Blog 2: How to drive motorbike in Hanoi

Blog 2: How to drive motorbike in Hanoi

In the blog before, I mentioned “How to cross the road in Hanoi”. To continuous the topic “How to survive in Hanoi” I write this part “How to drive motorbike in Hanoi”. All of my blog is based on my traveling experience, so if anybody who have the differences, please comment your idea in the comment box to discus with everyone. 

Motorbike in hanoi

      Driving motorbike in Hanoi is very important. Why I say that, just because this is seem like the local people tradition. When you come to Hanoi, you will see almost local people or other foreign people drive motorbike. Why I mention you about this issue? Why is it important for survived in Hanoi? Here I gonna show you!

      With the local people here, join the traffic seem like easy for them. However with the foreign people, the travelers, it is a BIG BIG BIG problem! How to join the traffic yourself with a motorbike without the support from others? In my experience, the feeling of driving a motorbike and go around the streets and take a look is very nice. It’s not like you drive car, you cannot feel the air and your view is limited. However, to drive a motorbike in Hanoi is not easy, you must understand exactly about road traffic law.

      It’s hear so fun hah, but it’s like “How to cross the road in Hanoi”, if you don’t care about, you will meet problems such as unexpected accident, breaking the traffic law…

      Okay, it’s time to show you the advantage of “Driving motorbike in Hanoi”:

• Easy to pass the traffic jams in the rush hours. In rush hour, when the traffic is stuck, you can easy to get off from there with your motorbike.

• Saving you money. With a traveler, moving by taxi in Hanoi is not really good idea (this is my secret: the taxi driver here is not really good person, almost them cheat the meter counter, if not they go around around and AROUND to make the trip further and ofcoz you must pay so much for them). You or someone say that why we don’t go by Bus? The answer here is NO NO and NO. Hanoi bus is really terrible, you cannot breath, you cannot get off when you on the bus. Don’t trust? – Just check it out!
• Easy to move from Place A to place B with GPS 
• Hanoi is too large with many roads and streets. There are many lands where car cannot go through, so motorbike is a good idea!

Together with the advantage of drive motorbike in Hanoi, there are some risks that you want to notice!

• In Hanoi, a city with over 7 million people, the traffic is crowd and sometimes you cannot move if it is only 1 or 2 meters! – Don’t go out and join the traffic from 8Am to 9Am, and 5Pm to 6Pm if not necessary.
• In Hanoi, sometime the local people break the traffic law, they cross the road without light signal, it is the reason for unexpected accident. – Keep your mind clear and make sure you have enough view
• One more thing I don’t want to mention in the public, but it’s my experience so I will share it for you. It is the problem from Traffic Police. If you are not careful, they will stop you and ask you about the license motorbike driver (Ofcoz that is not their goal, their goal is asking for money from you). In my case, when I was driving motorbike on Ba Trieu Street, there is one traffic cops stop me and ask me for license motorbike driver (Ofcoz I don’t have it), after asking for everything from sky to the earth, they ask me money! (Wtf???!!!), in that time, I began to understand what the problem is happening!?! And I lost 20$ for that! So what you need to do when you see the police? – Just keep the distance with them, don’t drive so close to them, they stop you whenever they want without any mistake!
• The next risk when you join Hanoi traffic by motorbike is Taxi and Bus. Taxi and Bus in Hanoi run so fast, they really don’t care who you are. So the experience for this is like as the experience above: Keep the distance from Bus and Taxi, let them go first!

Above is my experience for survived in Hanoi by mention you about the importance and the problems of driving motorbike in Hanoi. In next blof, I will share you the experience about "How to find the right restaurant in Hanoi". 

Hope you enjoy it!

Subscribe me on youtube Channel to get more information!

Give me a +1 if this blog is helpful!