Northern Vietnam

We're lumbering down the inner lane of a four-lane highway -- sixteen or so mostly white-skinned tourists, a guide, and our driver -- when a black SUV zooms out from behind us and accelerates past us on the left. At this point the SUV is in the lane nominally assigned to automobiles heading in the other direction, towards us. The concept of the "double-yellow line" versus the "passing lane" does not come into play here. In fact, all lane lines in Vietnam are white. The idea that we should drive in the rightmost lanes for the sake of avoiding collisions is more of a helpful suggestion than a law. We constantly pass motorcycles driving on what we would call the "shoulder" going the opposite direction as traffic, plus various encampments of Vietnamese people who just decided to get off their bikes and have lunch sitting on the highway guardrails.

I think of some of the elderly people whose golf bags I used to carry when I was 19 in Illinois, and the panic and anxiety they would experience if they attempted to navigate this expressway.

Back to the SUV. As it carved up the highway on our left, directly ahead of it was a large semi truck accelerating directly towards us, as cars going the opposite direction normally do; it was only about 200 meters down the road when the SUV made its move to pass us. Neither our bus nor the oncoming truck showed any inclination to slow down to allow this maneuver to occur -- the SUV driver was on his own.

When he finally did slide back into our lane in front of us, his back bumper was inches from our front bumper, and his front bumper was probably six feet from the truck's. At no point did anybody think to honk, though our whole bus-load of tourists could barely keep our jaws from grazing the floor. I wondered then what would have happened if the SUV driver had been a half-second late, or if either us of the truck would have sped up by a mere few kilometers per hour -- but the answer is obvious: he would have died right there in front of us. This type of driving is unbelievable to us westerners, and completely routine here in Vietnam.

The amazing thing is: multiple parties couple have ended that driver's life at any time by speeding up. And I'm sure that driver knew that; yet he went anyway. I guess that's just how things are in Vietnam: they appear chaotic at first glance, but in reality, things are totally fine. A dense web of cooperation, trust, and dignity holds it all together.

...

The highway I'm describing spans the distance between Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, the latter of which is where Pouyan and I spent the last 3 days. The experience was remarkable from a physical beauty standpoint (search for "Ha Long Bay" on Google images to see what I mean) but less remarkable per my interests, which are to see how people live in a place that is much different than the United States. In Ha Long Bay, we ate tasty food in a floating hotel and drank beers with Australians, New Zealanders, Brits, and assorted other visitors while we casually conversed in English and were waited upon by a full Vietnamese staff. Whatever. It was nice and pretty and relaxing, but not interesting enough to document here. (Though kayaking through rock caves was pretty damn cool.)

In lieu of the tale of my high-seas adventures on the bay, here's a few anecdotes about northern Vietnam that I thought were interesting:

- Pretty much every car on the road here is a make and model that can be purchased in the USA. Lots of Toyotas, Hyundais, Audis, even Fords, just like home. Very different than, say, Mexico.

- Here, repeatedly honking one's horn on the road just means "hey, FYI, I'm right here, please don't deviate your course significantly." Very unlike the States where honking roughly equates to "F*%& you!", though I think a lengthy extended honk here still means the same thing.

- Motorcyclists sometimes drive along the shoulder of the road against the flow of traffic.

- Most people in Hanoi and elsewhere in northern Vietnam seem to be engaged in a somewhat casual brand of entrepreneurship. Most addresses in the Old Quarter are shops and restaurants, but even the ones that aren't will still sell some goods (sodas, beers, snacks, some of the food they cook near the sidewalk, etc.) The proprietors -- and their friends and family who are often eating with them -- don't seem to care much whether you buy something or not. Unlike some other nearby nations, none of the vendors will hassle you or chase you down the street for your business, or so I hear.

- No signs so far of abject poverty. People here seem well-fed, content, and in good spirits overall. I have seen a lot of very charming homes inside and outside of the city. People seem to have a good work ethic despite the fact that more people seem employed in certain professions that would seem necessary (e.g. there are 3 operators in every toll booth, two of whom seem to just be reading the newspaper). I make a mental note to research what type of government Vietnam has, and revise my opinions on capitalism and socialism accordingly. Based on the text of my visa and what we saw at the Hanoi Hilton, Vietnam appears to be nominally a socialist republic, but clearly I lack any nuance of the subject.

- Hanoi has a lot of places called Bia hois, which is Vietnamese for "beer house." Here you can drink a beer for 5000 VND, or twenty-five cents. It's pretty tasty, and the price is right. Bia and Hoi are pretty much the only Vietnamese words that Pouyan and I can understand.

- Nobody appears to flinch when I mention that I'm American. But maybe they are sticking their tongues out at me behind my back. Everybody seems to know what San Francisco is.

- Lots of texting and driving among motorcyclists. It's a worldwide epidemic!

- One guide mentioned that Vietnam used to use the Chinese alphabet until missionaries came in the 17th century and encouraged everyone to switch to the English alphabet. It's interesting to see how that alphabet has morphed over time, since very few Vietnamese words do not contain symbols and accent marks that are not found in English.

- For a country that is supposed to be firmly behind Thailand in the pecking order of second-world countries, this place is pretty damn impressive. Then again, I haven't been to Thailand yet. 

That's all for now. Just some thoughts. Tomorrow we fly to Phu Quoc, and a couple days later we will head to Saigon. Cheers.