Transportation in Vietnam: DOs & DON’Ts
Planes, Trains & Buses
DO consider flying if you’re going a long way within Vietnam, because any other means of transport is always much slower and sometimes only slightly cheaper.
DON’T get stuck in the mud: in the rainy season, road and rail are frequently flooded or even washed away in the regions that are hardest hit.
DO reconfirm any flight to make sure there’s no change.
DON’T arrive at the airport just in time for a domestic flight. Until recently, it was actually more expensive for foreigners to travel from Hanoi to Hochiminh City by train than by air. And this is for a journey that still takes a couple of days as opposed to a flight lasting a mere couple of hours!
DON’T opt for the bus if you’re prone to claustrophobia, motion sickness, are pregnant, suffer from a weak heart or actually expect to have a good time. The Vietnamese are not renowned for the safety or courtesy of their driving.
DO use local city buses: once you’ve worked out where to catch the ones you want, these present an excellent (and stunningly cheap) way of getting around. Cities in Vietnam are investing in new buses and improving the service in an effort to combat traffic congestion.
DO keep things on the planes, trains, and your hired vehicles clean. In case there’s something wrong you may find, call the master right away, or else you may get into trouble later.
Taxis, xe om, and cyclos
Taxis are fairly cheap and plentiful.
DO check that the driver starts the meter, unless you agree to a price before you move off and then stick to it.
If you use taxis, xe om, or cyclos, it’s best to always make sure you have some small notes on you. The “sorry, no change” line is often used to try and round up the fare to fit your bank notes. If you only carry 50,000 VND bills, it might get expensive.
DO make sure the driver has really understood where you want to go rather than just answering “yes” to everything you say and then driving around aimlessly – with the meter running – with the hope that inspiration will strike from some unlikely quarter… If you can’t make yourself understood, show your destination to him in writing.
A xe om is a motorbike taxi, a very popular and practical way of getting around. You’ll find them on every street corner in the country – or rather they’ll find you and eagerly offer their services. This is the fastest way to get across town without having your own bike and is often the best and cheapest way to get to a distant beach, village, site, airport, etc.
DO fix a price before you hop on, politely ignore any attempt to renegotiate the amount along the way and check that you are indeed where you want to be before you pay off your xe om. You DON’T need to bring along a helmet cause all xe om drivers carry one more (besides theirs) for customer.
Cyclos, or bicycle trishaws, offer a quiet, leisurely and eco-friendly way to cover short distance. Cyclo features three wheels. DO choose Cyclo to enjoy a city tour as it moves quite slowly.
DON’T take Cyclos late at night, unless you know your way around as this is not a very safe option.
Travel by boat in Vietnam
To enter Vietnam, there are some boats linking Asian countries with Ha Long and Da Nang ports.
Inside Vietnam, visitors can also travel by sea to the big harbors, such as Ha Long, Da Nang, Hochiminh City, and so on.
From Hanoi and Hochiminh City, there are cruises to several provinces. Ferries sail all the year round to the three major islands located off the coast of Vietnam, including Phu Quoc, Cat Ba and Con Dao. Moreover, there’s a ferry running from Hai Phong to Ha Long City, and a hydrofoil service between Hochiminh City and Vung Tau.
You may encounter passenger services in the Mekong Delta, where river ferries haul from bank to bank of the various strands of the Mekong from morning till night
Ten Tips to Survive Vietnam’s Traffic
DON’T spend hours waiting to cross the street on foot: that constant tide of traffic won’t stop until late at night, so
DO as the Vietnamese do: take the plunge and inch slowly across. Observe the Miracle of the Red Sea, as the traffic parts like magic, flowing smoothly in front of you or behind, meeting up again on the other side.
DON’T make any sudden or unpredictable movements: freeze if you have to, but never lunge forward or backward towards the safety of the sidewalk. In fact, you can do just about anything, but do it with conviction!
DON’T forget, if you’re riding or driving, to look where you’re going – all the time: if you hit anything in front of you, then it’s your fault.
DO give way to any vehicle bigger and noisier than yours. Trucks and buses are particularly dangerous: often old, sometimes unsafe and usually all over the road.
DO watch out for unfamiliar obstacles: water buffaloes, rocks of various sizes, broken-down trucks…, people sitting in the road, missing bridges, girls in ao dai cycling five abreast, slow-moving mountains of farm produce, dog fights, impromptu football matches, piles of building materials – and almost no light on anything at night..
DON’T hesitate to take evasive action – even if this sometimes means leaving the tarmac or coming to a dead stop.
DO try to avoid getting involved in one of the all-too-frequent minor accidents that plague Vietnam’s roads (and the major ones as well, of course), but if you are unlucky,
DON’T lose your cool, in spite of the interference of the large and vocal crowd that may gather: try to settle things amicably and swiftly. Sometimes, paying a reasonable amount of money will save you a lot of hassle.
DO remember that the only rule is: you’re not allowed to bump into anybody… irrespective of what they did or should have done, or of what the road signs or traffic lights were telling them to do.