When one arrives in Sài Gòn (aka Ho Chi Minh City), the first thing that pops out is the sheer number of scooters that city has. If the city has 10 million people living within its boundaries, I believe there are at least 5 million scooters. They are everywhere! They are about 20 to 1 ratio with respect to car numbers.
They deliver food, transport people, took us from A to B, drive on footpaths and they will "almost kill you" at least once everyday whilst crossing the street.
The picture above is from our first day here and the sound of scooters was overwhelming. The smoke of all the two wheelers will force you to wear your N95 mask and the toot-toot & beep-beep will force you to plug your fingers in your ears! Mad!
Even in the little alleyways, all we see are the scooters & flags of Viet Nam!
These scooters are considered small vans in Viet Nam. We saw one guy transferring a washing machine on a scooter.
And another guy (probably a gardener), transferring a lawn-mower on his scooter.
The guys on Grab were brilliant though. One could get stuck in traffic for long, but the Grab guys always had their way around everything. Buses, trucks, other scooters and cars, just make sure you have built your heart of steel.
We did get stuck in the 31st December traffic, but everyone was stuck, so no worries & smile at the camera! :-)
And on the motorways, the scooter traffic keeps itself away from the main car traffic. The city has different lanes for scooters in the central town area too.
Here we are trying to go through two buses! Not for the faint hearted!
There can be times when walking could be quicker than the scooters!
We did find some cool bicycles around the city too. This name sounds familiar, however shouldn't it be called "X.com" now?
And some cool Italian bicycles too.
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