Is Riding in Vietnam Too Risky?

Over the years I’ve been ‘told’ it’s too dangerous to ride in South-East Asia, especially Vietnam. I’ve given this some thought and made the video here, which outlines my thoughts – in summary, if you’re an experienced rider keen to see this lovely country and can go with the flow of how things are done, I’d be surprised if you have any big dramas.

TRANSCRIPT

Is riding in Vietnam too risky?

If you ride a motorcycle in the developed world, many of your non-riding friends probably think you’re a crazy risk taker that riding is dangerous and should be discouraged.

They preach a safety first lifestyle, despite eating too much, drinking too much and exercising too little, yet living too safely isn’t really living at all.

It’s just existing. When I ride a motorcycle, life becomes more dynamic, more exciting and more intense.

I think motorcyclists value their life, what they get out of their life, even more because they ride.

Many riders never throw a leg over a bike outside of their own country, even though it’s getting easier, thanks to motorcycle tools, booming in popularity hiring a bike is getting easier, and there are even opportunities to ship your bike around the world for longer trips.

Vietnam is an awesome place to visit and ride.

It’s a great place for your first ride away from home because the scenery is amazing the food fabulous and the speeds are low with a little planning and riding carefully, experienced motorcyclists rarely run into trouble riding in Vietnam.

The traffic in the big cities is chaotic, at least to western eyes.

The scooters and other two wheelers never seemed to stop, merging around other traffic and giving way to larger vehicles which inevitably crossed their paths, and the dodge pedestrians who simply walk out into the traffic flow. You may be tempted to run them over for not looking, but that’s not loud.

The key to understanding this is to throw away your perceptions of how traffic should flow, for in the west we use traffic lights and signs to create a stop start system, where you’re either stationary and waiting or moving quite quickly in so many parts of Asia, and especially Vietnam, it’s about never stopping, but never going too fast either if you are traveling slowly there’s a lot more time to react to people flowing into your lane.

There’s more time to judge which way to go around a pedestrian walking across the road in front of you, more time to see a gap and flow into that gap and around a slower moving vehicle.

You’ll be fascinated by what you see on the road in Vietnam pigs in wooden trailers being pulled by scooters, merchants, selling everything from food to pet fish in plastic bags, complete roadside diners, trapped to the back of a scooter, or maybe some delivering gas cylinders on a two wheeler . The chaos of the cities is interesting, but getting out of town is where you’ll really enjoy the riding.

Vietnam is long and skinny, running the length from southeast start that again three one Vietnam is long and skinny, running the length of the southeast Asian coastline, bordering China to its north, Loas and Cambodia to the west. That western border are the mountains and jungles made famous in the west thanks to the war fought over colonialism and communism back in the 1960s and 70s, although there’s little to see relating to that conflict today away from the museums, which are fascinating in their own right . Today Vietnam is an incredible place to visit.

The roads which take you up into those mountains or wind along the coast line may vary in the quality of the surface with and the traffic load, but they are invariably interesting in the scenery along the way and the experiences you’ll enjoy.

On a motorcycle tour, the guides know where to stop for the best views, and that’s often where other tourists can’t stop because there’s nowhere to park a bus or a car.

The guides will also know good places to eat and interesting places to visit, breaking up the day with visits to interesting places stops for the intense Vietnamese coffee, and the opportunity to experience a culture which goes back thousands of years.

Then there is the incredible Vietnamese food.

No, you don’t have to eat the insect and awful delicacies.

The seafood, pork and chicken dishes are superb, and you can request the food to not be too spicy.

I love to explore pastes by myself, being able to take my time creating photos and videos, both for my job as a motorcycle journalist and simply being able to take my time and go where I like.

Vietnamese, however, is a difficult language to learn, even harder to read, and although getting around via GPS is easier than it was in the past, it’s really not like writing in a developed country . Yes, you can come to Vietnam, hire a scooter or a motorcycle and find your own way, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Join a tour, get expert guidance and advice plus support if anything does go wrong.

You’ll not only have a great time like me, you might just fall in love with this Asian gem of a country and start to return regularly.