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 | Hanoi Warnings or Dangers | Tips 1 - 10 of 75 |  |
Popular Warnings or Dangers | Miscellaneous Warnings or Dangers Tips | All Tips (75) Traffic here is chaotic ! There are traffic lights, of course, but not in many streets / roads. As I was more or less based around the Old Quarter area, the streets are really narrow and filled with motorcycles most of the time. One has to be confident, look for a little opening between masses of moving vehicles and gingerly walk across the road. Leave a Comment
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In Hanoi, the motorbikes overwhelm you with their sheer numbers. They are the kings of the road and it is the cars that need to “tread” cautiously among them. For the young men taking their girls out, the bikes were obviously ideal for hugging in public. Crossing a busy road, cutting through a seemingly endless stream of bikes is hair-raising as the bikes weave around you at speed. At this T- junction (pic), I stood awhile and watched in amazement as seasoned Hanoi bikers & cyclists cut across oncoming traffic of other bikes and bicycles with serene ease. Hardly stopping & hardly looking left or right, it was as if their sixth sense could avoid near certain collisions. Leave a Comment
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I've been living in Hanoi for a few years, and I speak Vietnamese. I don't live an insular lifestyle by any stretch. I know how to relate to my neighbors, and I know what things cost. Even so, things go wrong. Today my (Vietnamese) fiancee and I took a xe om (motorbike taxi) driven by a 50-something disabled man with facial hair and disheveled hair. His unusual motorbike had 3 wheels, and a seat in the back. He took us a couple of km on an errand around Hoan Kiem Lake visiting art supply stores. He seemed friendly enough, and we chatted in Vietnamese. After our 15 minute journey (half of which was waiting for us at stores), we got out. Normally I never ask how much to pay, I know how much a ride like that costs. A nice air-conditioned taxi would be 50-70K dong, or around $4 (with tip for waiting). I always pay a xe om about half or a third that rate, so 20-25K dong would have been ok (about $1.50). My fiancee normally pays less, about 1K dong per km. Other points of comparison: --cyclo for one hour, 30K-40K --nice taxi from the airport (45 min), 120K ($8) --modern bus from Hanoi to Halong (3 hr), $10 Imagine my surprise when the man, told me I owed him $10 (about what I make in a full day of occasional consulting for a friend’s company, and 2x more than what most of my friends make in a day). I thought I misheard him, and he repeated $10. I politely told him no, explaining I what I would pay less than half that for a taxi. I politely gave him 50K dong, and he sneered, rejecting the money, and began yelling, trying to get me to pay him to behave nicely. I replied softly, asking him to calm down. To no avail. He threatened to kill me. Sad, but true. Better to avoid doing business with Mr. Tran Hung. He often parks his 3-wheel xe om at the north end of Hoan Kiem Lake. There are plenty of other good xe om and taxi drivers. There are no tourist police in Hanoi like there are in Bangkok, so you have no recourse. The police won’t help. Know what things cost, and always negotiate the price up front. Leave a Comment
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One thing you will notice the very first day in Hanoi is people do not pay any attention to pedestrians. So, you have to follow some very simple rules if you even hope to cross a street. First, be aggressive. There is always someone on a motorcycle in front of you and you just have to get out in the street and stake your claim. Second, do not stop. This only confuses the drivers. They are quite adept at weaving around pedestrians if you keep walking at an even pace. I rarely saw any accidents so don’t sweat it too much. Leave a Comment
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Food can be quite dangerous in Vietnam. As you probably all have heard, many birds suffer from a dangerous illness which is also infectious for humans. Eating chicken or ducks may be risky. The same is true for fruits - be sure to peel them and remove any parts that may be bad for your health. Drinking may be risky, too: Often the ice cubes used are made of water that has not been boiled. I was terribly sick after drinking a lemon juice with bad ice. A different kind of "danger" is the fact that when eating in non-touristy restaurants you won't find an English menu. In case you don't like dog meat, for instance, avoid Thit Cho. Vietnamese people eat many animals that are not common in the Western cuisine, so be prepared! Leave a Comment
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The danger in Hanoi is not to make bad photographs like the one above; it has been taken just when a guy tried to open my back pack and I turned back. . . . . I was walking in the market area and noticed a young lady two or three times not far from me when turning left, right, stopping, going in shops. . . I knew something would happen, and when I was concentrated making a photograph, all senses alert, I felt somebody opening the pack on my back; the guy was on ground few milliseconds later, gesturing (Like hands up!) “I did nothing.!” My foot on his chest, I checked my back pack, he had no time to open it in fact, and looked around and glimpsed the girl disappearing in the crowd. . . .I let the guy go. Well, happy end, but I am rather tall, the guy was quite short and had a very stupid idea trying to open my pack which I wear high on my back, very high for him. No real danger, I had this experience only on my first day here, and there are very few pick pockets apparently in Hanoi, but do not facilitate their “job”. Wear your belongings under the shirt or inside pants , and if you wear a back pack, I may suggest to do following: tie the zippers together with a metallic wire, tightly turned; I did this after, when going in crowded places, it may be a bit unpractical if you need to open it every 5 mn, but . . . . well, look where your priorities are! And as usual, no “provocation”! Wearing watches or jewellery worth a year local individual income can easily attract the swift hands of the pick pockets.
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