Vietnam: Where have all the Cyclos gone?

We were in Vietnam in 1997. In 12 years it has changed dramatically.

The saddest thing for me is the ladies they no longer wear the traditional 'ao dai' the traditional long shirt split to the waist with trousers. They now sport western blue jeans and t-shirts with western slogans.

The bicycles have gone off the streets. In their place there are 3,000,000 motor cycles [Saigon only] and Mr Honda has the market share.

For me the much loved cylclo have gone replaced with "moto suicide squads"

You can hire one of these guys for VND30,000 an hour [AUD$2] beats walking and you can terrorise the tourists in turn.

The photo [two cyclos and me, the last of the cyclos). These fellows are my age and remember the war years with the Yanks and Aussies. They spoke good English and told me the tale. The cyclos were too slow for the traffic and the government stopped issuing licenses. The only ones issued were to the older ones of 40 years +. These cyclos specialise in tourists around the market areas and first class hotels. These existing cylo-carriages are flash, usually polished aluminium with stereo speakers in the side pouches.[not sure if for the benefit of the passenger or to keep the old cyclo legs pumping]

I found this one of a cyclo converted to a moto [photo] which I thought ingenious. In the event of a fuel crisis. Just unhook the bike and 'voila!' original cylco.

The other big changes are moto bike riders wear safety hats, the cars have seat belts and the drivers wear them, and the motor cycles no longer trundle around with their huge loads of whatever on them. They only seem to carry passengers. This takes a lot of fun out of Vietnam for us. The bartering is still in force. Everything they quote me is double or treble price. Pam is exasperated with me arguing with them but the price always seems too high. We rode a Moto for 3 hours yesterday and at the end we near had "fisties". They said "the price negotiated was only for one bike not both". I had the negotiation written down. They did not realise that and with whistle in hand they backed off.

Gotta Love Vietnam.