Why didn't the tourist cross the street?

Well, because frankly, she feared for her life. I thought crossing the busy European streets were hard, but I was way off. Here, in Hanoi, scooters rule the road. It is estimated that over 9,000 new scooters join the Vietnam roads each day. In this city of seven and a half million people, it feels like every single one of those citizens owns a scooter.

In the Old Quarter, the center of town for the past 1000 years, the roads are narrow as are the buildings. There is a lot of charm here, and one would think that simply walking down the sidewalk would be a safe, easy way to get from place to place. However, the sidewalks are covered with parked scooters, and if they aren't, they're fair game for scooter travel. No worries, we'll just walk on the road. But it's not even that simple. Scooters travel any which way they choose, whether it be the wrong way on a one way, the wrong lane on a two way, around cars or even a U-turn in the middle of a busy road. We even watched a car do a U-turn on a four-lane, one-way road.

Jessica and I have spent a large part of our time in Hanoi trying to cross roads watching from all 360 degrees around us. There are some traffic lights at four-way stops that include the little green and red men giving us instructions on when to cross, but let's remember that scooters make their own rules, so if they want to stop, they do, but they also may choose not to.

The traffic has fascinated us, so we have done some research. We were pleased to see more people wearing helmets here, but even that isn't perfect. It is now a law that people wear helmets, and although about three quarters of the people we've seen have been wearing them, the law isn't really enforced. Also, it appears that only about 20% of the helmets worn meet safety standards. Oh, and the law only requires people over 14 to wear a helmet, so practically no children are wearing them. Yes, people are supposed to have a license, but as that is not really enforced, it is not necessarily the case. 

We participated in a delicious Hanoi Street Tour (more on that later!), and one of the best parts was having our guide help us cross the streets. This precious little university student would get to the side of the road, throw up her arms and yell, "sticky rice!" Our small group would gather around close to her, "stick" to her, she'd put out her hands and carefully lead us across the street. She told us at the beginning not to watch the traffic, but just to stay close to her and look forward. We did just that and we're very thankful. We called her our "mama duck" and really wanted to keep her with us for the rest of our time here. She did teach us not to put our hands out in a stop position as that angered the drivers, but rather to put our hands out and down as if about to curtsy in a dainty way and make eye contact with the drivers.

Our bravery and quick steps have improved over our short time here. We've learned to join in with others crossing the streets (safety in numbers) and we are certainly stepping into the street with a bit more confidence. However, we always seem to hold our breath and make squeals as we cross to the other side. I have no doubt that the Old Quarter, the touristy part of town where we are is the more hectic part of town, and in a way, the traffic has its own charm, but I think we'll be glad to be in places where crossing the street doesn't seem like such a dangerous ordeal.