ve encountered so far in Japan.
Thus, Japan has already presented some new challenges – not the least of which is the weather. We are “(un)lucky” enough to be in Kyoto when they are experiencing the first large snowstorm in 10 years.
Never a dull moment,
Shana & Jeff
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