Such intersections as the above are governed by traffic lights which are largely obeyed (by those over the age of 25). However, as can be seen there is considerable leeway for individual initiative in getting across an oncoming stream
The last Picture Posting page introduced the Hà Nội traffic. This page continues by offering many video clips most of which are taken from a motorbike or open Jeep. The photos were taken over 10 years ago when the traffic was still able to flow, today's videos would be stills! There are some sequences from mass gatherings. Such crowds celebrate after dark and the few still images I possess have already appeared
on earlier pages.
Hopefully videos can convey some of the sense of the enjoyment being had by everyone on special occasions, as well as the great pleasure there is of just riding around Hà Nội on the back of a motorbike.
Pedestrian venturing out, hoping for the protection of a marked crossing,
compare previous pedestrians
on the last page
For the first clip, a normal ride on a main street - before helmets
A bit fuzzy, but the woman pillion (right), is telling the car to give way to her vehicle. In Vietnam the lowlier always has priority over the higher - never be a truck driver, they have to give way to everything else down to a chicken
A different sort of awkwardness - is she going to shoot off across the traffic?
After the relative calm of the ride shown in the clip above, here is a video of more normal traffic conditions before helmets were enforced, then see the clip below left for the same road next day
A couple of stills of the throngs of traffic so typical of the city (above and right)
Another still from before helmets, a Westerner appears to be marooned in the traffic
Sparse traffic on the same road, a day later, when helmets were made compulsory
And into the night...
Taken on an ordinary night.
Below, a pedestrian's view
of the traffic passing. And, right,
the view from on a bike These two clips were taken on an extraordinary night. The evening in 2008 that Vietnam beat Thailand at football. Above by Lý Thái Tổ monument, and, left, by the main post office in Hoàn Kiếm District
Those clips above were after a football success. These two stills, were taken on Christmas Eve (above looking east)...
...and here looking south. Taken on Christmas Eve, in
Shark's Jaw Square,
with a less boisterous, but equally happy crowd
And here are two clips of Christmas Eve at the Square. Below, before crash helmets were compulsory, and to the right, a year later when they had to be worn
Above, Shark's Jaw Square on a normal morning. The two videos just above were taken from where the bus is sitting opposite. To the right, a clip taken while riding through
the Square in the daytime
On the left, a drive along a side street in the Old Quarter. Above, a photo taken on the move, but this time from the Jeep, in which I just about make an appearance - in the mirror
A shot of traffic waiting at the lights in the pre-helmet days. Hidden at the base of the tower, seen in the centre background, is the Rolls-Royce showroom. Somewhat of an anomaly in this motorbike city
A goodbye drive along gently busy streets, this time on the back of a bike. In the fresh air of a sunny winter's day, this was always a delight in those days when the motorbike ruled the road
Trailers...
The next Picture Posting is to go out from the centre of Hà Nội to suburbia.
The next page
of the Mosaic Section is headed 'Being Objective'.
Or go to the contents Go to the contents of the Mosaic Section. of the Mosaic Section.
The last page of this section had photos of more individual aspects of Hà Nội's traffic
From one of the most densely peopled parts of the earth to the least populated
...guide to this site